§ Mr. Adleyasked the Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection (1) if he has consulted the British Tourist Authority or the British Hotels Restaurants and Caterers Association on his Department's proposals to seek to regulate hotel overbooking; and, if not, if he will so do before seeking to impose any requirements on the hotel industry;
(2) if he will make a statement on his Department's proposals to seek to prohibit hotels from accepting a total number of room reservations in excess of the actual number of rooms in any given hotel.
§ Mr. John FraserMy Department has no such proposals in mind.
§ Mr. Molloyasked the Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection if he will refer to the Price Commission the practice of hotels charging more than Post Office rates for telephone calls placed through their switchboards.
§ Mr. MaclennanMy right hon. Friend has no plans to do so at present. It is for the hotel management to decide whether to recover the cost of installing and operating a switchboard through its room charges or by a separate charge added to the normal post offices rates. But where the second method is adopted I consider that customers should be informed in advance of the rates they will have to pay. I understand that the British Hotels, Restaurants and Caterers Association has already recommended its members to provide this information and will be issuing a further reminder shortly. I shall be interested to see the response to this, and urge all hotels to ensure that their guests276W are provided with a clear indication of the charges for telephone calls through the switchboard and of the location within the hotel of any public call boxes.