I have an upcoming stay at a Hyatt property and am completely confused by their “deposit” policy. I understand some hotels require a deposit upon booking, even if you make a refundable reservation.
I’ll present the information about a Hyatt stay in New York and see if you can make any sense of it.
If it helps (but it won’t), I booked with an AAA rate to pay at the hotel. I didn’t notice any deposit information when I booked. I only started to investigate when I received a charge on my credit card.
The first thing I checked was the cancellation policy, which was reasonable. Cancel 48 hours prior to stay or pay a 1-night fee. 
So where did I miss a deposit? I checked my confirmation email and couldn’t find it. I eventually found it on the World of Hyatt app.
Supposedly, I was supposed to pay a 2-night deposit on February 23rd and today is March 16th. OK. So they’re running behind.
We’re staying for 2 nights and here’s the breakdown of the costs for our stay:
FWIW, with hotel rates what they are I’m fine paying $250 a night for a room in Manhattan. But if I’m supposed to pay a 2-night deposit, shouldn’t I have paid the entire $495?
My credit card was charged $213. That doesn’t even cover one night’s rate for the room. The closest I can get is that it’s a combination of the room rate and the “destination fee” for one night.
I’m the type of person who likes to keep things organized. If you want to charge me a 2-night deposit in February, then charge me. If I don’t see the charge, I’m figuring something is wrong and my reservation isn’t on the books.
The only reason I didn’t freak out about this was I didn’t see the deposit required when I booked the room. But now we’re 2 weeks past when you said you would take a deposit and the amount doesn’t make sense with our reservation, so I don’t know what to think.
I don’t have the brain power at the moment to worry about it and I’m thinking that’s a good thing. I’ll show up at my hotel for my reservation and pay wherever remainder they ask. But I’ll keep handy the credit card file showing that I’ve already paid part of the bill, just in case.
Am I the only one who is driven crazy by places that don’t follow their own policies, only to make up new ones with no notice? If I was low on cash and was planning expenses in advance, this might have been a big problem. I guess this Hyatt hotel doesn’t care.
Want to comment on this post? Great! Read this first to help ensure it gets approved.
Want to sponsor a post, write something for Your Mileage May Vary, or put ads on our site? Click here for more info.
Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love it if you decided to hang around and sign up to get emailed notifications of when we post.
Whether you’ve read our articles before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates from our team.