Hi William -

Hope you had a good Thanksgiving holiday. (I’m assuming you’ll see this after the weekend.) As you can tell from the title of this thread, I just made a reservation at the Westin Dublin from 12/21/ to 12/24. I made the reservation under the 3 nights for the cost of 2 promotion. As I was clicking on the reservation, I saw the notice at the bottom that stated my credit card would be charged 585 Euro, but the total cost of the 2 nights comes to 398. Why am I being charged for 3 nights cancallation despite the lower booked rate? I don’t think I’ve ever seen this before, or I’ve never noticed it previously. I can PM the confirmation page, or the confirmation #, if you would like.

Thanks for the help.

Have you checked (by phone or online) to see if the charge has hit your credit card yet? Was your card actually charged the higher rate? Was it even charged at all?

I wouldn't assume that the wording on the reservation is correct. Most likely, it is in error. @:-)

I've booked a number of these "3 nights for 2" deals over the years. One of two things has always happened:

1. Even though I booked weeks in advance, my card was actually not charged until arrival, or

2. My card was charged more or less immediately upon making the reservation.

In both cases, the amount charged was the correct amount (i.e., the rate for two nights).

Furthermore, I recently (a few days ago) made another such reservation; this time I saw the same misleading language as you saw, but I'm not worried. The charge has not hit my card yet. If the charge ends up being wrong, I'm sure I can resolve it via Starwood and/or my credit card company. (As always, I have printed out all the supporting web pages.)

Anyhow, I am as curious as you as to why this strange wording appears. But as we all know, the Starwood website is full of glitches, although improvements have definitely been made over time. This appears to be a new glitch -- haven't seen it before.

Oddly enough, I have a similar situation with the 20% off two nights for an upcoming stay in January. On the room selection page, you see the discounted rates & the regular rates with the "discount line" across the regular rate. However, if you click on the rate details, the total room price charged on the credit card is not the discounted price, but the regular price without the discount.

I'll ask you the same question I asked the OP: has the charge hit your credit card yet? Check by phone or online to find out. @:-)

Some good points. I have checked online, and the charge has not shown up yet.

Interestingly, I have received the emailed confirmation of the reservation, and it notes that I could forfeit the proper 398 Euro charge. However, it does not address how much of a deposit will be taken. Will check my charge card again in a day or so.

Thanksgiving holiday was nice...until Texas lost to the Aggies on Friday. Then I wanted to hurl my turkey and dressing. But, that's another matter that we will take up in Omni later today.

If you haven't done so already, call Corporate Customer Service at 800-328-6242 and see if they can sort this out for you. It could be anything and I really don't have any expertise or special authority in these types of matters.

Good luck, regardless!

Sincerely,


William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

[email protected]

I booked the LeMeridien Khao Lak with the 3-2 promotion and was charged 3 nights before I stayed. Had them back out 3rd night while I was at the hotel and the credit was used to offset my incidentals.

I've been checking my credit card account online every day to see if the charge hit.

It finally did, and it is the correct amount -- two nights only, NOT three. ^

Interesting that your experience is different from mine. Maybe this is a glitch that Starwood is in the process of correcting.

EDIT: It is also possible that individual hotels handle these types of bookings differently. My reservation is for the ArabellaSheraton Grand in Frankfurt, Germany. Kudos to them for charging the correct (discounted) rate.

[QUOTE=Starwood Lurker]Thanksgiving holiday was nice...until Texas lost to the Aggies on Friday.
Sincerely,



WHOOP !!!!!!!!

Thanks for getting back so quickly. So far, no need to get in touch with Customer Service on my part. While the Westin Dublin hasn’t posted to the credit card yet, the same day as I made that reservation, I also made a 4 nights for 3 at the Sheraton Belgravia; did not notice what the web site said I would be charged as a deposit, but the correct 3 nights charge just posted. Will see what happens when the Dublin posts. Perhaps this is one of those ymmv things.

I’ve pretty much given up on NY area sports of late. Though the Rutgers rise has been fun to watch. Maybe NYU teams are next; go Violets. Or have they changed that name?

for the prepaid offer in Khao Lak:
stay 4 paid 3 -> there was a mark in the T&C that they charging for 4 days, but you got 1 night back at the hotel.
Maybe so they go up from level 1 to 2 next year (about the prizes)?

Ramle

That is similar to what happened to paullevi at the Meridien Khao Lak.
Sorry, I don't understand the relevance of the points redemption category to the multi-night stay promo rates.

I gave kudos to the ArabellaSheraton Grand too soon.

Yes, they charged the correct amount for my "3 for 2" reservation. ^

But, they apparently also somehow resurrected a CANCELLED reservation (cancelled on Nov. 21) and it looks like I might get charged a huge rack rate cancel penalty. I'm working with Starwood to resolve this, but it sucks.

why only william? others can help, too.

I've quite often booked hotels on the 3 for 2 and 20% off rates. The problem with the incorrect amounts coming up on the site and on email confirmations when a reservation is made appears to have kicked in in the last couple of months as it worked fine prior to that.

I suspect that a few changes have been made to the site and this is one of the knock-on bugs that haven't been spotted by the SPG web team. The main thing is that people appear to be being billed correctly when pre-payment is taken.

One question though: Although in theory these are pre-paid rates, on a couple of occasions I haven't been charged until check-out at the hotel. Has anyone had experience with this and been charged correctly? Just wondering whether the hotel is definitely fed the correct rate information in the reservation system.