Could it be that the Hotel thought that since you were in an Exec room that that was what you had booked and only after finding out that you were Upgraded to that level, charged you more as that what it would have costed to go from the room you booked to the Suite $120 or 9000 pts and not the 6000 pts it takes from an Exec room? So maybe accting saw a Double Upgrade and realized taht a mistake wa smade and thusly charged you the correct amount from the room type you booked

just a shot in the dark as things like this has happened to me not woth SPG. sometimes the acct dept simply finds things that it believes wasnt correctly followed and in its mind corrects them.

Now what would be nice to know maybe either Lurker can comment is when wanting and agreeing to pay beit via $$ or pts or a combo, should the Hotel charge based on the room type booked or on the room type 1 is UPgraded to prior to asking for the Suite or higher level room Upgrade?

 

It could be its just me, but something isn't clear. Why does the OP keep stating about the point difference, as if to prove his innocence. A forgery is a strong accusation that does not require backup. OP should just make his point by saying hotel forged his signature and leave it at that. I dont believe such an accusation will be taken lightly

 

to the property for forging the signature, ^ lurkers and spg for taking it seriously. Good luck OP!

This indeed is a serious matter.

 

I intentionally sign a complicated signature to dodge these situations. However, I'm sure the best forgers can still copy it.

Please do let us know how this is resolved.

 

As I said earlier, I think this is the case. However, if it was just a cash upgrade from regular room (non-upgraded, originally booked room type) to one-bedroom villa, the actual account cost would have been much more than 100 USD per night.

I am not saying I like to hitch a free-ride all the time (usually instant award is taken out almost immediately or within few days of the stay, but this point deduction happened almost three weeks after my departure), but when the hotel check-in agent clearly made a mistake at check-in and check-out to obtain my signature for instant award for points deduction (which seems to be the case), they should just leave it as is or try to contact me via email or via phone to amend the situation and let me know certain necessary procedures were not taken care of. It's hotel's responsibility to track down points/accounting issues and obtain necessary signatures from their guests.

What I am trying to say is that once I leave the hotel with a signed bill, I am stating that I am responsible only for that particular bill. If the hotel mistakenly missed a charge, they could either contact me to amend the situation or treat it as their mistake. Forging guest's signature to amend such situation is absolutely immoral, especially when guest has not agreed to such arrangement.

I appreciate lurker's offer of hand in this. I have now emailed and contacted both SPG Platinum Concierge, SPG customer service to initiate an investigation. Furthermore, I have also emailed back to the hotel staff who had sent me and the SPG customer service agent the signed instant award form (obviously not signed by me) to prove for hotel's charge of 9000 points, regarding the situation and my concerns. I have demanded the hotel management's apology and rapid amendment of this situation. I did not specifically asked nor demanded compensation but left it at the hotel management's decision. I don't really care about the compensation nor its amount but I just hope that hotel management and its staff will not repeat such unpleasant mistake.

 

It would be great if this was the situation. But it is not and I have had at least 10-12 "situations" where I have been charged some additional amounts after I had paid my bill and departed from the hotel.

The only way that I have noticed the extra amounts was when I reconciled my credit card bill.

In almost all of the "situations" the extra charge resulted from a mini-bar charge that was not my responsibility. There was also one case that involved a charge for valet parking (I did not have a car) and another that invoilved telephone charges.

All of these illegal charges were removed after complaint to the hotel.

When challenged about the legality of imposing a charge after I departed, one of the hotels mentioned that there was some fine print on the registration form that empowered the hotel to impose levy charges for services not taken into account at the time of departure.

This maybe BS but I am sure that others have experienced charges imposed post departure.

None of the above is meant to excuse forgery.

 

I trust the op along with spg will resolve this issue.

The last post is happening more often of late than acceptable. I checked out of a high end spg property last week and was charged $30 plus dollars more than my original "final" bill. I even called the rooms billing department after I realized I did not tell the agent I had a Coke from the mini bar. When I saw the charge I called them again. No response whatever. I finally called the GMs office who sent me a screen shot of the bill which was a host of mini bar items. I took responsibilty for the Coke again and they are going to "rebate" my credit card for the other items. I really ticks me off to be wasting my time with things like this but it is money.

 

And I found an $80 bill from a June Starwood stay on my AMEX bill. We've just gotten the refund from the hotel this morning. It was a bill for the minibar - and we hadn't even opened it. It took quite a bit of time on our part to resolve, as emails went unanswered. With the time difference, it was a challenge to find a window of time when we were up and someone was working in the billing office of the hotel.

These days, we all have email addresses attached to our reservations. I'd like Starwood (and all hotels) to send an email with any charge made after I leave the hotel, whether it be points as the OP has experienced, or money, as in my experience.

 

I agree with this. Any additional charges that hotel needs to address with the clients should be noted via email (it's best to do it before charging the customer post departure, but if they need to charge first, then email or some sort of contact should follow).

It really takes time to resolve such post-departure charges. It takes much greater effort (often found by chance though) to make sure there are no irregular charges or post-departure charges on one's credit card statement (especially when the hotel bill was greater than 1000 USD).

Issues like mini-bar surcharges post departure can happen because when one checks-in the customer enters in an agreement with the hotel regarding charges related to incidentals that includes mini-bar. However, what I am dealing here seems to be similar but is a completely separate issue that concerns hotel's dishonesty and business morality.

Hopefully the hotel and SPG will respond back to me soon with some answers. I will report back once I receive some sort of response.

Thanks guys for your support and advice.

 

Not quite. If a merchant is setup for signature transactions only then indeed a transaction without signature would be invalid. If they also accept charges through other channels then there are different procedures and policies (and fees!) by credit card companies to deal with this.

I had the exact opposite problem. It took me ages to convince the Westin Melbourne that I actually owed them money and that they should charge me.

 

Hi craz,

I am sorry I might need help from you to break down your question again as I am not sure what you would like to know.

If my explanation helps, here it is. The property has total discretion on the number of points needed for an upgrade award. This would imply that individual property will offer a different amount for upgrades. This is also based on the condition that a guest has approached the property during check-in with the interest in getting an upgrade award.

[email protected]

Thyetus Lee | Online Forum Coordinator(AP)
Starwood Customer Contact Centre (AP) Pte Ltd

 

As for my experience in bill mistakes and points issues with SPG properties, all problems get solved and always have been mistakes or misunderstandings between their front desk staff and billing. I believe a property will not try to forge or steal points, they have bigger bucks invested in their operations. Good luck solving it!

 

When is Starwood going to kick the LM Nirawana Bali out of SPG. That hotel has horrible horrible mold problems. I stayed there last year and though the front desk staff was alright but was really dissappointed about the mold problems. My first room was horrible and the second was markedly better, but still smelled of mold. Very nice pool, but that's about the only quality thing about the hotel.

 

LM Bali is not a bad hotel. The regular rooms are indeed tiring, but the Villa is not so bad. I would, of course, not pay 350 or more for the Villa though. If I can pay that much, I would always go to St. Regis in Bali.

 

And how would anyone benefit by kicking this resort out of SPG ?
Its not as if there are other better properties on stand-by to replace this property once it got kicked out.

We know its an old property, but the rates are reasonable and the setting is hard to beat. It may not be your cup of tea, but there are others like myself who enjoy staying there.

We have been losing far too many SPG properties here in SE Asia, and comments like yours is certainly not appreciated !