I posted this elsewhere, but felt because it involved a particular Holiday Inn, others on this forum should be warned about what appears to be happening at certain Mexican hotels.

Now that Amex has completed their investigation, I will post what happened to me on a trip to Cancun back in March. Having business meetings out of town on Friday and Tuesday, I decided to take a two-day break in CUN over the weekend. Given an aberrant fare offered by MX and AC, Mexico provided the perfect opportunity to get some sun in after a long Canadian winter.

Being the height of Spring Break for US colleges, the place was swarming with students, and hotels were charging their rack rates when they had any space available. Particularly for beach fronting properties. So the Westin, Hilton and Sheraton [all at US$250+ a night minimum] were out of the question. I found a Holiday Inn Express located by the main golf course, a 15-minute walk into the main hotel/beach strip for about US$100 a night. The room was quite acceptable, and looked out over a courtyard and pool area. It was quiet, and I was looking for respite, not beach strip bar hopping.

The airport shuttle took me right to the hotel. When I checked in, I was asked for my credit card, and a manual imprint was taken. When I checked out, I was also asked for my card again, this time to actually pay for the stay. Nothing unusual, standard hotel practice. And when I checked out, I was even given the original voucher with all three copies attached to rip up. Though upon checking out, I also decided to use my regular Platinum card, not the original Optima one I used when checking in.

A month later, I got both account statements, and each had a number of additional charges made to various Mexican merchants: one on my Optima and two on my Platinum card. Interestingly, they were all date a week after my departure. Obviously I was concerned, but did not panic. I called Amex and we reviewed the billings and they agreed it was unusual that I would have purchased items a week after I had left Mexico. They began a search, which resulted in copies of one signed voucher being copied and sent to me for review. In the case of the Optima card, the voucher was actually run through with my card, but the signature was not very close to my own. The Platinum card ones were manually/electronically entered, as is done when the swipe doesn't take. Amex had no record of the actual signature portion on these charges.

In all cases, Amex immediately deducted the amounts from my required payment, and after their investigation, agreed to remove the charges completely. I don't know what action they have taken with the merchants or officials at the hotel in question.
I will be following this matter up with Holiday Inn security, as it is clear that the fraud was committed using the front desk staff of the hotel. I used neither of these cards any where else in CUN during my two days, and the cards were always in my pocket, never left where they could have been removed from my hotel room. [Nor were charges to appear on any of my other credit cards, thus leading to the conclusion of hotel front desk staff colusion.]

So, I don't know how previlent this is at other hotels in CUN or Mexico generally, but do watch as the initial card imprint is taken. The desk person must have put two sets of charge card forms when he ran the first card through the manual machine.

In any case, Amex was very agreeable in handling the matter. For precautions, they suggested cancelling my main Platinum card and having a new one issued with a slightly changed number. This was done on the day I was heading off to SAfrica for two weeks, but they had a new card at their downtown Toronto office -- where I was heading that morning to pay my bill -- within two hours of my call.

I emailed Holiday Inn customer service about this yesterday, so will await a resonse from them, and hopefully their security department.