Still upset with the Dolphin hotel!!!!

[Amberly303]

This morning i went online to check my bank account only to find more pending items from this hotel. Upon check in i used my bank card. When i was departing from this hotel i recieved my full bill. I noticed in the one portion of the bill monies they had already went ahead and charged my account(well actually swiped my card but yet to of come out of my account...but the amount does get taken out of my availible balance thru my bank acount...basically they put a hold on this money).They put a hold on $50.00, $50.00, $161.58, and $42.66 this was as of check out on 4/1. Well the 2 $50.00 amounts were holds on the 2 night stay. The 42.66 was for that darn 6 minutes of phone use, and the 161.58 i have no clue.
I questioned the front desk clerk and she said those charges have been released and i would only see the charge of $254.24 which broke down in these catagories on the bill Food/Bev : $53.91, Telephone: $42.66, Parking: $20.00, Other: $137.67.
But it would not be broke down it would be one charge of the $254.24. I didnt charge much to my room ........I paid cash for most of my charges in the hotel.
So, anyways, today on my account these are my charges( mind you its only suppossed to be one final charge of 254.24!!
These are monies they are holding in my account as of today:
$254.24, $12.99, $34.10,$161.58, $42.66, $42.66!!!Of course the first $254.24 i agree with..........that was my total bill. But why are they holding all this other money from my account?First of all that $42.66 was for that darn phone call which was in the included in the $254.24. Why are they holding this money so many times ( 1 time for the actual charge and then 2 other times for holds........i just dont understand this? How can my total bill be $254.24 but yet i have all these other charges? Could someone please explain this to me ........please? I have called the hotel this morning and still waiting for a return call from the manager.
When i had called back to the hotel after check out and discovered they still had holds on other money besides the 254.24 he said he would clear it up and credit my account( i think what he meant was he was gonna put a release on all the funds besides the 254.24. But now when i see my account today i tink he didnt clear all the charges and more have been put on. I know this is very confusing........i barely understand it myself. But if anyone could help me understand this all i would really appreciate it. Thanks : )

[CarolA]

Call your bank and ask them about the holds. I know that one CC company I have takes several days to clear the holds. This is the main reason I don't use the Debit card for things like hotels and rental cars. It can actually take up to 2 weeks for these holds to all clear. The big problem is that the manager probably does not know what all the holds are. The bank can probably help you communicate the necessary information to the hotel.

[Amberly303]

thanks for the response : ). Hopefully i can get it all straightened out today.

[Poohbear123]

Thanks for letting me know, NEVER let them have your credit card for purchases to the Hotel!:rolleyes: I ALWAYS say NO when they ask me if I want my credit card to be used for charges during my stay!

[Amberly303]

Pooh.......how do you get away with never giving a credit card? I wished i had give them my one credit card with a $300 limit? lol
They would of loved that!!!! They would only have $300 to work with........not all my money in my checking account

[Sandiebean]

I try to NEVER give them my bank card! We had this happen to us in Niagara Falls once. It was awful! They weren't Disney.. and it took MONTHS to clear it up. In fact.. unless we took them to court.. we had to take a loss. It was really awful.

Since this is who it is.. I'm sure it will be resolved quicker for you.. but now.. we never give a bank card. It seems to confuse them or something. :rolleyes:

Sandie

[CarolA]

Do you have to give a cash deposit or what? Most hotels won't let you stay without a credit card or even if they let you stay they won't turn on the phone etc. for outgoing calls without a card.

[kml2000]

Okay, this may not be exactly on topic to this post but I didn't want to start a new topic. Amberly's post states she had to pay $20.00 for parking - do you have to pay extra for parking at the Swan/Dolphin?

We have ressies with the teacher's rate for July and by the time you add resort fee, parking, etc., it may be not be a great deal.

[kml2000]

Okay, this may not be exactly on topic to this post but I didn't want to start a new topic. Amberly's post states she had to pay $20.00 for parking - do you have to pay extra for parking at the Swan/Dolphin?

We have ressies with the teacher's rate for July and by the time you add resort fee, parking, etc., it may be not be a great deal.

[NancyIL]

Self-parking is free. Valet parking is $10/day (I think). You can waive the $8/day resort fee.

I have an ATM card for when I need cash, and I use a credit card for just about everything else. I understand that some people don't want an actual credit card and prefer a debit card - but I wouldn't want anyone to have access to my checking account.

Amberly - I hope everything gets straightened out very soon.

[kml2000]

Glad to know that about parking.

I am from the south and Clark Howard is our resident money saving guru. He says NEVER EVER EVER use a debit card PERIOD, and I tend to stick with that advise. Of course, Clark would NEVER pay the $$$$ to stay at the Swan/Dolphin either, but you can choose which advise to take. The use of a Debit card is DANGEROUS. I prefer the chargeback rights of a credit card and use mine instead of checks these days. I am very careful what I charge (don't really consider it charging, if that makes sense). My advice would be not to use a debit card in the future, but I do feel for what you are going through....has to be TOUGH.

