discrepancy in hotel quote and final bill
 

I recently stayed 7 days at a hotel in new york which was fully pre paid -in full we believed . Now I have received an additional $500 approx on my credit card. They say that the amount paid in August was only for 5 days and the system ie computer only allows for this amount and any extra days are paid for after you leave.The reason given for this is not to tie up the guest's money!! Also on the credit card are amounts for food and mini bar which we did not use. I have contacted the hotel via email 3 times and seem to getting no where. I will also contact the credit card company.Any other avenues I could explore???

Call them, far too easy to ignore an email.

Do you have the receipt from checkout? That should have the itemized charges - are the food/mini bar charges completely separate from the room or were they charged to the room?

What hotel is it? Do you have anything in writing that shows the price you were expecting and what it was supposed to represent? Have you checked reviews on tripadvisor to see if anyone else has complained of similar problems?

Definitely call them. And have your receipts handy - both for the pre-paid amount showing your dates and what you received at check out. That should clear up the problem. And if it doesn't file a dispute with your credit card company.

My guess is that you will likely have better results w/the credit card company than the hotel. The hotel has already given you their version of the facts. I find that credit card companies (particularly VISA, and in partiucular SIGNATURE cards) are good about refunding me the money and then they sort it out w/the company. I recently had a bad expereince w/Best Buy, a lemon laptop, and Best Buy repeatedly told me they would only give me store credit even though the problem started within 10 days of purchase. VISA refunded my money, then went after Best Buy. I have no idea what happened, but I got my money back from VISA, and they did not beat around the bush either.

How did you book the hotel - directly with the hotel or through a booking site like Expedia, Priceline etc? They may need to be involved if you used a booking agency.

What was the price per night - did the charge to your credit card when you booked = 7 x that amount? If so, that would show you did in fact pay for the room in full. The other charges [food and minibar] should have been on the final bill. Did you get a bill under your door or when you checked out? Were those charges on it? If so, you should have objected at that point. After the fact is always harder.
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If it gets to the point that you need it, try the Ombudsman at Condé Nast Traveler:

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No receipts were given at checkout as we believd we had fully paid.
The hotel has excellent reviews. This matter has occurred a month after checkout. They have sent me the account via email.
I will follow up with credit card company. I am in Australia so would prefer to contact them by email but may phone if not resolved.
Thanks all

the food and mini bar charges were deleted further down the bill. I have lodged the dispute with my bank and told the hotel how disappointed I am that I have had to do this especially as it is such a great hotel in all other matters.

How did you book the hotel?

online

If it is all legitimate, then you can:
contact Better Business Bureau
contact hotel corp office
contact NY city Tourism Bureau
contact a NY local TV consumer Reporter (they will work with hotel on your behalf) hotels hate negative publicity on TV)
file dispute with credit card co

Did you book it directly on the hotel's website or did you use a booking company?

Do you have any confirmation of the booking? Every time I have booked a hotel online I have received or been able to print out a confirmation with all of the costs. And I always make several copies - being sure to bring one with me and leave one at home as well.

Do you have the e-receipt for the payment. Have you looked through all of your old emails to see if it was there? It seems that would settle the matter without any question.

If not, do you have the document they usually give you when you check into the hotel - which usually makes a note of the rate and number of nights? That would work as well.

If you don;t have it - it may become a he said, she said and those can be very difficult to settle.

"No receipts were given at checkout as we believd we had fully paid."
That doesn't make sense to me. Over many, many years when I've stayed at many, many, many, many hotels, I've never NOT gotten a received no matter how the room was paid for. You should have received a receipt.
I'm also confused about two other things:
1. How many nights did you stay at the hotel? Was it more than the five that you apparently paid for in advance? If yes, then I assume the hotel's additional charge was for those nights.
2. In your opening post you mention charges for food and the mini bar. But, a later comment says that these charges were also deleted from the bill. So, what's the complaint here?

Howard, I believe he stayed 7 nights and thought he had paid for all of them, but the hotel claimed he had only paid for five nights, so they charged him for two additional nights.

This is odd. If you pre-paid for seven nights at the hotel, all you need to do is produce the receipt for your payment. Items consumed from a mini-bar are not included in the room price.

HTTY

I'm confused about the problem also. Surely if you prepaid for 7 nights of a hotel you have a receipt (or printed out contract from your computer) or SOMETHING that shows you paid in full. Who would book a hotel and pay without any kind of receipt at all? What would prevent a mixup in which they insisted that there was no prepayment, for example. Or what prevents you from booking at a special half price offer and then after check-in or after the stay having the hotel say "no, you weren't given a half price offer"? Paperwork! It's invaluable.

I carefully save every quote given until I book a hotel. And then I carefully save every receipt for prepayment or quote given to take with me for check-in just in case there is some discrepancy. Then I keep that same quote or receipt until after my stay and all has been billed and taken care of.

And while we're at it, who would check into a hotel and presumably sign or initial at check-in without looking or asking to confirm what was paid for and what the rate is?

In defense of the OP, though, I'll admit that more and more I do not get a receipt at checkout. Most hotels simply tell you to drop off your keys or simply let them know you're leaving. Some slip a final bill under your door the final night, some do not. But that's all the more reason to confirm the price and arrangemnts when you check in -- and not wait until after the stay.

Something is "off" here.

I now see that the OP is from Australia, which raises new questions. How was the "prepayment" made? With different currencies, it becomes even more important to keep all quotes, receipts and paperwork -- particularly to show that the "paid" price will not change as the currency conversions change from day to day.

I'm remembering years ago at a stay in Budapest, where due to the rapidly changing currency, they tried to charge me more on my departure for a fully paid reservation. They were looking at the amount of money I paid -- and by that day's rates it would be a lot more US dollars than I paid several months before. But I was able to show them a receipt that showed "paid in full" for the number of days -- so the currency rate became a non-issue. Perhaps this is something like that -- or they recorded US Australian dollars as US dollars???

I also thought that perhaps he presented the hotel with a voucher from an Australian travel agent and that, if so, his issue should be addressed to the travel agent.

HTTY