Hotel lacks registration to accept Americans (updated)
 

The mother (deceased) of my 2 children (15 yr. and 10 yr. old) was born in Wuhan. Their aunt took them for a mini vacation to Hangzhou. My girl told me that her aunt (who is very headstrong) argued for 3 hours. (Probably an exaggeration -- guessing more like 45 minutes) Is there any justification for this?

IIRC there are some hotels in China that don't accept foreigners.

This is a well-known issue. For a while, some ten years ago, it looked like the situation was loosening up, but in fact it seems to have gotten stricter. I suspect this is largely due to the introduction of an online registration system linked to the PSB, which apparently will only permit entry of Chinese ID card numbers for guests if the hotel can't accept foreigners.

On their websites, many of the hotel chains mark out the properties which accept only Chinese.

As with much in China, there seems to be a lot of local variation. Some places the PSB seems pretty open and most hotels can take foreigners, in others it can be surprisingly tight.

It's not because they are American or because they are children. Some hotel cannot register foreign guests with the authorities.Usually these are hotels that do not cater to foreign travelers in any case so they don't care to have this facility.

If the hotel is not set up with the govt to process foreigner registration,
they can not accept foreigners. There are certain geographically sensitive
area that foreigners are banned from residing. Provinces and municipalities
may have additional regulations.

Don't believe hotels generally discriminate...they want to make money.


Exit and Entry Administration Law of the People’s Republic of China

Article 39. Where foreigners stay in hotels in China, the hotels shall register their accommodation (住宿登记)
in accordance with the regulations on the public security administration of the hotel industry, and submit foreigners’ accommodation
registration information to the public security organs in the places where the hotels are located.

And even if they aren't in a sensitive region a hotel that normally does not get foreign guests might not go to the time and effort to set up to accept foreign guests.

The several posts that explained that the hotels had to be set up to accept foreigners make sense. My children's aunt undoubtedly picked a Chinese hotel, not being familiar with the rules for foreigners. Thanks for the explanations.

Exactly! I find myself in the OP's situation around once per year. Any hotel CAN do PSB registration for foreigners, but getting set up requires a nominal amount of cap ex (i.e. buy a scanner), and --more importantly-- hiring/training staff to perform the routine. My current hotel of choice in Nanning is equipped to register foreign guests, but since they only receive 2 or 3 foreign guests/month, the registration process never fails to bedazzle the check-in people.

@OP: Instead of arguing for 3 hours, you should have advised the aunt to find a different hotel as soon as she was aware of this issue. This is a "square peg, round hole" thing, and fighting it is completely pointless.

Arguing doesn't always work...but most times a gratuity does.

Of course, why spend the time and effort when not needed.

"...but most times a gratuity does."

Maybe that's meant as a joke, but seriously, whenever I've had that problem -- and I've had it a great many times -- there's never been any hint that greasing palms would make it go away. Sometimes appeals to call the boss -- who's usually the one who told the desk not to accept foreigners -- will work; sometimes passing an informal Chinese language test will work too. But often, nothing will work, and you soon develop a second sense that tells you when talk is fruitless.

Not a joke, but a reasonable attempt to solve the issue at hand. Everyone has different experiences.

Maybe next time up the ante.

You've actually done this, and it actually works "most" of the time you have a problem?

Can you tell us just how much you put in the kitty?

Most as in >50%

Its not necessarily money...its charm*.:D

*charm
dress well
language skills
stature
ability to exude trust

Of course, that's what we all try. But a "gratuity" it's not.

Now if you have all that stature, exude trust and are smartly kitted out, the question is, why are you trying to talk yourself into a 100RMB two-star when the 200RMB three-star across the street will take you in a flash?