I've booked Hotel Adler in Rome for May. I was charged after booking even though I didn't elect a prepayment rate (not a "pending" charge, my credit card statement shows the full charge and a foreign transaction fee). Is this common in Rome? I'm trying to resolve the issue with the hotel (see below for most recent two messages). Any advice? Justin From: Justin Subject: Re: Availability and Rate Date: October 22, 2012 5:51:20 PM MDT To: Adler Hotel Rome <[email protected]> Please find attached part of my credit card statement which shows I have been charged for the full 390,00 euro. Please reverse this charge and apply a preauthorization. Justin From: Adler Hotel Rome Sent: Monday, October 22, 2012 2:17 AM To: justin Subject: Re: Availability and Rate Dear Kind Justin , with reference to your kind email , the amount of your reservation was charge ad preuthorization to validate your credit card as garantee of the booking . You can decide anytime how you woould like to pay cash or credit card and we re-confirm that you can cancel the booking with 48 hras prior arrival with no charge at all. Hope this is clear and we remian at your dipsosal for any further comuications and requests you may need. we look forward to welcome you best regards
alessandro
Posted by
Toledo, Ohio, US
11613 posts
Justin, I've had something similar to this happen one time in Rome (for a 10-night stay!), I was charged at check-in, the room was unacceptable, and I was walked to another property by the hotel, which did not charge me up front. This was one time out of about 50 reservations in Italy, a handful of them in Rome. Check reviews on Tripadvisor. I use booking.com to reserve rooms and they don't charge a fee or an advance payment against my credit card. Once in a while a hotel/B&B will charge one night before I get there, but this is extremely rare. Adler Hotel in Rome is not listed with them, by the way.
Posted by
Temora, NSW, Australia
337 posts
Hi,
I'd suggest you give them a call, the advanced prepaid rate should be 115€, I inquired 17/10/2012 regards
Posted by
Knoxville, TN, USA
7209 posts
If you didn't authorize a charge then contact your credit card company and dispute it. Find a different hotel!
Posted by
Pa and Italy
4152 posts
Are you sure it was an actual charge and not just pre-authorization? I would contact the cc company to find out for sure what type of transaction it is. If it's a charge have them take it off and find another hotel. If it's just pre-authorization find out what that means as far as your credit limit on that account is. Donna
Posted by
OP
Albuquerque, NM, United States
10 posts
Thanks for all the replies. The hotel wrote back saying they'll look into it (see below). I'll give them a few days. I am certain I was charged it's on my statement from last month from my credit card company, including a foreign transaction fee. Also, I saw the pre-pay rate is 15 euro less than the rate for paying when stay. I mentioned this to the hotel in an earlier e-mail (I couldn't paste it here due to space limitations) and they asserted they hadn't charged me, just applied a pre-authorization ... which is what led to the exchange I started this thread with. I'll post back with whatever resolution I get. Thank you all for the advice. Justin Subject: Re: Availability and Rate Date: 2012-10-23 04:05 From: "Adler Hotel Rome" <[email protected]> To: justin with reference to your email we will forward the message to our account office to make correction on your booking . alwasy at your disposal ,we send our best regards
alessandro
Posted by
Downingtown, USA
2482 posts
Good luck and hope you can get it resolved. We had a similar situation once over many trips to Europe and it too was Rome. We booked hotel with credit card and unfortunately was the first day of the billing cycle. When the bill came, we had already left for Europe. I had cancelled the hotel within a twenty four hours of booking as we had found something closer to the airport. The hotel had charged our credit card the full amount on the day we booked which was early May and we were supposed to stay there end of June. Luckily I had cancelation info. Then when we returned to US and found the charge, we called credit card company and they deleted the charge. Come August, this same hotel re-charged our account. Called credit card company and it was deleted again the same day and then the same day was recharged! Twenty nine phone calls later, after threatening to send e-mail to the hotel chain, not credit card company, was it resolved. No wonder Paris can afford her life style, but I won't mention the hotel chain, get my drift? Hope you will do okay.