SinglePapa2

I apologize for long posts. But no one came up with the all-important ANSWER: can a U.S. Hotel use your CC number to sell you preceding, current and future days of stay, without your knowledge? If this is not a (criminal) offence on Hotel employee's part, then this can happen to you on EVERY DEAL in this forum, which gets cancelled by OTA. We jump on what we think is a free vacation, and we may end up charged rack rate!

patriots12

Report the situation to your credit card. They are for protection. No one is going to provide you the "ANSWER" you are looking for because your question is complete non sense.

theddo

No, this is about the contract you signed when you checked in. Pacta sunt servanda.

Adam1222

In the other thread in which you are discussing this topic, you have indicated that the money you paid to Expedia for the room initially was refunded, and then the hotel charged you for the rooms you stayed in. Once Expedia cancelled your reservation, which you knew they cancelled at the time based on your other posts, you apparently believe you were entitled to nonetheless stay at the hotel for free. In many circumstances, that would be referred to as attempted theft.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hotel...l#post24384112

As you noted, the hotel charged you the quoted price on your booking with Expedia. ("I can now see on print-out that HOTEL simply matched the rate on Expedia website, Expedia offering lower rate than hotel usually states to walk-ins (so hotel manager might have thought she was doing me an unsolicited favor")). The hotel would likely argue that you agreed to pay that rate when you reserved on Expedia.com, and Expedia claims you violated the terms and conditions of the coupon. If your position is that perhaps the hotel should have evicted you instead, perhaps that's right. But since you knew that your money was refunded (and bragged about it on Flyertalk) before the reservation took place, and had made a reservation at the rate charged, you should have expected you were going to be charged for your hotel stay.

You have also asked the same question in the other thread. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hotel...l#post24402889

Often1

Now, I think that I understand. OP wants a free room. Although he agreed to pay for one. Not.

tatterdema

Ugh. Haha, nevermind. Time is too precious. Would love to see this on Judge Judy though, and watch her reaction.

SinglePapa2

Let's clarify: all members of our forum got a chance for free/nexttofree rooms under this latest hot coupon, the way Expedia initially offered it. Anyone objects?

As to paying: I did pay lower than Expedia rate to a non-cancellable site, for a day preceding my 5-day Expedia booking. Thus, if hotel manager thought she was doing me a favor by selling me (without my knowledge) 5-day stay at Expedia rate - she was not. Another aspect of "staying": sure I stayed at $0.00 as booked via Expedia coupon. But not sure, if I might have opted to vacate if Offered to stay at any charge, because the hotel was not delivering (to all guests, and that's why there was plenty of vacancy) half of its base services: wifi, heated pool, working jacuzzi, general cleanliness of rooms. if hotel had spoken to me about paying them stay, I wouldn't stay - and they'd be left holding even more vacant rooms. There is huge grain of salt about any possible hotel's claim that I enjoyed their accommodations, and therefore wouldn't deserve chargeback.

I'm a little taken aback by seeming unwillingness of members to recognize that hotel's employee committed a very grave breach: she charged rooms going forward, without ever attempting to obtain consent. Do you want businesses who know your CC to be selling to you, at prices they choose, and you only find out about it from printed statements later?

Often1

You are complaining about the property charging your CC "ex parte" (whatever that term means in this context).

If your room terms didn't authorize the property to collect from your CC any balance due, you may have a case. But, if the terms to which you agreed at check-in permit the property to apply unpaid charges to your form of payment, you will be SOL.

That's been said in this thread countless different ways. It isn't going to change. Your sole likely remedy is a cool, calm & collected conversation with the sales or FD manager, skipping the fake Latin legal terms and endless stuff, and asking for some rebate or customer service gesture.

Or start yet another thread and get the same again.

SinglePapa2

Term "ex-parte" is common. At the point of charging my card, I was "not present". How can hotel sell future stay to my card without offering it to me?

patriots12

How many times are going to ask the same question? You know what they say about the definition of insanity?

This is not the appropriate forum.

SinglePapa2

Why quarrel? We all, who use best (extreme) offers on this forum, offers that may be cancelled after your arrival - need to know: can hotels come up with justification to charge us full price? And in this case, without even offering us freedom of not buying (or negotiating)

Adam1222

an ex parte contact is one between the Court and only one party to litigation.

It is common and legal for merchants to process a credit card payment without the cardholder standing right there. That is how mail orders work, for example, or the entire point of leaving a credit card deposit or guarantee for charges that you may incur (as you did here).

To your question "can hotels come up with a justification to charge you full price," the answer, as it has been since you started your screeds is "Sometimes"

whimike

This whole thread is giving me a headache, but let me see if I can sum things up here in plain English....

1) OP bought 3 rooms via Expedia using a coupon that resulted in a near $0 room.
2) All the hotel knows is that some published rate is being paid for the room (it has no involvement with the Expedia coupon).
3) Prior to the OP arriving, Expedia cancelled 2 of his reservations and refunded his money.
4) OP checked in to all 3 rooms, and signed check-in paperwork which most likely had a clause that allowed the hotel to charge his card for any unpaid amounts.
5) OP was made aware by the hotel, during the stay, that there is a problem with 2 of his reservations and he needs to contact Expedia to fix it.
6) Hotel charges OP for the 2 rooms that the Hotel was never paid for by Expedia.
7) OP goes nuclear since he no longer got all his rooms for near $0, and the hotel charged him for the 2 rooms that Expedia didn't pay them for.

OP, to me it seems pretty easy... Look at the paperwork you signed when you checked-in. Was there a clause that enables the hotel to charge your card if there are unpaid amounts due? If so, what is your quarrel with the hotel?

Put yourself in the hotel's shoes. You checked in to 3 rooms and Expedia only paid them for 1 room. The hotel asked that you call Expedia and resolve what is going on with the other 2 rooms. At the end of the stay you hadn't resolved anything with Expedia, and thus the hotel charged you. Were you expecting the hotel to just let you stay for free?

SinglePapa2

Thank Adam1222 for great answer!
There are still two problems here: 1. (And that's a very clear one) There can be no possible justification for manager's action of selling you future nights without your knowledge. I really don't want to call this "criminal"; but this is a very grave impropriety, which I'm forced to pursue via bank investigator.
2. We're still ALL members of this forum in suspense re: the powers of a U.S. Hotel to make us pay full price to them in cases OTA backs down on a deal (mistake deal or not) during our travel. Some were asking earlier: where is a hotel deal in this thread? OK: you can call Expedia right now and buy a free/nearfree 5 night stay by giving Expedia CSR Discover Card. There are plenty $40 hotels listed on Expedia, and they'll let you apply $200 coupon. What if you do the same within another Expedia account? Again, Expedia will book another free room for same 5 days, and send confirmation email. Third room? They'll send you confirmation for that too. Booked! Pre-paid rooms. What can happen after you spend money and your vacation time to arrive to booked destination is still a "suspended story", because our discussion has not determined the extent of a U.S. Hotel's legal powers to collect from your credit card on file whatever Expedia may not pay the hotel (without so much as notifying you)

Often1

On the contrary what you refer to "our discussion" (which is more like everybody else's discussion and you repeating the same thing) comes down to the generalized view that you owed the property for at least 2 of the rooms and authorized the property to charge any balance due to your CC.

So, the property charged the balance due to your CC.

There is an easy solution for the future. Don't sign blank authorizations at check-in. That may result in the property not checking you in, but it's your decision.