Clarkdkent

I I have an upcoming April stay at a newer Curio property in Belize. After reading a review on TripAdvisor about the hotel not accepting AMEX, I contacted the front desk and was told that they are only accepting Visa and MC at this time.

I'm disappointed as I recently acquired the AMEX Aspire card and will be losing out ~50k HHonors points on my $3500 stay, the $250 resort fee credit and the bulk of the spend towards meeting the $4000 threshold for HHonors 100,000 bonus point trigger. The stay is a pre-paid rate but they haven't charged my AMEX. Also, I already booked flights for the family etc, so cancelling is out.

My questions is twofold. 1. With the Citi Hilton card now out of the picture, I thought that AMEX was the exclusive Hilton credit card. Aren't Hilton properties required to accept AMEX? 2. If they still can't process my AMEX payment, do I have any recourse? I wouldn't have booked the property if I knew i was going to be leaving 50K in HHOnors points and the $250 resort fee credit on the table.

Thanks everyone

Hippster

I haven't happened upon a no-Amex hotel since the late 90's. According to Mahogany Bay Resort by Curio San Pedro, BZ Hotel Policies they take AMEX, or should be. I do see the same review on TA about it. Yikes! Granted this is a foreign property and a new one, you'd expect them to have everything together by now several months in. If you are a diamond I'd call the diamond desk and ask them. Heck I'd even call AMEX customer service and say hey this hotel says they take AMEX but they aren't and explain the situation. Keep us posted.

Clarkdkent

Thanks for the response. Per your helpful suggestion, I called the Diamond Desk and they did a 3 way conference call to Mahogany Bay. The Diamond rep asked to speak with the GM but they were not available, so the front desk rep explained that they were still not set up and that it was slow going because there were obstacles to setting AMEX up in Belize. She said that they would be sending out emails to guests that made reservations with AMEX (something that I haven't rec'd). I explained to her how I would be losing out on a significant amount of points and benefits from using the Aspire card to no avail. and no apology. Am I going too far, if I ask to be compensated for the 50k in points that I'll be missing out on not to mention the $250 resort fee credit from the Aspire?

I've stayed at newly open resorts and hotels before. I know that there are usually a lot of growing pains (no hot water, leaking plumbing, fish that is spoiled) but not being able to use a hotel affiliated credit card is disappointing.

Hippster

If you still go forward with the trip, wait until you are on site and try to present your AMEX card first to see if they've gotten it working between now and then. If they reject it, then in person explain how you were anticipating bonus miles and the resort fee credits and ask to speak to management. It may be easier to get a remedy there on the spot (or follow up) than anything hypothetically in advance. The resort fee credit could potentially be used at another time this year (depending on your travel plans though) so that might be a tougher time to recover on. The points bonus would definitely be a loss though as that specifically is a benefit of using the Aspire card. I'd say Hilton would put the onus on the property to make up for that as they *should* be taking AMEX but are not. I'm not sure how that card works and who actually "pays" the points from an accounting point of view. If unhappy with the hotel afterward, follow up with the diamond desk via email in writing so things can be documented and go from there. When making choices for trips, consumers heavily utilize perks and bonuses. If those are not available due to a failure of a property they should definitely want to make things right. Hopefully they will.

Oh and welcome to flyertalk!

Clarkdkent

That's a good tactic. Thanks for the suggestion and the thoughtful reply!

sdsearch

Also, be aware that depending on how exactly they're charged, prepaid rates might not earn the resort credit, even if the property takes Amex. That's because pre-paid rates are often to credit to the hotel itself, but to another division of Amex.

RogerD408

Any chance the property has a sister property that is already set up on AMEX? Or maybe Hilton can help... See if they can process the charge and transfer the fund to the property. Check the T&Cs of the terms to make sure they are all met and you should be good to go.

tda1986

I believe you're correct on this. It seems that the general consensus on the thread regarding the resort credit is that prepaid rates do not qualify.


More generally, I think it's ridiculous that there's a Hilton property not accepting credit cards from the exclusive issuer of Hilton cards. OP should definitely push to get his/her bonus points.

:D!

The property is in Belize, and Amex is only the exclusive issuer of Hilton cards in the USA.

arlflyer

I mean, maybe there is some parallel universe (RIP Stephen Hawking) where it makes good business sense to prevent your largest customer base, originating out of the country in which you are headquartered, from being able to pay for your product with a means of payment that you created to allow them to pay for your product, but I certainly don't live in it.

I'm having trouble seeing the argument being made here.

ChinaShrek

The argument being made is that American Express is an American financial company without the global reach of Visa or Mastercard. Consumers and the OP should know this when the sign up for their card.

arlflyer

I'm sorry, just to clarify - the argument you're making is that it's the OP's fault that Hilton does not accept, at its hotels, a financial instrument that it co-created explicitly for use at its hotels?

ChinaShrek

You can word the facts however you want, but Amex is simply not accepted throughout the world. There are many hotels outside of the United States (actually a plethora of other establishments as well) that take Visa and Mastercard but do not accept Amex. You and OP should be aware of this fact when you travel and it is ethnocentric to think otherwise. The fact that it is a Hilton branded Amex card really is irrelevant.

soliloquy

Can you just check in online and pay through the website? I don't recall having to show a credit card at all when I check in online.

It does seem kind of counterintuitive that Hilton wouldn't accept a credit card that it co-brands with it's name.

Hippster

Regardless of what you think of AMEX, it is a *global* company and is accepted regularly worldwide in the travel/hospitality industry at international companies for sure, maybe not small local establishments though. The problem here is their website says they take AMEX, but do not yet for whatever reason "we are new and it takes forever to set up internationally".