Inability of tourists to realise they've been ripped off

[sumyunggai]

Just reading a review of a guesthouse on AirBNB. It's a cheap guesthouse with multiple rooms each sold from 50 to 150,000rp per room per night.

The property is configured in AirBNB as an 8-bedroom house at 150,000IDR per night, and the price doesn't change between one guest and say 10 guests..

So the guests were in a group of six, they booked online and went to the guesthouse and booked a tour with the guesthouse costing around 1 million IDR per person of which at least 50% is profit for the guesthouse. They also booked transport and other services.

Anyway, on checkout the guests were told

(a) that they had only paid half what they actually had paid to AirBNB (this is obviously not true)
(b) that they needed to pay more money because they had only been charged for one room not three (this was the guesthouse's error in registering on AirBNB, so nobody's fault but theirs)

And all this happened while they were on the way to the airport, the owner not having bothered to sort this out while they were actually at the property. And they said they told the owner AirBNB said never to pay outside AirBNB, but the owner just ignored this.

The guests in the review say 'we loved the guesthouse, the people were so nice and friendly, we would recommend it, just don't book through AirBNB'.

Come on guys - AirBNB is capable of being configured on a per-person basis. The fact that the guesthouse didn't do this is entirely their fault. They want to make the extra profit from getting bookings from AirBNB and then selling them tours and food (and in this case making millions of rupiah in profit) and so on, but they don't want to accept responsibility for setting the pricing correctly and being subject to international tourism standards of customer service. And guess what - this review was six months ago, and they still haven't fixed the issue of pricing. Why? Because they're still getting bookings from AirBNB, and they'll treat the next unsuspecting tourist the same way and they'll also write a glowing review saying 'such lovely friendly people, but AirBNB sucks'.

I see similar things happen quite frequently in different tourism-related contexts and the guests seem to take the same attitude 'such lovely friendly people' and completely ignore the fact that they have been robbed blind.

 

[Euc-]

But it's ok, because they've helped the local community...

 

[Euc-]

But it's ok, because they've helped the local community...

I should elaborate; on this FB page there was someone who was looking for restaurant recommendations in Bali and I provided a few that aren't too well known but have awesome food. I got BLASTED by the other members of said page who said that we should all be eating in "local" warungs so we can support the local community and the money doesn't go to foreigners. Same thing with Uber/Grab, they should be provided and local taxi's at exorbitant prices should be taken, as you are helping to feed the guys' family.

Never mind that those big evil foreigners provide jobs to probably dozens of locals to keep their restaurant running, probably pay more taxes to the Indonesian government than quite a number of your average Indonesian households combined and that those lazy ass taxi drivers charging rip-off prices could also just sign-up for Uber/Grab, but that would require them actually working and not sitting on their asses claxoning at everything that moves; "transport misterrrrr?".

But at least they smile at you while you're getting ripped off

(sorry for the rant but the story hit a nerve )

 

[sumyunggai]

Yes I had a similar thing. I made contact with some Western cyclists who were coming to my area, I sent them a carefully waypointed route for them to cycle to avoid the traffic etc., they followed it and I cycled around 10km to meet them. I met them and cycled along talking to them about different things and brought them to my friend's (Western with Indonesian wife) guesthouse. Unfortunately 1km from the destination we encountered a local drug addict/guide. He followed along to the guesthouse. I suggested quietly to the Westerners that it might not be a good idea to do a deal with a meth fiend and I would arrange their tour for them. Meth fiend goes crazy and threatens to kill me etc. in front of tourists. Local tourism official arrives who sides with meth fiend and says they should go to tourist office. He says something to me about it being 'unfair' for me to arrange tours for Western tourists as they would trust me as a Westerner more.

Anyway tourists go off and happily pay meth addict in front of local official, and I try to get over recent threats to my life by offering to help these people with their onward cycling route (complicated and missing from Google maps - bear in mind I get/got nothing from helping these people, although I would have got around 500,000IDR from selling the tour had I done so - in no way motivation for me to help them, as the amount of time I spent helping them was in no way in proportion to that, I was helping them as a fellow cyclist). They suggest we do so over dinner, and say 'we've been eating nothing but rice we want to try something different'. I say 'Oh yes I can take you to a nice place they serve roti canai etc.'. Them: 'Oh, we're going to tourist official's restaurant'. Me: 'Er, maybe later'. They come back after dinner, and say tourism official guy (who has probably not ridden a bicycle since he was a child) has suggested a different route with more time on main roads. I say 'that route is longer, I would turn off at an earlier junction.'

