Can a hotel charge me for their mistake?

peachyprice

It's unlikely to happen to me because I make sure I've paid my bill when I leave a hotel and I make sure I tell car hire companies if there is damage to a car BEFORE I take it and if I've caused damage to it while on hire.

Unfortunately there are people who do not take responsibility for themselves or think they can have one over on these companies. Which is why they insist on a credit car to secure any extras or damage in the first place.

The alternative is that you leave a wad of cash when checking in or accepting a hire car. If that suits you better, go for it.

It ain't ever going to change just because a very small minority of people in the world don't understand how the system works/try to play the system.

Even if things were to change in the UK Nanny State where people no longer feel the need to accept responsibility for anything, that still leaves the hundreds of thousands of hotels the rest of the world over, you think just because a minority of people in the UK don't like it it's going to change everywhere? No, of course it's not.

Simple truth is, be honest, use reputable companies, take responsibility for your own actions and you've very little to fear.

dzug1

Perhaps another moral to this tale is don't agree to pay for a hotel bill on behalf of a group of friends

photome

peachyprice wrote: »

It's unlikely to happen to me because I make sure I've paid my bill when I leave a hotel and I make sure I tell car hire companies if there is damage to a car BEFORE I take it and if I've caused damage to it while on hire.

Unfortunately there are people who do not take responsibility for themselves or think they can have one over on these companies. Which is why they insist on a credit car to secure any extras or damage in the first place.

The alternative is that you leave a wad of cash when checking in or accepting a hire car. If that suits you better, go for it.

It ain't ever going to change just because a very small minority of people in the world don't understand how the system works/try to play the system.

Even if things were to change in the UK Nanny State where people no longer feel the need to accept responsibility for anything, that still leaves the hundreds of thousands of hotels the rest of the world over, you think just because a minority of people in the UK don't like it it's going to change everywhere? No, of course it's not.

Simple truth is, be honest, use reputable companies, take responsibility for your own actions and you've very little to fear.

Sums it up nicely

Cornucopia

Why are people assuming that hotels etc. will take vast sums from their accounts? Okay, so mistakes might occasionally be made, but the vast majority of these situations will involve taking the correct amount for goods and services that the customer knew they were using and knew they would have to pay for.

If the charges are correct, and the customer has implicitly approved them in advance, then the only issue is whether a Credit Card might be more appropriate for these transactions than a Debit Card.

Hotel accommodation is one of a short-ish list of things that cost less in real terms than they used to. I can imagine that this practice helps keeps costs down. I'd sooner have cheap hotels than worry too much about whether someone has read the small print authorising additional charges or not.

kerrypops1

littlereddevil wrote: »

The OP seems very reticent to tell us the true story

Sorry the OP hasn't been online hence not replying. So when I contacted the hotel they said they hadn't charged for one of the rooms. I'd not realised this as I'd just out the money in my account and knew I had enough for the various bills that weekend. I'd left the calculations in the room and not looked at them due to us being busy all weekend.


I don't dispute that we owed the money. What I am disputing is the way they just took the money claiming they asked another member of the party (which they didn't as I've checked with everyone). I didn't leave the card details as security for the room (I always leave a credit card as it's easier to resolve if there are problems). What they did is use the original receipt to charge my card without asking me. Surely the card holder authorises all payments???

Cornucopia

In short... yes and no.

You probably agreed to a contract which stipulated that they may make additional charges.

There is the provision for "cardholder not present" transactions on both CCs and DCs. However, there are rules about passing information back to the cardholder. Not sure what was done about that here?

It all comes down to the detail. Your basic premise that being charged without your express involvement in the transaction is automatically wrong... is wrong.

Did you suffer any loss because of what they did? Overdraft charges, etc.? If not, this is not worth pursuing.

GingerBob_3

peachyprice wrote: »

It's unlikely to happen to me because I make sure I've paid my bill when I leave a hotel and I make sure I tell car hire companies if there is damage to a car BEFORE I take it and if I've caused damage to it while on hire.

Well bully for you, what an incredibly astute person you must be. Do let us know if it ever does happen to you, won't you. Unfortunatley hotels and car hire firms are not as thorough as you, generaly speaking, and sometimes, believe it or not, they !!!! up and screw you over. They wouldn't be able to do so if they couldn't filtch money from your account just when they felt like it. But as you say it's UNLIKELY to happen to YOU.

peachyprice

GingerBob wrote: »

Well bully for you, what an incredibly astute person you must be. Do let us know if it ever does happen to you, won't you. Unfortunatley hotels and car hire firms are not as thorough as you, generaly speaking, and sometimes, believe it or not, they !!!! up and screw you over. They wouldn't be able to do so if they couldn't filtch money from your account just when they felt like it. But as you say it's UNLIKELY to happen to YOU.

Yes, I am astute with my money, which clearly you are not. You're clearly bitter about this, were you stung for a lot due to your own lack of awareness?

GingerBob_3

This has actually happened to me twice in recent times, once involving PremierInn and another involving EuropCar.

For PremierInn they belatedly charged my credit card for newspapers. I got an immediate refund from Amex and complained to PremierInn even though I owed them the money. They waived the charge. If they'd have contacted me rather than just take the money without first checking if I did indeed agree that I owed the money, I would have been only too willing to pay.

EuropCar debited my CC with over £100 by mistake; the debit should have been against another customer. To get the money back involved a bit of effort; the CC card company (MBNA) weren't interested. I did eventually get a full refund.

Recently on holiday (Malta) the hire car company insisted on taking two separte swipes of my card, the second one being to cover for speeding/parking tickets. Hang on! What if I wanted to contest any such ticket? Not an option, apparently. So this is the type of low down trick they get up to when they effectively have access to your bank account.

I'm wondering if after having provided card swipes you can contact the CC card company to cancel it and state that any attempt at a charge by the company is unauthorised. Then pay in cash on completion of the service? I guess there'll be some get out clause from one of the parties to stop you doing this.