Legality Question regarding Hotel / Credit Card Charges

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Scarlet_Buckeye's avatar

Scarlet_Buckeye

Senior Member

5,264 posts
Mar 1, 2013 3:38 PM
You stay at a hotel out of town for on business for a couple of weeks. You check out and they obviously present you with a bill and you pay for same with your credit card as payment in full. Both the hotel front desk and you think the bill is paid in full as it appears to be a complete bill. A good month and a half later due to NO error of yours, but due a computer glitch error of the Hotel's, they come back to you and claim there is more money owed (apparently a lot of people got caught up in this "computer glitch" unbeknowingly)....Can they do that??? Thoughts?
Mar 1, 2013 3:38pm
gorocks99's avatar

gorocks99

Senior Member

10,760 posts
Mar 1, 2013 3:41 PM
If it's truly a glitch, I don't think so, and if you have the receipt, bring it up and ask why there's a discrepancy. If the room was trashed, then yeah, they can charge you for incidentals.
Mar 1, 2013 3:41pm
Scarlet_Buckeye's avatar

Scarlet_Buckeye

Senior Member

5,264 posts
Mar 1, 2013 3:47 PM
No, room was perfectly fine, this was a business trip. Room was left immaculate. There were also NO incidental charges placed while a guest there.
Mar 1, 2013 3:47pm
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gut

Senior Member

15,058 posts
Mar 1, 2013 3:52 PM
Companies have the right correct billing errors in their favor. They can't charge more than the agreed upon rate, but they can bill you for an undercharging error.

Hotels are so competitive that they usually wouldn't do that. Wouldn't surprise me if they dinged only the business accounts (and, to be fair, often they have negotiated discounts with companies so there's less margin to work with).

If I was paying (as opposed to my company), I might complain. That would usually get the charge waived.
Mar 1, 2013 3:52pm
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MontyBrunswick

Mar 3, 2013 9:59 AM
Just initiate a chargeback on the amount when the hotel tries to correct the amount. Make the credit card company sort it out.
Mar 3, 2013 9:59am
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fan_from_texas

Senior Member

2,693 posts
Mar 4, 2013 8:26 PM
dlazz;1399318 wrote:Just initiate a chargeback on the amount when the hotel tries to correct the amount. Make the credit card company sort it out.

This. Let your credit card company fight it out with them.
Mar 4, 2013 8:26pm
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gut

Senior Member

15,058 posts
Mar 4, 2013 8:43 PM
fan_from_texas;1400109 wrote:This. Let your credit card company fight it out with them.
He can submit it to his CC company, but he's almost certainly going to lose. They are fully within their right to do this. I would assume he pre-booked the room so he knows what the rate was supposed to be. If that's the rate the corrected bill reflects I wouldn't waste my time. Otherwise he's essentially committing fraud when he files the complaint and submits that he was charged more than the contractually agreed upon rate.

Really his best bet is to complain to the hotel and they might waive it. Then he could take it up with SPG or HHonors (whatever scorecard program he is on) and he might get some free points out of it.
Mar 4, 2013 8:43pm
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MontyBrunswick

Mar 4, 2013 10:04 PM
gut;1400124 wrote:He can submit it to his CC company, but he's almost certainly going to lose. They are fully within their right to do this. I would assume he pre-booked the room so he knows what the rate was supposed to be. If that's the rate the corrected bill reflects I wouldn't waste my time. Otherwise he's essentially committing fraud when he files the complaint and submits that he was charged more than the contractually agreed upon rate.

Really his best bet is to complain to the hotel and they might waive it. Then he could take it up with SPG or HHonors (whatever scorecard program he is on) and he might get some free points out of it.
If it was months ago, I'm sure it would be chargebackable.
Mar 4, 2013 10:04pm
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Manhattan Buckeye

Senior Member

7,566 posts
Mar 4, 2013 10:39 PM
Scarlet_Buckeye;1398608 wrote:You stay at a hotel out of town for on business for a couple of weeks. You check out and they obviously present you with a bill and you pay for same with your credit card as payment in full. Both the hotel front desk and you think the bill is paid in full as it appears to be a complete bill. A good month and a half later due to NO error of yours, but due a computer glitch error of the Hotel's, they come back to you and claim there is more money owed (apparently a lot of people got caught up in this "computer glitch" unbeknowingly)....Can they do that??? Thoughts?
Aren't almost all hotel reservations made in advance over internet/phone (particularly business related reservations)? If so they can charge the agreed upon price at reservation (plus whatever additional charges were made at the hotel). If one books a $400 room at the Drake Chicago and for some reason a decimal was moved over and the final receipt was $40, they will likely try to recoup the $360.
Mar 4, 2013 10:39pm
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gut

Senior Member

15,058 posts
Mar 5, 2013 12:04 AM
dlazz;1400188 wrote:If it was months ago, I'm sure it would be chargebackable.
You've got 60 days with your VISA to dispute (from the point of the new charge). As for the company, I would guess they have at least 12 months - they don't have to hit your VISA necessarily, they can just invoice you and then turn you over to collections if need be.

When you made the reservation, you entered into a contract to pay that price for the room (subject to cancellation, availability, etc..). You go into the fine print and I'm sure they have ample time to correct any billing errors, probably a year or more. So unless there is some sort of consumer protection law, they have you dead to rights.
Mar 5, 2013 12:04am