campeau29

I prepaid SIX months in advance for a 6-night stay at Hilton's Embassy Suites, South San Francisco, on Hotwire. The charge of $781 showed up on my debit card and was paid. When I arrived at the hotel, check-in was easy and they had the reservation. They asked for a credit card for "incidental charges", and I complied. When I checked out, I paid for the $122 of incidental charges of parking and telephone, and received a receipt. I thought this concluded my obligations with Hilton, and the balance showed $0.00, but a month later, I see that they charged my credit card for the room $624. I complained, but Hilton says the third party claimed my charge did not go through. The third party, Hotwire clearly charged me, but both are pointing fingers at each other and I've been charge twice. Neither can be trusted. If they didnt receive payment from Hotwire, why didnt they charge me when I checked out? I think that would be the time to bring the matter of the room payment, not after I am gone and with no receipt or notice of the charges. Never a notice by email, mail or phone, SNEAKY if not a DUBIOUS practice. Hotwire also sold me this hotel-stay as a 4-star, but it's rated a 3.5 by it's own rating system.

Unless you like stress, I recommend to STAY AWAY from HOTWIRE and HILTON HOTELS.

MSPeconomist

It will be easier if the per pay and hotel ex post charge are on the same credit card, but disputing the second charge seems appropriate.

wharvey

Seems to be the easiest solution.... problems happen.... but I do not see it as a reason to swear off Hotwire and/or Hilton.

Romelle

The extra charge is clearly a problem.

However, the star rating difference between Hotwire and other vendors is common and usual. One can still use Hotwire by simply assuming their rating will be about 1/2 star higher. On rare occasions the ratings are the same, and on other rare occasions there is a full star difference, but the 1/2 star amount seems to be the usual.

I once had a TX bank process a couple airline tickets twice. A couple other checks then bounced because of the second charge. Mistakes happen. Eventually I got it sorted out. The bank was good about not gigging me any fines.

My local credit union always charges my savings account rather than my checking account for MN income tax estimated payments. I've given up on that situation, and simply make sure there is enough money in the savings account, even though I've directed the system to take it out of the checking account. The feds get it right. I don't know whether it is the state of MN or the credit union, but I have a work-around. The credit union and MN both conceded all fees.

And I also think Hilton a fine chain.

Romelle

Yoshi212

This is what you have the banks for. Dispute the charge, get the situation cleared up so you're only paying once, learn to never use a debit card when you can use a credit card in the future and then comment to Hilton about possible compensation. Maybe a refund of some of those incidental charges.

Often1

This isn't as simple as it seems. OP will dispute the Hilton charge, but Hilton has already stated that it was not paid by Hotwire. That is all Hilton need respond to OP's CC issuer in order to have the chargeback dispute denied.

For that reason, I would not dispute the charge until I had followed up with Hotwire. Of course, Hotwire charged OP. But, did Hotwire pay the property? It may take a three-way call with Hotwire and the property.

Only then would I pursue a dispute.

Too late for OP, but for others, I would never, ever, never use anything other than a CC to pay for any future service such as a hotel room. This is just one of 100 different reasons. I would also use the same CC used to pay through Hotwire as the "incidentals" CC at the property. It would be an awful lot easier to deal with the CC issuer if one could point to the two debits and leave it to the issuer to straighten it out between Hotwire and the property.