jammanxc

A few days ago, I received a surprise e-mail from the Doubletree Amsterdam Centraal. The e-mail was as follows:


Dear xxxxx,

Your confirmation number: xxxx

In early 2012 you’ve stayed with us in our hotel. First of all I would like to thank you for staying with us, I hope you had a great experience and that we may welcome you again soon at DoubleTree by Hilton Amsterdam Centraal Station.

You booked a stay partly with Points and part in Money, the Points & Money Rate as we call it. A full stay on points in our hotel has a value of 40.000 points per night, for the Points & Money Rate you used between 17.500 and 20.000 per night. Due to an administration delay the Front Desk was not able to see the Money part of this special rate upon checkout. We now balanced out our systems showing an open balance for your reservation. This open balance is the Money part which has a value of € 41.82. Please be advised that we have charged your credit card for the outstanding amount, or we will do this the upcoming days. This will be charged onto the credit card which is linked to your reservation and/or Hilton HHonors profile. If you had any extra charges I can inform you these are fully paid.

We understand that it has been a while since your stay, and we apologise for our late reaction.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions and/or comments.

Kind regards,

xxxxxx Front Desk Shiftleader – HHonors Guest Manager




I stayed at this hotel earlier this year in mid-February and now they are charging my credit card in late-September.

My question is: can they do this? I thought I had settled my bill after check-out.

SKYEG

Did you pay that portion when you checked out? See if you can find out.. If not, they definitely can do this.

Perhaps ask for some points or something for the inconvenience, but if you haven't paid it, you will have to.

js1metsfan

I also stayed at this hotel in feb 2012 with a points and miles rate....

Haven't gotten any emails yet but if I remember correctly either I didn't end up paying anything or they didn't deduct the full point value

In any event I remember at final check out the bill wasn't what I expected (though it was in my favor) and the front desk staff assured me that everything was fine.

Hopefully I don't get any surprise charges or point adjustments!

MarLim

While I like this hotel very much, they definitively had some accounting problems at the beginning of this year. I got debited twice for a prepaid stay in February (before I checked in). However, it was quickly resolved after I asked them to correct it.

adambrock

I believe Visa and Mastercard require that a transaction be posted within 30 days of the purchase. You may be able to dispute it based on that (assuming you used a Visa or MC). I am not sure about the merchant rules for American Express.

stifle

This happened to RedVee and she was able to get it written off.

js1metsfan

Well just saw today I was charged for my feb stay and I didn't get a nice email like the OP got.

I did though send my own email to customer care...guess I'll see how they respond.

pauleeepaul

This is at worst an inconvenience. At best you got to defer payment (the time value of money dictates later is better than sooner.)

The idea that the amount owed should be forgiven is a self serving rationalization.

travelinfoo

+1. If you owe the money, you need to pay. Very simple.

I don't believe this is true. I have never seen it in any MC/VISA T&C anywhere and I go over them pretty carefully. Can you provide a quote from the T&C?

I would NOT follow adambrock's advice. You may end up looking foolish with a "made-up" reason to dispute charges, esp with nothing to back up your claim.

It does not make sense for MC/VISA to limit charges to 30 days. Some outlying, remote places can take more than 30 days to process & post (they still use the paper/pressure machine). MC/VISA CANNOT penalize a merchant for not having technology.

However, the converse is true. YOU, the CC holder, have a time limit (usually 45 days from the posted date) to dispute a charge. I think adambrock may have been thinking of this.

kdoughboy

I am currently booked for 5 nights here in June, but am considering switching to the Hilton Amsterdam since it seems to be in a quieter neighborhood. The DoubleTree also seems to be a bit more isolated, despite being technically closer to the city center. Any reason to choose the DoubleTree over the Hilton, aside from the location?

Prospero

Executive rooms are equipped with a complimentary mini bar. Deal breaker?

Room size: Hilton Amsterdam rooms are noticeably larger
Bathroom spec: DT is more contemporary. Great shower pressure
Location: Hilton is in a much quieter neighbourhood but I wouldn't regard the DT as being isolated as it is just a 5 minute walk from/to the tram termini and Centraal Station.

GrjApp

I stayed at the DT for 4 nights last October. The Hilton was 100% non-smoking which I like but Wi-Fi was costly. I also thought the location was not central enough (limited tram lines), which may or may not be accurate since I never made it there to find out.

The DT on the other hand was a quick 5-min walk from the station and trams, but you could also easily walk around the general area there. Free Wi-Fi, regardless of status, which is a plus in Europe since it adds a good bit to the final bill otherwise. I was worried about getting a non-smoking room since the Hilton site for whatever reason didn't distinguish between smoking and non-smoking for this property, so I made my reservation over the phone to make sure they have the non-smoking request in there.

I made Gold by the time I stayed there and was upgraded to a nice, bright room, big enough for me, with city views and floor to ceiling windows. Shower only, no tub. As mentioned above, free mini-bar, and they refilled it every day.

Apart from the free Wi-Fi, each room also has a Mac that you can use and where you can print your boarding pass from. (You permanently wipe out any user data as one of the options, not sure if it is in fact a reformat of sorts, but it brings the machine back to vanilla once you do that.)

There's a Starbucks right there too. I never made it to the hotel restaurants so can't speak for that. This property did have the worst DT cookie ever though, but that's a minor

All in all it was a good choice for me and I'll stay there again.

Keyser

why would you think the doubletree is isolated????i think the location is excellent....

Flyer78

I have to agree with above, great location. Very short walk (watch the bikes) to Centraal, and maybe a 10 minute walk to Dam Square (watch the bikes), which means you are passing all sorts of wonderful places on the way. The tram network is right there, you can buy the card from the front desk, and they have also been very liberal on late check-outs; which is another plus.

Just watch the bikes.

Lomapaseo

Can one as a Gold request a room with a bathroom tub?