City hotel rates will be stable during fourth CIIE

Shanghai will implement price controls on city hotels between November 1 and November 12 in a bid to curb gouging during the upcoming fourth China International Import Expo, Shanghai's market regulators announced on Saturday.

Hotel operators in all districts excluding Chongming are ordered to check the price limit of rooms under the price intervention measures of the third China International Import Expo via the city's CIIE price supervision and management platform at http://101.89.76.248:8083/.

The cost of hotel rooms during this year's price intervention period should not exceed the highest prices of similar rooms with similar service standards during last year's price intervention period, the Shanghai Administration for Market Regulation said.

New hotels should set their prices by referencing those of hotels of the same standard and in similar areas.

They are also required to report their prices to the districts' cultural and tourism authorities via the platform.

Hotel operators must reduce their prices immediately if rooms available for the period exceed the price cap.

For rooms already booked that exceed the price limits, hotels should refund the difference.

Hotel operators are banned from failure to report prices, providing fake price materials, or exceeding price limits, the administration said.

They are also banned from charging extra fees that are not marked clearly and price frauds, and they are ordered to follow hotel price fluctuations on online travel platforms and travel agencies closely and quickly report to authorities abnormal situations.

Violators of China's price laws and relevant regulations will have illegal profits confiscated, and be fined up to five times their illegal profits.

If there are no illegal profits, they still face up to 5 million yuan (US$776,398) in fines, and even suspension from operation in serious cases, according to the administration.

The temporary price control also covers ride-hailing services and some public parking lots, the administration said.