the southernmost tip of Taiwan has failed to honor its promise to give her compensation after one employee on its staff allegedly took a photo of her taking a shower. Accompanied by Taipei City Council member Lai Shu-ju, the woman, surnamed Liu, held a press conference to allege a man wearing the Mudanwan Villa resort hotel's uniform used a handset to take photos of her taking a shower late at night night last year.
Liu, 20, said her father and colleagues staying at the same hotel chased away the man.
She filed a complaint with Stanley Yen, a hotelier with whose hotel chain the Mudanwan Villa resort hotel is affiliated.
The management of the hotel, which charges as much as NT$19,800 per night, had promised to pay her NT$800,000 as compensation after finding a university student among their staff was involved.
However, she said the hotel never gave her the compensation as promised.
The management instead wanted Liu and her father to directly deal with the employee.
Liu said she has to rely on sleeping pills when going to bed for fear that the photo might be leaked out for anomalous uses.
Liu and council member Lai also sought advice from Wang Chih-yu a consumer protection official at the city government.
Wang said that although Liu kept her conversation record with Yen, it might not be able to amount to reliable evidence for the employee's devious behavior.
The surveillance camera caught the back image of the fleeing perpetrator, but Liu and her colleagues had failed to copy the image as evidence, Wang said.
He said it would be better to catch the felon right at the scene or at least seize the evidence of the film grabbed by the surveillance camera.
A police officer said that almost all leading hotels or guest houses in Taiwan have installed equipment to safeguard customers' privacy.
However, it remains a challenge for hotel management to prevent the secret filming of guests' activities.
It remains crucial for customers to take precautions by themselves to avoid being victimized by unscrupulous staff members at the recreational facilities, they said.
The basic action should include keeping alert and conducting a thorough visual examination of the environment after entering a hotel room, they advised.
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