The State Duma deputy spoke about the amendments to the law on overbooking

Tatiana Lobach, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Tourism and Development of Tourist Infrastructure, told Izvestia that the initiated amendments to the legislation would actually allow the hotel market to move out of the "gray zone" where responsibility for overbooking remains vague. According to her, today, in some cases, the guest is offered only a refund instead of a real solution to the problem, which undermines confidence in the industry.

"The introduction of an obligation to provide equivalent or better accommodation for free will force some hotels and apartment hotels to review the sales system, reducing risky practices of double booking and "reinsurance" by analogy with the aviation market," Lobach said.

According to her, the market will not completely abandon overbooking: small accommodation facilities may face rising costs, and large chains may face the need for increased control of sales channels.

The key issue, according to the deputy, remains the issue of monitoring the implementation of the new requirements. The bill does not yet define who and how will record the fact of overbooking, how to assess the "equivalence" of alternative placement and prove a violation. The Deputy Chairman is confident that the proposed mechanisms can be finalized by the second reading.

Earlier it became known that a group of deputies submitted to the State Duma a bill according to which, when overbooking, hotels, apartments and guest houses are required to provide tourists with equivalent or better accommodation for free. Read the details in the Izvestia article.

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