Originally Posted by KVS
This really has more to do with the individual hotel(s) in question than Starwood.
Since the hotel was booked on starwood.com who made the representation of the room rate, it has more to do with starwood and the hotel than myself and the hotel. Besides, being a franchise, there are certain expectations of uniformity in policies stated or not. This is not relevant to SPG program but it is certainly relevant to Starwood.
You do have a right to request the charge to be made in the local currency,
I have a right to request the charge to be made in the currency in which I was allowed to book and for the amount I was booked for as long as I present a form of currency or equivalent that makes it possible.
however, as you acknowledged yourself:
In your case it wasn't "fraud" because:
The multi-currency billing is becoming a popular option for merchants in Europe. However, the merchant should provide the customer with an option of billing in their "home" currency (e.g. USD for US-issued cards).
The fact that some others do it, of course, does not make it less of a fraud.
Besides, they cannot put anything arbitrary in the fine print and claim that if you signed, you agreed to it. What I signed for was the amount printed clearly in Euros on the bill. What if they had added fine print saying they would add a 10% "courtesy" surcharge to the bill? If you didn't notice it and signed the slip, would you now suddenly become liable and the practice less of a fraud? This is essentially what they have done.