You always need to carefully check hotel folios for various charges, and I never leave a property without having a zero balance receipt.
It is not enough to check that the charges are right but also that the conversion from the booked to the payment currency is done at the correct rate (read – not inflated).
You can access Marriott Santiago here.
READ MORE: Marriott Bonvoy Rate & Bonus Points Offers
I was at the Sheraton Santiago Hotel in Chile a couple of weeks ago. Although it is not the most modern hotel in the city, I usually receive reliable service there (and upgrades to the former San Cristobal Tower that is now part of Sheraton).
When I was checking out, the front desk was a bit chaotic, and the agent asked if they could email me the settled folio. I said that I would like to look at the folio to ensure that it was correct and it was the right choice.
Chile is one of the few countries that can charge in both CLP and USD (without the terminal-prompted DCC), and some hotels use both. Visitors to the country are exempt from paying the sales tax on accommodation, and the front desk takes a photocopy of your passport’s info page and the immigration slip.
So, the room rate w in USD was $135, and there was supposedly a minibar charge (it turned out that it was wrong, too), which became $301.
It turns out that this hotel, like many other Marriott ones, uses an entirely fictitious exchange rate when converting the booked currency to the charged one and inflates it by roughly 10%.
The agent quickly fixed the overcharge with a rebate line on the folio.
Previous Overcharge Coverage:
- Reader Question: Why Marriott Allows Hotels To Misquote Prices & Inflate Them By 15%?
- Reader Email: Marriott Hotel Inflates The Bill By Additional 20%
- Reader Email: Another Marriott Scam In Greece (Hotel Processes Prepayment Using DCC)
- Marriott’s Corporate Response To Property Level Payment Scams
- Hotels Scamming With Room Rates – Hilton & Marriott Hotels In Colombia
- Whine Wednesdays: Marriott Hotels In Brazil Using Fake Exchange Rate For Room Rate Conversions (On-Going)
- Whine Wednesdays: Marriott Currency Conversion Scam In Full Swing (Brazil)
- Whine Wednesdays: “Forced” Dynamic Currency Conversion & Clueless Front Desk Clerks At JW Marriott Delhi AeroCity
- WARNING: JW Marriott Rio De Janeiro Currency Conversion Scam
- Whine Wednesdays: Currency Conversion Fraud At Ritz-Carlton Jakarta Mega Kuningan
Conclusion
Looking at our coverage and my stays over the past 10+ years, this practice is most prevalent at Marriott properties, although it occasionally happens at other brands too.
Marriott washes their hands and has told us before that it is up to individual hotels what exchange rates they use to convert room rates from the booked to the charged currency.
It is just unfortunate that these are ALWAYS beneficial for the hotels and not to us.
Hotels count that guests are incapable of doing simple currency calculations and question the charges on their folios which I have always been able to have fixed if incorrect. They are well aware of what is taking place.