2023-12-06 12:15:44
Bathélémy Philippe with AFP // Photo credits: Xose Bouzas / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP
modified to
7:26 p.m., December 6, 2023
Fraud Repression will double controls in French hotels and restaurants between now and the 2024 Olympic Games to review 10,000 establishments in France, so that tourists “get value for their money”, the Minister for Tourism announced on Wednesday. . While prices, particularly in hotels, are already showing sharp increases for the Olympic period (from July 26 to August 11, 2024), Olivia Grégoire, French Minister for Tourism, estimated on Wednesday on Sud Radio that the strengthening of controls was an “effective lever” to limit these increases.
More than 1,700 establishments already inspected
The average price of a one-night stay in Île-de-France increased from 169 euros in July 2023 to 699 euros during the Olympics, according to a report established in September by the Paris Tourist and Convention Office. And similar levels of increase are observed on rental platforms such as Airbnb. “Neither in London, nor in Rio, nor even in Beijing, has there ever been any price control during the Olympic and Paralympic Games. We are still not in an administered economy,” noted Olivia Grégoire Wednesday.
But “I have an effective lever: it is to increase controls. In 2023, in Paris Ile-de-France, there were a little more than 600 hotels controlled. There are 1,600 hotels in total (in the Paris region) and everything will be controlled between now and the Games,” she assured. “In France, the rates for hotel nights are set freely,” added the Fraud Repression Agency (DGCCRF) in a press release.
The organization has deployed “a specific system of controls, online and on site, of the broader hospitality sector (hotels, centers and holiday villages), during major sporting events” such as the World Cup. rugby and the Olympics. In this context, “more than 1,700 establishments have already been checked in 2023, in particular those subject to reports (via the SignalConso site or through the prefectures) or already known to the services”.
70% anomalies noted
And 70% of the establishments inspected “present at least one anomaly, of varying severity, which led the DGCCRF services to send the professionals concerned 871 warnings, 289 injunctions, 44 administrative fines and to transmit 47 criminal reports”. Among the problems noted: failure to display prices outside and inside establishments, failure to provide notes, classification claimed by the establishment to be non-existent or misleading allegations, lists the organization.
Results which lead the government to accelerate controls. “In 2023, we had 4,300 establishments inspected in France. There will be 10,000 by the Olympics, we will more than double the controls,” indicated Olivia Grégoire. These controls will concern hotels, furnished rentals, campsites, restaurants, cafes, food trucks, etc. And will take place in establishments, on professional websites and on online reservation platforms, specifies the DGCCRF.
“If the prices are not displayed, it is possibly an error and it is reprehensible. If the prices displayed are not those paid, here too the consumer has the right to make this known and to complain,” recalled the minister. “There is an arsenal of extremely heavy fines and sanctions, the important thing is that the consumer is informed of the price they have to pay,” she continued. She specified that “900 agents” of the DGCCRF, or “a third of the total workforce of this administration, will be mobilized on price control, health and the smooth running of the Olympic Games”.
“I call on everyone to be responsible, hoteliers, restaurateurs… It is essential that tourists, French or international, get value for their money. If this is not the case, they (professionals, Editor’s note) might be heavily sanctioned,” she stressed. The DGCCRF, for its part, invited consumers, French and foreign, to report any problem they encounter with a professional on the SignalConso site and application, also available in English.
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