Originally Posted by
abaheti
In Peru had a new twist -- hotel would only quote me a price in dollars ($40) for a tour, but then wanted to do their own conversion to local at a rate they picked and charge me that on my card. I asked them to just charge me in soles what a Peruvian would get charged and they refused to give me a number. Not quite DCC, but...
That's a very common practice all over Latin America. Prices are quoted in USD, but then the hotel converts into local currency using an exchange rate that usually varies somewhat from the "official" rate.
I had that happen a couple of times in Guatemala this past summer. In one case, it was at a hotel, and at the other, it was at a shop inside the Westin Camino Real in Guatemala City. In both cases it was a negligible difference. I think in Guatemala the convention is just to quote hotel prices in USD, but then to charge in quetzales. In the case of the shop, I think they just price everything in USD because their market is foreign tourists and they assume gringos can't deal with dividing by 8 or whatever.
In other countries (Uruguay springs to mind), hotels will quote you prices in USD and then just automatically charge your card that price in USD - no currency conversion, no DCC, just a straight-up USD transaction.