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Check Your Credit Card Statement After Hotel Stay


bturner13
By bturner13,
in

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Since I have been using PL for booking hotel stays I have been charged by 5 different hotels a second time for the Pre-Paid Priceline room I had with them! Everytime it was straightened out, but what a pain and only a SORRY ABOUT THAT from the hotels.

I have tried to avoid this possibility of double charging by the hotels by offering a cash deposit rather than my charge card for an imprint when the desk-clerk asks for it to pay for possible incidentals. But many hotels want $100-$500 deposit! PL gives me the usual company response when I bring this issue to them.

Have other bidders had this problem too? If so, any solutions or help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

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What did they charge you, your bid price or Priceline's price? :)

Although neither will prevent this from occurring, two suggestions i can make:

1) Dispute the charge with your credit card company and let them deal with the headache (although this isn't my style, i like to take care of things myself)

2) I always try (but don't if the check-out line is long and i can check out via in room television) to get a receipt from my stay. As well, if they took an imprint of my credit card, rather than just swiped it, i ask for it back or have them rip in half.

Never happened to me personally, but have heard one other story of the same thing happening. Five times is pretty unlucky!

Please use this HOTWIRE and these PRICELINE LINKS: HOTELS, CAR RENTALS, and AIRFARE to begin your travel purchases

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CUTE! They charged me the PL price!! Good question?!?

I like the idea of tearing up the paper imprint. And 3 of those 5 times I was told there is no bill since there was no charges, but mysteriously a room charge appeared on my charge card statement. Disputing with credit card company is a hassle!

BTW, this double billing has never happened on Hotwire!

Thanks!

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  • 1 year later...

I wasn't sure where to post this info, so feel free to move it to a more appropriate spot if necessary. This is for info for Hotwire users.

We just stayed at the Amerisuites and Sheraton Yankee Clipper in Fort Lauderdale pre and post cruise. When I got home my Visa statement was waiting for me, and lo and behold, there was a charge for the Amerisuites stay, even though it was a prepaid Hotwire purchase. I phoned the hotel and they will be issuing a credit for the error they made. So make sure you check to see that no additional charges (for rooms only) are charged after your stay.

As for the hotels, the Amerisuites was okay, but not spectacular - I found the beds to be very uncomfortable (I actually took the cushions off the couch and chair an made a makeshift bed on the floor which suited me better!) But their shuttle gladly took us to and from the water taxi, which was a nice perk. All in all, the hotel was worth the $43 we paid, but I don't think I'd spend more than that. However, I have heard from many who thought the hotel was just great.

On the other hand, the Sheraton Yankee Clipper was beautiful ($70 - I overheard people commenting on their $160 room rates (who got the deal?!)) - right on the beach, the most comfy beds ever, water taxi is just across the street. I would definitely stay there again - in fact I can hardly wait to go to Fort Lauderdale again - what a lovely place.

Hope someone finds this info helpful.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I used Hotwire hotels a lot for work travel and I have been charged duplicate charges. I now make a point when checking in to confirm the Hotwire is prepaid, and when I check out I do confirm the bill if it has any incidentals. And I do check my credit card bill as well. The worst experience I had was with a Amerisuites that took a month to credit my credit card back. I have also had a Holiday inn and candlewood suites recharge me at check out as well. But both times I stayed at the front desk and waited for them to run the re-credit. I think it has more to do with a staff person who has not processed a hotwire check in before, when brought to the attention of a manger they quickly resolved it -they also quickly asked for my first check out receipts because they were billing me the amount that they charge hotwire for the rooms.

And all the times I have used hotwire some hotels did not require a credit card or deposit on check in, but that also varied more I think on staff training.

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I am still waiting for Priceline to answer me regarding a stay in November 2003 for which I was also billed by the hotel. Initially, PL's customer service was really good and fast to respond, however my last two communications with them have been probably some of my worst customer service experiences so far. Stupid, automated responses, that do not address the questions posed.

