Hotel charged my CC retrospectively

I wondered if anyone has any thoughts on this situation.

I booked a hotel package with Superbreak that included rail travel to Edinburgh. The trip completed before Superbreak went into administration..

I paid for the trip through a travel agent who sold the Superbreak package.

The hotel accepted the Superbreak vouchers as payment for the stay and the holiday completed with no issues.
Two weeks after completion of the holiday the hotel charged the cost of the hotel stay to my credit card (they asked for my credit card on arrival as I thought this was normal practice).
At the moment I have paid twice for the hotel.
However, I guess that as Superbreak has collapsed and had not paid the hotel, the hotel is bypassing the Superbreak administrator and taking the money from me without actually informing me.

Has anyone comments as to whether the hotel is acting legally - they did not inform me about making the charge. I have contacted my credit card company but they say the hotel was behaving correctly.
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Comments

  • jonesMUFCforever
    jonesMUFCforever Posts: 28,898
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    edited 26 August 2019 at 6:13PM
    Speak to your credit card provider again. Dispute the transaction and start a complaint.
    The hotel had no right in debiting your card other than if you trashed the room or for extras such as the mini bar etc.
  • Regarding the legality of the hotel's actions, I suspect a lot depends on what you actually signed at check-in.

    Anyway, how did you pay the travel agent? If that was by card, then you may be better off disputing that transaction with the card issuer and saying that you didn't get the service you paid for. Your dispute will only be for the hotel accommodation part of the transaction as it seems the rail travel was provided.

    In the 'bad old days' of card transactions, hotels frequently had T&Cs that you signed up to on arrival that would often say, you agreed to pay for the accommodation with the card you provided at check-in, in the event any prepaid vouchers were not honoured.

    I don't know if the card-scheme rules allow hotels to do this anymore - there are other forum contributors with more up to date knowledge of said rules who will be able to help with that one.

    As long as you paid the travel agent by card you should be able to get your money back - and don't listen to any posters on this forum who say that you cannot raise a Chargeback to an insolvent retailer.
  • System
    System Posts: 178,077
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    Was the booking made via Superbreak?
  • born_again
    born_again Posts: 14,018
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    edited 27 August 2019 at 2:38PM
    Contact Hotel and find out if they have been paid for your stay. Have seen it where a different card has been swiped at hotel to the one paying previously. Because they can't match the payment to a stay, they take the payment from the card swiped.
    Speak to travel agent, as they are ABTA covered. Although that is a waste as all they do is send you a letter saying won't payout and send you to your card provider.. But your card provider will need this for a chargeback.
    Travel agent or other travel company bookings
    If you made your booking through a travel agent or other travel company – not directly with Super Break – then you will need to contact that company for advice and guidance.
    Life in the slow lane
  • vikingaero
    vikingaero Posts: 10,920
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    martflet wrote: »
    I have contacted my credit card company but they say the hotel was behaving correctly.


    Typical behaviour from the CC Company.



    Call them up. Be polite at all times. Ask for the full name of the person you are speaking to. Ask them to confirm that the call is being recorded and that you wish to make a chargeback. I find that if you have their name and ask for the recording then they treat you more seriously. It will be their job to fob off complaints and chargebacks.


    If they fob you off then ask for the call to be made into an official complaint and that you will escalate the recorded call to the FOS after 8 weeks.


    Where consumers are going wrong is that even if the complaint is upheld, most consumers stop the complaint there. It should always be escalated to the FOS as wrongdoing on the part of the financial organisation.
    The man without a signature.
  • eskbanker
    eskbanker Posts: 30,401
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    vikingaero wrote: »
    Where consumers are going wrong is that even if the complaint is upheld, most consumers stop the complaint there. It should always be escalated to the FOS as wrongdoing on the part of the financial organisation.
    If a consumer complaint has been adequately dealt with by a financial institution then there is no point in making a spurious and vexatious escalation to FOS if no further action is required!

    As an ombudsman service, FOS doesn't have any remit to review already-resolved complaints, but all financial institutions are required to report their complaint statistics to the regulator (who are empowered to do something about them if necessary): https://www.fca.org.uk/data/complaints-data
  • Ergates
    Ergates Posts: 2,108
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    vikingaero wrote: »
    Where consumers are going wrong is that even if the complaint is upheld, most consumers stop the complaint there. It should always be escalated to the FOS as wrongdoing on the part of the financial organisation.

    If a complain was resolved in the favour of the customer why would that constitute a "wrongdoing"? And what, exactly, would you expect the FOS to do about it?
  • martflet wrote: »
    I wondered if anyone has any thoughts on this situation.

    I booked a hotel package with Superbreak that included rail travel to Edinburgh. The trip completed before Superbreak went into administration..

    I paid for the trip through a travel agent who sold the Superbreak package.

    The hotel accepted the Superbreak vouchers as payment for the stay and the holiday completed with no issues.
    Two weeks after completion of the holiday the hotel charged the cost of the hotel stay to my credit card (they asked for my credit card on arrival as I thought this was normal practice).
    At the moment I have paid twice for the hotel.
    However, I guess that as Superbreak has collapsed and had not paid the hotel, the hotel is bypassing the Superbreak administrator and taking the money from me without actually informing me.

    Has anyone comments as to whether the hotel is acting legally - they did not inform me about making the charge. I have contacted my credit card company but they say the hotel was behaving correctly.

    Your credit card company is incorrect. You had best call them back, try again, and if you get the same response then open a complaint as has been suggested above.

    You have a valid chargeback and there are several options available under both Visa and MasterCard.

    I’ve been dealing with Superbreak chargebacks but I’ve not known anyone else affected like this. Have known it it the past though. The hotel are acting wrongly.
  • Your credit card company is incorrect. You had best call them back, try again, and if you get the same response then open a complaint as has been suggested above.

    You have a valid chargeback and there are several options available under both Visa and MasterCard.

    I’ve been dealing with Superbreak chargebacks but I’ve not known anyone else affected like this. Have known it it the past though. The hotel are acting wrongly.


    Problem at this point is that OP hasn't responded to my request about the way they paid Superbreak. If they paid by card, a chargeback should work. If they didn't (and there's no ABTA bond payout), then OP will have to push their card company on the hotel transaction.
  • Apologies for not responding earlier.

    My original payment to Superbreak was made via a travel agent using my Visa debit card.

    The credit card company say that because I allowed the hotel to "see" my credit card on arrival then I implicitly gave permission for them to take the payment - even though I signed nothing and was not told of this possibility.

    The hotel was not paid by Superbreak.

    However, the situation has now been resolved because the debit card provider has just now refunded my original payment.

    Many thanks for all comments and advice.
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