A LoyaltyLobby reader sent us an email and question regarding bathroom amenities that they had been charged $131 at Intercontinental Dubai Festival City.
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Email From The Reader:
Please find attached below email I received from Intercontinental Hotel Festival City Dubai, UAE charging me for bathroom amenities AED 480.00 (USD 131.50) and my reply to them.
Which is self explanatory.
I received a call from one of hotel staff who apologized and promised to refund the amount. But so far, I haven’t received the refund yet.
I need your advise on how to approach the IHG higher management and negotiate a deal.
Let me know your thoughts and your feedback plus your charges if any.
Email Reader Received From The Hotel:
Greetings from Club InterContinental Dubai Festival City.
First and foremost, I would just like to thank you for being a Diamond Royal Ambassador and for being one of our most loyal guests.
Kindly find the attached Invoice payment for the Bathroom Amenities of 10 bottles amount of 480AED was approved and confirmed to be charged to your card.
Should you need any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Wishing you a safe flight.
Looking forward to welcoming you back again!
Reader’s Reply Ambassador Service Center:
Yesterday after check out from Intercontinental Festival City Hotel Dubai, I received a call from the hotel informing me that some Bathroom amenities (shampoo, conditioner etc..) are missing from the two bedrooms suite, me and my family stayed from 3-6 June 2022. And I need to pay immediately AED 480.00. I was in aircraft ready for takeoff and couldn’t hear clearly and thought that may be kids have broken something in the suite and and I authorized the payment through my Amex Centurion card registered with the hotel. I also asked the staff called me that if he knows that I’m IHG Royal Ambassador and he confirmed by saying the he knows and he thanked me for the loyalty.
Later I checked with my family and they told me that they liked amenities placed in the bathroom (shampoo, conditioner etc..) and asked the house keeping guy if they can have more of it to take it home.
House Keeping person told them that they may take whatever in the bathroom and the stuff is not sold by hotel. Moreover the staff helped them removing the shampoo bottles.
In my 30 years with different hotel, no hotel charged me ever for taking away bathroom amenities. And in last 25 years with IHG this is the first time I’m charged for this kind of goodies kept for customers. This a cheap way of earning profits from guests.
I demand that the charge of AED 480.00 is removed immediately from my credit card.
I still have the option to dispute this transaction through American Express cards co.
Conclusion
On a recent trip, a friend of mine liked (must have been Conrad) bathroom amenities so much that they decided to empty part of the pump bottle into a takeaway water bottle (just an idea).
Hotels used to have relatively large disposable bottles in the club rooms and suites, but those are now mostly replaced by these pump bottles.
I would not expect to be able to take these without a charge, but it would make sense for the hotel to offer guests the ability to buy them if they like the product a lot or give them as a parting gift.
There must have been a misunderstanding between the housekeeping personnel and the hotel’s accounting.
I would keep the email to the Ambassador service center concise, and it can often take a week or two for the refund to show up in your credit card account (depends on how the hotel processes these internally).