Anyway they go off and next day have their tour and come back. Tourism official comes back next day when tourists are asleep and asks to see guests. They are asleep but he goes and knocks on the door. What's said is unclear.

Anyway, the guests leave bright and early the next morning and cycle onwards. I ask my guesthouse-owning friend what happened, basically it seems the meth addict spent the cash for the tour on (presumably!) meth, and the tourism official had come back to ask for money to pay for the people who actually conducted the trek. Which of course they paid.

The post script is that they followed the tourism official's route and not mine, and got lost and ended up sleeping in a brothel. The tourists are maintaining a full blog of their adventures, and have blogged it - absent any word of how they got ripped off by the friendly locals - and the tourism official's guesthouse/restaurant's 5* rating on Google/Tripadvisor remains unbesmirched by a negative review from them.

 

[sumyunggai]

Oh I have another one.

Swiss lady, technically married to local drug addict (he has 4 kids with another woman and lives with her). They are officially separated but he has sex with her when she comes, and steals her stuff.

She said to me 'Oh I don't like to go to Western-owned restaurants, I like to support the local businesses'. Anyway, she regularly eats at this one place owned by a local. Cooking staff are paid under 1 million IDR per month and work 7 days a week with no holidays. She gave a tip. Staff gave it to owner. She asks why. 'All the tips have to be given to the owner.' Said owner is of course comfortably wealthy, while the staff earn half legal minimum wage. Said owner of course sells himself personally as ethical, blah blah blah.

 

[fastpitch17]

We and another couple decided to take a trip to Western Sumatra for a couple days. We hired a car and driver and negotiated a daily rate we were all fine with. Of course, once on the road, A/C would be more since he refused to use it and then even though we included the cost of gas the driver had no money to pay for it so we shelled out for that too. (We deducted it to his shock at the final payment upon our return.) In Western Sumatra we stayed at a place who showed on their web site a nice bungalow room style place and we contacted the owner threw his web site. Price quoted was Rp 800, 000 per night for each room with 2 meals. We arrived, got shown our now, 2 wooden huts so to speak and settled in. Beds were a mat on a single sized wood frame. Dust from 1987 was still on the floors and all. We figured we would only be sleeping there and didn't notice anything moving but just in case, we sprayed the room well with insecticide before we headed out for a day of sandy beaches. Nice area, nice unused beaches. Basically one access to beach and the locals hung out there. A little walking you were alone and the beaches looked like you may have been the first inhabitants ever. Nice.

After a fish dinner we sat around with some adult beverages that were kept in a freezer and later retired for the night. Power went out at 9 PM. The next day after some breakfast the manager showed up and insisted we pay for the rooms now. He was nowhere to be found the previous day and explained that the owner had just contacted him about guest staying. I paid him for the 2 rooms for 2 nights and off he went. Said something about needing to buy solar for the genset. There was only power for 4 hours in the evening in case someone needed to charge their cell or to get the freezer cold for the beers. Only power seemed to come from the genset. Not sure if PLN hated the area or they just never bothered to hook up. We could see some lights at night but don't know if they were PLN or gensets.

2nd day was like the first along with some local shopping around the kampung. Same night as first night. After our fish dinner sat around and tested the freezer beer that was never frozen. Next day spent on the beach in the morning and then headed home. Just before we drove away the manager came up to the car and told me we only paid for one couple. I disagreed and explained how much I gave him. He did agree but said that was just one couple. I argued and said no, 2 rooms. I reminded him of the quote Rp800,000 per room and he informed me that it was Rp800,000 per person. I told him I would only deal with the owner. how do we see him. He lives in Italy the manager told us. I informed the manager that we would only pay when the owner told us and that if there is any problem the owner can contact me. With that we left the manager standing there.

After arriving home we got an email from the manager. he would be in Lampung this weekend and will come by our home to pick up the remaining balance. I replied that he would not and that I have not heard from the owner yet. The next day I heard from the manager again, he was going to get fired if he did not collect the amount owed. I replied I have not heard from the owner.

A few days later I did hear from the owner and asked about our balance. It seems that the owner was only informed that we had only paid half. When I replied with what we paid and how and to whom including the conversations had, the owner thanked me and said I was paid in full. I'm thinking he may have a new manager now.

 

[waarmstrong]

You sure can pick'm, FP; do you also have a three-legged dog named "Lucky"?

 

[fastpitch17]

You sure can pick'm, FP; do you also have a three-legged dog named "Lucky"?

No 3 legged dog named lucky. What can I say? There's a new adventure around every corner. Maybe that's why we stay home more.