Charging to your room?

[Claire L]

Just a quick question if we eat at any of the Citywalk restaurants can we charge back to our PBH room?

Claire

 

[tricky1]

When you check in they ask if you want to be able to charge using
your room key, as far as I know all of city walks resturaunts take the room key.

 

[Jimbo]

We just got back from our stay at HRH, and found that charging things to our room frequently failed outside the hotel. We were successful maybe 50% (or less) of the time in the parks. We also couldn't charge to our room at either of our two CityWalk dinners (Hard Rock, Margaritaville).

It was weirdly unpredictible too. We bought our photo at the Mummy and charged it to our room. Then we walked to the next counter and tried to buy a T-shirt, and our room charge was rejected. After waiting for a few minutes while they talked to the resort, we gave up and paid cash. From then on we did that a lot... we'd try the room charge, and if there was a snafu we'd tell them to forget it and go to plan B.

The people we talked to blamed it on computer problems.

 

[Julma]

Same thing happened to us last week. I used the room key in the Universal Shop in City Walk, then went to use it IOA and it was rejected. They did say they could call the hotel and figure it out, but I didn't want to take the time. I just used my credit card at that point. I took my room key, credit card, AAA card and license with me everywhere. I found a great lanyard at Staples that had a zippered compartment on the back that held everything.

 

[bubba's mom]

All City Walk takes your room key to charge on. IF you happen to have a problem, your key may de-magnetize. It's happened to me a couple of times. Just go to the front desk, tell them your key demagnatized and they will replace it for you. I hear cell phones and other cards w/ magnetic strips near/against your key can do this. But, yes, if you eat at City Walk, you will be able to use your room key to charge it to your room.

ETA: Every time we stay onsite, we usually only take about $20 and our room key and AP's. We charge EVERYTHING back to the room, and haven't had any problems...(except the time I mentioned)

 

[Jimbo]

All City Walk takes your room key to charge on. IF you happen to have a problem, your key may de-magnetize. It's happened to me a couple of times. Just go to the front desk, tell them your key demagnatized and they will replace it for you. I hear cell phones and other cards w/ magnetic strips near/against your key can do this. But, yes, if you eat at City Walk, you will be able to use your room key to charge it to your room.

ETA: Every time we stay onsite, we usually only take about $20 and our room key and AP's. We charge EVERYTHING back to the room, and haven't had any problems...(except the time I mentioned)

You would have had big problems last weekend, then. Like I said, NONE of the CityWalk shops and restaurants were able to charge your room. It wasn't the cards fault either. Servers in two restaurants told us that computer problems had shut down their ability to handle room charges.

If you were willing to wait for them to contact the hotel in order to verify your status, you could generally get it done. But that was 5-10 minutes of waiting, and it wasn't worth it to us. I suggest that people take a backup source of cash.

 

[bubba's mom]

It shouldn't have taken them 5-10 minutes. When we had my problem, it was June/July 2006 trip. I didn't realize my card demagnatized. I wondered what kept taking SO long for them to "run" my keycard. Finally, a TM said to me "You're not staying at PBH are you?" I said, "No, the RPR, why?" TM replied, "Because I couldn't get your card to run, and when I called the PBH to get confirmation, they said you weren't a guest there. I had to track you down at the RPR." THAT took about 7-9 minutes and that's with another problem on top of it! (The problem was, when we checked in at the RPR, they ran out of "RPR" cards, so they used PBH cards for our room. When I got my card replaced, it was replaced with a RPR card). So, it shouldn't take 10 minutes to make a phone call...unless they get someone "not too whifty" on the other end?

 

[bg4]

to answer OP question - all restaurants and shops take your room key charge and any computer problem is not the norm and YOU SHOULD HAVE NO PROBLEM.

And stuff does happen. If room key is refused get a manager. its their problem not yours.

 

[Claymax]

Anyone know if you can have individual keys for the same room on different credit cards? One person's key on that person's card, the other person's key on their card.

 

[Motherfletcher]

Be careful charging to your room. Last week I charged lunch at HRC to my room at PBH. The waitress charged me $58 for a $24 lunch. A minute later she charged $58 again and another minute later charged $58 again then waited 3 minutes and charged 3X$58 again. It was kind of tough at checkout to straighten it out. Thankfully I found the $24 receipt.

 

[phamton]

Be careful charging to your room. Last week I charged lunch at HRC to my room at PBH. The waitress charged me $58 for a $24 lunch. A minute later she charged $58 again and another minute later charged $58 again then waited 3 minutes and charged 3X$58 again. It was kind of tough at checkout to straighten it out. Thankfully I found the $24 receipt.

That could have happened on a credit card too. I'd rather a mistake be made on my hotel charge. I could see my hotel charge right away rather than waiting for a CC statement and the hotel would be able to straighten it out easier than trying to straighten out with the CC company.

But it's always a good idea to check your charges as mistake can be made. I'm glad you had your receipt.

 

[goofy!]

Anyone know if you can have individual keys for the same room on different credit cards? One person's key on that person's card, the other person's key on their card.

Although I have never really tried it, I would venture to guess that this is not possible. However, it is worth a call to the front desk of the hotel to verify.

If you choose charging privileges on any of your key cards, then the credit card in question will be run for a hold for the total amount of your stay + an additional amount to cover expected charges for the length of stay. Since it is a single credit card for the room, I don't think you can run multiple cards just for your room keys.

We always use the AAA travel Mastercard in Citywalk and parks. It is a pre-paid travel card that takes the place of travellers check. You can load it anytime if you need more cash on it. You can also log into the website and immediately see your balance and what has been charged on it. And nobody ever has access to "real" credit card numbers. This might be a good option if you have several people who need to split the bills.