HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
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(b) a charge may be made for the provision of air conditioning or for the electricity used by an air conditioning apparatus;
(e) a charge may be made for the provision of such further services as are rendered by the hotel upon the request of a Hong Kong resident: Provided that the manager shall have submitted a list of such charges to the Quartering Authority and received his approval of them."
The changes, by comparison with the existing regulation 9, which will be effected upon acceptance of the above proposal for amendment are as follows:-
(1) The rates for the accommodation of Hong Kong residents will relate only to Hong Kong residents accommodated in accommodation reserved for Hong Kong residents. Regulation 9(1) as at present drafted applies the rates to Hong Kong residents whether or not in reserved accommodation.
(2) Such rates will apply only when the management has received from a Hong Kong resident a declaration in writing of intention to stay in a hotel for a period of not less than 4 weeks and not, as now provided by regulation 9(2), merely upon the making of such a declaration.
(3) Charges for services (other than services prescribed by the regulations) will be permissible where a Hong Kong resident requests such services, e.g. laundry service. The proviso is inade, however, that the manager shall submit a list of such services and related charges for the prior approval of the Quartering Authority. By operation of regulation 14 a Notice setting out such approved charges would require to be displayed at a reception desk.
THE ATTORNEY GENERAL:-Sir, I rise to move that the Regulations which appear as a Schedule to the Bill be amended by the addition of a regulation 16 as follows :-
"Transitional provisions. Rates and charges.
16. The rates for the accommodation of, and charges for services payable by, a Hong Kong resident who on the coming into force of these regulations is accommodated in a hotel but cannot be accommodated in a room reserved for the accommodation of a Hong Kong resident in accordance with the provisions of regulation 8, shall not exceed the rates and charges payable by such person on the 1st February, 1949.”
It is anticipated that on the coming into force of these regulations certain hotels will be occupied by persons, who qualify to be Hong Kong residents, to a number in excess of the accommodation required to be reserved, in such hotels, for Hong Kong residents. In view of the fact that amendment proposed to regulation 9 will confine the application of prescribed rates to Hong Kong residents accommodate l
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