Hotwire Hotel: 4* San Francisco (Airport South - Burlingame) Embassy Suites

[campeau29]

I prepaid SIX months in advance for a 6-night stay at Hilton's Embassy Suites, South San Francisco, on Hotwire. The charge of $781 showed up on my debit card and was paid. When I arrived at the hotel, check-in was easy and they had the reservation. They asked for a credit card for incidental charges, and I complied. When I checked out, I paid for the $122 incidental charges of parking and telephone, and received a receipt. I thought this concluded my obligations with Hilton, but a month later, I see that they charged my credit card for the room $640. I complained, but Hilton says the third party claimed my charge did not go through. The third party, Hotwire clearly charged me, but both are pointing fingers at each other and I've been charge twice. Neither can be trusted. If they didnt receive payment from Hotwire, why didnt they charge me when I checked out? I think that would be the time to bring the matter of the room payment, not after I am gone and with no receipt or notice of the charges. Never a notice by email, mail or phone, SNEAKY and FRAUDULENT.

From reading posts, I see that this happens often with both HOTWIRE and PRICELINE. I dont see how this can be an accident when it happens so frequently, but maybe rather a component of the hotel's business model. I also don't understand how they can freely charge a guest's card without authorization, especially after the guest checked out, and given a receipt showing a $0 balance.

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding and thank you for your post and sharing your experience with the board.

Can you please add the details of your win to the board in a reply to this thread so that others will be aware of your win when searching the topic titles on the board and in the Priceline and Hotwire Calendar of Wins.  In your post please include the star rating, city, zone, hotel name, room rate per nite, dates of your stay and amenities shown before your purchase... you can still view all of this information by going to HOTWIRE and clicking the MY ACCOUNT link near the top right of their home page.

 

As far as the billing issue you encountered...

This does still happen occasionally, but i would not say it happens often... it actually happens less frequently now then it did in the past (and likely when the majority of the reports you referenced may have occurred) as technology has improved and hotels are getting better and integrating multiple booking systems into the own reservation network. 

 

With the number of transactions that take place every day the actual number of double billing issues is likely very small on a percentage basis.  The potential revenue gained (and time for employees needed to fix it when discovered) is not likely going to effect any large hotel chains bottomline, and i think an 'honest mistake' is much more likely the reason than any underlying malicious intent.

 

With the above noted, i usually try to resolve such situations on my own directly with the hotel... if unsuccessful, then just let your credit card company know and have them sort it out with the merchant(s), as the hotels have more at stake with the credit card companies than with any individual guest.

 

Please remember to post the details of your win and to return to BetterBidding and use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases... or thru our sister site MAPSandHOTELS.com for your regular rate purchases.

 

Thanks!