Hotel has taken £800+ from my account

[interrogate2018]

I've just returned from a European break we I had a 2 nite stay in a 4 star hotel. We paid cash at the end of my stay of €300 - only you discover that upon arrival at the last when I passed over my card for the €150 security deposit 2 debits of 400+ sterling was taken from my card.

My bank have given me the authorisation codes which I have given to the hotel and they are requesting more evidence! -

I'm so angry I could cry. The lady who checked me and my friend in also tried to overcharge us on Sunday by adding an extra 200 to our bill making it 500 only we challenged her - her response was that English was not her first language so sorry for mistake.

Even if the give me the money back it takes 10 working days - 😢

I have read all the replies (mostly because there seems an argument about whether you shoould have gone at all - I am not sure why!). However please talk direct to your bank or the card company. If you explain things carefully they may well refund you and then ctcharge back to the hotel - the hotel then has a certain number of days (45?) to make a claim back.

I had a similar experience with a dodgy ticket company - spoke to the bank who refunded 751 gbp to me, never heard anything back. Good luck!

That is really unfair though as many people can't afford to have their money "borrowed."

OP has already spoken to the bank!

The hold will drop off when it has expired. It’s a pain in the arse. I had an airline do this to me, so I paid for two tickets and then had an additional hold for two tickets on my account. A huge amount of money.
The hotel should be able to remove the hold, but it will drop off when time expired if they don’t. It’ll be gone in a couple of days.
Costco do this for fuel with an automatic $200 hold here. It catches everyone out.

I have called the hotel again, they are now querying the booking, ie we originally booked 2 rooms as my friends 2 sons were joining us and it ended up only 1 of them was able to attend. We had free cancellation on the second room so asked for that and asked for a family room instead that could sleep 3.

The lady on reception said that they didn't have one available but would give us a reduced rate and bill us for our room plus extra for an adjoining room, single room occupancy, working out at Euro300 all in. I thought at the time this was a really good deal, however we had said if they couldn't accommodate a family room we would try another hotel - hence her offer of adjoining rooms. This is the lady who then tried to bill us Euro500 and said English was not her first language and would be please speak German :( We sorted this out at the desk on Sunday morning with my friend asking the manager at the time to ensure that staff were aware that when asking for final prices that is what was given. He agreed Euro300 only for me to discover that £800 was already gone from my account from Friday - 2 days before.

Im so sick about this as I am so careful with money and would never pay anywhere near this much for something for myself - I could buy by DS so much with that.

I spoke to another person in the hotel (person number 4 as they keep passing me around) just now who is arguing that we used 2 rooms so should have been paying full price - if so though - it still does not equate to us paying Euro 300 plus £800.

Bit of a horrible experience. Quite scary, i would think, not to mention cleaning out your account to that tune.
I hope it gets credited to you, but the bank will then launch an investigation. Unfortunately, if that does not fall in your favour ( which it most likely will) they suck it out of your account again.
I got rooked by a plumber that way. I am no sure it was even a proper service, I panicked and called the first thing I saw on the internet.

Report it as fraud to your bank. £800 is a hell of a lot of money. Id be in tears.

Yanbu

Im so upset over it as I will now have to take out a loan to ensure that I have enough cash to cover me over Christmas. I don't have debt.

Im so afraid of owing money that I never even buy a car on credit, I save up and buy whatever I can afford with the cash I have.

I would so like to that there is some way of ensuring tha the Hotel do not get off scot free with this! its shameful that they can do this.

Don't take out a loan! See if you can get an interest free for a period of time credit card. Lock it with a limit the moment you get it and make sure that limit is less than the money you'll get back. Transfer onto it immediately when you do. Then cut it up.

I have done this! Forget loans... credit cards are good for insurance too

we once had a pre authorisation in the USA for over $2,000 'incidentals' (had 2 rooms for 6 nights) --as well as the pre auth for the actual rooms charges. It totally wiped us out and I had to sit in the reception for virtually a day whilst i got them to remove it down to $500 for incidentals and whilst i certainly put the pin in for the actual room charge, I definitely didn't for an incidental pre auth of that kind!! Horrible position OP, these places don't always make it clear and why on earth did they take cash off you at checkout if they had already pre authorised for the actual room cost plus incidentals! They owe you some compensation for the hassle.

ive a splitting headache with all this, my poor ds is so excited to see me and Im stressed out

oh and if anyone says why not use a credit card--I didn't have one with that amount of available balance on it.

