Some hotels in Melaka faced with requests for refunds due to ‘ghostly encounters’

MELAKA: The Melaka Association of Hotels (MAH) has acknowledged that there are cases of guests seeking refunds on their bookings after allegedly seeing “ghostly figures” in their rooms.

MAH's Melaka chapter exco member Sazali Sabri said some hotels here have to face such issues when guests demand refunds after claiming that they came across something supernatural and unexpected while staying there.

"However, there were no tangible shreds of evidence on such claims.

"Some of the guests who booked rooms for more than a day came up with such excuses when they managed to get accommodations closer to tourism icons within the city centre," he said on Saturday (Feb 11).

Sazali said such cases were mostly reported in hotels that were located far from the city centre and during peak season.

He was commenting on cases where some guests were disappointed when they couldn’t get a refund from the hotel management over claims of eerie encounters.

Sazali said in most cases, guests would claim to be experiencing something supernatural once they have secured another accommodation closer to the city here, especially during long stretches of holiday.

He said the matter of refunding would depend on the discretion of the hotel management for such cases.

"The refund mechanism will be straightforward if the guests complained about technical issues like malfunctioning air-con or cleanliness of the rooms," he said.

Sazali said the guests should also understand the predicaments faced by hotels when bookings are made for more than a day.

"The rooms are blocked based on the bookings and it would sell the rooms at the eleventh hour," he added.

Meanwhile, Sazali said his hotel - Hotel MITC - has adopted the RM5 Menu Rahmah initiative at the Asahan Cafe managed by his team at the Taman Rempah River Cruise jetty here.

He added that the menu contains a drink and a choice of nasi lemak or Chinese fried rice.