Hotel apologizes, offers to refund girl who 'stolen' room at 2am

The owner of Royal Hostel apologized and offered to refund the entire room fee, but the female customer still refused to accept the money, hoping the incident would be closed.

On November 11, Ms. NTQH, owner of Royal Hostel (No. 19 Hang Chao) and Mr. TTA (housekeeper) were invited by the O Cho Dua Ward Police ( Hanoi ) to the headquarters to clarify the case of a female customer. hotel room "no show" despite full payment.

At the meeting, Ms. NTQH said that the hotel had received a reservation from a guest named NYQ through the Agoda application, with a check-in date of November 7, but the guest did not show up to check in. At around 2:00 a.m. on November 9, Ms. Q. came to check in and was told by Mr. TTA that the hotel was full.

Not being assigned a room, the guest was upset and recorded a video to complain on social media.

Royal Hostel owner at a meeting with the police on the morning of November 11. (Photo: Provided by the police)

The hotel owner said that after receiving the information, the establishment proactively contacted Ms. Q. to apologize and offer a refund. The establishment also coordinated with the booking platform to process the refund and at the same time discussed with the customer to remove the post on social media. The hotel also admitted that the night shift staff did not fully understand the service process, leading to the unfortunate incident.

According to the owner of Royal Hostel, the facility operates as a long-term apartment rental facility, and only rents out short-term apartments through an online application when there are no guests.

Confirming with VTC News reporter, Ms. Q. said that she had received an apology from the hotel and hoped that accommodation establishments would learn from experience in serving customers, especially in emergency situations or outside of business hours. Regarding the room refund, Ms. Q. still maintains her stance of not accepting it, and hopes that the matter will end here, both to maintain her own mental comfort and to avoid affecting the hotel's business operations.

“This is the first time I have encountered such a situation while traveling . I hope my story will help service providers pay more attention to how they handle situations with customers.” Ms. Q. shared.

Previously, social networks spread a clip of Ms. NYQ (in Dong Nai) arguing with the receptionist of a hotel in Hanoi in the middle of the night, after being refused a room despite having paid in advance. The incident made thousands of people angry, rating the 1-star hotel on the booking platform.

Ms. Q. said she booked a room for 3 nights from November 7-9 for a total cost of 1.5 million VND, paid in advance via the app. Due to the storm, she postponed her flight to November 8. At 2:00 a.m. on November 9, Ms. Q. arrived at the hotel and was informed by a male employee that the room had been rented to another guest because she checked in late without prior notice.

The male hotel employee said that her room had been rented out to someone else because she did not check in on time. (Photo cut from clip)

At that time, it was raining heavily outside, she just wanted help finding a temporary place to stay, but the receptionist said the hotel was full and the mocking attitude made her upset, so she recorded a clip.

“I said I could just consider it a lost room and asked the receptionist to help me find another room, but he said the hotel was fully booked. While I was waiting to book a ride elsewhere, the staff kept laughing at me, which made me very uncomfortable, so I took out my phone and recorded the clip.” She shared and said that what made her uncomfortable was the disrespectful service, not the lost room fee.

After the incident, Ms. Q. had to stay at a friend's hotel and returned to Ho Chi Minh City on the morning of November 10.

After the incident spread on social media, thousands of people expressed their outrage at the hotel's unprofessional behavior and simultaneously rated the hotel 1 star on the booking platform.

At the meeting with the owner of Royal Hostel, O Cho Dua Ward Police also conducted an administrative inspection of this hotel and noted a number of violations and problems. Specifically, the facility did not comply with the regulations on residence notification, violating Point b, Clause 1, Article 9 of Decree 144/2021 ND-CP dated December 31, 2021. In addition, business establishments operating in investment and business sectors with conditions on security and order without being granted a certificate of eligibility for security and order violate Point a, Clause 4, Article 12 of Decree 144/2021 ND-CP dated December 31, 2021. In addition, the facility does not preserve and maintain common fire prevention and fighting equipment according to Point a, Clause 1, Article 22 of Decree 106/2025/ND-CP dated May 15, 2025. The ward police have drawn up a record, handled the violations of the facility and requested corrections in accordance with legal regulations.

Source: https://baolangson.vn/khach-san-xin-loi-de-nghi-hoan-lai-tien-cho-co-gai-bi-bung-phong-luc-2h-sang-5064671.html