Lord Berri - Montreal, Canada 

If I could sue this hotel, I would
Posted: Wed, Mar 14 2007
I was employed with a group of people in a temp job for a week, and the employer put us up in this hotel. I didn't know much about the hotel, other than it was in a great location downtown, and had a restaurant attached to it. When I walked into the hotel, I felt like I was in some seedy motel that I would see in these old movies. The decor in the lobby appeared to be from a time before I was born. The desk clerk who checked me in, who was actually pretty friendly, indicated that my hotel room was paid for by my employer. She noted that there was 2 of us staying in the room (myself and another employee that I had yet to meet). She indicated that although the room was paid for, I had to leave a credit card or $500 cash to cover incidentals. The other guest would have to do the same when he/she arrived. I was really reluctant to give my credit card info, given that I was in a foreign city staying at some strange motel - who knows what would happen to my personal and credit card info? Seriously - when you walk into this place, you don't get a sense of poshness or security - one doesn't feel safe - very disconcerting actually. But she indicated the nearest bank machine was quite far away. So despite my serious reservations, eventually I gave in, and gave my credit card info, but made it absolutely clear that it was ONLY to be used to cover incidentals and nothing else. I signed the registration form, and off I went to my room. The room was OK. At least the water was hot. Again, the bedcovers and decor was from the 60s or 70s and the carpet looked like it hadn't been washed in decades. The locks on the door looked flimsy - really only a push button lock that can be jiggered with a credit card. I had to put a chair in front of the door. But I've seen worse. Restaurant food just OK - can walk one block east and one block north to the mall, and get early breakfast for a 1/3 of the price though. Check out time - I make sure I get a receipt - showing the room is paid in full, and that I didn't owe anything because no incidentals were charged. I figured, I'm pretty safe. 3 months later, I get a massive charge on my credit card for almost $1000. I call the hotel to get an explanation, and they tell me that the clerk who told me that the room was paid for told me the wrong thing, and that they had the right to charge me because they had my credit card "on file". They also had the right to charge only me, and not the other guest, because the room was under my name, presumably because I checked in first. Because I had signed the "guest registration card" (which didn't even have any credit card info on it), the credit card company refused to reverse the charge. When a hotel takes your credit card, and tells you that they agree to only hold that information for the purposes of paying for incidentals only, and then months later attempts to make some arbitrary charge on it at their own discretion, without any notice to you, knowing that you're not likely going to be there again to fight it, if you even happen to see it on your credit card bill... well, that's pretty SCUMMY. There is nothing that I can do to control what else they do with my credit card or personal information. The lodging themselves were already quite dodgy, and had I known what the lodgings were like, I would have stayed in a hostel instead. But this practice absolutely apalls me. STAY AWAY! STAY AWAY! STAY AWAY!!! For your own sake.