My husband Chris and I just took a 3 day, 2 night trip to New York City. I used my favorite new hotel-finding-toy google.com/hotels where you can choose a location on the map, pick a radius, and it will show you all the hotels in the vicinity. Once you've identified your radius, n you can sort by price to get the best deal. This especially comes in handy when you have a husband who wants to stay in Manhattan and a wife who is horrified by high prices. The result was we choose a cozy bed and breakfast 100 or so blocks away from mid-town and just a couple blocks from a subway station. Savings: $100/night plus free breakfast. Yes, please, thank you.
At the end of our trip, we checked out of our hotel and noticed something less than excellent pop up on our credit card statement. We were sitting in a coffee shop before heading to the bus station and decided to review all our charges from the vacation. (Side note: I can't emphasize enough how important it is to review your finances because it keeps you more aware of your charges and spending habits. It also helps identify possible fraudulent charges or anything that looks outta whack. We use mint.com so we can see all our finances in one place.) We had paid for our hotel several days in advance online, but we saw an additional $90 charge pop up from the hotel after we checked out. We racked our brains for a possible cause for the charge but couldn't come up with anything.
Chris promptly called the hotel for an explanation and no one answered. The next day he called again and left a message and he also wrote an email, which were all unanswered. At this point, I am very frustrated. Nothing pisses me off more than feeling like I got swindled! Luckily Chris knew what to do. He called the credit card company and explained the situation. He told them we attempted to contact the hotel with no response - we hadn't authorized any additional charges. The result? The credit company took the charge off. That's it!
Credit card companies always trust the consumer first, and the merchant second. After we filled the complaint the charge was completely removed from our responsibility. The credit card company will now contact the business and ask them to warrant the charges through documentation - if they can't then the money is ours to keep. We believe it was either an accidental charge or a shady hotel maneuver so we believe the money has found its rightful home.
