Originally Posted by
Majuki
I stayed at the Canopy in Cancun and checked out on Monday morning. I had made the reservation in USD - and I confirmed even booking from the Mexican site would result in USD pricing as well - so I was curious how the hotel would handle this. I use an Amex for Hilton stays, so there is no danger of DCC. The reception took a preauth of 1,000 USD. Prices at the hotel restaurant and bar were denominated in MXN. Upon checkout, I was presented a bill with all charges presented in MXN, but the credit card slip was in USD. The curious thing was that the exchange rate was 22 MXN = 1 USD, which is more favorable that the current rate by 4-5%. I confirmed that the room charge & taxes matched the price at the time of booking in USD at a 22-to-1 exchange rate. I wonder who set that rate, and, if one presented a MXN denominated card would the preauth and final charge be in pesos? I did see a label on the terminal that said USD/MXN.
While this isn't quite an example of DCC, it is a currency conversion process that I hadn't seen before. The closest recent example I could remember is Aruba, but even that isn't an exact analog. The hotels there denominate everything, including the bill, in USD, so I imagine one would never see the AWG price unless paying in AWG.
This practice is just downright fraudulent.
They get away with it because most Americans don't pay attention to exchange rates and think that it's convenient to see everything in USD. Sad but there is a general lack of education in this regard in the US.
I have had major arguments with hotels in Mexico (and elsewhere) that engage in this practice of quoting in USD, converting to local currency at an inflated rate and then converting back to USD again at an unfavorable rate to THEN try to charge with DCC. It's abominable.
What I tell them each time is: "It's fine to quote your hotel price in USD. You want to quote in a stable currency to minimize your risk. Fine. But here I am, checking out... let's look at the original price quoted. Convert it to your currency today. That's what I will pay you. Nothing more and nothing less."
The front desk folks sometimes don't understand the gaming their accounting offices do but eventually a manager emerges from the back and I pay what is due.