Have I been awarded incorrect points after a stay?

[sturgeon]

I stayed at a hotel in Budapest and I’m not sure the points awarded for the stay were correct.

My final bill was 638,385 HUF, my understanding is that I’d earn 10 Marriott points per USD spent, so this is $1,770 using a current conversion and therefore approximately 17k base points with an extra 25% from being gold elite.

Only 10,280 were awarded which is about $1,000 worth of spend and not the $1,700 plus spent.

The only unknown is taxes as I know you don’t earn points on those, the bill shows a city tax which adds up to about $30 overall. I assume that’s the only tax. There are no ‘service charges’ paid.

Does this seem right? I thought I’d earn closer to 17k, plus 25% on top, I was also only awarded 500 points welcome bonus whilst I booked and paid for two rooms.

The fact I had two rooms shouldn’t be an issue as I was assured throughout id be credited everything as long as I paid for it all and kept reservations in my name. Also the final bill involved them moving over all charges (room and F&B) to one room so the total was clear.

I’ve raised this with them now 10 days have passed.

[meta]

You only get one set of welcome points no matter how many rooms you book.

You don’t always earn points on F&B or spa spend as some restaurants/spa are run by third-parties. Have you checked with the hotel?

[Matt]

Which hotel in Budapest? Some brands don’t give 10 points/$.

As Meta says, only 1 lot of welcome points are due. The currency conversion used is generally not in your favour, but it shouldn’t produce that big a gap.

You’ve done the right thing – did you get an acknowledgement email when you submitted the missing points claim? If not, try again.

[sturgeon]

It’s the dorothea hotel, autograph collection, should be 10 points. It’s brand new so I wonder if it wasn’t categorised properly.

[meta]

Autograph hotels are usually independent five-star hotels. I wouldn’t be surprised that F&B outlets are run by a third party. How much was the room rate versus F&B spend?

[sturgeon]

The vast majority was room
Rate. F&B was only about $100 as most was covered with room credits. I’m fairly sure the restaurant was hotel owned as breakfast and dinner was served there in the heart of the hotel space.

[meta]

Are you saying the room rate included F&B credits? They might have deducted those before applying any points. They shouldn’t have and I’m sure CS will rectify it. I’d try contacting MB Assist vi X/Twitter as they are usually faster.

[sturgeon]

The credits were due to booking via a luminous agent (like Emyr). They hadn’t replied to the first request so I submitted again yesterday afternoon and they’ve replied today to apologise and added the missing points which add to a combined total I expected it to be. I never used to check properly but will do now.

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

The points are calculated on the room rate minus tax. City tax is most certainly not the only tax you paid. There will have been VAT built into the room rate; you need to account for about a 30% drop on the final amount you paid.

[sturgeon]

I thought so but they’ve applied them based on the final bill converted to USD pretty much. The same as my Doha stay but I suspect taxes are much lower there. Is 30% really a normal amount to charge as hotel taxes? Seems very high, I’ve checked and the EU is on average 10% and the uk is highest. Asia 10% highest. Interesting nonetheless.