Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Two Japanese tourists were left in much shock after they received a bill for a meal in a Rome-based restaurant. The tourists, who ordered two plates of spaghetti and fish, and two glasses of water, at Antico Caffe di Martey in the City Centre, were slapped with a bill of €429.89. The compulsory service charge (€80) was also included in the bill. The cost of the meal stood at €349.80.
The Japanese tourists later uploaded a picture of the bill on an American travel cum restaurant company’s website that soon got viral. “Please pay attention and don’t become the next victim like us!!! It is such a horrible experience, says one reviewer, who claimed to have paid €476.40 for fish at the same restaurant.
Another reviewer wrote on the website, “We had the misfortune to fall for their regular trick of offering the Seafood platter which is listed on the menu at € 6.50. We ended up with a horrendous bill for €385.”
The American restaurant cum travel website company has now suspended the review of the restaurant on a temporary basis.
The restaurant, on the other hand, has refuted the allegations, saying that the menu was clear and the reason the Japanese tourists paid that price as they ordered for fish that was “fresh” apart from spaghetti.
The head of the Italian Federation of Public and Tourist Traders, Claudio Pica, said that the situation was grim and not good for the city, but the federation maintained that it was an isolated case. “We have asked for police intervention in this case,” she said.
The exorbitant meal prices in European hotels is nothing new. In 2017, a British tourist went on to write a letter to mayor of Venice after he was charged with €526 for lunch while in 2018, four tourists were allegedly charged around $1800 for a meal in Venice
Tags: Japanese, rome, Tourists overcharged