[BethC1952]

I don't have any credit cards--I don't believe in them. I do have a debit card, which I left home on my visit to Riverside in May of 2001. I was not asked for a cash deposit. They told me that I wouldn't be able to charge anything to my room, which was fine with me. At checkout, I owed $6.00 for a phone call. The charges were posted somewhere in the room (probably in the little guest manual) because I knew what the charge would be.

Beth

[CarolA]

Thanks Beth.

However, I will warn you that other hotels outside of Disney are not so trusting. One of my employees lost her wallet and had to pay cash for a hotel in Chicago. She had to give them about $300 more then the estimated charges! And since the hotel was over $200 a day, she wound up forking over a lot of money. They just gave her the extra money back at check out, but I would not want to have do that often!!

[Tiffany]

Originally posted by Poohbear123
Thanks for letting me know, NEVER let them have your credit card for purchases to the Hotel!:rolleyes: I ALWAYS say NO when they ask me if I want my credit card to be used for charges during my stay!

Poohbear123,

The above problem I believe is with a bankcard not a regular credit card. A regular credit card is very safe to deal with. If you dispute the charges they will remove them from your statment and investagate. At least this has been our experiance. Disputed issue not travel related though.

We have never had had problems charging to our hotel room. We check on our charges throughout the trip and have never had a problem.

[Tiffany]

Originally posted by kml2000
Okay, this may not be exactly on topic to this post but I didn't want to start a new topic. Amberly's post states she had to pay $20.00 for parking - do you have to pay extra for parking at the Swan/Dolphin?

We have ressies with the teacher's rate for July and by the time you add resort fee, parking, etc., it may be not be a great deal.

Hi kml2000,

There is a $10 per day fee for valet parking. Self parking is free. The resort fee is $8 per day and covers use of the gym the paper and some other things. The Swan/Dolphin faqs located on this site has all of the detials. I believe you can also wave the fee and then you would not receive the paper and if you decided to us the gym would have to pay a $10 per day usage fee I believe.

[kml2000]

Thank you Tiffany, I have tried to read all that info and it overwhelms me sometimes. I was confused about the parking, because I thought I had read there was no fee for parking.

My daughter and I and another family are staying at the Swan the end of July and the doing a 3 night cruise.........I am just trying to be educated when I get there!!!

Thanks to everyone for their information!

[bobaron32]

We stayed at the Dolphin back in September. I waived the resort fee, but they still put it on the bill on the last day. I brought this to their attention and they happily removed it from my bill. We also parked every day for no charge. We used our cell phone and prepaid phone cards so we had no phone charges.
We always present a credit card when checking into a hotel, and have never had any problems. I don't have a debit card so I don't really know how that works, but I don't really like the thought of giving access to my bank account.
I hope your next trip is better.
;) ;) ;) ;)

[peedeejones]

I have not given a bank debit card or regular credit card for room charges since a few years ago I used a bank debit card for "incidentals" as the front desk clerk put it. They put on hold $300. It took several days for it to "fall off" my account. I did not even end up charging anything to my room. That was $300 of MY money in my checking account that was not available to me for several days. It works the same way with a credit card. Anyway I do not give a credit card when I stay at WDW or any other hotel now. If worse comes to worse they ask me for A $20 deposit to turn on the phone and I get it back at check out. I also bring prepaid phone cards with but my experience has been that certain hotels do not work with certain phone card companies. I ended up having to charge a call to my room at a Holiday Inn in Georgia because the telephone company that the hotel used was not compatible with the phone card I had. It can be a real hassle sometimes just to take a vacation!

Jennifer

[raidermatt]

Nothing wrong with using a credit card. Its very convenient to just pay the one bill after your trip. Generally, as long as you pay the balance, you are not charged any finance charges. Plus, many have "bonus" programs which can save you money on other trips/purchases.

I wouldn't use the debit card for hotel incidentals, the main reason being that any errors will have less immediate impact on you if it happens on your credit card. The credit card company will research if necessary, and will reverse any fees/finance charges that result from their errors. Disney, of course, will reimburse you for any errors they make, but if its a debit card, you may not be able to access your checking account for a few days.

[Amberly303]

Peewee........thats exactly my point this amount of money they have put on hold is just that......MY MONEY i dont have use of. I am furious. Along with them putting holds on my money, they have made 3 billing errors. I just caught this this morning. This has always caused me a fee with my bank of $30.00 in which I am instisting that the Dolphin pays for.The Dolphin has held up my money since the 1st of this month. They have lied to me about fixing the problem several times. This is my money and how dare they just dip into my account whenever they please without my knowledge.How can they make keep charging my account that monies that was due to them(which i paid at checkout) over and over again. For that 42.99 phone call of 6 minutes total.....they charges me 3 times(1 which was the what i DID owe) but how could they make the mistake and charge my account 2 more times? Sounds FISHY to me! Imagine how many times they have done this to people and got away with it. Also they charged my account 34.10 in which was already paid for when i checked in. So they doubled up on that charge as well. How can this be possibly fair? I feel like a fool to of given them my debit card, but i never would have thought they would of ripped me off the way they have, and put so much money of MINE on hold when i had already paid my bill.
I beg everyone please check all charges carefully. Even after you check out! They have put charges through even after they have been fully paid.

