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Italian hotel refund

Posted by (Stockton) on

Happy Holidays, everyone.

Well, here's my situation: In November, I reserved an apartment owned by a family that runs a hotel also in the same building in Levanto (Villa Margherita). My group changed plans, and we decided to cancel the reservation after they have collected from my credit card the required 30% (of the total cost).

Now, the people at Villa Margherita are telling me that they need the IBAN of my bank here in the US in order for them to give me a refund. At the same time, I find out that US banks do not use IBAN. My bank also tells me that the hotel does not need any routing information. They tell me that since the reservation fee was taken from my credit card, all the hotel has to do is refund the same amount using the same credit card.

I feel like Villa Margherita is giving me the runaround.

Has anyone else encountered this problem?
Any suggestions to resolve this?

(I am well within the time period before any penalties are assessed from the reservation fees.)

Thank you for any and all info you could all share.

Joe

Posted by
1158 posts

Your bank might have told you that because a refund here in the US doesn't require the IBAN, but in Europe things work differently. For exemple when I went to Romania I had to know my PIN in order to make purchases with any credit card. When I told my credit card bank that, they told me that they should ask me for a PIN.
If you let your credit card deal with the problme you might not get a refund because it's up to the hotel's policy to give or not a refund.
So my advice is that to try to deal with the hotel directly. If they still don't refund your payment after you give them the IBAN, then I would contact the credit card.

Posted by
23642 posts

I think it is simple. Dispute it on your credit card. Let you credit card deal with them. That is why you used a credit card.

Posted by
23642 posts

Bea, you missed the point. They are asking for routing information to a checking account and not a pin number for a credit card. I accept Joe's word that he is in compliance with the hotel refund policy and that the refund is due. Since he is within the 60 days for disputing the charge, do it. The credit card company will investigate, Joe will present his compliance with refund policy, the charge is no longer valid so the cc company should reverse it. End of story.

Posted by
166 posts

Hello Joe,

I also had a very similar situation in Italy. I had made reservations at a hotel near Malpensa Airport about six months prior to our trip to Italy. I reserved 2 rooms for two nights and gave them my Capital One credit card number for a deposit. About three months prior to departure our plans changed and I emailed the hotel to cancel our rooms and received an email back confirming our cancellation.
Long story short the hotel charged my credit card for a no show 331.00 euros for one night, two rooms.
Even though I had a copy of the email stating I cancelled it took almost 6 months of going back and forth with Capital One and the hotel before it was resolved. At the end my card was credited for the total amount. My advice to you, don't give up.

Greg

Posted by
1158 posts

Frank,

You are missing my point too. I didn't say that the hotel was asking for a PIN. I was telling her about how differently some things are done in Europe.
Beacsue in the US a rounting number is not required for a refund, it doesn't mean in Europe is the same.

Posted by
2 posts

Thank you for the responses to date, everyone.

Happy holidays to you all!

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