Expectations of getting a correct bill...
 

Would really like to get some consensus of the group on a item which has been a pet peeve for me lately...inaccurate billing.

Some Marriott locations (domestic - USA) seem to be EXTREMELY good at giving me accurate bills under my door on the morning of my departure. This exponentially speeds up my departure process as I do not need to stop at the desk to 'check-out'.

However, some of their European counterparts appear to have no process to validate proper charges. Example - I am staying at FS Marriott in the UK. I am on the executive package (includes breakfast, lounge, phone, and internet) for a certain rate per night. Without exception every time I go to use the internet for the first time I need to 'sign-in' and sign up for service (normally a fee is involved - however at Check-in they told me that I would not be charged for the internet service).

EVERY TIME I get my bill in the morning of my departure from these Marriotts, sure enough there is an internet charge on it. I don't know what they do to the internet in Europe but it must be something special to charge $110 for 7 days of it!!! I then need to go to the front desk and have them remove the charge and give me a new copy of my bill.

My rant is that I wonder how many business travelers just leave and then either never realize or realize it too late to do something about it.

When I spoke to the manager about how bad his process is, he stated that there is nothing he can do and it is part of the system design. My profile would be flagged so that in the future they will check my bill before they deliver it. So my question is if you know it is a problem, can't you sort through the Executives and correct their bill for them?

Is that too much to ask or am I just being picky? :rolleyes:

I definitely agree that it isn't too much to ask to receive a correct bill. The "its the way the system works" line sounds like a cop out to me. Just as the manager said, they could go through and check the bills out before they deliver them. But that would require some extra work and possibly training (the front desk personnel would actually have to know a little about the rates that are used at the hotel. :eek: )

Until the hotels change their local practices (or Marriott changes is systems whichever is really causing the problems), I would suggest you go down to the front desk the night before you checkout and ask for a copy of you bill. I do that for most of my stays and can get any "issues" taken care of before I'm leaving.

In the US, before I wised up and got a broadband internet card, it was very common for me to connect to the internet on the first day (at 12.95 / 14.95 per day) and then have the hotel assume I used it every night forward and bill me whether I used it or not. Good news is that an email to their centralized billing center fixes it real fast.

This has been a rant for both myself and my husband, he is of the opinion that the hotels could make sure the bills are accurate, buy hey, if they did they would miss out on lots of extra revenue!

Every time we stay on a DB&B package we get charged for the dinner. When we first started staying in Marriotts this would always worry me, had I made a mistake and dinner wan't included etc. I stopped reading the bills BEFORE breakfast as they riled me so much. Now I am used to it and know that I can get it sorted, but I shouldn't have to. The excuse is always the same: the restaurant use a different system and it just gets charged as they don't know what rate you are on. Blah blah blah. The esteemed Mr Hartleypig is a systems analyst and says for a fee he will sort their system out ...

I really do worry that some people who aren't savvy will just be paying lots of extra money and Marriott are pocketing it.

Last week I got the dreaded redemption fee added to a Reward stay, first time that this has happened. I have also had internet charges (when I haven't even connected) other people's bar bills, papers that were never delivered...

Lastly, we stayed at a Hilton (UK Marriotts are few and far between) and we had dinner as a package. Guess what??? No dinner charge added, bill completely accurate AND it stated how many Hhonors points we had earned. Not that this will make me stay in Hiltons, Marriott are superior bu their computer systems are a joke (won't go into the mess with my Rewards account)

Marriott Program to improve dexterity
 

I find myself getting angry about it because it really comes across as intentional. If we catch it then we are on the ball, if not, well then we lose. I think I have had 7 stays at different Marriotts since I joined and got a black Marriott card. 2 of those were actually fine at checkout. The others, both domestic and international, were with money generating problems. Oddly no money, or value was generated for me, only for Marriott. A few properties had real time wasting issues. In the middle of a promotion I got so fed up I cancelled 5 nights of stays. For a non business traveller who had been growing in my loyalty, and swaying decisions for my family trips Marriottt lost a lot of my trust. The initiatives they offer seem less interesting if an asterix at the bottem said that jumping through several hoops is included.
I liked being a Marriott cheerleader but after these incidences I find my husband noting that it is not worth the agro, I now tend to agree.

In my experience I'd be surprised if a bill is correct 50% of the time, it's usually nothing major and can quickly be sorted out but on occasion it's a major hassle and something that really shouldn't happen at all. I find US/Canadian hotels the best, but Internationally it's pot luck, in the UK I almost take it for granted these days to "build in" to my schedule an extra 15 minutes in case of having to sort out a check out/billing issue... does make you wonder how much gets billed to people who just pay on corporate credit cards/expenses and just don't worry about it.

T

What frustrates me is that sometimes I am in a hurry for a meeting, flight etc. THEN, a problem with the bill. Sometimes, if its very early, the front desk person will say they have to wait for a manager to come in to correct the bill. (Esp. BOGO issues) They tell me to go ahead and go. They will fix it later. Not very reassuring. :td: