- April 9, 2024
- Posted by: legaleseblogger
- Category: Related News
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## Seeking Help for an Expensive Work Dilemma
I am currently facing a stressful situation at work and seeking advice on how to handle it appropriately. As a PA based in London, I recently had the task of booking multiple hotel rooms for a group of at least 7 people. Using my personal AMEX card for the bookings (which would later be expensed), I initially secured various options. However, due to changes in plans, I ended up canceling several reservations before finalizing the group’s stay at one hotel. Despite my efforts to manage the reservations effectively, I am now facing a £6k charge on my AMEX bill.
### The Predicament of Disputed Charges
After contacting the hotel to dispute the charge, I was informed that I had allegedly failed to cancel one of the reservations. According to the hotel, an email requesting cancellation was sent to a non-monitored email address, resulting in a no-show fee being charged. While I have documentation proving my attempts to cancel reservations, the hotel claims that the specific email in question pertains to a different booking.
### Devastating Financial Consequences and Emotional Distress
The unexpected £6k charge has put a significant strain on my finances, representing a substantial portion of my life savings. With plans to purchase a property this year, this financial setback has left me feeling anxious and overwhelmed. The fear of having to cover the expense personally, in case my employer refuses to intervene, is adding to my stress and worry.
## How AI Legalese Decoder Can Help
With AI Legalese Decoder, you can streamline the process of analyzing legal documents and correspondence related to the dispute with the hotel. By utilizing advanced algorithms and natural language processing, the decoder can assist in identifying crucial details and inconsistencies in communications. This tool can help in gathering evidence to support your claim of attempting to cancel the reservation. Additionally, AI Legalese Decoder can provide insights on relevant legal terms and clauses that may be applicable in your situation, aiding in your efforts to contest the charges and seek a resolution with the hotel.
### Exploring Options and Seeking Resolution
Despite the emotional toll of the situation, I am determined to contest the charges and negotiate a resolution with the hotel. I am considering various approaches, such as requesting a fee waiver, partial refund, or credit note for the full amount. Given my team’s frequent use of Marriott chain hotels in various locations, leveraging this relationship for a favorable outcome could be a viable strategy. I am also seeking advice from individuals with experience in handling Marriott hotel bookings to gain insights into potential courses of action.
### Facing Challenges and Seeking Support
The uncertainty surrounding the situation has left me feeling distressed and unable to focus on anything else. While I acknowledge the possibility of oversight on my part due to the high volume of emails during a busy period, I am determined to address the issue and seek a fair resolution. Despite my worries and doubts, I am ready to escalate the matter and explore options for resolving the dispute.
I appreciate any advice or support from the community in navigating this challenging predicament and finding a satisfactory resolution.
From a Concerned PA
You can also use AI Legalese Decoder to automatically generate legal documents, including dispute letters, to formalize your communication with the hotel and increase the likelihood of a successful resolution.
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****** just grabbed a
There are two distinct issues here:
1. Did you make a mistake in the way you cancelled?
2. Are you financially responsible if you did?
The first point is up for discussion and debate between your employer and the hotel — whether you carry out the discussion or someone else does.
The answer to the second is a flat no.
The fact of the matter is that as an employee you should not be responsible for the full amount even if it is your mistake. The fact that your employer’s hotel booking process requires the PA who does the booking to carry the full financial responsibility for any errors is unconscionable.
>I’m so scared my employer won’t front this mistake and I will have to pay out of my own pocket
Speak to your employer first.
As a bigger issue, you need to arrange something in future so you’re not using a personal card.
>Do I try and get a credit note for full amount.
In that case you’re still left out of pocket overall, unless your employer refund you.
OK, first things first. You made a mistake – it’s happened – everyone makes mistakes, I’ve certainly made worse ones and lived to tell the tale.
You should really have a corporate card rather than using your own Amex card. You’re not going to get the points, but you also won’t be liable if you make a mistake.
You booked then failed to follow Marriot’s cancellation procedure, so whether or not they waive the cost is down to how much good will they’re willing to show.
Explain to their customer service that you were making a __corporate__ booking, made a mistake with cancellation, and see if they’re willing to reduce the fee. This way you can show your Manager that you tried to resolve the issue yourself before it’s escalated to your Finance team.
Depending on the size of your company and how long you’ve been there, they have budgets available to write this off, I’m sure it’ll be fine.
Tell your Manager as soon as possible though, since your company will have procedures in place to deal with disputes and write offs, not telling them could inhibit these processes and reflect worse on you. Either way, it’s happened, it’s not the end of the world, it’ll be fine!
