Scam alert: beware of hotels that charge for what you don’t eat — or drink

You’ve probably heard of hotels overcharging you for what you eat or drink. You know, $10 for a bottle of water. Six bucks for a candy bar. Here’s the latest twist on that scam — a hotel that charges you for what you don’t consume.

This is more than a simple billing error, to hear guests like John Richards describe it. It’s intentional.

It seems I am constantly being charged for things in the room which I have not consumed. I check my bill carefully but sometimes these things are added on after I check out.

Each time I bring it to the attention of the front desk or make a phone call these charges are instantly credited to me without argument.

Richards’ conclusion — and it’s one I tend to agree with — is that some hotels are overbilling their customers on purpose, hoping that they won’t check their final receipts.

Which hotels are doing this? Richards thinks many are trying.

For a long period of time last year I was staying at a W almost weekly. It got to the point that before I took possession of the room I would have them come remove the “goodie box.” Recently at a Marriott I was charged $5 each day for a bottle of water I did not even touch, much less consume.

So I put it to you, dear readers. Have incidents of “accidental” overbilling been on the rise? If so, where are you seeing it? What happens when you bring these to the attention of the hotel?

  • Carver Clark Farrow

    I don’t think so. I am very disinclined to believe that hotels are purposely adding fake and fraudulent charges to bills to “pad” them. More likely, its the perrennial mini-bar problem in that hotels don’t seem to be trying too hard to ensure accuracy in the billing system.

    I’ve has hotels make errors and upon check-out I’ve never had any problems with them imediately removing the charges. The front desk didn’t even have to get a manager’s approval.

    The silliest occurrence of mini-bar charging happened at the Westin. This particular Westin required a visual inspection of the mini-bar as it did not use the pressurized system. I checked in at 11pm, checked out at 6am, and found a $20 mini-bar charge. I politely inquired at the front desk, “so exactly what time did the mini-bar person inspect my mini-bar?” They immediately removed the charge.

    The best system, IMO, is one where the mini-bar has a plastic seal on it. If the seal isn’t broken, you didn’t take anything. Case closed.

  • Michael

    At the Sheraton in La Jolla I enjoy access to the lounge (part of their loyalty program’s perks) where I can get bottled water for free.

    I have found that the housekeeping staff is taking to charging me for any empty water bottle I leave in the room, regardless if they have to restock the bottle of waters next to the television.

    On a weekly basis I just have to request the refund, which they do promptly. I suppose I could just start collecting the empty bottles to dispose of in another location.

    Some hotels are starting to install mini-bar equipment with sensors that will charge you upon removing an item. At Caesars Palaca in Las Vegas there was a sign to be sure to place items back within 20 seconds to avoid being charged for the item. I could imagine this would not be kid friendly, the overwhelming desire to inspect everything (even without consuming it) could prove expensive.

  • Tiffany

    We ran into the sensors at The Mirage in Las Vegas. We were told at check-in that there were sensors in the mini-bar that would charge automatically for any items removed from the bar, let alone consumed. The good news (for those with children) is that it is locked and has a key that you could hide or keep on a high shelf so they won’t accidentally open it.

  • B.

    I’m quite sure the hotels are finding it far more profitable to charge first and apologize later. I’ve seen this happen repeatedly over the past year … Ceasar’s Palace in Las Vegas without argument removed the charges for moving something in the minibar (which we moved but did not consume) and for bottled water (which we did not consume or even touch).

    It reminds me of the mail-in rebate industry, in which corporations bet on low redemption rates and assume most consumers in the end won’t mail in the form. When consumers actually do mail it in, the corporation refunds the money.

    Here the hotels are making the profitable assumption that a touched product was consumed and simultaneously betting that the consumers won’t notice if the assumption is wrong. The hotel refunds the revenue without dispute only when their assumption is incorrect and caught by the consumer.

    Seems a bit disingenuous to me, but then again, we were in Vegas and the odds always favor the house. And at the same time, I wonder how many unethical travelers are aware of this, and game the system by actually consuming food or drink then claiming iit wasn’t touched? :)

  • Aaron

    In general, I dislike the idea that I need to be on guard when vacationing.
    Extra charges are everywhere.
    Some that I’ve encountered are minibars, mandatory valet-parking, “resort-fee” above and beyond the room-rate, time-share pitches from aggressive sales-people.

    Really, I go on vacation to relax. It really spoils it when I have to pay close attention to what actions might cost me time, money, aggravation, etc.

    It is clear that many hotels are no longer treating customers as “guests”, but instead view them as “consumers” or “sales-prospects”. The “Hospitality” industry is becoming the “Sales” industry: How can they sell more goods and services, or extract more money? Invalid minibar charges are one symptom of a very bad shift in the industry.

