In 1911 the director of Hotel Villa Dolce in Garut felt seriously aggrieved by the actions of the Official Information Bureau (Vereeniging Toeristenverkeer, VTV). Its advice to travellers to avoid the hotel so harmed his business that he requested the governor-general to forbid the Bureau to carry the designation ‘official’. H.F. van Stipriaan Luïscius, a member of the Bureau on behalf of the government, informs Governor-General Idenburg in this letter that the Bureau’s advice is not exactly groundless. The Bureau has received frequent complaints about Villa Dolce from tourists. It is especially its kitchen that their criticism is levelled at: ‘A French hotel guest who spoke excellent English had time and again been served cold food and warm drinks in Villa Dolce’.
Letter from H.F. van Stipriaan Luïscius to Governor-General A.W.F. Idenburg. Batavia, 26 August 1911. The letter is about the handling of a complaint by L.H.W. Ingenhoes, director of the Hotel Villa Dolce NV, about the Official Tourist Bureau. [Nationaal Archief Jakarta, alsec mgs no5723]