PL says that the hotel issued a credit to my credit card and that the credit should be posted to my account within two billing cycles. I am counting the days for the second cycle to be complete. If I don't get anything from them by then, then I will be filing complaints with my credit card and the FTC.

I never had a bad experience with PL before, but this has made much more reluctant to use them in the future. I am just so dissapointed with the response. At least I know next time I am going to use my Amex rather than a Visa.

A couple of questions:

1.) Is this old statement of the two billing cycles still accurate? My experience with all my credit cards is that credits are usually posted within a few days.

2.) Which party should be ultimately responsible for answering my claim, PL or the hotel property? I believe both of them are responsible, but is there any "rule" or common practice in place?

I'd appreciate your comments on this.

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2pi, I have been double billed several times in the past and agree with you that both PL & the hotel are responsible. But relief only came from the hotel after some prodding. I wish there was some fail-safe way to avoid this. I've tried offering cash deposits, rather than my charge card, requesting a copy of the bill at checkout showing all charges and nothing has worked yet! Anyone else have ideas? :)

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Once, the checkout desk tried this on me. Fortunately it was cleared up before I had to leave. But I felt like a hostage.

I wish there was some sort of expiring credit card number we could give the front desk.

Or maybe you could phone your credit card company and tell them, maybe a day before you check out, that they are *not* supposed to take any charges from XYZ Hotel.

Another option - get a receipt for $0.00. That might not resolve the problem, but it will help perhaps.

Bill, you had bad luck to have this happen five times. When this did occur, did you have any other incidental charges, or was it just the hotel room bill?

2pi, my personal opinion is that I wouldn't delay on escalating it to your credit card company.

I know these cases might seem like a strike against Priceline, and they are. But people apparently get spurious charges placed on their cards by hotels all the time, outside of Priceline stays, judging from threads I've seen on Flyertalk. So the moral of the story is - always check your statements!

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WillTravel, thanks for the ideas. Yes, I have tried numerous times to get the checkout clerk to give me a 0.00 balance receipt, but often time they say they can't print 0 balance receipts. Bogus! It has not happened to me in quite sometime, but I check my charge card statements closely online, religiously. :)

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I certainly wouldn't wait 2 billing cycles. If the credit weren't posted in a week, I'd go ahead and file the dispute with the credit card company (against the hotel, not against priceline).

Read the small print on the back of your credit card bill. There may be deadlines to file a dispute.

I've disputed charges in the past (not priceline or travel related), and it doesn't hurt your credit rating or account status in any way.

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Most credits can de done instantly to a credit card. All credit card machines or terminals have a code that is a 'credit' vs a 'charge'. Most hotels can re-swipe or reenter your card # if it was swiped when you checked in, and enter a 'credit'. The same is done if a credit card charge is entered wrong at a store or gas station.

For Hotwire, when I have had a problem they respond very quickly. And one time I recieved an email from them where they had given me 25$ of account credit to use because they (Hotwire) had double charged my credit card. They double billed it one day, and sent the email (and creditted my account) the next day. Outstanding customer service!!!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am a hotwire CSR and i can tell you tell you that it is deffinatly the hotels fault that you are double billed. They have a hotwire credit card that they should be charging (even if you never check in). As far as giving your credit card they have to take it for incedentals(phone calls,movies).

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  • 3 months later...

The Westin Grand in Berlin just tried this. Good thing I can check my Visa statements online so I don't have to wait to resolve it.

I telephoned them right away, and the woman on duty agreed it was a mistake. But because it is midnight there, she can't contact the Accounting department right now. However, she said someone will phone me and they will do a chargeback.

The clerk we had at checkout seemed clueless. She phoned someone and asked this person (in German) whether all the charges had been prepaid through Priceline. She found out that it had been and said we didn't have to pay anything.

Then today I see the charge on my Visa. Aarrgh! This is the first time this has happened to me with a Priceline bid, although in Copenhagen they tried to double-charge me when I checked out (it was resolved at the time after some tense moments).