  • J C

    Interesting that John Richards had a problem with the W and their goody box. I stayed at the W in New Orleans Fench Quarter last February. After I checked out, my credit card statement showed an additional $78.00. When I called the hotel, they told me it was a Snack Box charge.

    When I informed them in no uncertain terms that I did not use anything in it, they agreed to credit the amount, which they did in 48 hours, without question and without having to check with their staff.

    It smelled intentional, and after John’s problem, I’m even more sure of it. I have not found this with other hotels but I agree with Carver that the best system is the seal on the mini bar.

    It’s a good idea to be vigilant and check not only your bill at check out but your credit card statements carefully.

  • J A

    I’ve definitely noticed this scam at W Hotels. It’s happened to me only a couple times at other chains (Sheraton and Westin), but it’s almost an epidemic at W’s. I feel that not only is it intentional, but also a product of maliciously saavy sales & marketing people. They probably think people who stay at W’s are less to check their credit card statements down to the penny and are also less likely to complain. I disagree with this mentality completely, but I can just imagine people coming up with ideas like this. I got so frustrated with this scam that I now avoid W’s like the plague. And I always always check my credit card statements after every hotel stay.

  • CKiggins

    The question I have from reading these comments is – why are you bringing children to Las Vegas? Just because there happens to be a couple roller coasters there does not make it an amusement park that is appropriate for children. Leave them at home!

  • Chicky

    A plastic seal on the minibar is a good idea. Although, I must say, I’ve never traveled upscale enough to be in a room that has one. Actually, a plastic seal of some kind on bottled water (besides the ordinary bottletop), would be good, too.

    A hotel chain like the W shouldn’t need to resort to those measures to make money. But I suppose they still hold to the motto, “Greed is good.”

    Maybe it was Chris who suggested in another article that travelers refuse the key to the minibar if they have the option. That way, you’re covered.

  • Beth

    Many times, the mini-bar is the only fridge in a room. I often have leftovers that I bring back and wedge into the “fridge”. So far, I haven’t gotten charged, but it is probably only a matter of time…

  • Teri

    I stay at the Doubletree Suites Times Square when I’m in NYC. About 2 years ago I was there and checked in around 2pm for a one night stay. They have the pressure sensitive mini-bar which charges you immediatly upon removing an item from it. In the morning the bill was under the door – and it was 8 pages long and contained a charge for every item in the mini-bar. It was over $800 in additional charges. When I called the front desk, they of course took the charges off the bill.

    I definately see these types of “errors” occuring more frequently – specifically in large hotels in major metro areas. And it’s not just mini-bar charges – I was charged $25 a day for “parking” at a Hampton just outside of DC, even after being asked upon check-in if I was parking a car and responding “no”. I’ve also been charged the “internet access” fees when I haven’t used the service.

  • Joe Farrell

    I will point one amazingly stupid hotel. Ritz Carlton, Cleveland. I was staying on the club floor, which has free liquor, beer and wine and 5 food presentations a day. My room was across the hall from the entrance.

    When I checked out there was a $22 mini bar ‘water’ charge on my bill for 2 bottles of water @ $8 each plus tip and a gratuity. I inquired about the charge. The first person was pretty snippy about the charge – until I pointed out that in the concierge level rooms that 2 bottles of water per day are free, [we'd been there 3 nights] second, there is no minibar in the room and third, everything was free in the lounge about 8 feet away from my door. The last part is a lame excuse since convenience sometimes trumps putting on the robe and wandering across the hall!

    I got the cow on the side of the road look from the clerk, who called over someone else who then profusely apologized and actually took a whole nights charge off the bill for the rude attitude of the clerk. The front desk manager had heard the discussion and was on her way over to inquire as to what the issue was. I was calm but insistent that I could not have used minibar water in a room without a minibar and the clerk just kept saying I must have used it since the computer said so. Literally. Amazingly stupid comment.

    So, sometimes, it works out. I saw a hotel try to charge me for parking posthumously once – when I hadn’t rented a car that trip – and then try to convince me I did.

  • Regina

    I completely disagree that hotels are not doing this on purpose. They will charge you for anything they can get away with, so it is up to us to check our bills carefully. To follow up on the comment about using the minibar as a fridge, that is a problem at hotels that charge you every time something is touched. At one hotel, I put some of my own stuff in the fridge and had to move some minibar items around, and ended up getting charged, but they removed the charge when I explained the situation. Fortunately I haven’t had too many problems overall, but I do think hotel nickel-and-diming isn’t going away, particularly with the economy getting worse.

    The ironic thing is that in a lower-priced hotel, you would think they would want to add on charges to compensate for the low price of the room, while in an expensive hotel or resort, more things would be included in the room cost. But exactly the opposite is true. The lower-tier hotels hardly ever charge you for Internet access, parking, local phone calls and using the pool. But the high-priced places do. I guess the expensive places figure that everyone staying there is either wealthy or on an expense account, so they won’t care about the extra fees. But that doens’t excuse the behavior.

