Being away from home and having a good stay is undoubtedly a plus during the trip. However, Nandu reporters recently found through investigation that there are many "ghost homestays" and "ghost hotels" around high-speed railway stations and railway stations in some cities, and the addresses marked on the Internet are false, either nowhere to be found, or far from the actual address, and some even suddenly change addresses after paying money and placing an order.
These B&Bs and hotels with fake names and addresses appear on multiple online travel platforms (OTAs), some of which have high ratings and positive reviews. Why can such B&Bs and hotels still be approved by the platform? During the reporter's unannounced visit, the homestay practitioners around the high-speed rail station said that they had already seen the strangeness, and "no one complained, no one would take care of it." Customer service staff on several OTA platforms also said that the process and requirements for listing homestay listings are relatively simple, and only online review is required. Chen Yinjiang, deputy secretary-general of the Consumer Law Research Association of the China Law Society, believes that relevant platforms should strengthen the qualification review and daily supervision of merchants.
During the reporter's unannounced investigation, it was found that some hotels and guesthouses located their addresses on North South Station Road, but the actual address was several kilometers away.
Journalist Investigation:
The platform is blank before placing an order
The address suddenly appears after paying the money
Fake store name, fake address, according to the picture Suoji found a vacant land? In April this year, some netizens said that they booked an apartment near Guangzhou South Railway Station, but encountered a "ghost hotel", looking at the positioning "thought it was very close, but they didn't find it for an hour." The Nandu reporter investigated Fliggy, Qunar, Meituan, Tujia Homestay, Tongcheng Travel and other platforms and found that the phenomenon of fake addresses reported by netizens has always existed.
The reporter searched and compared the information of hotels and guesthouses near high-speed railway stations and railway stations in several cities in Guangdong Province, and found that some stores that showed that they were close to the station were tricky. For example, a homestay "South Railway Station Inn" near Huizhou South Railway Station is located 100 meters west of Huizhou South Railway Station on the platform. The reporter inquired about its specific location, but the name of the store sent by the store changed to "Jinsheng Accommodation". The address marked on the booking platform of "Baimiao Feilai B&B" near Qingyuan Station is completely different from the address sent by the store, and some consumers have also reported that the positioning of the store is inaccurate. It is understood that such inconsistencies in the actual store name, address and booking platform also exist near Shenzhen North Railway Station, Guangzhou South Railway Station, Jiangmen Railway Station, etc.
Since April, Nandu reporters have conducted unannounced visits to 10 suspected "ghost hotels" and "ghost guesthouses". Among these 10 stores, 8 have their addresses located on South Railway Station North Road, South Railway Station South Road and Mingsheng 1st Road next to Guangzhou South Railway Station. These locations are just a few minutes' walk from the South Station. Among them, the "Guangzhou South Railway Station Homestay Flagship Store" on the Meituan platform even writes the address as "Shibi Street", which is positioned in Guangzhou South Railway Station.
In Guangzhou South Railway Station, of course, it is impossible to find the "Guangzhou South Railway Station Homestay Flagship Store". The reporter tried to contact the store, but the platform only provided the official customer service phone number of Meituan B&B. The reporter made several calls to the phone but no one answered. Amazingly, the hotel has a fake name and no specific address, but the platform shows that more than 300 people have rated it, and the rating reached 4.6.
So, how do these consumers find hotel addresses? After the Nandu reporter paid money on the platform and placed an order, an even more magical scene happened - on the page without any specific address before, an address "No. 14, North Road of Guangzhou South Railway Station" suddenly appeared, and the address was marked with "pick-up location" in parentheses.
There are stores with both addresses "ghost"
The actual storefront is a few kilometers away
Another shop called "Come on Sange's B&B (Guangzhou South Railway Station)" is even more bizarre. The address indicated on the platform is Mingsheng 1st Road, South Station South Road, but the reporter visited and found that there was no trace of the store here. As the reporter paid money on the platform and placed an order, the address of the store became "Guangzhou South Travel Apartment". However, when the reporter visited again, he found that the Guangzhou South Train Apartment on Mingsheng 1st Road was a dormitory for railway system staff, not a hotel operated externally.
Later, the reporter received another text message for the order, which included the landlord's phone number. At this time, the landlord told the reporter the truth: "Mingsheng Road is the pick-up location, the store is in Weiyong Village opposite the South Railway Station, basically the homestay is in this area." ”
Mingsheng 1st Road, just a few minutes from the South Station, there are no hotels here.
Why do you write the address of the hotel as Mingsheng 1st Road? The landlord said that because the actual address was difficult to find, he wrote the address near the South Station to pick up guests, "We can come and pick you up." Then the landlord sent his real name and address through WeChat: Jinjue Haoting Apartment (Guangzhou South Railway Station), located in Weiyong Village, 2.3 kilometers from Guangzhou South Railway Station, more than half an hour on foot.
