Originally Posted by
eethan
Foreign hotels will sometimes auto-convert the bill to USD and charge you a 3% fee (the exchange rate is against your favor by 3%). You can always insist on being charged the local currency--I ask them to charge it to my Marriott Premier credit card. Since the gift card is in USD$, you will take the 3% fee hit. This is something to keep in mind if you have a no-fee foreign exchange credit card.
The above in bold ("Since the gift card is in USD$, you will take the 3% fee hit.") is not correct. Payments with the Marriott gift cards (includes the "Travel Card" and the "Vacation Card" as well as the "Gift Card") in a foreign currency are converted by the processor ("Givex") at the interbank rate
without a currency conversion fee.
(The part of the posting talking about auto-converting or offering to convert your bill into dollars costing you an extra 3% if you let them do it
is correct. The scheme/scam is known as "dynamic currency conversion" or sometimes a similar name and has been around a long time, some Marriotts have begun trying it in the last couple years. Many of us are shocked and disappointed that Marriott International allows the properties to pull this on customers, but there it is. When they try to get me to agree to this, I always demand to pay in the local currency.)