A woman from China had recently overpaid nearly two hundred times the price of a night’s stay at a hotel in Jeju Island, South Korea after she mistook the Chinese Yuan symbol (¥) for Korean Won (₩).
The woman, Ms Xiao, booked an economy hotel via the Airbnb app and subsequently checked in on 13 Oct. However, three days later, upon returning to China, she discovered that a whopping sum of RMB60,904 (S$11,280) was deducted from her bank account.
Source: 163.com
When she booked the hotel, the price was set at RMB51,933 (S$9,600), reports 163.com. In addition, Airbnb charged her an RMB8,000 service fee, RMB800 tax, and a RMB160 cleaning fee.
“As it is not a high-end hotel, we thought it was in Korean won, so we booked it,” she explained.
If the price had been in Korean Won, the room would have set Ms Xiao back S$58.
Ms Xiao then reached out to Airbnb’s customer service and the hotel owner, in a bid to rectify the error.
After a series of back-and-forth, Airbnb finally issued her a refund of RMB44,014 (S$8,150). Unsatisfied with the gap in price difference, Ms Xiao persisted with her requests.
Source: 163.com
She eventually received a further RMB6,736 (S$1248) on 8 Nov before getting a full refund on 13 Nov.
The vacation rental company said that they provided her “with a full refund in good faith”.
163.com reports that netizens who had stayed at the hotel before and learned of Ms Xiao’s story shared that the same room type typically costs RMB1,000 (S$185), a far cry from what Ms Xiao had paid.
A lawyer at Henan Zejin Law Firm, Mr Chen Zhen, urged customers to check the currency carefully before making reservations online — particularly with cross-border purchases.
According to him, the customer will typically be liable for overlooking the differing currencies.
However, in this case, the property owner made an error in listing their hotel rooms in Chinese Yuan instead of Korean Won, making it an exception.
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Featured image adapted from 163.com, Canva, Freepik and Freepik. Image on the right and symbols are for illustration purposes only.
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