[Shelly]

ok I have never stayed at the dolphin but have worked for a major credit card company. First of all some debit cards have the visa logo, if you have this type you still get charge back etc.,....Secondly holds on the account are normal. The charges do not come off till the "official"bill is received. Thridly, lots of charges(or holds) for the same amount is normal, happens all the time. Machines are touchy and sometimes merchants think it hasn't accepted and they hit the "enter key" mor than once. When the "official" bill comes in everything else comes off. I'm sorry this effects your bank account, to often people don't understand how these things work.
None of this appears to be dolphins fault. You really have to wait the full seven to ten days and then check what was actually charged, before panicking.
If after that time you have actaully had an error then dispute it , or call dolphin.
None of what you've described as far as billing appears abnormal to what I see every day. Yes, there is always someone who calls us confused about the holding process, but our hands are tied until the signed bill comes in. I once had a woman who owned a flower shop call because she couldn't charge gas on her card. I looked at her account and there were huge holds on her account from a flower shop. She said "oh, I was just seeing what my available balance was" I told her well now because she did that she tied up her whole credit limit. Hope this helps you understand.

[Amberly303]

No this was the Dolphins error. They shouldnt have put charges on my account for things that have been paid in full.Also my room was paid for in advance including tax.........but after i checked out they billed my card for the taxes that had been paid for days in advance before i had even left for the hotel. All these were just not mistakes.........trust me.

[Neeter]

Accck! All those holds on my account would be a problem for me too! I understand why you're upset. I am not someone who is lucky enough to have a large checking account balance and I knew there were funds in there and I couldn't use them, I'd be upset too. It wouldn't be easy for me to just wait till those holds "just fell off" my account!

I used my debit card last year; to charge back to my room, while staying out the All Star Movies with no problems. However, the posts here make me nervous about doing this again. It was great not to have to carry around all that cash at the parks though.

Question: Can you give the hotel cash instead of your debit or credit card to be able to use your ID card for park purchases?

Thanks,
Annita

[disnurse]

from all reports debit cards are not worth the aggrevation. jThe car rentals charge a huge amt if using them over a credit card. Hold on accounts are normal and its only been a few days so i'd try and relax. Although your experience with the dolphin wasn't great they are usually very customer friendly and will do anything to please you.

[skiwee1]

I always use a credit card for room charges. I think it's great. I've never had a problem with them having to put a hold on part of it. I thought that is the way it is done. When checking into the CBR in October the CM told me that we had a room charge limit of $1200 to start. She said that if we went over that then they would just take more off the credit card but they like to start out with that amount. We ended up going over. I believe they put a hold on less $$ if you are staying at the All Stars and more at the deluxes. I wouldn't give a debit card as I would not want them to put a hold on my checking account but a credit card is different. I gave them my Platinum AE so putting a hold on $1200 is pennies anyway. This way I don't have to carry too much cash at the parks. I don't know why some don't "believe" in credit cards. It isn't a religion or Santa Claus! We use our CC for all bills including groceries and gas. Anything that uses a check we use the CC. It is so easy to send in one payment at the end of the month to pay the whole thing off. Makes it so much easier!:p

[peedeejones]

It's great if you have a platinum card or another card with a high limit, then I am sure the issue with "holds" is not a big deal. But some people(like me) have lesser credit limits and when hotels put a large dollar amount(like to me $300 is large) on hold and you can't use is for several says or even a week, it can make for a less than pleasant vacation experience. Many people are unaware that using a debit card for these purposes can put their whole checking account out of whack and I think that the hotels or car rental companies should explain this to people before the holds are placed. I now avoid giving my credit cards or debit cards to these place like the plague. My motto now is "cash or nothing"!
Jen

[jgates]

Thanks Shelly, I was going to post some of the same info as you did about cards.

OPoster, are you sure they are all still showing as debits? Our processing system at our bank is really funky with POS transactions. You will have a -19.99 for the orignal authorization, a +19.99 for the release of that & a -19.99 for the final transaction. If you are looking at it on the day those all settle, it looks SOOOOO stupid.

Also, many times you will run into a situation where they will not authorize the actual room charge-they will authorize a rounded figure-we have also run into this in restaurants too (tip factor). If they do not create the settlement properly, the auth will stay out there (5 business days is supposed to be the max), and the live trans will go thru - you still have tied up funds. My aunt had a credit card problem - close to limit and Chicago hotel put $???900 hold on for one night or something extreme. So regardless if credit or debit, close to your limit or balance will cause problems.

I normally use a rewards card, but since I have used debit for years I would not hesitate to use my debit card. As long as your card displays a MC or Visa logo you have charge-back, dispute, etc rights. Check with your state consumer division if you feel you have problems (not OP's case - just a comment). Wisconsins laws(?) and our disclosures require us to give a customer immediate but provisional credit back if they file a dispute so they can use their $$ in the meantime until settled.