Holiday Inn Hell - Help!

sams247

Please can anyone help or give us advice.

My partner and I stayed at a Holiday Inn in Cambridge last week. When we arrived the receptionist asked us for a swipe of our card, we've done this most times but always ask if anything is to be charged. She said nothing would be charged. The next day we checked out and again were asked for the card. This time we were told the charge would be £75 (the cost of our stay) and we agreed and put in pin etc. Two days later we checked our bank details. Two charges had come out made payable to the Holiday Inn, one for the £75 that we had agreed to (Sunday debit) and one for £125 which we knew nothing about (Saturday debit). We have since phoned 5 times to ask what is happening. We are told this is 'standard practice', a hold is put on the money in case we leave without paying. This hold, we are now told, lasts for 5 days following the stay. Our complaint is this - a) we were never told about the £125 b) why £125 c) why 5 days after the bill is paid in full and d) the staff and management have been completely rude and unhelpful, the manager has been completely and utterley off hand. So what can we do? Our bank has suggested that the £125 is fraud if we were not told about it. So, apart from never, ever booking with Holiday Inn again we are stuck

davetrousers

I heard about a similar thing at a petrol station. A lady payed at the pump (Not Tesco or Asda though) and the petrol station took £60 off her card, the idea being that they refund the difference a few days later. So if she put in £30 worth of petrol she would get a £30 refund!

Way out of order if you ask me!

sams247

Woah, how can that be legal? I am going to be very cautious about using any cards from now on! Holiday Inn said they would put a block on using any hotel facilities for anyone not using a card. Nice!

PasturesNew

The hotel thing is quite common. Read a thread here the other day about it where if you aren't careful it can leave you with £0 to spend.

Re petrol. That's just nuts. No reason for that at all.

lynzpower

this is definately something that happened to me.

I stayed at the Christopher Wren in windsor - bloody pricey too, the beakfdasts alone were over 40 quid for me & OH. last year for a wedding and my dad was actually paying for our room :money: however, as we checked in before dad did, they took my car details. Check out, my dad paid on his card.

i got home to find they had taken about 500 :eek: problem was it was right at the end of my pay month and it was touch & go whether this would send me over limit :eek:

In the end I begged the hotel staff to release it early. I didnt kick off, but explained i felt it unfair to take this cash without warning, i would have shifted some money in savings etc to cover if Id have known etc. they were apologetic and just sorted it out for me but it did take umpteen phonecalls. Im not sure whether its in the T&Cs in booking tbh I hardly ever read them even so in my case my dad booked the rooms so its not the T&C i ever agreed to - iyswim.

Donnie

That sounds suspect. There's a difference in getting an authority to take £125 from the card and actually taking it. It looks as if they've actually taken it and are having to make a refund.

dzug

davetrousers wrote: »

I heard about a similar thing at a petrol station. A lady payed at the pump (Not Tesco or Asda though) and the petrol station took £60 off her card, the idea being that they refund the difference a few days later. So if she put in £30 worth of petrol she would get a £30 refund!

Way out of order if you ask me!

Maybe a trifle exaggerated, maybe true.

Some petrol stations (including Tesco) will put though an authorisation for a £1 transaction before you start to fill, mainly to check it's a real card. When you've finished they will actually put though the full transaction - but leave the £1 to drop out of the system a few days later.

A bit disconcerting if you are not expecting it - even more if it's for a much bigger sum than £1.

dzug

Donnie wrote: »

That sounds suspect. There's a difference in getting an authority to take £125 from the card and actually taking it. It looks as if they've actually taken it and are having to make a refund.

If they get authority to take it, it blocks use of that part of your credit limit for any other transaction. Doesn't matter from this point of view whether thay take it or not.

The authority 'expires' after a few days (not sure how many) if not used.

What can happen (and it's bad if it does) is that when they take the actual payment they put a fresh transaction through and 'forget' to use/cancel the authority. It can then mess up your account for a few days until it lapses. It's not actually taken - but the effect is as if it had been.

sams247

Well, it seems as if Holiday Inn have taken this money 'in error' although they've spent half the week telling us they haven't got it! Tonight they 'discovered' maybe they did have it but have released it back to us. It seems a bit of a side line but in all honesty I would have minded a whole lot less if someone (anyone) from the hotel had been nice, polite or apologetic!

Donnie

dzug wrote: »

If they get authority to take it, it blocks use of that part of your credit limit for any other transaction. Doesn't matter from this point of view whether thay take it or not.

The authority 'expires' after a few days (not sure how many) if not used.

What can happen (and it's bad if it does) is that when they take the actual payment they put a fresh transaction through and 'forget' to use/cancel the authority. It can then mess up your account for a few days until it lapses. It's not actually taken - but the effect is as if it had been.

It does matter, if it's a foreign transaction.

Wanted to rent a bike in Portugal. When I realised they would actually apply the deposit charge to my card, I gave it a miss.

crobinson_3

Having worked in hotels for a number of years (Not Holiday Inn) i can safely shed some light here.

It would appear to me that you have used a debit card to check in which is no issue if used by the hotel correctly, they will take the full payment of £75.00 for the room and £50.00 for any additional extras you may have during your stay (they should advise you about this) then upon check out they can either do one of three things a) refund the difference upon what you have already been charged, for example you have spent £10.00 behind the bar they will give you back £40.00 b) Charge you the additional amount For example you have had dinner and it came to £60.00, they will charge you the additional amount c) Refund you the check in amount of £125.00 and start again (Most common)

For some reason this ‘issue for the hotel’ does not occur on credit cards as the authorisation and refunds are instant.

Now it does take a while for refunds to go on to your card as it would do in any shop but this is not acceptable, you should have been advised through out the whole process to make it more of a informed choice - Drop me a note if you need any more information but i would write to them and explain everything, if they are any sort of hotel they should be more than apologetic and come up with a gift for you and your partner.

PS i know a great hotel in the area if you ever need one again!