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Taxis hard to come by at Denmark’s hotels

Ritzau/The Local
Ritzau/The Local - [email protected]
Taxis hard to come by at Denmark’s hotels
File photo: Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix

Around seven out of ten Danish hotels say they have experienced long delays when ordering taxis for guests, according to a survey.

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The analysis, conducted by industry interest organisation Horesta, asked 213 hotels and restaurants about waiting times when ordering taxis for guests.

A fifth of respondents said they wait an average of over 40 minutes for taxis to arrive, with the worst delays coming at weekends.

That is too much, political director for Horesta Kirsten Munch Andersen said.

“If we are unable to deliver the expected service there will naturally be consequences for the industry. But there will also be consequences for Denmark’s image amongst international guests and tourists,” Andersen said.

Ending a holiday or restaurant visit by waiting an hour and a half for a taxi leaves a bad taste in the mouth, said Brian Fabricius, director of Hotel Viking in the town of Sæby.

Fabricius said he was one of many in hotel management that had experienced the problem with obtaining taxis.

“Our guests come to us and ask us to call a taxi for them. We then sometimes have to tell them it will take an hour and a half,” Fabricius said.

“I make a living from people having a good experience from the moment they walk through the door until they are home again. So that is a tiresome last impression to give them,” the hotel director added.

At the beginning of this year, a new taxi law came into effect removing limits on the number of permits given to private commercial transport operators.

The aim of that law change was to bring more taxis on to Danish roads.

The limit will be reduced on a step-by-step basis until 2021, when the regulation will be completely lifted.

But Andersen said the hospitality industry was in need of more taxis on a more acute timescale.

“We need to loosen the number of permits that are granted,” she said.

Half of those responding to the Horesta survey said they had found taxi waiting times to have increased over the last year.

Transport minister Ole Birk Olesen was not available for comment to Ritzau over the issue. The Danish Ministry of Transport noted that the taxi law would be evaluated in 2019.

READ ALSO: Man takes taxi from Copenhagen to Oslo, runs from fare

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