After placing an order for "Come on Third Brother's Homestay", the real name of the store is Jinjue Haoting Apartment.
On other platforms, such "ghost hotels" and "ghost homestays" also exist. Qunar platform's "Chaoman 1 Guangzhou South Railway Station Branch Apartment (South Railway Station North Road Branch)" shows that it is located on South Railway Station North Road, the reporter called, the other party said that the actual address is not there, "You have to place an order first, if you don't place an order, we can't provide the address to the guest, the platform is so stipulated." ”
Another "South Station Xinyuan Xiaozhu (Mingsheng 1st Road Branch)" is also full of doubts. The address it indicated on the Qunar platform is "No. 72, Weiyong Renmin Road, Mingsheng 1st Road", mixing fake and real addresses. The booking platform shows that the store is 880 meters walk from the C exit of Guangzhou South Railway Station subway station, and even the map shows that it is located on Mingsheng 1st Road, which seems to be very close to the South Railway Station. However, the Nandu reporter visited Mingsheng all the way and repeatedly confirmed that there was no hotel.
When visiting Mingsheng all the way, a courier brother told the Nandu reporter, "There is a shop in this Xinyuan Xiaozhu, and we often deliver items", for the specific location, he pointed to the distant urban village. The reporter searched for "Xinyuan Xiaozhu" as a keyword and found that there is indeed "Xinyuan Xiaozhu (Guangzhou South Railway Station Store)" around the South Railway Station, in Weiyong Village Renmin Road, 2.6 kilometers away from the South Railway Station, more than half an hour walk.
On May 8, the reporter re-searched and found that "South Railway Station Xinyuan Xiaozhu (Mingsheng 1st Road Branch)" could not be booked, but the platform also had a "South Railway Station Xinyuan Xiaozhu (Mingsheng 1st Road No. 1 Branch)", which also displayed the positioning in Mingsheng 1st Road, causing confusion to consumers.
Xinyuan Xiaozhu is actually located in Weiyong Village.
The authenticity of the platform's positive reviews is questionable
The removal of unserviced hotels is not timely
The 10 suspected "ghost hotels" and "ghost guesthouses" investigated by the reporter all have other problems to varying degrees. The first is that the basic information of the hotel and homestay is missing or incorrect. As mentioned above, the names and addresses of some hotels and guesthouses are fake and lack effective contact information. On the Tujia B&B platform, you can see a homestay with a long list of words such as "free pick-up and drop-off at South Railway Station" and "Internet celebrity B&B marked as a big bed room", but there is no contact number, and the address is marked as South Railway Station South Road. Only after booking can you see the real name of the homestay: Golden Jue Haoting Apartment (Guangzhou South Railway Station).
The reporter also found that some hotels and homestays have two positioning phenomena. For example, searching on the Fliggy platform, there are two "urban quick apartments". One is City Speed Apartment (Guangzhou South Railway Station Branch), located 500 meters from the west exit of South Railway Station; The other is City Speed Hotel Apartment (Guangzhou South Railway Station), located on Weiyong Muratianxin Street. The phone number left in the two apartments is the same, and there is actually only one city express apartment. The address marked as Weiyong Murata Xin Street is the correct address, but the platform shows that reservations cannot be made; Although the one marked 500 meters from the west exit of the South Station can be booked, it is an incorrect address and cannot be found according to the navigation.
In addition, for hotels and guesthouses that no longer provide services, some platforms have not been removed and cleaned up in time. The reporter saw on the Tongcheng travel platform that a store called "Guangzhou Tuju Boutique Apartment" could not book a room, but the information could still be seen. The address provided by it is No. 6 Cangzhou Street, South Side Road of Dazhou Village, and the reporter found that the above address is just an ordinary residence.
What is more confusing is the authenticity of the positive reviews on the platform, the above hotels and B&Bs have different degrees of address, location and other issues, but 90% of the merchants show a rating of more than 4 points (out of 5). Among them, the B&B (Guangzhou South Railway Station Store) of the third brother of the refueling is a shop with a fake name and a fake address, and the score is as high as 4.9. The reporter flipped through the comment area of these orders and found that some netizens gave low scores to reflect problems such as address, sanitary conditions, and photos that did not match the reality, and some merchants replied in a rough tone.
Homestay practitioners:
Fake store names and fake addresses are open secrets, and many people have been deceived
The reporter learned from an unannounced visit that the use of fake names and addresses by some homestay hotels around the South Railway Station has become an open secret. There are a large number of hotels and guesthouses in urban villages such as Weiyong Village and Dazhou Village around the South Railway Station, but they are actually one or two kilometers away from the South Railway Station and walk far away, so that some people have changed their minds and changed their addresses to closer places such as South Railway Station North Road, South Railway Station South Road, and Mingsheng 1st Road.
