Originally Posted by craz

FYI, I was in a Marriott last week in Costa Rica I booked it On Line and it showed a rate of $174 per night. When I checked out , it showed how much in Local Currency I had to pay along with the corresponding amount in US$. HOWEVER the charge goes to my CC in the local currency and not US$. Which meant me paying appx $10 more as the CC adds its on FEX fees. I asked that they charge my CC in US$ and was told thats not an option.

the reason for the rate being in US$ was in order to eventually calculate how much it was gonna be in Local Currency. This has happened to me with ALL the major Hotel Chains also in Europe.
You are very wrong about who determines the exchange rate. In CR I got 4.89 per $1 at a Hotel. The Marriott used 4.94 as their exchange rate. Reg rate in the papers was 4.92 so it wasnt so bad. But in Guatemala I lost much more as I did in Zurich back in Sept. All a person can decide is how much they will get for their $s by exchanging it or how they obtained it, you cant tell the Hotel what their rate will be. And most Hotels will use rates that are not in our favor, so when they send it over to the CC it will come out as more US$ then what it said on Marriott.com, since they are sending over an amount in the Local Currency that was gotten by using an exchange rate not in our favor.