{"id":252054,"date":"2020-04-14T20:00:36","date_gmt":"2020-04-15T00:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=252054"},"modified":"2020-04-14T20:00:36","modified_gmt":"2020-04-15T00:00:36","slug":"dot-issues-stern-warning-vs-marked-up-room-rates-for-ofws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/04\/14\/dot-issues-stern-warning-vs-marked-up-room-rates-for-ofws\/","title":{"rendered":"DOT issues &#8216;stern warning&#8217; vs. marked up room rates for OFWs"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_239982\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-239982\" style=\"width: 3119px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/dot-release.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-239982\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/dot-release.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3119\" height=\"2100\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/dot-release.jpg 3119w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/dot-release-300x202.jpg 300w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/dot-release-768x517.jpg 768w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/dot-release-1024x689.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 3119px) 100vw, 3119px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-239982\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">FILE: Department of Tourism (DOT) Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat at Cafe Adriatico, Malate, Manila on Wednesday (December 11, 2019). (PNA photo by Gil Calinga)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The Department of Tourism (DOT) on Tuesday issued a stern warning to individuals and groups reportedly hiking rates and taking advantage of the room allotments for repatriated overseas Filipino workers during the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) period.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Department firmly denounces this practice as it strongly encourages accommodation establishments to offer their best rates possible, with no room for third-party negotiators that compound the best and barest rates,&#8221; the agency said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>DOT Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat warned both the third-party negotiators and conniving accommodation establishments on the legal repercussions of activities that take advantage of the OFWs and even the stranded tourists.<\/p>\n<p>The statement came after the agency received reports from the Hotel Sales and Marketing Association (HSMA) that third-party individuals and groups have been approaching accommodation establishments including hotels, resorts, pension houses, and serviced apartments to negotiate for markup rates intended for OFWs.<\/p>\n<p>The said individuals and groups reportedly offer to serve as middlemen, in exchange for a commission, thus marking up the room rates.<\/p>\n<p>Under Administrative Order No. 2020-001-B issued on March 30, accommodation establishments that are allowed to operate during the ECQ period &#8220;are strongly encouraged to provide the lowest possible rates to guests, especially to OFWs and employees from neighboring basic establishments.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Those reported to be engaging in opportunistic pricing may be subject to the relevant penalties under applicable laws, rules, and regulations,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n<p>Since the Covid-19 outbreak, more than a dozen thousand OFWs have returned to the Philippines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MANILA\u00a0\u2013 The Department of Tourism (DOT) on Tuesday issued a stern warning to individuals and groups reportedly hiking rates and &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":239982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-252054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-joyce-ann-l-rocamora","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252054"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":252055,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252054\/revisions\/252055"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}