rylan

So I booked the Fairfield Inn Williamsburg VA for an upcoming stay, and unfortunately didn't read enough of the fine print and was wondering why my credit card got charged for the entire stay, as if I booked a pre-paid rate. The reservation says it can be canceled for no penalty until 2 days prior to arrival, however there is also this detail in the cancellation policy:

After noticing that I canceled... and its been over a week and still haven't gotten the charge refunded yet. Contacted marriott who forwarded the issue to the hotel a few days ago and still no response. Pretty absurd. This isn't a high end beach resort where you typically see a deposit required... its a fairfield near a town.
Pretty bad business practice for a hotel like this to be requiring full stay deposit at time of booking, and then not promptly refunding upon cancellation.

Jono

I had a similar result with a booking at a resort hotel. Cancelled but after a week did not get refund. Spoke with Marriott who said they would contact hotel to follow up, and it still took another day or two before confirmation of refund was emailed to me (and another 2-3 days until credit showed up on my card). You may want to follow up with hotel directly to see if the refund has been processed yet.

avja

Dispute the charge if it shows up on your credit card bill.

Xero

Unfortunately, any billing related issues is handled by the hotel itself. Therefore, you will have to followup directly with the hotel to get a refund.

This is why Marriott always forwards your request directly to the hotel itself.

If you are unable to get a refund, opening a dispute is a great idea, as it will get the hotel to act on it immediately. But before doing a dispute, be sure to give the hotel a chance to make it right. Also, never threaten a lawsuit. It just slows things down.

arlflyer

Uh, Williamsburg prices can give high end beach resorts a run for their money when the DC folks start clearing out for the weekend, or if there is something going on at W&M. It's not a cow town - it's both a vacation destination and home to a university that is big with the upper-crust moneyed folks.

mahasamatman

Newark Airport Marriott requires this as well and is neither a resort nor in an expensive area.

Keyser

I've come across this for a number of random hotels over the years. Most of them being your regular run of the mill inexpensive properties.

pstm91

Not only can it take the hotel some time to process the refund, but it can also take the credit card company time to process it on their end too. The standard verbiage I've seen is that it "the credit company will post it 5-14 days after we have processed it," or something along those lines. It can take a while...

stuartpig

Slightly different, but I booked a hotel in the UK, Swindon Marriott. Speculative booking (fully flexible) just in case husband fancied it. Booked from 18th March. 12th of March I get an email saying they will take the full amount, plus if I wanted breakfast, that too, on the 13th of March. Their excuse was that they were changing over the computer system and wanted to make sure everything booked was paid up. I cancelled immediately as it is a cheek charging me £650 5 days before. I knew if I left it, it would be tortuous to get it back. Also pointed out that I am in fact Lifetime Titanium so breakfast would be comped. Got a snotty email saying of course they knew that, they just sent a standard email. Wouldn’t have hurt to put a sentence in mentioning Platinum and Titanium benefits. Anyway, had I not read the email in time, I would have had a large charge to recoup.

MSPeconomist

These hotels are just "borrowing" money from future guests without paying interest for the privilege, and in some cases without asking or providing notification in advance, at the time of the reservation.

clarkef

I don't believe that's true in practice. I think that's more of a worst case scenario. My experience has been whenever a merchant processes a credit card, the cc company processes it within a day or two.

Happy

You need to contact the hotel directly versus calling Marriott. I dont understand why so many chose to contact Marriott when by now everyone using BonVoy should know, many issues can only be resolved at the property level...

A friend has a similar booking condition at a property in San Diego. The total was over $600. She canceled due to her pet got really sick. Hotel failed to refund after cancellation. She then called the hotel which refunded it after 3 days.

Some properties also charge the first night of stay BEFORE you check in. This happened with a Fairefield at a barrier island of Alabama. The rate was very cheap at $90.40 incl taxes. I had a 2 nights stay. I even chatted in BonVoy app to tell the hotel I would pay with Marriott Gift Card. At check in, the hotel manager processed the gift card, then proceeded to inform me I would see a one night charge on my AMEX card but the hotel would refund it today. I said, Oh you meant there was an authorization for one night." Both the manager and the front desk clerk immediately said, NO, it is an actual charge. Sure enough, a charge and a credit show up on my AMEX with the same date.

I also heard from friends on similar practices not just BonVoy properties but other programs too. Therefore it is important to make a screen shot of the Stay Details which show the cancellation policy. The confirmation email oddly, does not show the cancellation policy from the last few bookings I have. The "email" requested, to send to any email address, does show the cancellation policy. I think for one's own protection, one needs to keep good records on such just in case.

pstm91

It's worst case scenario but it's absolutely the text the give you if you read it thoroughly. My experiences have always been like yours, much faster, but I know plenty of people where it's taken several days for their refund to actually post after it's clearly been issued by the vendor. I'm sure others can chime in with their experiences, but for me - I've always seen it take a little longer from airlines. I just think it's something to be aware of so you are not nervous or have a lot of questions if you see the hotel issued a refund but didn't see it on your credit card yet.

msp3

But we tolerate this sort of behavior from the IRS and taxpayers are forced to finance 0% loans to the federal government because...?

Eastbay1K

Because Marriott (not the property) is where any reasonable person (but not necessarily someone who knows the ins/outs of the business) would reasonably go. If you make a reservation with Marriott directly, you reasonably expect that Marriott handles everything related to it. I'd expect that 90% of the traveling public has no idea that today, almost all hotels are franchise/marketing agreements and not much more.

Unless the T&C at point of sale tell otherwise, I'd fully expect that I would return to my point of sale to process any refund.