PHRI pledges to welcome govt's plan on hotel service charges
PHRI pledges to welcome govt's plan on hotel service charges
JP/3/PHRI/0
PHRI pledges to welcome govt's plan on hotel service charges
JAKARTA (JP): The city's association of hotels and restaurants
will accept any regulation launched by the city administration
aimed at standardizing the distribution of service charges.
The charges equal 10 percent of services provided by hotels or
restaurants and must be distributed to the workers.
"We do not have to avoid uniformity in distributing the
charges as long as it does not spoil our services to guests,"
said Arman Rahman Iskandar, the chairman of the Jakarta Branch of
the Association of Indonesian Hotels and Restaurants (PHRI-DKI)
as quoted Soegijo, head of the City Council's Commission E on
tourism.
Arman was responding to the commission's plan to formulate a
city law which would regulate how service charges must be
divided, Soegijo told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
Soegijo said the plan is necessary because the present
regulation does not address how the charges should be
distributed.
The present regulation, based on a ministerial decree issued
in 1956, only states the allowable amount of service charges,
which is 10 percent at most.
Some hotels use service charges to pay Idul Fitri bonuses,
while others use the money as security funds, Soegijo said.
"This is definitely an abuse," Soegijo said but declined to
mention the hotels involved.
Soegijo also said some hotels distribute the charges equally
among all workers while others distribute them according to the
workers' rank.
Hence, a new city law may be needed to eliminate those
differences, Soegijo said.
Slamet Riyadi, a staff member of the Sabang Hotel in Central
Jakarta, told the Post his company distributes service charges
equally to all its workers after deducting 5 percent from its
total to cover losses incurred from broken or lost dishes,
ashtrays, etc.
Slamet said service charges at his hotel are printed on the
bill along with the Development Tax One (PB I) of 10 percent
which is payable to the city administration.
"Guests often complain to us because they have to pay 20
percent more than the actual price of the service," Slamet said.
(arf)