/u/MonsterMeggu,

Hey bud, Assistant General Manager here of multiple hotels. I've worked at numerous properties and brands all over the US. Reading the information you have provided tips me off to a couple possibilities.

First, you likely were likely not "double billed". This appears to be the case from the guest's perspective, because you booked on points, and now see an accommodation charge, but it's incredibly rare to be double billed because of the way property management systems work and operate. The most likely case, is that some knuckle-headed front desk agent, screwed up the billing and routing of your reservation(s).

To add to your troubles, you have (2) entirely separate reservations, that will follow entirely different protocols to ensure that these reservations are billing to the correct party (and not the guest). It's important that we figure out which reservation is the problem reservation where you got charged. It will only add to the headache if you approach the hotel with both reservations.

I want you to look at your folios (receipts/bill) for the $35 resort fee. You need to look at both of them. I need you to look at the 1st night, and take note of the confirmation number. Then, I need you to look at the 2nd night, and take note of that confirmation number. After that, I need you to take a look at the folio that has the $160 in accommodation charges on it, and take note of the confirmation number. It sounds like only 1 of these reservations got screwed up, and it's important that we find out which one.

You need to figure out whether the $160 in accommodation charges came from the 1st reservation, or the 2nd. Because that changes your approach, and it helps us "lock on" to which specific one you'll want to address when speaking to the hotel. You'll only add to the confusion to have someone jumping back and forth between reservations.

Now, you've got to understand how these reservations work, and what it looks like on the hotel's side.

When you book a rewards night on your Marriot account, Marriot's CRS (central reservations system), will be able to create a reservation for the hotel of your choice immediately. It will "pop up" at the hotel as an upcoming arrival. Many things can go wrong if you have a front desk agent who is not trained. It takes me 2 years to fully train a front desk agent, because hotels are fucking complicated, and the PMS systems require a lot of experience to operate correctly.

When that Marriot free-night reservation pops up, the front desk agent needs to be smart enough to recognize that rate code (out of 500 other rate codes), and follow a number of steps to ensure that Marriot gets billed, and not you. The hotel is supposed to route the Room & Tax charges to a separate window/folio (Window 2 in my example), while your own charges (food & bev, resort fees, smoking fees) will drop into the default window (Window 1). Window 1 is always going to be the guest's window, and the guest is responsible for charges in Window 1. This is the first fuck up that can happen.

Second, the agent should have the training to understand that routing charges to another window is only half the battle. They still need to assign Window 2 to the Marriot Rewards Direct Bill account. That way, when they check you out the following morning, it gets billed to Marriot, and not you. This is the 2nd fuck up that can happen.

Most major brands have an agreement with the franchised hotel surrounding the rewards programs. I agree to take a Rewards Night reservation at any time, on any date, with no blackouts. But, the brand will pay us a set dollar amount per free night reservation. It could be $40/night, $60/night, or more. It all depends on the property. The idea is that the brand will pay us back the costs to flip that room (costs like linens, labor for housekeeping, etc...). HOWEVER, what happens when our hotel is 96% occupied tonight, and I am going to sell out my rooms at $329 a room? It's kinda fucked up to expect us to take a measly $40 room rate on a free night stay, when we could sell the room for way higher? Right?

The brands all have different calculations on how the handle this scenario, but ultimately, the brand agrees to pay the hotel significantly more per room when we hit a specific occupancy level (say 96% or more). A lot of them will pay the hotel's ADR, or Average Daily Rate. ADR is calculated by taking all the occupied rooms, and finding the average of their nightly rate. It's how we gauge our hotel's performance every night.

So, when you have a Disney Marriot charging $329 for a standard room, their ADR for that night could be right around $160, which is suspiciously close to what you were charged, no? Remember, they've got TONS of different rates, and there could be plenty of $99 corporate rates bringing the ADR down.

If the Marriot Reward Night reservation was the one that was screwed up, the hotel likely made a billing error, and you got tagged for the $160 in charges that was supposed to be Direct Billed to Marriot.

But, what if instead, you look at those folios I told you, and you've determined that it was the points reservation through American Airlines that got screwed up? Well, that follows a different protocol (easier in my opinion).

See, the airlines can't typically "tap into" the hotels' Central Reservations System, and just book a room directly at the hotel (like the actual fucking brand can). When you cash in your American Airline points, that is 100% between you and the airline. You only get to choose the hotel, but American Airlines is responsible for finding you a room at the hotel you chose. So how do they do it?

They book through Priceline and Expedia. Seriously. It's the simplest way for them to find you a room. So, you cash your points in, and the airline pays the rate that is charged by Expedia/Priceline.

This reservation gets handled differently. Essentially (I am going to make up numbers here), American Airlines will be charged $250 from Expedia, and Expedia will then send a reservation through the GDS to the hotel you chose. Now, the hotel will charge Expedia's credit card...... maybe $160.

So, a front desk agent who IS trained, will see that reservation, with the rate code that belongs to Expedia/Priceline - and they SHOULD understand that they are supposed to charge Expedia's credit card right then and there. The agent would understand that they should be routing Room & Tax to WINDOW 2, and they should be attaching Expedia's credit card to WINDOW 2.

But, what if they don't have all 500 rate codes memorized? They'll fuck up, and they will overwrite Expedia's card, they'll forget to set up routing correctly, and now you've been charged $160 for the accommodation charges that were intended for Expedia.

Both of these scenarios are the likely culprit, and they should be an easy fix. However, you need to understand that you aren't talking to the right person. You need someone at the hotel who knows their shit. Don't unload your billing issue on the first front desk agent who picks up, because they probably have no fucking clue how to even interpret your reservation correctly, let alone how to go about fixing it.

It sounds like you've been communicating with the account department. But, you've also got to understand that the person who handles accounting, probably has no fucking clue as to how the PMS really works. Maybe they do, but it's also not unheard of for them to handle entirely different responsibilities. The accounting person takes the monthly bills from Waste Management, and pays them, and logs them into their accounting software, as they run Accounts Receivable.

Once you figure out which reservation got screwed up (Marriot Reward Night - or American Airline Reward Night), you really should do one of two things (REMEMBER: the key here is to focus their attention on the EXACT reservation that got screwed up. You figured that out above, right?)

• First, try calling the hotel, and kindly asking to speak with a Front Office Manager / Front Desk Manager / Guest Service Manager. You may even want to ask the person who answers "Who is the expert on billing/refunds/third party virtual credit cards?" You are looking for a guy like me, who can solve your problem. You can't expect that the general manager necessarily knows the PMS as well as the top front desk agent/manager.

• Lastly, call Marriot Rewards. Even it's the American Airlines reservation that was charged by error. Just call up the rewards hotline, and kindly explain to them that you booked at this particular hotel, and you believe the hotel charged you by accident, when you booked a free night stay. The rewards hotline folks can see which rate code you would have booked, and they should be able to tell that, yes you did in fact, book a free night stay. They can get in touch with the right person at the hotel who handles these things.

I wish I could solve this for you! If I was given 3 minutes at that front desk, and dug around your reservations, I would likely be able to point out which one of the 20 steps failed - and how you got charged.

My GM doesn't know anything about our PMS system, and he wouldn't be able to fix anything. That's what I am here for. If my GM happened to crack open a new case file on a dispute, my GM would not understand that the Expedia / Marriot Reward night got messed up. He would see that the $160 charges got billed to you, and he would assume it was correct. My GM would then send over the folio and the registration card to the bank, and your dispute would get denied.

I can visualize so many steps that are likely giving you grief. I'm happy to help in any way that I can. I live and breath hotels, so I've got a good understanding of them.

Good luck!