skj

We stayed at a Hilton property in Barcelona earlier this month. I booked a prepaid, non-refundable rate about a week before our stay and was immediately charged the full amount, about 820€. When checking out the hotel only credited me with a "deposit" of about 795€ and insisted on charging me the difference of about 25€ (in addition to the tourist tax which I did owe). I've provided the hotel with my email confirmation from Hilton when I booked the stay and the notification I received from Chase when the charge for the 820€ was made, immediately after I made the reservation. The hotel refuses to acknowledge that I paid the full amount and insists I paid them 25€ less and the charge I paid at checkout was correct.

I'm thinking my next step is to dispute the charge with Chase, but part of the charge, for the tourist tax, is legitimate. Are there other steps you suggest I take before disputing it? Is there a Hilton consumer affairs office I could contact? Could @Hilton Honors Ambassador help here? Thanks for your suggestions!

JJeffrey

I would definitely try again at getting this fixed via normal channels before you go down the path of disputing the charge.

Have you tried just calling the hotel again now after the fact? That would be my first course of action.

Rather than dealing with a clueless front desk clerk, call and ask to speak with a business or accounting manager and start over from scratch. Just tell them you recently checked out and noticed your deposit was not fully applied. Go from there.

Hilton Honors Ambassador

My apologies for the inconvenience. I can't personally fix this, but I would suggest opening a case with customer service. As usual, I recommend contacting the Twitter team via email at [email protected] to do so.

Best regards,

William

skj

Thanks for the suggestion. I just tried calling the hotel and the person who answered, a front desk clerk, refused to connect me with any one from accounting or general hotel management, claiming they did not speak English.

I'll try HiltonComments, as suggested next.

Schnit

Did the charge come through in EUR or USD? I am wondering if something in the FX got messed up?

For example, they charged you 820 EUR but by the time they hotel got the money, the USD equivalent for your charge was 795? Not sure its possible but just a thought

SK AAR

Yeah, could be some currency conversion issue - your card was charged in Euro?

the810

Hotels in Barcelona don't deal with USD. The folio is in euros, since that's the local currency. So when they charge 820€ to a card, the same amount should be applied to the foilo. Dollars don't come into play, except perhaps on the OP's side if his/her card is in USD, but that has nothing to do with the hotel.

skj

I'm confident the property charged in Euros. I'm having some difficulty figuring out if it's an exchange rate issue as all I can see (on both my US card issuer's app and website) is the transaction in dollars. When I called my credit card issuer, I was told the amount in Euros and the rate would show up on my statement, but they couldn't tell me that information at this time. When I apply the exchange rate on the date of the transaction, the dollar amount of my charge roughly corresponded to the 820€ I should have been charged. Ignoring exchange rates for a minute, I don't understand why the property would only charge 795€ when the rate I agreed to, 820€, was 100% prepaid and non-refundable.

the810

If your bank told you the amount charged in euros was 820 euros, then the hotel got 820 euros and the issue isn't related to exchange rates.

skj

Just to wrap this up ... The property was correct. My credit card statement was posted today and the amount in euros and the exchange rate are shown for the transaction. The amount was 795€. The exchange rate was higher than I expected leading to my confusion when all I could see was the amount in $. It's still a mystery to me why the property would only charge 795€ when the rate I agreed to, 820€, was 100% prepaid and non-refundable.