We booked a week out, a one night stay at this hotel. We booked directly through the reservation centre for Hampton Inns and paid up front. Rate was $165.00 plus $40.80 in Tax Recovery and Service Fees. The hotel itself was typical, clean, pleasant, met the standard Hampton Inn level. The following morning, a paper bill was under our door. I noticed the rate was $151.70, with $10.62 in sales tax. There were no Recovery charges and Service fees. I challenged my $205.80 USD credit card charges at the Front Desk before leaving. They said that I needed to call the reservation centre, which I did later. The front desk clerk indicated that their records showed that the reservation was a prepay through Expedia. I was pretty sure I had reserved directly but sadly didn't have a print out of the confirmation. In fact, the paper bill slipped under my door was for the same room, but for a different reservation, despite the same name and same room number. When I called the Hampton Inn reservation centre for an explanation, not so much on the room rate, but on the tax and service charges on my bill but which were not reflected in this paper bill, the agent, Bob, was not able to explain this. My conclusion is that I paid an extra $30.00 for the services rendered by the in house hotel reservation system which clearly does not apply when booking through Expedia or an equivalent.
Moral of the story, beware of Tax Recovery & Service Charges... .which mean very little, except just more money in the company's pocket. Unless someone can give me a good explanation, I effectively paid $30.00 more that night on my room rate than I should have.
Of course, I have no recourse. I did agree to the amount and didn't question the additional fees over and above the room rate, thinking that the Hilton Group is fair and equitable, but now I question this assumption since clearly not everyone has to pay this additional Tax Recovery and Service Fee. I repeat, beware of Tax Recovery & Service Charges... they were the equivalent of an increase in the room rate for an equivalent room, same night, of 20%
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
15 September 2011
Hello Madam,
I want to thank you for comments and I have read your review carefully and looked at your hotel reservation. After looking into this, I discovered that your reservation was made through Expedia a third party vendor. I do apologize for the confusion with third party merchants, it is very confusing. At the hotel, we do not have any additional tax recovery or any service charges. These charges are from Expedia. Expedia gets discounted rates through the hotels and I am unsure what additional charges occur through booking with them. Again, I sincerely apologize for the confusion this caused and I am hopeful that you will stay with us on your next return visit to Waterville.
Best Wishes,
Nicole Desjardins- Director of Sales
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC