advice on hotel refund
 

a friend of mine returned from a weeks holiday in spain.His accomodation bill was €250 (just as he expected) which he paid at reception using a (major brand) credit card before leaving and for which he was given a receipt.3 weeks later he received his credit card statement which contained two entries from this hotel for €250! It looks like an honest mistake.

Has anything similar ever happened to you? Did you contact the credit card company to try and reverse the payment or the hotel to send a refund? Or both? What worked(email/phone?)/did not work for you? Thanks,

C

Yes, I've had that happen. It was with a U.S. hotel and I had them reverse it. In this case, I might be more inclined to dispute the charge and have the cc company handle it unless it's a major international chain or something like that (because one can pick up "apology points").

Tell them just to phone the credit card company (though they'll probably then be asked to put the matter in writing). What usually happens is that the cc company will refund you the disputed amount straightaway, but on a provisional basis until they've checked it out with the supplier. After this stage I've never heard any more.

thanks for replying. it doesnt appear to be a major hotel chain.something local to spain. my friend came to me as i know a few words (like bueos dias!) of spanish in the event that he would need to phone them.

after they give you the provisional refund do you ever hear from credit card company again to explain what happened?

Dear CC,

The credit card company has procedures for contesting charges.

Tell your friend to follow them.

((I))