IntFF

I stayed this month at Hilton Garden Inn Melville Long Island, NY.
After check-in I got an alert from Amex about a charge higher than the price I booked (on Amex in my profile).

I asked front desk if they made a mistake, and was told it is also for potential incidentals.

I hate when they do this. Another thing to track.
And there was no chance of incidentals because we got free breakfast due to status. It is like "We do not trust you period".

Luckily, Amex now offers a (2nd) alert when pending is really charged (you need to request per pending charge).
When I got the 2nd alert (for the pending that was too high) it was the correct amount. But it took 3-4 days after check-out.

SK AAR

It is hardly an issue - you weren't charged in the first place and got charged correctly in the end. If you hadn't enabled this Amex alert you wouldn't have noticed/be aware and wouldn't be upset. I couldn't care less how much the hotel blocks on my cc as long as the correct amount is charged at the end of the day.

RogerD408

It is an issue should you be near your credit limit. I have had luck with getting my limit raised when out on long trips and the charges were adding up (before the days of online bill pay). Sometimes those increases stuck after paying off the balance, sometimes they didn't. That's where having a good relationship with the CC comes in handy.

Nicholas Charles

22nd July this year i checked into Hilton City Budapest. at around midnight. two pre authorisations were taken for my entire stay (3 days) and room upgrade

On check out i paid bill in full , and requested that the pre authorisation codes be used as payment or cancelled.. i was advised pre auth. codes could not be used but would be cancelled.

i checked every day the following week to see if the pending transactions had been cancelled and funds back available in my account. Nothing. so my 'journey' of complains and enquiry with Hilton Guest Services, online hilton Chat, direct with Hilton City Budapest, started.

i wont give details of the 20 plus emails exchanged between hilton and myself but gist is

hotel CLAIM the cancelled Both pre authorisations at time of my paying my bill on 25th..
Guest relations initally just forwarded hotels email correspondence and ignored part of email saying even though hotel say cancelled, funds still blocked.

after calling UK bank, they say transactions NOT cancelled by merchant / hotel

Bottom line, as of today 15th August, one of the pre authorisations still pending

looking at all the various info online, even though i used a debit card and these authorisations should have 'fallen off' and cancelled automatically within 10 days, some banks when Credit cards are involved may take 30 days. so i'm going to wait until
30 days / 1 month from check in date to see if these fall off. if not im going to contact my bank yet again, get them to indemnify or cancel. if they wont, cant, i am going to start legal proceedings against Hilton / Mastercard and Metro bank UK.

i have spend considerable time administrating this issue. and need to be recompensed for the aggravation caused and the amount blocked on my account for up to 30 days and counting from my available funds

PRE AUTHORISATIONS ARE A HUGE ISSUE if not dealt with correctly by the merchant. end of the day, it is the merchant who took them and so it shoudl be them who rectifies or is held responsible unless they can prove differently

Be warned ....... especially at a Hilton..... their customer service has been dreadful and extremely unhelpul and as for Hilton Budapest City... do not allow them to pre authorise. full stop..

i was going to Conrad Rangali (Hilton Maldives) for my honeymoon later this year. ive now cancelled and re booked with different hotel group... $11k plus hotel bill alone, i could not afford for same problem to happen and spend next 30 days trying to resolve

WHICH IS STILL NOT RESOLVED

:D!

Planning to spending $11000 on a hotel stay seems unwise if pre-authorisation of a relatively small amount (assume roughly €1000 for a 3 night stay taken twice) is causing financial difficulty

Using a debit card for pre-authorisations is also unwise, as is wasting time emailing and calling back and forth. Either wait 30 days, or if an incorrect charge was submitted, request a chargeback.

Legal proceedings would fail unless the hotel actually took money that was not contractually due, and refused to refund it

RogerD408

Just about every property I've been to lately has a warning about using a debit card at check in for this very reason. The system, not just Hilton, is designed to take/encumber funds as quickly as possible and pay it back as slowly as possible. The pre-authorization does not result in a deposit to the merchant. The time it takes to drop off is not a function the merchant has any say over (other than properly closing it out). What you might try is to talk with someone in the back office of the property and see if they know how to close out a pre-authorization and get them to do so for a small amount $0.01. If they claim inability, then go back to your bank and ask them to suspense the transaction giving you back the funds. This whole process is fraught with areas of abuse it really makes sense to get a low credit line CC and keep it paid off for this specific use.

Nicholas Charles

RogerD408

Fully understand. It's a noble task, but don't expect to make much headway. Many have fought this battle and yet nothing has changed. There are so many parties involved here (you'd think just the merchant) but those few days of float on very big bucks (when added together) is what has driven this situation to exist. You may find a totally different attitude/action if you use a CC that has a much stronger set of rules. You'll also most likely find the path taken for a charge to be much quicker than that of a refund (I wonder why). The behind the scene businesses work to maximize their time holding the funds.

BrlDsguise

What float? The property doesn't actually have the held funds they just have them blocked so they can put a charge against them.

RogerD408

The banks and CC processing companies get the float from the time they pull the pre-authorization to when/if it's closed out. The middlemen getting their cut.

chrism20

About eighteen months ago I accidentally shredded a couple of cards and had to use my Debit Cards for a few days until the replacements arrived.

Every hotel I checked into suggested making a charge against the card rather than a pre-auth and then perform a refund for anything that wasn't spent. A few people had warned me that DC pre-auths were painfully slow to drop off so I opted for the charge and refund.

RogerD408

Now that was very wise of them! Too often we see plastic as plastic and don't bother to comprehend the pitfalls of one vs the other.

moa999

Simple answer is NEVER to use a debit card.
If you run into the situation where that is the only card, find an ATM and withdraw cash.

gengar

Note that it is unlikely that the property in question can do anything about the authorization at this point - that's an issue with your bank / CC issuer.

No need to patronize OP, especially when OP specifically noted that the reason for canceling the $11k stay was precisely that a hold of the $11k stay was what would cause financial difficulty.

Understand that this post is 3+ years old, but this statement is at best inaccurate. Merchant authorization reversals typically are not allowed after 24 hours have passed for CP transactions with most payment processors (AMEX being the only exception I have been made aware of).

Andriyko

Merchants can cancel authorizations. Most don't know how to do it and tell customers that the funds will be released within 30 days. But with pre-authorizations there should not be any problems at all - hotels either use them or cancel them.