"It's competitive!" A homestay operator near the South Railway Station said that some foreign tourists would choose hotels and guesthouses closer to the South Railway Station in order to catch the high-speed train. "One shows a distance of several hundred meters, one is more than a kilometer away, and the one that is hundreds of meters must be selected." However, the trap lies here. If the address displayed on the platform is not real, "proximity" is only a means to confuse consumers.
"Can't find a storefront, how do you live?" The above-mentioned homestay operators said that many tourists returned their orders after discovering that they had been deceived. Regarding the existence of "ghost hotels" and "ghost homestays", he said that "if no one complains, no one will take care of them", and platform salesmen will have loopholes in lax review and supervision due to the pressure of promotion.
In the urban villages around Guangzhou South Railway Station, there are a large number of "×× rental houses".
A number of platforms publish homestay listings
Just review online
Relying on the renovation of residential buildings, hang a simple signboard, the internal facilities are relatively simple, and the fourth or fifth floor has to climb stairs. Nandu reporters have visited in the past few days and found that most of the "hotel apartments" booked by consumers in urban villages near Guangzhou South Railway Station are not real "hotels". According to the definition of the jurisdiction administration, most of them are "rental rental houses" that operate temporary accommodation services. The use of hotel-style signboards is strictly prohibited in rental houses, such as inns, inns, restaurants, hotels, guesthouses, buildings, villas, guest houses, etc.
Therefore, no matter how fancy the name on the online booking platform, most of them have become "×× rent" offline. Inquiring about the industrial and commercial information of several of these stores, we can see that most of them are self-employed, and their business scope is limited to housing leasing. However, local practitioners claim to operate "homestays", and booking platforms often classify these shops as "hotel and homestays".
So, what are the entry requirements for relevant platforms, and are the information reviews strict? The reporter saw in the Meituan merchant settlement column that the tourism industry settlement is divided into two types: hotel settlement and homestay settlement, of which hotel settlement needs to provide business identity information, business license, hotel photos and other information, and wait for review before going online. B&Bs are not mandatory to require a business license.
Meituan customer service explained that if you settle in as a hotel, the requirements are more stringent, you must have business licenses, special industry permits and other certificates, as well as the front desk, the door, and the number of rooms must meet certain requirements. B&B online requirements according to local policy changes, only in some specific places require six certificates to be complete, customer service said, Guangzhou has no special notice, "B&B as long as it provides a real estate certificate or rental contract, one or two rooms can also be online".
The customer service said that when the merchant settles in, when filling in the application materials in the background, the address information must be accurate to prevent giving customers a bad experience. But when asked how the review would be conducted, she said that after the business information is uploaded, someone will review it online, not offline. If there is a change in the information in the future, you can directly take the listing offline and re-register the information.
In addition, the reporter consulted the Fliggy and Tujia homestay platforms in the name of merchants settling in. Fliggy platform customer service said that if it is a homestay, there are currently no requirements for industrial and commercial qualifications in Guangzhou, just release the listing information according to the prompts, and the platform reviews it online. Tujia homestay customer service said that the store certification of the homestay uses a business license or ID card (choose one of the two), the listing information can choose the lease contract, the purchase contract, etc., the listing information can be put on the shelf after the online review, and there is no offline review requirement.
Sound:
The platform should strengthen qualification review and daily supervision
Chen Yinjiang, deputy secretary-general of the Consumer Law Research Association of the China Law Society, believes that the phenomenon of "ghost homestays" and "ghost hotels" is actually misleading and deceiving consumers through false information, and is suspected of infringing on consumers' right to know and choice, even including the right to property safety. He told the Nandu reporter that the relevant platforms have the responsibility of supervising the merchants settled, and the platform should take the initiative in terms of settlement information, qualification review, and daily supervision.
The reporter noticed that the prices of homestays around Guangzhou South Railway Station are generally lower than those of regular hotels. "If you can't be expensive, you will be strictly audited, and if you are cheap, you will not be audited." Chen Yinjiang said that homestays, like hotels, provide accommodation services for consumers to ensure that the legitimate rights and interests of consumers are protected. "Today's platforms have so many technical means that it is impossible not to identify the authenticity of their distance and address."
Yang Xiuhong, director of the Catering Tourism and Convention Business Professional Committee of Guangzhou Lawyers Association, said that in accordance with the domestic Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests, the E-Commerce Law, and the Interim Regulations on the Administration of Online Tourism Operation Services, if the above phenomenon occurs, if the hotel and homestay operators are suspected of fraud, and the platform knows or should know that the operators on the platform do not meet the requirements for protecting consumers' personal and property safety or have other acts that infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, and fail to take necessary measures in a timely manner, they shall bear joint and several liability in accordance with law.
"The reason why this phenomenon has always existed is that some operators and platforms believe that the cost of violating laws and regulations is low, and it is nothing more than a return of money." Lawyer Yang Xiuhong told reporters that relevant administrative departments should take responsibility for supervision and management, strengthen supervision and inspection, and investigate and deal with violations of laws and regulations in accordance with the law.
Produced by: Nandu "Reporter Gang"