enfuego

I'm curious if this has happened to anyone: I booked a reservation using cash & points for the Sheraton Barra, which had a one-day cancellation policy per my confirmation. Today I received an e-mail saying that due to Carnival, I now need to prepay my entire stay. I'm feeling slightly baited-and-switched, as this differs from the terms of the initial reservation and I'm still not 100% sure that's where I'm going to stay. Is this unusual? Am I entitled to anything since prepayment is not part of the cash & points reward that I booked?

Starwood Lurker

My apologies for the inconvenience, but if a deposit was not required originally, I would contact Corporate Customer Service and ask for their assistance. 800-328-6242.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Online Guest Feedback Coordinator
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

mikelat

Please update with whatever info you discover. I received the same e-mail today. I'm still somewhat holding out for a room to come up with C&P at the Sheraton Rio and to move my res over to that.

SportsTech

Not sure they mean to say that prepayment is noncancelleable...odd miss on the dates, as you'll see below. Here's the text of the message:

Dear Mr. ST,
We wish to thank you for choosing Sheraton Barra Hotel & Suites.
We have your reservation confirmed from 13th to 16th during Carnival. Since it is a special period you must pre pay 3 nights at least until 20th January 2010 in order to confirm the stay.

The total amount is USD 189,00 regarding to 3 rates + 5% of tax.
We are sending an authorization of debit in credit card attached in the message. Please send us back with legible photocopies of the card and the holder's ID (front and back).
In case of any doubt, do not hesitate to contact us.
Kind regards,
xxx
====================
Don't have any idea where the reference to the 20th comes from.

Lurkers, is this acceptable behavior? Original reservation cancel terms were, as stated above, 1 day prior.

enfuego

I can't imagine why a refundable prepay would be required if it were, indeed, refundable. Per William's suggestion, I'm going to call Corporate Customer Service this weekend (and thank you, William, for your fast and helpful response). It sounds like a bunch of us are looking going to be down there the same dates (SportsTech and I, at least). I'm also hoping that the Rio location opens up, which is why I'm hesitant to pay up for anything now. I'm guessing you also are taking advantage of that great AA biz class fare down to Rio, right?

merrickdb

Apologies for taking this horribly off-topic, but what are the great AA biz fares to Rio? I tried finding a thread in the MR forum, but didn't see anything. I currently have an economy ticket to Rio on Feb 10th and no flight back. Of course, if the J cabin is filled with folks on low J-fares, chances of my SWU clearing diminish.

To move this back on topic, I've also got a C&P reservation at the Barra and got the email about prepayment. Not really a huge deal (particularly if it remains refundable), but I'm curious of the outcome. I'd also love to meet up with other FT'ers in Rio over Carnival, particularly as it's looking like I'm going solo after a friend backed out.

-m

bigguyinpasadena

Am I the only one who finds the request for scans(front and back)of a credit card(info that should be in the original reservation) a red flag for idendity/credit card theft?
I hope no one falls for this.

NDDomer86

While I agree, a proactive attempt to gather this information seems a bit fishy, many hotels request this information when one is attempting to prepay a reservation that isn't otherwise prepaid. In fact, I think it should be required of prepaid reservations as well, since one could easily enter any willy-nilly credit card number they desire for a prepaid reservation (assuming the hotel does actually pre-charge the reservation), which may or may not be caught by the actual account holder until after the stay is completed.

When I wanted to prepay all of my non-prepaid stays on a recent trip to NYC, I was required to send in this information to all of the hotels.

In terms of identity theft, I would think at long as you're dealing with a US based entity (such as Starwood hotels) that your information would be protected under the laws governing client privacy (I forget the actual term of such actions at the moment). Hotels face HUGE penalties if they are not actively working to secure the data they ascertain, and obviously if this information is sent to a hotel, and then used with malice, you can expect to receive due compensation (though it obviously won't account for stress and time lost).

controller1

Over the past several years, after making a regular reservation as a gift, I have called Starwood properties and asked about pre-paying the reservation. I've done this about a half dozen times and NEVER have I been requested to fax a copy of the front/back of my ID or credit card. I've only had to provide the name on the credit card, the card number, and the expiration date. I've never even been asked for the security code on the back of the card (or front in the case of Amex).

This sounds very fishy and I would not do business with an entity that required this. Heck, why don't they just ask for your social security number!

Additionally, if this were a standard requirement then I believe the property would have ensured the English translation in the request was grammatically correct. The email sounds like one of those Nigerian "help me get my money out of the country" scams.

NDDomer86

I am not making judgement whether this particular instance is legit or not, just making reference that Starwood properties DO request this from time to time (W Hoboken, W NY Times Square, W New York Lexington Ave, W NY The Court from my own experience) and having worked in the industry (Marriott), other chains ask for this information on given occasions as well. Unfortunately, not all hotels properly store this information either. At the Irvine Marriott, they are simply stored in a file cabinet with the day's important paperwork in the back office then when the new month rolls around, simply trashed.

enfuego

I agree - this isn't a very secure form of transmitting the information, let alone who knows how it's being stored. Furthermore, I've already provided my SPG # and credit card info through spg.com, which (1) validates that I'm not some fraudster and (2) is well equipped to safely store my credit card details. I think I would be less perturbed if this had been requested up front as well, and not in an e-mail a few weeks after the fact.

To the person asking about the airfare deal, this was posted back in August:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/milea...hangeable.html Not a huge steal, but a good rate for J over Carnaval IMHO.

bigguyinpasadena

I believe we are dealing with a hotel in Brazil which is contacting a potential guest-Starwood is not requesting this information.
It certainly would not be the first time someone has pilfered some gust reservation info and used it for credit card fraud.
The fact that someone is calling/emailing YOU to ask for YOUR CCinfo is a red flag.
Follow Williams sound advice and contact Starwood CCS and have them deal with it.

mikelat

Yup, headed down next weekend to scout things out a bit and then back for Carnival.

The Sheraton Rio had opened up last week but I waited another day thinking about it and then missed it.

Looks like a number of us are going to be there on the same days. We should arrange a quick meet up esp if we're all staying at the same place.

mikelat

Just called Corp Cust Service and this is what they said :

The mail was sent by the property, so it is legit. They (Sheraton Barra) are requiring this during Carnival. Normally all reservations for the hotel during this time are either fully pre-paid or require a deposit.

The rep is going to send the reservation mgr a message to let them know that I don't want to provide the info and that the terms of the reservation do not require a deposit. The message will state that I will pay in full upon checkout and that my reservation should be honored even without a deposit.

To me, the agent said that the property could have put a deposit required in with the C&P terms but since that was not done I am not required to pay a deposit.

<end agent conversation>


Also, for those interested, I created a thread in the South America travel section for those of us headed down for Carnival - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/south...2010-whos.html

holtju2

This is normal modus operandi in Brazil. I wanted to ticket an award reservation without going to a CTO with one US carrier and was asked to fax the documents that OP mentioned.