Hilton HHonors - Can you be charged for a non-refundable rate if CC expired?

We have friends who decided they would prefer to stay at the Sheraton instead of Hilton for one night at the CDG airport on the way home from a trip to Europe.

He emailed me and asked if I could book the Sheraton and cancel the Hilton. When I went to cancel the Hilton I found that the rate he booked was non-refundable....but.... this mesage was attached to his reservation:

This credit card will expire before your arrival date. It is recommended that you update this credit card to fully guarantee your reservation.

Does this mean they cannot charge him for the night with the credit card they have on file?

If he has a new credit card on the same account, the hotel should be able to guess the new expiration date and nothing else has changed. So I think they can charge the room to a no show, but if someone arrives with a reservation on a night the hotel has overbooked and they have ignored the message about the expired credit card, the hotel might deny that they have a confirmed room.

We have friends who decided they would prefer to stay at the Sheraton instead of Hilton for one night at the CDG airport on the way home from a trip to Europe.

He emailed me and asked if I could book the Sheraton and cancel the Hilton. When I went to cancel the Hilton I found that the rate he booked was non-refundable....but.... this mesage was attached to his reservation:

This credit card will expire before your arrival date. It is recommended that you update this credit card to fully guarantee your reservation.

Does this mean they cannot charge him for the night with the credit card they have on file?

Call the CC company and ask. I have heard that if the hotel has placed a hold on the funds (usually equivalent to the first night), then the CC issuer will complete the charge under the new expiration date. So it depends if the hotel has placed a hold or not; CC company should know.

Yes, you can be charged, through a variety of methods.

thanks... not sure why they wanted to switch. the least expensive Sheraton rate was 240E...the Hilton rate he had was 80E. So it sounds like this night is going to cost them 320E.....

When I am booking non-refundable (=prepaid) rates with Hilton, I normally have to pay the full amount at the time of booking, so I would expect that your friend has already paid for that night.

I have found the "correct" expiration date is not needed, just one later than today. Some of my cards get extended for 2-3 years at a time. I've changed the date used online to just one year out and the charges go through. So yes they can. Also, some CC will not only update merchants with new dates, but even new card numbers! Kinda defeats the usefulness to get a new account number when fraud has happened.

AP rates are suppose to bill at the time of booking, BUT many properties don't. If the charge fails to process, Hilton can look to the account to find a good number and they have the right to pursue legal action as they can claim you provided a false account when booking the room.