CORPORATE TRAVELLERS are increasingly asking for false receipts or invoices from hotel check-out staff, according to the 1,200-strong Supranational Hotels consortium.
Both the frequency and the scale of the deception is on the rise, it is alleged.
Hotel staff are being asked to disguise such items as the number of diners, the quality and quantity of bottles of wine consumed, the standard of accommodation and the length of stay, or that a spouse or partner has shared a bedroom.
Frequently, handwritten receipts are demanded, with the sums involved reaching anything up to €1,000, and the status of the client often to managing director level.
"With their regular guests anxious to maintain an indulgent lifestyle, despite the downturn, hoteliers are often trapped into disguising their charges and are having to commit a form of fraud," says Supranational Hotels' managing director Niels Pedersen. "Such practices are now widespread. Staff must be trained to deal with the difficult situation by saying that they can only issue cash-register-based paperwork. The alternative is to get deeper into an unacceptable web of deceit."