Another annoying trend is when hotels don't allow me to charge to the room by default. This seems to happen more often than not in four-star-type places in Dubai and even at five-star hotels, most recently at Hyatt Place and Four Points. I have a drink at the bar, ask to charge to my room, and they say, sorry, you don't have credit. Upon check-in, they just charged me for the stay and didn't preauthorize an additional amount for incidentals or otherwise indicate in the system that I could charge to the room. They usually don't even mention this process at check-in, let-alone offer the option. I am not sure if they have a policy to cheap-out on offering a few extra Bonvoy points for incidentals or they're just negligent -- almost certainly the latter. I generally remark that they are costing themselves revenue, not to mention costing the guest convenience aside from the reward points.

Even worse happened at the Al Seef Heritage Hotel, a Hilton Curio member. I specifically asked at check-in to enable room-charging because I would have some laundry. The guy obliged and ran my card for incidentals. Of course, when the hapless bellman returned my laundry later, he came with credit card reader in hand. I refused to pay and, after sort of a stand-off, he left. I mentioned this on check-out and the front desk guy was mystified, protesting that I should have been able to charge to the room. I asked, are you not capable of implementing a basic process whereby you indicate on the laundry form that the guest will charge to the room? Naturally he had no answer. Then I remembered that the same exact scenario happened at this hotel a few years earlier and I had vowed not to return. Hopefully I'll remember this time.