    Just remember: in the unlikely event that the hotel won’t remove a bogus charge, contact your credit card company. They will let you take it off the bill and issue a “chargeback” to the merchant, and the merchant then has to prove that it’s a valid charge. In most of the instances mentioned here, the hotel would not be able to do that.

  • Kristin

    I’ve noticed the “tendency” to charge for unused items and services at a number of hotels, and agree that the more expensive the hotel, the more likely the errant charge. If it is on the bill at checkout, I dispute it and easily get the charge removed. When it is added after the fact to the same credit card to which the room was charged, it is imperative to be vigilant when the bill arrives a month later, or you will miss it.

    If you tell the front desk of the hotel that you need a refrigerator to keep your medical supplies (should that apply to you), they will usually bring a small portable fridge to your room, under the Americans with Disabilities Act. I just put my leftovers right in there with the medical things. Then I don’t inadvertently trigger minibar charges.

  • Luc Terje

    I stayed six nights at the new Westin in Boston.
    Four nights for work in my own room, then the weekend in another shared room with a buddy for the weekend.

    I noticed in the first room there were two bottles of water for $5.00 each waiting to be consumed. They were never consumed.

    When I moved to the second room, there was only one bottle of water for $5.00 waiting to be consumed. My instant gut reaction was that I would be charged for the phantom second bottle.

    The bill slid under my door the a.m. we departed was accurate – no extra charges.

    A week later while checking credit card transactions online, there was a separate $6.75 charge for the $5.00 bottle of water + tax + tip + surcharge.

    It took a few e-mails back and forth, but I got a credit.

    It made me wonder how many people just pay without examining their statements.

  • Don

    Just experienced same sort of treatment at Circus Circus last week – stayed on a fully prepaid vacation package and had “phone” charges for each of the 3 rooms added on my bill. They charge you for ‘unlimited free local calls’ on a daily basis. As i was on a prepaid package, I asked the charges be removed. The desk clerk told me I had agreed to the extra charges when I checked in (at 3:10a.m. after standing in line over 2 hours – its apparently buried in the small print and I was told I could have had the room phones removed for $10 each service charge she said and she was unable to produce my sign in registration and show me where the phone charge was stated); I explained I would contact the credit card company and dispute the entire stay charge on the basis of these phone charges and she finally removed them but warned me she would have the hotel complain to the vacation package company that I had ‘voided’ my contract and would be liable for additional regular room rates rather than the prepaid rates. Amazing Experience! I moved over to MGM and it was a completely different experience.

  • http://www.sarahbohr.com/ Sarah

    The same thing has happened to me. While I’m not sure that they’re intentionally instigating a policy of fraudulent charges (can’t you just see those emails being leaked?) I do most certainly think that there’s a culture of “it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.”

  • Matthew B

    As a rule, I don’t even open the minibar, especially the robobar type that automatically charges you. A lot of the more modern hotels and cruise ships allow you to check your bill on the TV screen. On a recent Carnival Cruise, I found a $2200 charge for the minibar on my room bill one morning. A quick trip to the purser’s desk resolved that issue (I don’t think there’s even $2200 worth of stuff in the minibar). It was clearly an error. I don’t think Carnival would be making a practice of adding such outrageous charges to shipboard accounts.

    I am surprised that someone had a problem at Marriott because they’ve taken the minibars out of all their hotels in North America (they’ve also gone non-smoking, thank goodness!). Having said that, I just stayed at the Marriott Grand in Moscow and it has to be the single most expensive hotel I’ve ever stayed in. I think it was about $20 for a soda from the minibar – fortunately there was a Tabak right outside the hotel that sold sodas and beers for about $1.50.

  • Brian

    My hotel once lost my rental car for a whole day, don’t ask me how it happened, I brought my ticket down and they couldn’t find my car. They brought me up three cars, none of them close to mine. After the second car I even told the attendant what make and model the rental was and they still brought the wrong car…yeah that 89 Lexus looks like the Ford Taurus I got from Hertz.

    They fould my car by the time I returned from my day’s appointments and still had the NERVE to charge me for parking. I brought this to the attention of the manager and promptly moved to a hotel accross the street. They comped the parking charges and the room for the night which was the right thing to do.

  • Sean

    The Fort Lauderdale Grande Hotel and Yacht Club in Fort Lauderdale FL is notorious for doing this. They hope that people won’t contest the charges.

  • Barbara

    I stayed at the Bellagio in Las Vegas and was hit with a $20 mini-bar charge. When I called to complain, I was told that the charge is based on “movement,” and that when I opened to door to the mini-fridge (which I did once to see what was in there), movement was registered and I was charged $20. They refused to refund me even though I didn’t consume anything; hence, I tell everyone I can to never stay there and I certainly never will. First class rip-offs. Macau is their justice.

