Charge even though canceled
 

I was to stay at the Rennaisance Bedford, MA and then thanks to this board found it was going change from Marriott. I canceled the reservations 10 days before the switchover for a stay 1 month later (August 28th), but was still charged for the room. I have called customer service and they see the reservation and cancelation, but said they said they need to get back to me (3-5 business days) as they are not sure what to do. My guess is that Marriott either never sent the cancelation to the new owners or they chose to ignore it.

Anyway a word of warning keep cancelations notices for weird situations. Glad I had it.

I hope this does not take too much of my time.

Had a similar problem due to the ownership of an overseas Sheraton.

I just reversed the charge on my Amex and let someone else figure it out.

I will say that in 20+ years this has happened <6 times, so it's always kind of startling.

If the rental car companies ever figure out how to do this I'll be screwed. :_)

I recently cancelled a stay at a hotel that was leaving the Marriott family before I was planning to arrive. Just to play it safe, I cancelled both on-line and by calling the hotel directly. Had no problem.

Bruce

FYI there is no "sending the cancellation," everything is electronic and it would have cancelled automatically in their computer system immediately once it was cancelled in the CRS but there are times the computers hiccup unfortunately but there are double checks which the hotel must perform to ensure mistakes dont happen, unfortunately it sounds like the hotel failed to perform those, I would call the hotel directly and speak with the accounting department, they would be able to assist you regardless of which flag is flying these days

Hotel Says Marriott Never Cancelled
 

I took your advice and called. Of course they blame Marriott. "We show you as not arriving and have no record of any cancelation, our policy is to charge your credit card". Marriott needs to deal with this.

Unfortunately it sounds like it will continue, I would write a letter to your credit card company disputing the charge, make sure you include the cxl number (Marriott will be happy to provide it to you)...unfortunately once the flag switches Marriott must rely on the hotels accounting department to handle the situation as they no longer have any access, might be worth a letter to the GM of the hotel expressing your displeasure at the run around as well

When things get this bad, I like to try calling the hotel's GM. It might be more effective than lots of letters and emails to underlings. You have basically nothing to lose. And your nuclear weapon is the credit-card dispute.

Bruce

I am having a similar problem with the Kauai Marriott, which is still a Marriott property. I cancelled reservation online over a month ago (refundable reservation in January), no refund on my credit card. I have called Marriott reservations repeatedly, and they insist "you need to speak to the hotel." I call the hotel, and they stuck me in the voice mail of somebody in accounts receivable. No response or refund.

Marriott needs to fix the procedures here.

Another option would be to call the international customer care number, 1-800-535-4028. This might not be helpful for the OP, but I have always had good service in resolving problems with this number.

A few years back when I was 'just' a plat, we had made some reservations in London for Oct, but one of them had been mistakenly booked (online) in Sept. Imagine our surprise when a $350 charged showed up from a Marriott in London.

Called the Plat line. They took care of it and got the charge reversed. Said something about being a good and loyal customer.

To me the Plat and Plat Prem lines truly do treat you as 'important' customers.

This is why I always keep the cancellation number on file until the billing cycle has passed. I would wait to hear back from them. If they don't, then I would take socrates' advice and dispute the charge. A simple phone call to Customer Service with the cancellation number ought to be sufficient.

I wish both you and socrates were correct that a simple call will work. I called a week ago Saturday. They said it would be resolved by Friday. Called Friday for sure Monday and I would get a call back Monday. Called Monday once in AM and once late afternoon. Now for sure resolved Thursday. Marriott says that they have the cancelation and are working the problem. Clearly not a breakneck speed.

I have had to pay my Visa bill. My question is do I deserve any points for dealing with this mess and how do I get them.

I'm not sure you understand what we're talking about. I'm not talking about disputing the charge with the hotel, I'm talking about disputing the charge with the credit card company that was billed. One of your rights as a consumer is to dispute, and be relieved of, fraudulent/erroneous charges made to your card. Exercise that right!

If you haven't done so already, call the customer service number on the back of the card and follow the prompt to speak to a customer service rep. Tell them that you'd like to dispute a charge. Give the rep the necessary facts, including the cancellation number, and ask them to open up an inquiry. They will immediately credit your account for the disputed amount (meaning you don't have to pay it) and then THEY will contact Marriott. Marriott has x number of days (30 or 60 days?) to answer the inquiry. You don't have to do anything more at this point but be patient with the process. And in the meantime, you don't owe anything.

Once the situation is resolved in your favor (and how could it not be if your facts are correct?), you will receive a letter from your credit card company explaining their findings. Then you will see two additional line items on your next statement. One will be a charge which reverses the amount that the credit card company credited you when you opened the inquiry and the second will be a credit from Marriott. Net cost to you: $0.

I just found two separate charges for rooms that I had canceled at the Crystal Gateway. I watch my reservations like a hawk so I could not understand how this happened.

Marriott Guest services indeed indicated that I had canceled all my reservations at that property and she got in touch with Marriott Business Services who confirmed that their was a glitch -- at least with respect to my reservations -- and that two of the canceled reservations were not reflected in their system. They are going to rectify the situation for me, and if you have the same problem, contact Marriott.

It would appear that since this happened to me on two separate occasions, that this might be a widespread computer glitch.

because of the flag change Marriott has to forward a request to the new flag/operator of the hotel which is why I suggested contacting them (hotel) first and if they weren't able to immediately resolve the issue to dispute the charge which I still recommend you doing