toni

OK. I am Australian and we are having a dream run with our dollar (which normally has a diabolical exchange rate but is still marginally worse than the US). However... I recently enquired about renting a villa in Tuscany for a week which was advertised in American dollars. No problems, I received a prompt response for the booking form but which now had the price in Euros. After doing the conversion it appeared that the property was now $AUS800 dearer than the original price. How bizarre. On quering this with the agent in Italy, I was told that unfortunately she had originally thought I was American and the original price was for Americans only (because of the weak dollar), everyone else gets to pay approx. 400 euros more!!! Now I know that the name of this agency would be a God send to my American friends out there but no way would I now give this company any business. How unfair is this?

Cowboy1968

Honestly, I don't see any unfairness.
It's a private business and they can discriminate against who they want and how they want.

But: If their marketing idea does not work with the "rest" of their customers (and I suppose that especially Tuscany villa rentals get most of their business from Europeans), it will hurt them more than if they stuck with their original rental fees.

Personally, I would not stay with any hotel/villa which does what you wrote, since I don't want to subsidize someone else's stay with my Euros.

Dukey

I wonder how many of you already MIGHT BE "subsidizing" visitors and just not know it?

I cannot imagine that the "American piece" of "foreign" tourism is going to be that significant (at least you wouldn't think so if you listen to some of the people HERE) in many places but if it IS, and those people are smart business people, this may already be happening.

Gee, thanks for the help, folks..we really appreciate it...and we've waited all these years for that WW II "payback" too LOL

kenderina

Well, maybe this particular villa (or location) is mostly visited by Americans so it seems logical to me..it is a business , not a travel charity LOL

Probably, a villa usually hired by, let's say, germans..wouldn't be doing such an offer.

flanneruk

"It's a private business and they can discriminate against who they want and how they want."

In most EU countries they can't. Discrimination against customers on grounds of national origin is actually a crime.

Ordinarily, in a country where laws are passed to look good rather than get enforced, they'd get away with it. But a Tuscan villa company, whose major customers are British lawyers and public-sector moaners, is simply asking for trouble.

If toni doesn't want to publicise the company to Americans, here's where Rupert Murdoch is her friend. Send a note, naming names, to Readers Rants at the Sunday Times ([email protected] ). That way, the people discriminated against can hit the company concerned where it'll really hurt.

Cowboy1968

<i>In most EU countries they can't. Discrimination against customers on grounds of national origin is actually a crime.</i>

EU anti-discrimination laws are (besides for jobs/applications) for so called &quot;bulk business&quot;, and not for individual contracts. Rather few industries face &quot;must offer&quot; obligations, forcing them to do business with literally anybody.
&quot;Positive discrimination&quot;, like the Tuscan villa does it, does not even fall in that league anyway.
Even British lawyers will know that.

There is a lot of &quot;discrimination&quot; going on, e.g. hotels only for women or only for senior citizens, discounts for families with many children, discounts only for EU citizens at major sights, and so on. After all, discrimination may have a negative undertone, but still does not say more that not all customers are treated equally.

Personally, I see no grounds for a major public uproar if a hotel wishes to give a discount to certain group of clients. If it rubs me the wrong way that I am not one of them, I can do business with some other hotel.

Viajero2

I am not complaining . I am renting a villa in Spain and received a very nice &quot;American discount&quot;. The price we were quoted is lower than the rate posted. It definitely encouraged us to rent from this agency and truth is, we will be spending the difference in the country anyway...

toni

Kenderina,after much research I realised that this same property is offered by multiple agencies, as are a lot of places in Tuscany. It is only this particular Tuscan agency which operates as indeed a &quot;travel charity&quot; for Americans. If the agent had not accidently exposed the fact that there were different tariffs, other nationalities would never know that other people were offered a much cheaper price. This property is in a prime position in Tuscany, walking distance to a popular town etc. so I didnt realise that there was any particular area purely favoured by Americans, Germans, etc. In that case, if anyone has passed through the &quot;Australian&quot; part of Tuscany let me know, I might have better luck!

bilboburgler

I guess it is not saying &quot;no dogs or irish&quot; on the outside. So that is ok then.

There us a poem about this.

Something like

..They came for the jews and I was busy...
..They came for the gypseys and I was in church..
and then they came for me.

I worry every time I hear about say Japanese only golf clubs in UK (round about Greenford in London) it needs to be stopped

Dukey

Does anyone KNOW if tourism FROM the US to Europe really IS down or projected to be this year?

Last I read the airlines were indicating that bookings to and from were ahead of previous years but that could be due to an increase in people coming TO the US for the supposed &quot;bargain rates.&quot;

ronnie36

The only reason I can see is that this particular business either has had a lot of americans and wants to keep them or wants to attract americans by offering them lower rates. My advice is to tell them you won't be staying there and why. If they lose enough business, they'll stop.

Dukey

They'll stop ONLY if they don't keep getting enough Americans....

ronnie36

&quot;They'll stop ONLY if they don't keep getting enough Americans....&quot;

That's true but if they find they lose enough non-americans, they may stop too. All about profits. Even if they did offer americans lower rates, it wasn't smart for them to tell a non-american that.

willit

It does make sense to offer lower airfares and rental to Americans if they continue to spend in the local economy. If the Villa could attract Australian/European/Chinese customers at &quot;full rate&quot;, the owner wouldn't be letting it at a discount to Americans.

Local spending aside, what I don't understand is why the owner should demand full rate for a non American when they were prepared to accept less for the same period for a US traveller.

I think many would be rightly outraged if when the Dollar is strong again, businesses offered Full rate for Americans, 25% reduction for all others.