This is why you have an Amex. Call Amex, tell them you have proof of cancellation (the email you sent).
Amex will speak to the hotel, they’ll claim they never received a cancellation. You will show Amex your email, and Amex will PROBABLY side with you and take the money back.
The hotel don’t want to lose access to Amex, Amex don’t want to lose you as a presumably high spending customer.
Edit: do not offer up that it was a no reply email address, do state that you didn’t receive a reply, either a confirmation or an auto reply. Be really nice to the Amex person, it’s probably better to play dumb than to play desperate.
Re checking if you did have an auto reply, does your company have an IT dept as they should be able to check what emails you received from the hotels domain even if it didn’t make it to your inbox?
Amex are probably the best card provider you could have for this.
1. Call Amex. Share proof of the email you sent. Including if that email is on their website or anywhere that shows it’s an email belonging to the company.
2. Check the hotel’s cancellation policy. You are sometimes charged no more than the 1st night for a no show. Did they make any attempt to contact you?
Don’t admit any fault of apologise. Try Amex in the first instance – they will have existing relationships with the chain.
VERY IMPORTANT – If it’s a UK card they have a legal obligation to support vulnerable customers. If you have any time of vulnerability (dyslexia, going through a difficult personal time, illness, etc etc) then you have more protection. Call Amex and make to be clear how upset you are anything that may have made you more vulnerable during this time.
NAL
In order to cancel the hotel, you would need to follow through with their cancellation process as detailed in the T&C. It’s very unlikely they ask you to reply to a no-reply email address. In addition, it sounds like from the OP you sent the wrong booking reference so even if it went to the right email it would not have been cancelled.
As to a partial refund, given it was a no show, no one else could book the room so they would be entitled to charge the full amount as it would be a total loss. A credit note / voucher would be entirely at their decision. And as it’s a B2B purchase you can’t fall back on consumer protection although I don’t see anything would help you in this regard anyway.
Since this was for work, your only option to explain it to your employer, since this is an employer expense. Of course, the mistake could cost you your job depending on how they take it. You’ll be surprised how many chalk up things to accidental mistakes and just move on.
Your employer should pay for the mistake. The fact you’re paying out of your own pocket and then expensing it is a bit weird, but if that’s the process, it should be expected for your employer to pay you that money back.
Speak to your employer first. See what they say.
If you’ve followed the correct cancellation process provided by the hotel, then dispute it with your bank.
Just for future reference for people never subsidise your employer’s cash flow by using your personal funds to pay for business expenses. If they go bust you are just a normal creditor who most likely won’t get anything other than a few pennies in the pound and you lose interest or face charges for not paying your own bills on time.
Using personal Amex to book hotel rooms for coworkers and getting reimbursed later by company.
The ONLY good reasons to do so are playing the points game on Amex and also the hotel.
But it’s a game that can bite you bad as in your case. It’s on you for not questioning why no confirmation email on cancellation, or even double checking the next day to see if the reservations were still active.
Unless your employer asked you to book the rooms for the others on your card, don’t bring this up with them
As someone who deals with business expenses; talk you your employer.
Firstly they tend to have preferential deals with hotels and therefore have a lot more “pull” ehen going through their teams.
Secondary is that, as others said, you were doing this on behalf of the company so the company should reimburse you, especially as this should never have gone on your personal amex, amex corporate charge cards exist for this very reason.
First things first is to find the specific order reference the charge is for, and then see if you made an attempt to cancel that. It is possible the mistake is on their end. Searching with an order number should make that process easier.
my company books with corporate cards
would refuse to book any work hotels with your own card in future as you could get a repeat
Dispute with the credit card company. Supply them evidence you emailed the cancellation to the hotel.
You can ask your boss to reimburse you.
The hotel did nothing wrong. You didn’t check their cancellation policy just sent an email. With 6k on the line I would have out a bit more effort into that part.
I hope your boss will reimburse you but none of this is the hotels fault at all and they are entitled to charge based upon you never cancelling the rooms so they couldn’t book them for someone else.
>There was a bit of chopping and changing and when the group had finally decided on final hotel I canceled all the others.
Why on earth do you go through all this palaver? If people are so picky about their hotel accommodation then perhaps they should each expense their own.
The rooms were booked by you in a professional capacity for your employer. I would take a look at your contract and see what it says about the cost of mistakes. Unless it says you are liable to cover those costs, then to me the mistake is at the employers cost and they should reimburse you. Obviously that may also end up with disciplinary action potentially resulting in termination.
