The Paper's reporter Li Siwen intern Lai Jianchao
"The two membership annual passes have just been renewed and there is a problem, and now I can't get my deposit back, and I don't dare to book again." Recently, the Rucheng Hotel reservation platform, which focuses on "paid members can stay at various resort hotels for free", has fallen into a whirlpool of complaints. A number of members said that after check-out, the deposit was owed and delayed, the platform listings were also greatly reduced, and the rights and interests of the paid members were damaged.
A number of homestay owners who cooperate with the Rucheng platform also told the surging news (www.thepaper.cn) that the room fee rucheng platform has not been settled in the past six months, and the shopkeeper has to remove the listing from the platform.
In January this year, The official WeChat public account of Rucheng Yi also posted that the delay in introducing the deposit has involved more than 7,000 members. As for when to refund the deposit, the article said "no later than April this year".
On February 9, the customer service staff of the Rucheng platform said that due to the serious loss of the platform in the second half of last year, there was indeed a delay in the refund of the deposit, which is currently being actively resolved, and it is expected that the deposit and room rate will be returned to the deposit and room rate before April 5. Until April, members can also use the unreturned deposit to purchase a "Free Room Coupon" or change to another listing.
One of Ms. Yang's membership cards was withheld
Users said that tens of thousands of deposits were owed, and homestays said tens of thousands of room rates were owed
According to the official website of Rucheng, Hangzhou Rucheng Network Technology Co., Ltd. was established in April 2019, which is a membership-based special resort booking platform serving the Chinese tourist travel crowd. The members of the platform are annual pass system, of which any member can enjoy unlimited free stay rights within 1 year, each reservation is limited to 1 room, up to 2 consecutive nights; the membership fee is higher, members can enjoy unlimited free stay rights within 18 months, each reservation is limited to 1 room, up to 4 consecutive nights, or 2 rooms, up to 2 consecutive nights.
The free mode of member check-in attracted Ms. Yang of Guangzhou, who told the surging news that the characteristic resort hotels mentioned on the Cheng website are actually various types of homestays, including many high-end homestays, "We began to buy annual passes from June 2019, because the family traveled for a long time, we did two, one enjoy card, one enjoy card."
According to the latest rules for the use of member rights and interests released by the official of the Rucheng platform, members need to pay the full room rate as a deposit when booking, and the official promises that the housing deposit will be refunded to the bank card paid by the member within 3-5 working days after check-out.
"In the past, it was true that the deposit was refunded after check-out, but there was a delay since December last year." Ms. Yang said that the customer service said in December last year that in order to check the scalpers, she delayed the refund of the deposit, and she continued to book and stayed in multiple hotels in January 2022, but the deposit has not been refunded since then, "now 6 order deposits have been pressed, nearly 10,000 yuan."
In addition, Ms. Yang said that in early January this year, Rucheng had released member price adjustment information, saying that the original 688 yuan preferential membership fee would rise to 1280 yuan, and the 988 yuan free membership fee would rise to 1980 yuan, and it was recommended that members renew before raising the price. "Originally, my membership had not yet expired, and I quickly renewed it when I saw the price increase, but now I have just renewed it and there is a problem."
Customer service said that the deposit was refunded in early April
Ms. Yang said that she had contacted the platform, and the customer service staff said that the deposit (deposit) would be refunded in full around the beginning of April, and said that the platform would launch a new function, and the unreturned deposit could be rebooked to book other listings. However, after the function was launched, Ms. Yang found that the number of listings on the platform was greatly reduced, "many of them could not be booked before the Qingming Dynasty, and there were no listings."
Mr. Yu, a member, said that he was owed a deposit of more than 5,000 yuan on the platform, and he told the surging news that there was a deposit delay in September last year, and his orders since December last year have not been refunded, "starting to say that one week is refunded, then pushed to ten days, and now it is said to Be April."
