s0ssos

Absolutely not. You pay on luxury tax on the rack rate. And if you get upgraded that can be significantly higher. Read about it on the thread.

What I am saying is YMMV, cause in India nothing seems to really be set in stone.

Keyser

once again, an award stay does not attract luxury tax....i don't need to read about it....my firm represents the fhrai (federation of hotel & restaurant association of india) who have been fighting the government on this luxury tax issue for a while....

if you get upgraded then technically they are supposed to charge it but properties have a way of getting around it if they want to....

s0ssos

Then how come some do and some don't?

Anyway, so the hotel I got upgraded at on an award stay said they would charge me an extra tax, but ended up not. I don't know if someone else stepped in to intervene, but that was what I was told by the front desk agent.

That's why I feel in India nothing is set in stone.

And also, if there are rules why cannot hotels tell you about the charges ahead of time? If you look at the threads the Lurker and everybody else always says they do not know.

Oxon Flyer

Rather than reheat the contents of the FAQ: Award stays charged taxes on RACK rate in India? master thread here, perhaps it would be better to focus on getting an answer to the OPs question regarding Bora Bora ?

Keyser

for award stays there is a loophole that allows the properties to not charge it....now it depends on whether they want to exploit that loophole or just charge it so that they don't have to give an explanation....that will differ from property to property....please remember, the properties don't want to charge this as it affects their business....

the front desk agent does not have the authority to waive the charge....a manager will have to intervene....

this i will agree with in general....but this situation has nothing to do with this fact....

they sort of do....for all the properties where this tax is charged, the booking page states so very clearly that the luxury tax will be charged at the rack rate....the rack rate changes depending on the type of room you end up in so asking during check-in would be your best bet....

3Cforme

The OP could have asked for an itemization while making the booking rather than coming here and getting speculation. He also might have searched for the master thread and its comments on taxes & fees, rather than starting a new thread.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starw...l#post28075955

Starwood Lurker

To this end, if the OP will send us his reservation confirmation number to the email address below, we would be glad to check on the accuracy of the Platinum reservation associate.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, LLC

[email protected]

KENNECTED

The OP is booking at the Le Meridien not the St. Regis. I agree that this should be in the appropriate thread Le Meridien, Bora Bora [Master Thread]

rev

I didn't get an upgrade, so SPG claims my taxes are $279 on two nights that retail at appr $366 for two nights. A 76% tax. Yikes.

To follow up:
The response to my email to them resulted in an explanation all of the taxes on my bill, including the luxury tax, but they completely ignored that vague "Room Charge" that came to ~$90 each night. There is no description for these two identical "Room Charge"s, and I did not charge anything in addition to wifi - which is clearly written out elsewhere on the bill.

I emailed them back asking to explain the Room Charges they added, and also why it's not covered by Starpoints since they didn't say it was tax. No response the first attempt...

After trying again, I just received and email that my question is being escalated.

We'll see what happens.

Fizzer

It happened to us recently at 2 hotels. One was in Houston but I picked it up at check out and waited about 10 minutes until a manager confirmed to the FDC that I shouldn't have been charged. A mistake and stuff happens.
The second occasion was in Quito, wheretc it appeared on our bill at checkout. Funnily it was only for some nights and not all. Due to language difficulties I paid but then submitted my bill to SPG research. The hotel got back to me, apologized for the error but then said that due to some accounting difficulties it would take a few weeks for a refund. That was several weeks ago and this post has reminded me that I need to check my CC statement.