Billing surprises for the traveller? | GTAMotorcycle.com

Billing surprises for the traveller?

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inreb

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I never pre-book because loosy goosy traveller but recently made exception and reserved a Motel 6. $69, hey not bad! At online checkout the price came to just shy of $100 because "tax recovery fee" as I recall. Ok, whatever. Just got the Visa statement...that $69 room cost me, all in, $139.41!! Obviously I missed some fine print along the way. Is anybody familiar with this business practise?

edit: Buyer beware. It was reservations.com representing themselves as the hotel. $69 was US price plus tax recovery fee plus reservation fee plus tax plus exchange rate...d'oh!
 
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Never had a price discrepancy like that before, though I do not use those hotel websites, I book directly through the website for whatever chain I am staying at, i.e. Holiday Inn, Comfort Inn, etc.
 
I've not had it happen to me but I have heard of it happening.

I recently tried to contest a charge on my card I was told I had to have in writing what I was supposed to be getting before I agreed to pay vs what I am getting after paying. This was in regards to a promotion I was offered over the phone, non refundable. Should've stuck with my gut and told them to screw off unless they were willing to send me something in writing. Now I'm stuck with it.

This was through Holiday Inn's membership program (forget what it's called). Called to book a hotel. Was offered a "resort preview" at any of their 5 new resort locations for $250. If I sit through a presentation I get my $250 back so its free. Even though it sounded fishy on the phone I am a long time customer of Holiday Inn so I thought it was legit and figured I could deal with a 2 hour presentation harassing me to buy something. I agree to the promotion. This was in like April. So in May I pick a location (Smoky Mountains) and a date (early October). So about a week ago I start trying to plan this in a little more detail and review the confirmation letters and realize I am not staying in the resort, like I was told on the phone, I'm staying at a regular Holiday Inn 20 minutes away. The only thing indicating this in the information I used to pick the locations is that the address of the hotel is different than the address of the resort but since I was told it was at one of the resorts I never bothered to look up the addresses of the resorts and make sure they matched the addresses of the locations I got to pick from. I try to cancel and of course I can't without losing my $250, even though they lied to me. On top of that, they tell me if I miss the presentation, or am somehow disqualified, not only will I not get my $250 but I will be billed the full retail cost of my stay which will range anywhere from $300-1000.

Called my credit card company to see what my options were and that's when they told me I should've had it in writing first.

So, I got ripped off by an obvious scam and Holiday Inn will lose my business forever. Considering I generally stay with them about 5 days a month, almost every month, and would have for the rest of my career, I think they lost more money than ripping me off was worth but I guess they thought differently.

TL;DR: I'm an idiot that trusts big companies I deal with a lot and agree to their sketchy sounding promotions. Don't trust Holiday Inn.

Off topic: If visiting the Smoky Mountains in October am I likely to hit snow? Are there areas/attractions that I'd be better off taking my SUV to get to over my 944 coupe? Flights were too expensive for my liking so I'm going to drive.
 
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unL33T said:
I've not had it happen to me but I have heard of it happening.

I recently tried to contest a charge on my card I was told I had to have in writing what I was supposed to be getting before I agreed to pay vs what I am getting after paying. This was in regards to a promotion I was offered over the phone, non refundable. Should've stuck with my gut and told them to screw off unless they were willing to send me something in writing. Now I'm stuck with it.

This was through Holiday Inn's membership program (forget what it's called). Called to book a hotel. Was offered a "resort preview" at any of their 5 new resort locations for $250. If I sit through a presentation I get my $250 back so its free. Even though it sounded fishy on the phone I am a long time customer of Holiday Inn so I thought it was legit and figured I could deal with a 2 hour presentation harassing me to buy something. I agree to the promotion. This was in like April. So in May I pick a location (Smoky Mountains) and a date (early October). So about a week ago I start trying to plan this in a little more detail and review the confirmation letters and realize I am not staying in the resort, like I was told on the phone, I'm staying at a regular Holiday Inn 20 minutes away. The only thing indicating this in the information I used to pick the locations is that the address of the hotel is different than the address of the resort but since I was told it was at one of the resorts I never bothered to look up the addresses of the resorts and make sure they matched the addresses of the locations I got to pick from. I try to cancel and of course I can't without losing my $250, even though they lied to me. On top of that, they tell me if I miss the presentation, or am somehow disqualified, not only will I not get my $250 but I will be billed the full retail cost of my stay which will range anywhere from $300-1000.

Called my credit card company to see what my options were and that's when they told me I should've had it in writing first.

So, I got ripped off by an obvious scam and Holiday Inn will lose my business forever. Considering I generally stay with them about 5 days a month, almost every month, and would have for the rest of my career, I think they lost more money than ripping me off was worth but I guess they thought differently.

TL;DR: I'm an idiot that trusts big companies I deal with a lot and agree to their sketchy sounding promotions. Don't trust Holiday Inn.

