CC charges in dollars or Euros?

Charlene, have your bills posted in Euros, not dollars. The process of the merchant offering to convert your bill and bill you in dollars is rarely in your favour as the merchant converts the amount on an exchange rate they choose.
For a full explanation just google "Dynamic Currency conversion" it will explain it fully to you.

Pat's right. As a general rule, ALWAYS choose to be charged in the local currency whenever you're abroad and presented with a choice like this. That way, your conversion rate will be controlled by your credit card network, not by any local merchant.

Charlene, hate to say it, but they saw you coming! On Friday, Oct 5, the rate was $1.296/€. Even if you had paid the credit card's exchange rate, the worst you would have paid would have been about $1.335/€. If you had used a 1st Bank credit card, it would have been only $1.309/€. Plus, you might find that your credit card company charges you a foreign transaction fee on top of the hotel's charge, anyway. I always pay with cash, but then, my bill is never $500. See "Avoid dynamic currency conversion", near the bottom of this page. (Okay, I did add this comment after Ken's answer below.)

Charlene, I was offered the option for conversion on numerous occasions on my recent trip, and always chose the local currency. As I recall, Rick has a warning about this practice somewhere, but I don't remember where.

Euro Only. Unfortunately you will still pay the conversion fee. I thought we had taught you better at our monthly meetings.

Thanks, everyone. That's what I suspected. I'll do euros from now on. It just caught me by surprise. I guess I missed the meeting where this was discussed! By the way, we're having a great time. The $500 bill was Albergo Milano at Varenna on Lake Como and included a 3-hour dinner at their restaurant. Slightly overpriced, I think. Now we're in Senigallia, on the Adriatic coast. Absolutely gorgeous. Miles of soft sand. Our room in a nice hotel, practically on the beach, is 40 euros/night, and we are getting meals like gnocchi with seafood (including crab) and fresh whole grilled fish, and salad, and wine, for about 45 euros total. Amazing. Today we'll visit Corinaldo, a hill town still surrounded by 14th century walls, with 3 medieval gates. I know this belongs in trip reports. Will do one when I return. Arrivederci!

Charlene that sounds amazing,, please please write a trip report when you get back, I am totally interested in the details!

"I guess I missed the meeting where this was discussed!" No, Charlene, I don't think there was ever a meeting where this question was specifically discussed, although it might have come up casually a few times in our conversations. More importantly, DCC has been brought up on the board a number of times (that's where I heard about it). Everyone should try to keep up to the latest on the Graffiti Wall. Our meetings are pretty free flowing and we just discuss whatever comes up. Maybe we should start having a specific topic of discussion for each meeting, things like getting money in Europe, packing light, getting low cost accommodations, using a rail website, etc. However, we might have to switch away from Panera to someplace that is more suitable for a formal discussion. What do you guys in Denver think?

NO !!!

NO what, Frank? No to having a topic for the meeting? No to moving somewhere where everyone can be part of the same conversation instead a lot of little ones? Or no, you don't think?

I'm with Frank. I like the current location, and I enjoy the free-form meetings with lots of conversations. I've picked up some really useful little nuggets of information that I didn't even know I needed. A couple of times we've started by asking if anyone needs help with something specific, and that seems helpful.

I think the current format is fine. It is supposed to be mostly social, anyway. Still bouncing around in motels. Just back from 3 three weeks in the mid-west and Chicago. Headed to New York next week so will miss the Oct meeting. The word now is that we close on Nov 27th even though the house will be finished in early Nov. Cannot close until we have gone through a series of inspections each one week apart. Of well, at least we get to move in sometime.