really sorry this has happen to you op.i cant give any good advice but im thinking of you.try to keep as calm as possible and don't let your head and fears make you spin out.do what you can keep going with it but then know your doing everything you can and don't let ur worries send you into a spiral if that's at all possible.
you deserved this holiday so don't question that because something went wrong.
have iyr bank said tey would deff sort it?would a travel agent be able to help at all.

focus on ur ds for a bit hun.use him as a relief from all this for a while.thinking it over and over wont change it.you need to be as calm as possible and rested to sort it out properly.othwerwise you just will be thinking agasnit a wall of panic.
I no its hard to ask but it would be better if you could borrow some off a friend or family.rather than going into debt?if you know your going to be refunded?

my friend is so upset about it as well, i suffer really severe anxiety and she organised this whole trip so i wouldn't be under any stress.

i agree re why did they take the cash as well as 800 - i will never stay in that hotel again, not if I got it for free!!

Im so upset over it as I will now have to take out a loan to ensure that I have enough cash to cover me over Christmas. I don't have debt.

I know it is easier said than done, but please try not to catastrophise. It is extremely likely that this is a pre-auth and will have released in a couple of days, so don't make any decisions about loans yet.

I think it is extremely unlikely but if the payment does clear and they have actually taken a payment, you can claim it as a fraudulent transaction through the bank and most banks will credit money back in a couple of days, even with a debit card.

OP - my post from earlier:

*OP - get a fax or email address from your bank and ask the hotel to send a fax/email on letterhead approving the removal of the pending transaction.

They can do that for you, then it won’t take 21 days to drop off.*

I’m reposting this because I work for a bank. I know this is possible and it happens all the time.

I appreciate the hotel don’t seem to be playing ball - you need to escalate as high as possible with the information you have and get them to do as I suggested. If they refuse, make sure you get their names and their manager names and their HO details etc, and especially any corporate details if it’s a chain.

But they can and should be able to do the above.

Hmm, Germans learn English from kindergarten. I don't buy the not understanding English. I think the receptionist knew full well what you were talking about. If she wasn't good at English, she wouldn't be working on the front desk of a hotel in a city.

Don't take out a loan! Ask the bank for a temporary overdraft if necessary, or apply for a 0% credit card (check MoneySavingExpert.com for the best ones).

i agree re why did they take the cash as well as 800 - i will never stay in that hotel again, not if I got it for free!!

It is extremely common for people to authorise cards when checking in to a hotel and to pay the final bill in cash on check out, then wait for the pre-auth to clear.

From what you have said I think it is possible that they have mistakenly authorised (not charged) your card for two rooms plus extras. They rectified their mistake with the bill on check out, and this looks to me like they have made a mistake by pre-authorising for two rooms on check in rather than maliciously trying to take your money.

I have a close friend who suffers with anxiety so I do sympathise, but I know what I am talking about and I am extremely confident that this will be resolved soon .

As said before its pre auhtorised. You didnt make the cash payment until the end of stay so they pre authorised your card on check in for the full amt of the stay, plus the deposit. 450 Euro is approx £400 stg. The transaction seems to have duplicated which often happens when doing this. These amts have not been taken from your acc yet, They are pending as authorisations and will automatically fall off within 3/4 days!

thanks all I have asked the Bank for something on their letterhead and they have told me it is not possible. I think that's bull to be honest. They gave me the authorisation codes during an online chat but would not email me the information

i got upset on the phone and told the bank they would be losing my custom, I would move my account somewhere else as they couldn't help me. im in bits tbh. i don't know whether it is a pre-auth or what is happening, i just know that I don't have enough cash in my account to pay rent etc without borrowing the money. I really want to complain to the bank/the hotel etc.

As regards complaining to the hotel do I email head office and ask them who governs them ombudsmen wise. What is best to ensure maximum impact. Im so so angry that they have put me in this position.

As above the transactions should fall off of your account in a couple of days and the amount will be available. I know it's stressful especially at this time of year but please try not to take out a pay day loan or something. Hopefully by the end of the week it will be sorted.

What hotel was it?

You only need the transaction numbers. You need letterheaded paper from the hotel to go to the bank.

Send an email with the details on it, say you expect a response within X amount of time and that the fax will be sent first thing in the morning to X fax number, provide the telephone number for them to verify if you want.

Be strong. It is clear they have made a mistake and need to rectify it.

You can also ask the bank for an expiry time and date for the transactions - it is often 14 days for UK transactions and it was 21 or 28 for my Cyprus transaction so I think it's longer for overseas transactions.