Off topic: If visiting the Smoky Mountains in October am I likely to hit snow? Are there areas/attractions that I'd be better off taking my SUV to get to over my 944 coupe? Flights were too expensive for my liking so I'm going to drive.
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Does not sound like something Holiday Inn would do. You sure it was not through some condo/timeshare development/sales group? My parents have done this a few times over the years. You get a night at a resort, something like Collingwood, all you have to do is sit through a high pressure sales presentation and they do their best to sell. They never had a problem walking away after their commitment was over, never charged for anything they said would be included.
 
wonderings said:
Does not sound like something Holiday Inn would do. You sure it was not through some condo/timeshare development/sales group? My parents have done this a few times over the years. You get a night at a resort, something like Collingwood, all you have to do is sit through a high pressure sales presentation and they do their best to sell. They never had a problem walking away after their commitment was over, never charged for anything they said would be included.
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I called the reservation number from the Holiday Inn site to book that hotel. They offered me the promo after I made the booking. Had to pay $250 on the spot, over the phone, and then later pick my location from 5 options.

This is the Holiday Inn Club Vacations link, to the resort/hotel I thought I was staying at: http://www.ihg.com/holidayinnclubva...?cm_sp=OSMAM-HCV-CA-EN-HPH-AIX-MBL-Gatlinburg

I just went on the IHG page and used the Live Chat to verify with them that the contact numbers I was provided, email addresses I sent to, and email addresses I received from were all valid IHG information and not a 3rd party. They told me it was valid and no 3rd party was involved.

I expected the high pressure sales crap and was fine with that. But when they tell me to pick from one of five resorts I expect that means I'm staying there. I shouldn't have to go double check addresses to make sure they weren't booking me somewhere else. The whole "pay by credit card now over the phone without getting the opportunity to read any of the fine print" should have tipped me off but, like I said, I've given them lots of business and trusted that they wouldn't try to trick me.
 
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lol, you're already going in with mind made up so who's zoomin who? just thought i'd mention that not picking sides but if i were you'd get the gtam brother endorsement high five
 
inreb said:
lol, you're already going in with mind made up so who's zoomin who? just thought i'd mention that not picking sides but if i were you'd get the gtam brother endorsement high five
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Sorry, you're saying I'm tricking them by accepting their promotion with no intention to follow through? There was a slight chance I'd follow through, assuming I liked whatever they're going to try to sell me on. Not now, though, they can't be trusted. At least they might've got a nice Trip Advisor review if the place was nice (Trip Advisor likes to try to make me feel special by telling me I'm one of their top 4%, I know it doesn't matter though) but now they get nothing but hate from me.

I tried to cancel once I realized I was mislead. If they had allowed it I'd still have a good opinion of them (although probably a touch tarnished). As it is I now consider them scammers. My credit card company basically told me the "non refundable pay now" arrangement is pretty much scam behavior so I'm not completely out to lunch on that.
 
inreb said:
I never pre-book because loosy goosy traveller but recently made exception and reserved a Motel 6. $69, hey not bad! At online checkout the price came to just shy of $100 because "tax recovery fee" as I recall. Ok, whatever. Just got the Visa statement...that $69 room cost me, all in, $139.41!! Obviously I missed some fine print along the way. Is anybody familiar with this business practise?

edit: Buyer beware. It was reservations.com representing themselves as the hotel. $69 was US price plus tax recovery fee plus reservation fee plus tax plus exchange rate...d'oh!
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Well I guess with the current exchange rate then your 69USD = approx 91CAD (our rate at work) so that's a big hit right there...the other $40 though...wow...is this like that Niagara Falls tax that you can refuse to pay? Haven't gone in a while but I used to just say that I refuse to pay their 'tourist tax' or whatever it was and they would take it off the bill.
 
I've seen people complaining at Holiday Inn because they were double billed, too.
 
mimico_polak said:
Well I guess with the current exchange rate then your 69USD = approx 91CAD (our rate at work) so that's a big hit right there...the other $40 though...wow...is this like that Niagara Falls tax that you can refuse to pay? Haven't gone in a while but I used to just say that I refuse to pay their 'tourist tax' or whatever it was and they would take it off the bill.
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I didn't even know I was dealing with an American third party. I thought I was dealing with the actual Motel6 in Huntsville, like each franchise handles their own bookings. Bloody naive. To go from $69 to $139 is a bit of a shock, especially when shopping on price. And no bathtub as I found out and shluffed off because awesome deal. I woulda liked a good soak.
 
unL33T said:
Sorry, you're saying I'm tricking them by accepting their promotion with no intention to follow through? There was a slight chance I'd follow through, assuming I liked whatever they're going to try to sell me on. Not now, though, they can't be trusted. At least they might've got a nice Trip Advisor review if the place was nice (Trip Advisor likes to try to make me feel special by telling me I'm one of their top 4%, I know it doesn't matter though) but now they get nothing but hate from me.

I tried to cancel once I realized I was mislead. If they had allowed it I'd still have a good opinion of them (although probably a touch tarnished). As it is I now consider them scammers. My credit card company basically told me the "non refundable pay now" arrangement is pretty much scam behavior so I'm not completely out to lunch on that.
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Hey no biggie but your original post reads like you'd put up with a bit of discomfort for a $250 refund.
 
inreb said:
I didn't even know I was dealing with an American third party. I thought I was dealing with the actual Motel6 in Huntsville, like each franchise handles their own bookings. Bloody naive. To go from $69 to $139 is a bit of a shock, especially when shopping on price. And no bathtub as I found out and shluffed off because awesome deal. I woulda liked a good soak.
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You apparently did get soaked....financially.
 
I booked a $55 motel in NY state a few weeks back which after taxes and conversion came to an amount that didn't sound as good a deal as it did initially. Went back next day and paid cash for the special rate which was more acceptable
 
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