A couple years back on a cash and points stay at the Sheraton Seattle the hotel insisted that the cash portion of the rate gets charged back to SPG.

I tried a couple times to sort out the mess. Lines at the front desk were ~ 45 minutes throughout much of the weekend, there was a Starbucks convention at the hotel. Still, I made an honest effort, to no avail.

About a week later the full charges and then some showed up on my credit card. Calls to the hotel were not returned.

So I opened a hotel with SPG's then-Hotel Customer Service and I was credited back the overcharge plus some SPG points for my troubles (on top of the SPG points they gave me for a light fixture coming crashing down in the bathroom and a few other abnormalities during the stay).

In the end I was charged what I owed and I had no issue with that, though it was a nuisance trying to sort things out during the stay and having to sort things out after the fact, points notwithstanding.

I've been back to the Sheraton Seattle and I do like the property (more than the Westin, less than the W).