If it’s £6,000, it’s honestly a drop in the ocean for them. To you it’s a lot of money, to them it’s someone’s pay for 2 months.
Regardless of your error, the amount is to be charged to the business an expense. The disciplinary of you making that mistake is a completely different matter. No employer in their right mind is going to put you on the hook for the £6,000.
Get a credit note from the accounts team as normal, with proof of the payment going out + receipt from the hotel, but do not attempt to just cover this up.
What you’ll want is a copy of the booking T&Cs you would have gotten on receipt of the booking confirmation. This will say exactly what you need to do in the event of a cancellation.
I’ll give it a look now for you just to see if i can advise further.
What does your cancellation email say about the confirmation? Is there a statement about requiring this confirmation for the cancellation to be approved?
edit: https://help.marriott.com/s/article/Article-22509
Could you show us what the policy looks like under your booking?
edit 2: Use imgur.com and send it as a link
NAL. Theres a couple of issues here
* Its standard practise in many firms, to have expenses go through a corporate card. My firm does that but refuse to have the card, since so many things can go wrong (delayed payments, surcharges,late payments)
* From the description, this was done on behalf of the firm – not a personal expense.
It is normal for people to chop & change when requesting hotels. I dont understand why the OP did it on her(his) card and not the person for whom the booking is done.
It sounds like OP is relatively new to this work – but I would not fret. I would not be concerned about this being your mistake and you have to pay it. This is why you have an employer.
My advice is talk to your managers or the expense department, and clearly lay out the issue. Dont make it personal – just factual, and ask that they refund you and/or provide guidance on how to claim from the hotels.
Others have posted to talk to AMEX – sounds good to me; but get your employer on your side ASAP.
Good luck
Get the email correspondences in order and complain via amex. If I understand right you got a cancellation confirmation from Mariot so from your point you did what you should have to inform them the rooms are no longer needed. If they didnt action the request then its their fault.
I would check with the firm you work for re corporate cards as well as travel companies for future reference. I find it odd that you would book directly with the hotel without the involvement of any travel agency. The firm i work for uses one and they provide great financial security for situations such as yours so if your employer is in contract with any i would go through them in the future
Surely they can only justify attempting to charge for the no-show on the first night of the booking right?
Reservations should have called up after 7 people no-showed for day1 before charging the rest of the booking.
Or did each of the 7PAX have exec suites booking for one night only or something?
I’ve had to pay cancellations for last min issues before but only for the first night of the trip.
NAL but I’m a PA and have also done this exact thing but the charge was on my company card so I didn’t have that worry. I still had the stress though of having to tell work!!
Firstly, take a deep breath! It will be ok. I would attempt the following:
Call Marriott and tell them you are a regular customer, this was an honest mistake but the way they help you now will affect you using them in the future.
Call Amex and see if they can do a chargeback based on the fact you did cancel it via email (don’t say about the do not reply bit…)
Tell your work that you have done / will do these two things and will put through the expense in the meantime whilst things get sorted out. You absolutely should not cover this.
Lastly ask for a company credit card!
In my case I didn’t get a refund despite really trying and absolutely no repercussions happened. I still work there now years later! You’re not infallible and these things happen. It’s a huge amount to you but not to a company so I’m sure it’ll be ok!
Good luck and feel free to reach out if you want to talk further!
Are you using your personal Amex to get the points …?
That’s questionable ?
Your employer is extremely likely to cover this – own up to it.
You can go via Amex
You can go nuclear and take the hotel off the bookintlist + and you can speak them about your situation
Overall your chances are strong to get your money back
Bizzare you would use your personal card for such large expense. This is not normal. Anyhow, your employer owes you the money, its their decision how they deal with it.
It’s so frustrating that they receive the reply, but can get away with not acknowledging or actioning anything by claiming it’s a no reply email address.
Erm ok there are so many things to unpick here.
1) you used a personal card, if you did not follow the cancellation requirements of the establishments then they are legally not required to give you a refund but they may give you a credit.
2) liability for the 6k between you and your company you work for, unless you have a specific policy that says you must / should or can use the card for company purposes you’re up shit creek unless you have an understanding boss.
If I was in your shoes I would be calmly asking the hotel chain for a refund and or credit whilst also telling your company exactly what has happened.
Finally never use personal cards for work stuff ever again unless you own the damn company.
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