For the second time in a month now I've had somewhat arbitrary-looking charge amounts show up on my corporate AMEX prior to an upcoming hotel stay at a given property. The interesting thing about these charges is that they have a Folio number associated with them but do not have any specific stay information or reservation number associated with them.

The first of these was at a DTree in NJ and the second was at the Palmer House. In both cases, I was told that these were "pre-authorizations for incidentals" and would "clear from my Amex account a few days after check-out".

There are a couple of things about this that are puzzling to me:

First, these amounts showed up as *charges* on my AMEX, not as authorizations. They were added to my statement under "recent activity". When I challenged the desk agents about this, I was told that they were only authorizations and that this was "normal". I disagree.

Secondly, this has now happened multiple times at different properties, and I'm concerned that there is a trend among properties to pre-charge the credit card on file for incidentals. Even if the intent is to pre-authorize and not actually *charge*, I still have a problem with the "PRE" part of the equation. If the rate reserved does not require any deposits, then is it OK for the hotel to actually authorize and/or charge my card prior to my arrival for incidentals?

I'm fully aware of the differences between card authorizations vs. charges, and in these cases the properties in question actually charged my card and didn't just authorize.

Brettzky

If it was my account, I'd be on the phone with AMEX to determine the nature of these charges. And if they agree they are hard charges then I would dispute the charge and let the property explain why they are submitting them prior to your stay. Short of it being an outright scam to bump their deposit account, it may be the person processing the "authorizations" is pressing the wrong button.

Roger, agreed - I did talk to AMEX about the first charge and directly to the desk manager at the hotel. The charges are showing up on my actual statement with the card company and not under "outstanding authorizations".

I'm interested to hear if anyone else is seeing this behavior? The desk agent I spoke with at the Palmer House this morning clearly stated it was their policy to pre-authorize and insisted the authorization would clear, and was either ignoring my statement that this was an actual charge or didn't understand it.

If it does turn out that these are preauthorizations, it is in the Hilton T&Cs that they may pre-authorize your card on file before you arrive.

Some online banking interfaces, especially for debit cards, do show preauthorizations as a charge, but in my experience Amex does not.

stifle, thanks for confirming. Again, I have no problem with pre-authorization per se, as long as they come through as authorizations and not charges. Authorizations will expire after a period of time if they are not processed - actual charges will remain on the account if not properly reversed, and as such will quickly become my problem vs. simply disappearing!

No, I do not recall such a situation occurring in the past for me. If you choose to do nothing, I would hope there would be a credit on your account when you arrive. If not, I would put them in the scammer category.

Yes, some people can only read the script they have been given and need a wakeup call. In addition to disputing the charge, you might consider opening a complaint with HH and try to get some top-down attention. Some chains even impose a "fine" upon the hotels when it has been determined they have done something wrong.

Some enjoy the carrot, some need a stick!

The organization I work for has seen it's call volume go through the roof in the past few days with people seeing charges on their statements online that were actually authorizations. It's been enough of an increase that I'm convinced (but not yet confirmed) that something happened with one of the major processors that what use to clearly show as an authorization is now shoring as a charge, but it rolls off in a few days like an authorization would.

I'm not saying that is the case here, but it could be.

I've had 8 separate stays in the last 10 - 12 days, and had a few of these show up on my amex, they went away without me having to do anything.