Hotel staff incorrectly charged my CC. Now they want me to pay the balance.
 

Recently stayed at a Starwood/Marriott property in Asia. I settled the bill in the local currency (I am not outing either the hotel or the currency yet because I think it might identify me...depending on outcome, I will do so) and paid with my credit card. All is well and good.

Then, 2 days after checking out, I get an email from a front desk person at the hotel saying that "due to a system error" the hotel did not bill me for the correct amount. They are notifying me that they want to charge my credit card the difference/balance for the "correct amount."

I am confused (system error? incorrect billing? huh?) until I look more closely at my folio. Let's say the stay cost 55,000 imaginary local currency - that's what's on my folio, that's what I knew the stay would cost, etc. But looking more closely at my actual tiny credit card receipt, my CC was charged 50,500 imaginary local currency. Clearly the front desk person entered the number wrong when actually closing my folio/checking me out/charging my CC.

I am not going to challenge them -- fine, I'll pay it (I was planning on paying the "correct" amount, anyways - plus I am traveling for work, so this is on my work CC). However, it seems a bit tacky to me that the hotel wouldn't just "eat" the cost of their staff error when it's roughly $50 USD, I am an elite (admittedly not Plat Premier with Ambassador elite level :p), and their "we need to charge you more" email was not particularly apologetic. This will be annoying for me to have to explain in my expense reporting but I know it's minor.

Just curious what other FlyerTalk posters would think/do in this situation. Dare I ask for points (in conjunction with paying the difference, obviously) for my inconvenience?

I would not expect any such thing.

You could have avoided all of this by doing the right thing at checkout. Presumably careful people check their receipt against the total bill and bring discrepancies, whether favorable or not to the property's attention on the spot.

Why not identify the property? Makes little to no sense.

OK, fair point.

Of course I am going to pay - that was never in doubt.

I think I was just annoyed when I got the email because I had closed out the billing for that trip and now these new charges are going to hit in a new month and require me to do some work on my end to change some expense stuff.

Not going to go back and edit my post to sound less like an entitled a$$hole, though you are right I suppose, because that's even more shady.

Because he wants to ask them for compensation & doesn't want to out them/himself until he potentially gets it? Just a guess. System errors occasionally occur; pay the bill. I do understand the annoyance, however, if the expense report was already submitted.

Cheers.

I would have brought the discrepancy up at check out if I had realized the error. It definitely is much less complicated and time consuming for me to have been charged correctly the first time around.

The clerk showed me the folio, I looked at it carefully, verbally agreed that it was correct (it WAS the correct amount -- and the amount that I thought I was paying), they ran my card, I signed the little electronic square thingy (the pad where you sign - there is no amount displayed), and then was handed the envelope (with the little tiny paper receipt that was printed and stapled to my folio and then folded and put into the envelope before being handed to me). You are correct: I did not carefully examine the little receipt at that point - though I did verify the paper folio had the "correct" (which is what it turns out I was not actually charged) amount listed on it.

That's ridiculous. If I were them I wouldn't even have "asked" the OP. I would've billed the extra since it was the negotiated rate and sent a follow up email explaining why.

Depending on what company you work for this could become a nightmare for him! Things that don't add up for your compliance department is like Christmas for them and hoping that they will get you slipping up. This has happened to me before getting a extra bill of $100 on my credit Card. I had all the necessary paperwork to prove to them that that the hotel made a mistake in the billing department. When questioned about this I thought I was on trial for murder!

I learned my lesson! If you still can tell them to cancel both transactions and bill you one time. That solves the issue. You have to pay what the bill is and I don't have a issue with them making a mistake, things happen. If this is something you are going to have to do extra paper work, be questioned about, I would ask for bonus points compensation. Let them know because of your mistake this has cost me 1-2 hours of my time. Now if you can get them to cancel both transactions and bill you again I wouldn't ask for anything.

I wouldn't pay the extra and would ask for at least 50K MRP for having to read the email they sent and coming up with the solution of not paying.

JK.... I work in B2B sales and don't ever want to mess with karma. I'd pay the difference. Expense it. Move on.