We are visiting Siem Reap around Christmas time and are staying at the Le Meridien. I just received notification that the hotel requires my family of five to attend a "compulsory Christmas dinner". Not to sound whiney, but we do not celebrate Christmas and have no desire to attend a Christmas dinner. We especially do not want to be locked into a compulsory overpriced hotel dinner. Anyone with any experience wiggling out of these kinds of things?

What about writing them and explaining that you do not celebrate Christmas and would be uncomfortable participating in a Christmas dinner.

You can certainly try. But really, they don't celebrate Christmas either - this is just a way to get everyone in the hotel to pay a lot for a "gala" dinner. It's very common at resort hotels all over SE Asia.

You don't have to ATTEND the dinner - you just have to PAY for it.

Had you bothered to look at the full description of rates, taxes and additional charges on the booking website you would have seen the following:

Rate Plan Descriptionm Passport W/Bkfst ,Compulsory Xmas Eve Dinner At Usd90 And New Years Eve At Usd120. Price Excludes Tax Per Adult, Children Under 12 Years At 50% Off.

So I don't think you've 'just' been notified. You've already agreed to it.

If you did this thru a travel agent then you'd better take it up with them. If you did this yourself thru the web - then here's an expensive lesson.

Sorry to be so blunt. Caveat Emptor.

How about staying elsewhere?

Travel agent......not too pleased but I understand the need to charge exorbitant extra fees. I may be forced to stay elsewhere as this seems to be a Le Meridien constant throughout the world. I see this is also required in Dubai!!! Wonder if they force their Muslim guests to partake (more probably pay!!!). Thanks all.

It's not as if they're going to celebrate a Mass and give everyone a New Testament as a keepsake.

As has been said, this is very common for upscale hotels in Asia at both Xmas & NYE. Christmas is a big deal in many east Asian countries, even though only a tiny percentage of the people consider themselves to be Christian (e.g., Japan).

You may have noticed that in Western countries a similar situation exists where those who don't celebrate Christmas don't exactly have a normal day on Dec 25th. Go to a movie maybe, and Chinese restaurants are open. Go to the Matzo Ball if you live in Boston and are interested. For most in the non-celebrating category, though, it's just a day off from work with not many options (and, for much of the population, disgusting weather).

My suggestion: Deal with it.

I am appalled by the practice, but I've come to accept it. As R says, deal with it.

We did get a little revenge when we were in Siem Riep. We were thare for NYE and a compulsory dinner. It rained cats and dogs and the whole sorry affair was a disaster. The look of dismay on the GM's face was worth the money.

Standard practice in many SEA hotels.
What's the big deal??

Geez, sorry I posted. Some of us don't like to get locked into eating at a hotel for a compulsory overpriced dinner especially when we do NOT celebrate Christmas.

If you select a smaller place to stay, you can spare yourself the price. Sorry, I don't have any suggestions, as I've not been to SR. But I will be in BKK for Christmas and Pattaya for NYE. There has been no mention of paying for any gala parties in BKK at my small non-chain hotel.

Two NYE on Phuket, at a very pricey resort, paid and attended the galas and always had a good time. Were they overpriced? YES.

Good luck!

Doesn't happen in Singapore. You'll have a problem making reservations even if you wanted to.

I've never run into this in Bangkok (or Singapore), only at resort locations.

kathie---i think some of the bkk hotels do it too...

Bob, I've never seen a Bangkok hotel do it - only resort hotels. maybe someone here has had the experience of a Bangkok hotel requiring it.

We were at the Oriental on Christmas and the Peninsula on NYE. Neither made us do dinner there...as a matter of fact, the Peninsula party is so popular, they told us we would have to reserve in advance.

We didn't attend either...but enjoyed watching the locals arrive all decked out for the holiday and of course were able to hear the music up in our rooms. We ate dinner at local restaurants, then came back and enjoyed fireworks from our rooms with snacks we'd picked up elsewhere. I think we ended up ordering dessert from room service as well.

I don't have any first hand experience of this although I know many people who have had to accept this situation. But a quick google search came up with this from
http://www.bangkokhotelnet.com/media/faq.htm

'A Compulsory Gala Dinner for all room types is mostly applied for the nights of Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve and local holiday festivals. If the Validity Dates are (Dec 24 to Dec 24) or (Dec 31 to Dec 31), the rate mostly includes the room rate plus compulsory Gala Dinner for 2 persons (adult). For Children (under 12 years) the rate for the compulsory Gala Dinner will be approximately half the adult rate.'

Marriott Resort and Spa, Davis Hotel, Manhattan Hotel, Century Park Hotel, Mac Boutique Suites are just a few of the Bangkok hotels which are listed as having compulsory Christmas dinner.

But as I have said....no personal experience of this. Yes, I know it's a pain especially if you don't even celebrate Christmas but.......

Leigh, in looking at the webpage you linked to, it gives a definition of the compulsory gala dinner but I didn't find a place to see what hotels required it. Where did you find that?

Even if it was booked through a TA In the description of the hotel it would have stated that the dinner was compulsory.

Hi Kathie, if you google

'compulsory Christmas dinner at Bangkok hotels'

you may get similar results to me.


But, I think you are quite right.....it's mainly resort hotels that follow this practice.
Seems to be a huge price range, from 500 baht to over 2000 baht.
Quite a price to pay for a dinner that has been 'forced' upon you.

I have sympathy with the OP, but, if I was spending Christmas in a SEA hotel, I wouldn't be too put out.

I wonder what price Le Meridien are charging.