The sharper edge to traveling in Asia

Are guests getting fleeced at Bangkok’s Nana Hotel by accounting and checkout staff?

Written By: herbrunbridge - Feb• 26•12

Word has reached WoWasis this week that at least one guest at Bangkok’s Nana Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 4 recently had his bill accidentally increased by a factor of ten (!) when he paid his bill by credit card upon his departure. The problem? Nana Hotel didn’t want to credit the $3000 USD back to the guest’s credit card! Here’s the story: 

A frequent guest checked out recently to catch an early morning flight. Nana Hotel added a “zero” to the end of the amount, the guest didn’t catch it, signed the slip, and left. The original charge was approximately $300 USD, and Nana chargedthe guest $3000 USD. This could have been regarded as an honest mistake. But even though Nana admitted it was their error, they refused to credit the amount back to the guest’s credit card, saying “we cannot fix the amount from the visa card, because the bank would not allow us to do so… BUT we will refund the money to you for the amount of 100,000 baht in cash when you come back here.” 

The guest responded that he wouldn’t be back in the near term, insisted on having the overage refunded to his credit card account, and Nana Hotel’s response was to give the guest the name of the hotel’s accountant. There was no promise to credit back the overage to the credit card account, either. 

It is unknown at this time whether this represents shoddy business practice, or may in fact be a scam run by the accounting department at this hotel. If the latter, some Nana employee could possibly have the free use of $3000 USD until the guest returns to the country. If the guest never returns, someone would keep the money. If the guest does return, goodness knows what documentation he’ll need to try to recover his funds. 

Either way, the management of the hotel may not even be aware of the problem. In the classic “kreng jai” philosophy that governs much business in Thailand, it wouldn’t be surprising if the staff responsible for the error, as well as the accountant that refused to credit the overage to the guest’s credit card, completely hid this situation from management. 

In the meantime, the guest sought relief from his credit card company, who investigated, and returned the guest’s funds immediately. The guest tells us that the credit card company was dumfounded. They thought they’d heard everything, but this was a new one on them. 

If you’ve faced a similar situation at Nana Hotel, or any other hotel in Thailand, let us know. We’d like to understand whether this was an anomaly, or common practice.

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