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ok..

it is the hotels fault that they billed you. we are given a credit card by priceline to charge every time a reservation comes into our hotel . what usually happens is a nooby at the front desk takes your card for incidentals, and usually put in and wites your card over the card on file for priceline (thus they loose the card info priceline gave them). when they check you out they bill what ever card is on file with out paying attention.. congratulations, youve just become a property charged customer!!!

how to prevent this.

avoid the credit card bill rush -always check and make everything is right before you leave the hotel, and that you were not billed. if you were billed kindly explain that you prepayed through priceline and that they need to bill priceline, not you. kindly ask them to call the pricelines hotel help desk and get ol capt kirk on the phone to straighten it out. the priceline hotel agent will give them the correct credit card information (ie pricelines credit card number) either over the phone or fax. why do this at the hotel? as i said.. there is a hotel help desk they can call directly to a hotel agent with priceline. ok.. so what does this mean? well its not your problem its the hotels problem. its their job to make sure everything is straightend out. further more, you dont have to call customer service and be on hold til the next millenium.

if you spend a little time dealing with it right away, you will spend less time than you would if you waited for your bill.

if you dispute with your credit card company you will lock up the ability of the other company (hotel if you dispute their charge, or pricline if you dispute their charge) to process any kind of refund. (thus you just made a small headache into a bit pain in the ass, because it will take much much longer to get resolved, while interest grows on your bill)

if you wait til you get home, and call the hotel, dont talk to the front desk. talk to a GM, an AGM or someone in accounting. be nice, explain the situation, tell them you need it resolved. if they tell you to call priceline, kindly tell them that they are the ones who messed up, they need to deal with it (its called good customer service.. somthing ive noticed that most people at hotels lack when it comes to priceline customers.. yeah you know what im talking about.. (oh but youre with priceline.. :) )

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The thing is the Westin Grand agreed there was no charges when I checked out, and the clerk confirmed this by phoning someone else. That didn't stop them from charging me after I left!

I got an email back from the Westin Grand today that they have credited my account for 275 Euros. I don't see it yet in my online statement. Also, I'm a bit worried about losing 2.25% for the charge that was put on, and then 2.25% for the credit (since that's what my Visa charges me for foreign exchange), but we'll see how it works out.

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Should not be a problem in terms of the foreign currency charge, as usually it is also added to the amount when you get credited (i.e. you get paid 2.25% for the transaction).

The thing however is the fluctuation of currencies...every time I had something like this I lost some Euros becuase of the change in exchange rates...

Greetings - Dirk

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The credit finally came through (Westin Grand said they issued it on Thursday, and VISA said the credit might take 7 days to process.)

I was erroneously charged $453.81 Canadian for the stay (275 Euros + 2.25%).

I received a credit of $432.45 (275 Euros - 2.25%).

According to the exchange converter at www.oanda.com the exchange rate on the day of the credit was slightly in my favor as compared to the date of the charge, so it's clear I was charged the percentage fees on both sides of the transaction.

My total loss is $20.64 Canadian (just over 13 Euros).

Although it may seem like quibbling, I have written to complain because I really don't want to lose that money because of the Westin Grand's error.

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Hard to believe that bturner13 isn't around to see the outcome of this. :) He had sent me a PM about this.

Anyway, I actually made a math error in my previous post and the difference between the charge and the credit was 21.36 Canadian, about 13.50 Euros. The Westin Grand agreed to pay me 15 Euros to make up for the difference. That credit is for 23.77 Canadian, so I have made a profit of 2.41 Canadian on this incident!

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  • 1 month later...

Stayed at the Radisson Anaheim in September and an additional night parking fee was charged to my credit card after I had checked out.

This despite settling the previois nights' parking charges in cash and informing the front desk upon checkout that I was checking out a night early.

Wrote to Radisson and they replied saying that they will investigate and issue a refund if I was wrongly charged. It has been 2 weeks and still no reply.

Meanwhile, I have called my credit card company to dispute the charge.

Will update the board of developments.

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