TRAVELSIG

I was thinking about this today:

Starwood is a very reputable company that has a lot to protect with its valuable brands. A major part of this is based on trust with customers.

Why does the corporation allow hotels to offer Dynamic Currency Conversion?

In post #52 of this thread another traveller has come acros this:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...dollars-2.html

Can Starwood ask hotels to stop? DCC (Dynamic Currency Conversion) is very customer unfriendly and costs significant amounts of money with no value to the customer what-so-ever.

holtju2

All the chains are doing it nowadays and it seems to spreading like a cancer.

You have to be very diligent and willing to spend additional 10 to 15 minutes to fix these. Most of the time the clerks are not aware that there would be anything wrong for paying additional 3% to 4% for the convenience being robbed when the Visa/MC would do it for free.

Sometimes you need to get a manager involved. I have started to ask for SPG points as a compensation.

TRAVELSIG

Good for you to be challenging this.

William- is it possible to post a list of hotels that use DCC so that we can ask them in advance not to charge it with us?

ajnz

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9650; en-GB) AppleWebKit/534.8+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.0.524 Mobile Safari/534.8+)

I has this issue with the Westin Busan. The receipt didn't make it obvious it was a DCC transaction either - I only noticed later. For me the delta was in excess of USD$150.

I complained to SPG and the hotel - they refunded the USD transaction and reprocessed it in KRW. Starwood was largely silent on the issue even when I pointed out it is hardly ethical and I expected better.

The Westin Busan GM committed to better education of their front desk staff, but not to discontinue the practice.

I won't be staying there again.

Shantanu

I stayed at 3 Starwood properties in Italy recently, and all had touch screen check out systems, and all three offered the choice of being charged in Euros or Pounds Sterling on the touch screen system with the exact costs and the conversion rate....so, there was nothing hidden.....if this system is rolled out to all hotels, there shouldn't be a problem, should there?

I don't see this as being a Starwood issue....more a property specific issue.

TRAVELSIG

What would be the advantage to a customer of being charged in EURO?

Shantanu

I prefer to pay in the local currency, generally, because my bank usually offers me a better conversion rate, so, in Italy, I always pick Euros, and not pounds sterling (being a UK resident, my local currency is pounds sterling).

However, I note that many UK banks charge a conversion rate of 3% to 4.45% on foreign currency transactions when using a credit or debit card. In these circumstances, it is perhaps better to use DCC and settle the bill in pounds sterling, than allowing your bank in the UK to convert it from Euros.

Nevertheless, when it is offered, and there is complete transparency offered by the hotel, the customer has a choice, and something that can be refused or accepted.

TRAVELSIG

The catch is that often you get charged the conversion rate in ADDITION.

This is an anti-consumer service which benefits primarily the bank. Starwood protects its customers against "rip offs"- in this case they should as well.

zerbib

The merchant, whether it is a restaurant, shop or an ATM, might ask you if you want to pay in your local base currency and your answer should always be: No.

If you do pay in your base currency, not the local currency where you are, the merchant will charge you to convert the local currency into your base currency and then charge you again to convert back to the local currency.

This process is called dynamic currency conversion (DCC), and in summer 2011 research by Caxton FX found that 37% of Britons were still being bitten by hidden DCC charges.

There is no reason why we should be stung when purchasing travel money. and use that service...

Medved

+1. Worked slightly better in Italy and France for me than if I was charged to my CDN$ SPG MC (now defunct) or, especially, CDN SPG AMEX. Was charged US$ after Hawaii stay -- Amex charged 4%!!!

IluvSQ

I have never seen the DCC offered at a better rate than leaving the charge in
currency of stay and having my credit card convert it.

There is a very simple way to check. Many terminals that offer DCC will show the
rate to be charged in your home currency on the credit card slip. Just refuse it,
and pay in local currency. But when you get your credit card statement, you can
compare the actual rate charged to the one shown on the slip. I have NEVER seen
that to be a better rate, even in times of extreme currency fluctuations.

TRAVELSIG

I have looked at the same. I had one hotel attempt to convince me it would be a better rate with DCC- after ten minutes of research with the manager she agreed that it was a further cost of 2.95% which is really a lot of money for nothing.

DCBob

For the record, both Visa and MC charge a 1% fee to their member banks for processing foreign transactions, so it's not exactly free. The bank almost always passes on the 1% by making it part of the exchange rate. However, it's nearly always better to get charged in the local currency than being charged in your own country's currency.

The only exception I have ever come across was when I was given the choice of being charged in USD instead of AUD at an ANZ Bank ATM in Australia. I chose AUD, but made a note of the USD amount. When I checked my bank statement, the AUD amount was slightly higher when converted to USD, but the difference was negligible.

Also, in countries that use the USD as their own currency (like Cambodia and Ecuador), I have always been charged the exact USD amount without any additional fee.

Starwood Lurker

Sorry. Since this is an individual property decision, there is no list that I could provide.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

TRAVELSIG

Thanks William for the quick reply- I doubted there was such a list- however I have seen some hotels start to be phasing out the DCC as they have had many customer complaints. Personally I think it should be legislated away however as it is a "free" profit centre I really doubt this will happen.