SFO 1K

I think you are conflating taxes + resort fees as all resort fees. This screen grab was from a booking I had where the room rate was $124/night.
For my two nights, I have $121.62 in taxes and resort fees. That's like another night of cost for a two night stay.

Make sure you see an accurate breakdown of costs. There is no $80+ resort fee at MGM hotels in Vegas.

alph

I'm definitely not conflating tax with the resort fee. I'll post the breakdowns this evening

alph

I got a different story from the front desk last night. The new claim was that there was a difference between what AMEX paid and the room rate so they added the difference to my bill. Called AMEX travel to sort the issue and the person I spoke to tried to actually help but when he called the hotel they told him the difference was due to the higher resort fees. So back to square 1.

alph

Hopefully I am finally able to post this up.

So here's the booking confirmation. You can clearly see the rate and tax and the total as well as the resort fees of $176.88 (39+tax = 44.22 per night). Nothing too controversial here, all standard

You can see AMEX travel debited me that amount. Again, no shenanigans


So then this happens. I arrive and they charge me $812.76.
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I tell them this is the wrong amount, they say this is in fact the correct amount and then explain the following to me:
$100/night deposit = $400 (no surprise here, have stayed here multiple times and I know this is their deposit policy and this will be returned)
15/night parking = 60 (again, totally normal)
Resort fees of $352.76. They never gave an exact nightly rate just said that the 352.76 was resort fees.

I pointed out at check-in that this was almost double the advertised rate of $39 plus tax per night. And they confirmed this to both myself (on check in) and the AMEX travel rep who called the hotel yesterday evening.

As I said yesterday, the front desk changed their story (to me) when I asked last night and said the balance was the difference between what AMEX paid and the actual room rate. When I called AMEX Travel to notify them of the discrepancy, AMEX called hotel and the hotel then told AMEX that it was again the new resort fee amount.

AMEX Travel was supposed to work to resolve this today but I have not heard a peep.
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mia

Is the $812.76 amount still Pending? Transaction amounts don't mean much until they post.

Tarpie

Agreed. The hold placed at check-in rarely matches the final cost at check-out and often seems to bear no resemblance to the stated required deposit.

Based on other reports in this thread, the check-out clerk will need to manually apply FHR benefits to the final bill. At that point the extra charge be on the final receipt and easier to fight.

SFO 1K

So we're talking about a pending charge and you tried to get a poor FD clerk to explain it? Sorry, but that's just Vegas. There is no way you'll get a proper explanation that you can balance to the penny on the pending charge.
If your charges do not match your AMEX screenshot from your original booking THEN you have something to complain about.

alph

I mean you're right, it's not over till the fat lady sings. But I have stayed at this very hotel 3 times in the last 3 months and this is definitely an outlier experience. And I never said that I wanted it to balance to the penny -- I know the fhr wifi credits happen later -- but it should largely agree within some reasonable margin.

Hotels do not just randomly pick some number to pre auth at check in. That's not how any of this works. They have policies that are explainable and repeatable. Certainly different hotels have different policies so your auth is gonna be different between all of them. And even at a hotel, their policies can change over time but there is a policy.

​​​​​ My experience is that *large* discrepancies are important to pay attention to because they can indicate problems with the booking that can take hours to resolve at checkout. I've had travel agencies not *fax* credit notes to hotels, I've had booking engines show one room rate and book another and I've had check in clerks charge for upgrades. All caught at check in.

So when something seems off, I'm certainly going to ask for an explanation. I'd rather know that I have time to get something fixed rather than spend hours on checkout or months in credit dispute resolution.

And in this the explanation was resort fees increasing.


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Visconti

By the way, have you checked the ongoing charges on the Mlife app? They should list them as they occur daily and itemize the breakdown to room rate, taxes and resort fees where you can quickly glance to see if it corresponds to your FHR confirm.

alph

That's a great idea. I don't have a mlife account but I will try to see what I can see in the app. On the TV the account folio is empty.

Visconti

If it doesn't show up on your app, you can drop by the FD after your first night and request an itemized listing of the charges. This should give you a rough idea of whether or not it'll match up with what you're expecting.

alph

Called Amex late last night to get an update.

Apparently the rate plan code Amex used had a different value in the hotels system. So to the hotel, I hadn't paid for my room in it's entirety. They didn't know about the AMEX rate so when I (and AMEX) asked them about the difference, they just assumed we were talking about the resort fees which is why they kept saying the additional cost was the resort fees.

Some silver lining: they got the FHR credits applied correctly the first time without needing to argue over it!

SPN Lifer

Attention to detail, logic, persistence, and courtesy are admirable qualities in any FlyerTalker.

Thanks for sharing your experiences for our edification and preparation.

fatmandandan

Feb 27-28
Hotel: Conrad RWLV
Room: Booked Premium Room, 1 King Bed
Checkin: Checked in around 6pm
Upgrade: Upgraded to 57th Floor Strip View 1BDR Suite (Diamond)
Late Checkout: Offered, checked out at 6am
Breakfast Credit: $33 per person (2 people), can be used at The Kitchen (I used it for SOBO room service through grubhub, and it was taken off)
Credits: $125 F&B credit. Used at Famous Foods and various Bars
Note: Credits were not applied at checkout, but Front Desk assured he would get it taken care of. Only resort fees were charged to my card 2 days later

Unfortunately JetBlue Canceled my flight, so I booked an impromptu stay at the FHR property with the lowest rate

Feb 28- Mar 1
Hotel: Delano Hotel
Room: Booked Delano King Suite
Checkin: Checked in around 9:30am. Tried to Check-in at 8am, and was told that I would be texted (as expected). Checked the app around 9:30am and a room was assigned to me
Upgrade: Upgraded to 35th floor Stay Well King Suite
Late Checkout: Offered when picking up physical keys, but didn't need
Breakfast Credit: $30 per person (2 people), can be used at 3940, Della's and Seabreeze (Used for room service at Della's)
Credits: $100 F&B credit. Just about every MGM restaurant
Comment: Room service didn't appear on the folio at check-out, but charges from Eataly at the Park MGM were on the folio. Didn't have time to get the charges taken off at checkout, but was refunded 03/05 after filling out the online form. Response time was stated as 7-10 business days, but they got back to me after 24 hours.

happyvoid

How strict are hotels with 2 or 3 people/ I book a couple of vegas hotel and put 2 persons but we are a family of 3. Would hotels mind?