Royal Garden Resort - Page 1

I am an American living in China, and I came to this hotel with a Chinese friend and his 55-year-old mother. First, our reservation was refused as being "too cheap," I wound up paying three times the price I reserved the room for despite the email confirmation that I showed them. I had reserved the room through the hotel's central website: www.jinjianghotels.com/portal/en/index.asp . Still I stayed. On our second day here, we wanted to change rooms due to noisy construction going on outside our balcony. They accepted the change and showed us to the hotel's electric car which would take us to see the new room. After we sat, the driver started driving rather fast, and then did a U-turn around the hedge in front of the hotel. My friend's mother was thrown from the car. The driver didn't notice until she started screaming; the wheel barely missed her head. We immediately rushed to the local hospital to find her wrist was broken in two places. When we returned from the hospital, we were told that the hotel would pay medical bills (amounting to about $40 because doctors are cheap in China) but nothing else. After a day's wrangling with front desk staff and underlings, the manager of the hotel deigned to speak with us, and told his mother that she should be more careful. He related a story about the time his wife was bitten by a dog and he had to pay her bills himself. The hotel refuses to take responsibility. The manager insists that "China is different from America" which I suppose means that they have the right to hurt guests at their whim, as long as they pay hospital bills. My friend's mother endured a lot of pain, and the doctor says that her wrist will never be 100% better. She can no longer enjoy her vacation, go to work, or even wash her own hair at the moment, and the hotel manager does nothing but sit smugly and explain that here, the laws require nothing from the hotel. It is true that people's rights in China are often unprotected or nonexistent, but what amazes me the most is that they don't seem to care at all. We seem to have no recourse. Please, to protect the rights of people in this country, don't give this hotel your business. My name is Melissa Gardner and you can reach me at melissa.a.gardner@gmail.com