jlisi984

For an overnight near DEL, would you recommend this hotel or the HR Gurgaon? I've heard that Diamonds are treated super in Gurgaon, but the location is a bit off-putting, as it's my first time in India and it would be good to see at least a tiny bit of Delhi...

GUWonder

If it's monsoon season and rush hour is when you will be going between the hotel and the airport (in either direction), then I would choose the HR Gurgaon.

AJLondon

Definitely the HR Delhi if you want to see even a tiny bit of Delhi! The location is much much nicer than compared to HR Gurgaon.

City center vs. under construction developing area about 20 miles outside the city.

The Regency Club at the DEL property is also nicer IMHO, even tho the standard rooms are older build. Also a much greater choice of restaurants. I think 6 vs. 2!

GUWonder

I would agree, but I am curious about what the hours and time of year are that the person will be making the trip and be around the Delhi/NCR area.

lenardl

i booked an upcoming stay here on Tuesday via the Places you can explore rate. As it is an advance booking rate, the hotel went ahead and charged it. I got a call from my bank about it - it seems that they were doing it manually on the cc machine.

Anyway, I noticed that they charged an amount about 21% higher than what I was suppose to pay, including taxes. Initially I thought it was just a hold, but now I realised the charge went through.

I opened up my hyatt reservation, and the actual rate that I was supposed to pay is still there. I immediately screenshot it and made a PDF of it. Ironically, the page even says "Total rate in hotel currency is guaranteed. Total rate in your selected currency will vary with fluctuations in exchange rate."

So, what should I do? Sort it out at the hotel? Or call Hyatt diamond line about it ?

invalyd

Andaz is closest to the airport. This one and HR Gurgaon are equally far so distance isn't really a factor. If you're looking to explore Delhi at all I recommend HR Delhi. Gurgaon is very much a business/IT district and you will have a hard time seeing anything Delhi has to offer while staying there, while HR Delhi is close to Connaught place and some other tourist stuff. Bear in mind you'll be sitting in traffic for about an hour each way regardless of which option you choose.

invalyd

Same thing happened to me. Word of advice, don't ever book pre pay rates in India. The hotels are notorious schemers. This one is particularly bad. They're also probably going to try to charge you an additional fee after checkout in addition to the prepay rate as they did to me.
The diamond line won't help as they'll just end up connecting you to the hotel and you'll hang up in frustration after trying to explain the situation.
The easiest solution is probably to just dispute the charge on your credit card.
You can also try arguing when you get there, but there's no guarantee you'll get anywhere.

paul00

This issue has been discussed in depth in this thread a number of times. The 15% Luxury Tax is based on the rack/published rate of the room in which you stay (rather than the actual room rate which you booked). This is stated on hyatt.com during the booking process. As I mentioned in my review in post #105, if you receive a room upgrade, at check-out you will be asked to pay the Luxury Tax based on the rack rate of the room category to which you were upgraded.

invalyd

OP is referring to being charged an additional 20% on his prepaid rate, which is completely separate from the additional payment which is collected at checkout. This is simply the property playing games with exchange rates and has nothing to do with any luxury tax.

paul00

There is a possibility that the issue is related to the Luxury Tax, as on hyatt.com when you book the Places You Can Explore rate, the hyatt.com booking system calculates the 15% Luxury Tax on the Places You Can Explore rate (rather than the rack/published rate), so the hyatt.com booking confirmation may miscalculate the Luxury Tax.

invalyd

How does that account for OP being charged an additional 21% of the entire booking, when 15% of the discounted rate has already been baked into the price? The prepaid discount is not that significant. And how are you so sure that the hotel charged the OP in local currency and not an inflated exchange rate?

While you seem to be certain this property is acting in good faith, I'm not so convinced.

In either event, I was simply offering pragamatic advice having dealt with the same thing. And FYI I was charged an additional luxury tax on checkout in addition to the 21% overcharge on the prepay. Chase ended up refunding me for the overcharge on the prepay without question.

lenardl

so, im now at the hotel .. at check in i asked about the rate that they were going to charge me, and they quoted the higher rate.

i told them about my total rate on my account, and showed them the PDF of it. i talked to a manager about it as well, and asked for a detailed line item breakdown of how they got to their rate. they did not show me this.

I also told them that i had discussed this with the hyatt diamond line, and they too see my total rate on file. i told the diamond line that i will not pay a cent more than what was listed by them, and they agreed that this should be the case. they said that they would talk to the hotel about this, but seems like they didnt.

anyway, i sent the manager the pdf of the rate, and he too agreed that i will not be charged anything more than that.

lets see how it goes at checkout. hope they dont play games again. either way, good to know that Chase has my back if the hotel screws me.

invalyd

weren't you already charged the higher rate though? are you anticipating a refund from the hotel at checkout?
Let us know how it goes.

lenardl

so, checked out - and the bill was adjusted - there was a line item called "Adjustment for room charges - calculation of taxes was done wrong"

i got the difference back in cash. they could also reverse it back to my card if i wanted.

i think the issue here is that the hotel gets the booking, and then proceeds to manually calculate the amount again, and then charges the credit card manually.

however, in my case, the luxury tax that they were charging me was based on a 12500 rupees a night room, which isnt available anywhere on their website - rack rates of King room is 8000; view room is 9000; club is 12000 and suite is 15000...

they still could not explain this to me at checkout, just saying that it was a calculation mistake. if i had not spotted this and assumed it was part of the bs tax calculations here, i would have been ripped off.

as a cynical tourist in india, i think that there is probably some element of scamming going on. either that or sheer incompetence.

nonetheless - hotel is a nice though. nice room, big lounge which serves indian wines and prosecco (didnt know they existed..) , good breakfast spread... just scrutinize the bill properly

invalyd

Glad to hear it worked out. But yes, they are running a bit of a scam. I do believe it's unique to this property. I stayed at 6 other Hyatt properties in India and didn't encounter any 'tax miscalculations' at the others.