Hotel mistake, wibu to tell them I'll correct it after Christmas?

[Sanshin]

Recently went to Vietnam on holiday. Stayed in a 3 star hotel for 3 days at a cost of £90. Lovely hotel, lovely staff.

Whilst there we booked a trip organised by the hotel at a cost of $100.

When we checked out they forgot to charge us for the trip and we never realised as we were rushing around so just settled the bill they presented to us.

A week later I receive a friend request on Facebook from a lady who worked at the hotel. I accepted and she sent a message saying that whilst we were at the hotel we booked a trip that they forgot to charge us for. She goes on to ask if we will now pay for it because if we don't, the staff have to pay for it themselves. It was very polite but almost pleading. I felt really guilty as I know $100 is a hell of a lot of money to these people so I replied straight away and said of course we will pay.

I spoke to DH on the night who wasn't happy because we will now how to pay a currency conversion fee but agreed we would pay. Then as we have been so busy since we got back we forgot.

So she sends another message asking if we can pay now and if we send her the card details we can pay like that. I meant to speak to DH about it again but he's working long hours at the minute and I keep meaning to mention it but when he's here I keep forgetting!

Anyway yesterday she sent another message. However now we can't really afford to pay it until after Christmas. We have £500 left to last us until after Christmas and that $100 will leave us skint. If they'd charged us at the time it wouldn't have been a problem!

As it was there mistake wibu to tell them I'll pay after Christmas?

[Sanshin]

*their

[Thewinedidit]

Yes you would BU.

Why should hotel staff be out of pocket?

[inchyrablue]

Of course you need to pay immediately. If you couldn’t afford it, you should not have taken it. It is outrageous to suggest they should wait.

[Tinselistacky]

Are you paying the money to the hotel though or the woman? Could be dodgy!!

[SootSprite]

I think you know the answer, you’re just hoping someone will say, no, of course it’s cool if you don’t pay for something. Which no one is going to do. You owe this money, pure and simple. That debt should be paid. And I don’t mean in a few weeks

[Lexilooo]

Be really careful about how you pay, so you don't compromise your card details and so that the payment is definitely to the hotel rather than an employee and is provable. There is potential here for a scam.

Do not message her with your card details. Talk to your bank about how to pay securely.

[Ecureuil]

Well it’s either you (who owes the money) who is out of pocket, or them. You should have kept the money aside as soon as you realised you owed it.

[Whambarsarentasfizzyastheywere]

You've known since a week after you got back you needed to pay for the trip.

You should have put money aside.

Ywbvu to leave people out of pocket to pay for your mistake until you think you can afford it.

[Bearsinmotion]

I agree that the staff shouldn’t be out of pocket BUT:

*So she sends another message asking if we can pay now and if we send her the card details we can pay like that.”

Do you trust her? Seems a bit dodge to me...

[iwantavuvezela]

Wow! You need to suck this up and pay the person TODAY. I can't believe you are making them ask you multiple times.

[UnicornsandRainbows1]

YABU. Ofc Christmas and living costs money, but it should be been factored in in the first place. The business shouldn't lose out

[RaspberryRuffless]

Of course you would. You went on the trip so need to pay as soon as possible. $100 is quite a lot to not notice when paying for hotel. Surely you must have realised when you where leaving you should have paid more than what you did. Even rushing about you’d have an idea in your head what you expect the bill to be. I bet if you where overcharged by $100 you’d have noticed right away!

[Lules]

Why contact you through fb? Doesn’t the hotel have your details?

[BarbaraOcumbungles]

You would be massively BU to not pay it.

Presumably, since you’ve just been half way round the world on holiday you have access to other money. The woman from Vietnam probably can’t.

[VimFuego101]

This seems really dodgy. Can you email the hotel directly rather than going via fb message?

[Labyrinthian]

Hotel staff in a decent hotel will makes $2-10 a day. A day. Keep that in mind for context. (You can't prove of course that the hotel will make the staff pay for it, and I wouldn't send credit card details over a Facebook or message site - speak to the hotel manager directly and pay for what you already used, as you effectively stole it).

[SendintheArdwolves]

Do you even need to ask? Pay them this instant.

You were happy to accept the trip, happy with the cost of it and (I assume) happy with your stay.

You know that the staff will be out of pocket - why should they be financially inconvenienced (severely) for your sake? $100 is a huge amount of money to a hotel worker in Vietnam.

You could afford a trip to Vietnam (flights, accommodation, and extras) and now want someone else to (effectively) sub you the money until after Christmas so it's a bit more convenient for you.

OMG pay them now.

[BikeRunSki]

Why did the hotel contact you via FB? Surely they have your “proper” contact details from your booking?

If it’s a genuine request, of course you should pay.

[mygrandchildrenrock]

For goodness sake don't pay anything to this woman. Contact the hotel yourself and see if they want you to pay and if they do, pay them directly.

[Ecureuil]

I certainly wouldn’t send card details over Facebook though.

[Pannacott]

Oh you really must pay them straight away. It's stealing. How humiliating for them to have to keep asking

Also if you can afford holidays to Vietnam, you can afford to have at least a few hundred quid savings put away so 'surprises' like this are not going to cause such problems.

[Sanshin]

Yes you're right, I'll email the hotel directly today.

[Floralnomad]

Sounds very dodgy to me unless the request for payment has come from hotel management I’d ask her to send you a proper invoice .

[WeShouldOpenABar]

Are you sure you didn't pay it can you check back, sounds like a scam

[maras2]

It's £74.
Can you really not afford that?