Member Ms. Liang said that she was owed a deposit of nearly 20,000 yuan, she told the surging news, in the rights protection of many members in a similar situation, the arrears of deposits ranging from a few thousand yuan to tens of thousands of yuan, "the cost of this platform is actually not cheap, basically around a thousand yuan, but we consider that members can be refunded, did not pay attention to the price, the booking is expensive homestays, just the winter vacation is the peak of travel."
The surging news search on the Internet found that the situation of "Rucheng does not refund the deposit" is not an isolated case, Weibo, Zhihu, Xiaohongshu and other platforms have many netizens reflected, including homestay owners who reflect that the Rucheng platform does not settle the room fee.
Mr. Wang, the owner of the Guangzhou homestay, told the surging news that he had a number of listings on the Rucheng platform, and the original room rate was settled the next month, but since October last year, the room rate has not been settled, "urged again and again, sent a lawyer's letter to settle (last year) October." Mr. Wang said that there are still more than 50,000 room charges outstanding.
Mr. Wang said that he had contacted the platform and was told that due to the difficulty of capital turnover, he could not pay the room fee for the time being, "they let the merchants tide over the difficulties with them, and we dare not put the listing now, but we are afraid that we will not be able to get the room fee back, and we can only put a small amount."
Ms. Fang, the owner of the homestay in Hangzhou, said that she had reported to the local police in Hangzhou and was ready to sue Rucheng, "I have 6 listings on the platform, and now I have been deducted more than 60,000 room charges, it has been almost half a year, and I did not say when it will be settled." At present, Ms. Fang has removed all her listings in Rucheng.
If so, the full deposit is expected to be refunded in early April
In response to the above situation, on February 9, the surging news reporter contacted the Rucheng platform, and the customer service staff said that Rucheng, as a tourism service platform, was greatly affected by the epidemic, and the loss in the second half of last year was serious, coupled with the existence of some scalper members on the platform to resell, and a small number of merchants built some false orders after the platform changed the settlement mode, which made Rucheng suffer losses to varying degrees, resulting in arrears of deposits.
Customer service said that the platform is actively solving, but it takes time to restore the sales revenue of Rucheng or other businesses, or dispose of related assets, and then the deposit and room fee can be refunded in place, and it is expected to be completed by April 5. In addition to waiting, members can also use the unreturned deposit to purchase "free room coupons", such as 1288 yuan can buy 8 nights/room coupons. The platform has also developed a "change" program, members can use the unreturned deposit to change other listings, without having to pay another deposit.
In this regard, Ms. Yang believes that the "free room coupon" belongs to the disguised spending of money housing, and the original members can enjoy free stay after paying the annual fee. For the use of deposits to change other listings, she said that she was not at ease, "Now it is queued up to return according to the order, all queued up to April, afraid that it will be more difficult to refund after the deposit is changed."
Ms. Yang said that she saw in the rights protection group that some members in Hangzhou went to the office of the Rucheng platform to ask for a deposit, but the office site has been closed, and the announcement on the door said that because there are more users of Rucheng Network Technology Co., Ltd. to consult and complain, the company decided that employees temporarily work from home and find another place to receive on-site consultation users.
The door of Rucheng's office is closed, and members are worried about the platform "running away"
The surging news reporter found that on January 22, the official WeChat public account of Rucheng yi also published an article "Ten Answers of the CEO of Rucheng on Recent Questions", which introduced that the delay in deposit has involved more than 7,000 members.
As for the reasons for the deposit deduction, the article said: "Since the end of July (last year), the number of cancellation orders has remained high, especially since the epidemic in Zhejiang in December, the number of intensive cancellations per day is between three and five times that of daily. We originally had been in the deposit account to leave 50% of the total order for the refund, but a few months of intensive cancellation was quickly consumed, at the peak of the platform development, the hotel online deposit exceeded 80 million, now less than half is left, in the second half of the year, we disposed of part of the equity assets and real estate, made up tens of millions into it, the current gap of more than 20 million. As for when to refund the deposit, the article said "no later than April this year".
Editor-in-Charge: Yubing Tang Photo Editor: Jiang Lidong
Proofreader: Luan Meng