  • Val

    The Sheraton in Bellevue tried to charge me for bottled water when I was in town to take the bar exam (duh). When I checked in, there was just one big bottle of water with a big price tag hanging from it. I tried the tapwater, which tasted fine, and didn’t touch the bottled water. Day 2 after getting back from the bar exam, there was still just one bottle. Day 3, after getting back, a second bottle had mysteriously appeared. At checkout very early on Day 4, they charged me for the bottle that wasn’t there when I checked in. The dodgy part is that they didn’t “replace” the missing bottle the second day (or prior to me checking in!), but waited til the third day, and of course it didn’t show up on my bill until 6am on the day I needed to check out and had limited time to get to the final day of the bar exam.

    They removed it immediately, but based on above reports and the weird timing of the bottle “replacement” and charge, I’m pretty sure it was deliberate. Skanky Sheraton :-(

  • Laurie

    I stayed at the Hotel Monaco (Kimpton) in DC last year, and upon checkout I noticed charges for valet parking. Which was kind of interesting, because I not only don’t own a car, I don’t even drive. I had to pull out my non-driver state ID to prove it. I jokingly asked them what kind of car they gave me… if they were going to charge me for a non-existent car (which they already had, and I had to wait for them to reverse the charge) I was hoping it was a nice one.

  • Don Smith

    The W strikes again. Have stayed there 7 times in the past couple years. Three out of seven (percentage wise I’d say it’s way high) times. I have had “dis-Honor Bar” charges. First two times were for a mini bottle of Wine (which I don’t drink) They ran $12.50 a bottle. And the last time they waited a day after I checked out to charge me $6.50 for an “Honor Bar” item.

    Called and ased about it……………….they are crediting my card.

    Watch your card charges. Worse than the people with a bad attitude, giving bad service and expecting to get a tip.

  • Max Weatherton

    Paris Airport Sheraton.
    Watch out for their minibar scam.
    It is left in the room without any price list.
    I assumed it was included in the room price.
    At checkout I was asked about whether I had consumed any drinks from the minibar and which ones!
    I had tried some of the small bottles of liquor and the champagne.
    The clerk then said I owed another 155 Euros. The room was 175 Euros!
    So they charged me exorbitant rates for the small bottles. One small bottle of Absolute Vodka for 47 Euros!
    What a rip off. Plus the receptionists acted like robots.
    These people need to reported to proper authorities as it is close to fraud if not fraud!

  • dulles

    hello.in order to stop these problems it would really help if any time you are being ripped off to report it to 1) BBB 2)the AG of that state 3)your credit card company. that way we can all check on the services and file a major suite in court. to you it is one incident but the hotel has 1000′s.1000;s a year. would you stay at a hotel that had 100s of complaints of this service?? thank you,

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  • ccincalif

    Just had to call the Warwick Hotel in San Francisco yesterday to dispute a $3 charge on my parents’ credit card. Was told it was for a Diet Coke or Pepsi out of the honor bar/fridge. This is so incredibly funny due to the fact that my parents have never had a diet drink in their life. I think many people will overlook a small charge like this, or see it and not take the time to dispute it, which only encourages hotels to keep doing this-or not know that its the staff who are taking the items and not the guests. Not cool.

  • El Cee

    Stayed at Novotel Paddington London (1 night) and Novotel Gare Montparnasse Paris (2 nights). Both hotels charged for 3 breakfasts per day (family of 3) even after it was offered at check-in and we declined. When the charges were questioned upon check-out, front desk removed them without issue or discussion with a manager.

    The fact that it happened twice at the same chain in different countries under the same circumstances tells me that they charge everyone automatically. With Novotel catering to mostly business travellers, it’s my feeling they prey on those who are in a hurry and don’t have time to dispute charges and who can also easily expense the charge and therefore aren’t really the ones paying. The fact that they easily took the charges off after being informed that we never partook of the offer tells me that they expect to be questioned and therefore do it intentionally.

    Except for this quirk, we thoroughly enjoyed our stay and would go back. If the worst thing I have to do during my travels is to protect myself by paying attention, it’s not really a great price to pay.

  • LJ

    Lets see, I had the Ritz Carlton in Kapalua, Maui double bill us for dry cleaning and they charged us for valet when I didn’t even have a car.

    The Madarin Oriental charged me for internet when I didn’t have my computer with me.

    I had the Hilton bill me for $98.00 for honor bar when I didn’t even use it. I called them and told them I didn’t even use it and they took the charges right off.

    A lot of people here are mentioning Sheraton, W and Westin hotels. Is it a coincidence that these are all part of the Starwood chain of hotels? Hmmm! Is someone higher up in management (housekeeping?) telling the honor bar re-stockers to add honor bar items to guest bills in Starwood hotels?