DO NOT STAY HERE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES
My husband and I had a 5 night trip to New York at the start of March 2009. We paid the trip in full before we left and on our arrival at the hotel, had to hand over our credit card for security. On hecking out, the hotel tried to take $1200 from our card for our stay be we advised that we had already paid, showing them the booking confirmation letter, and they refunded us the money.
It transpires that our travel agent had used a supplier called Welcome USA to book the hotel. Welcome USA got into financial difficulties and didn't pay the hotel. I contacted the travel agent who advised that what should have happened is that the hotel should have contacted them before we arrived and they would have sorted the situation out. However the hotel chose not tell the travel agent, but instead, waited until we had arrived and when we handed over our credit card, made a pre-authorised transaction.
As a precaution, I cancelled our credit card. We contacted the hotel and advised them that we would not be paying them anything. Unfortunately, because they had a pre-authorised transaction, they took the money from us anyway, £784. The travel agent spoke to them and they said that their stance would be that they had told us of this when we arrived which is simply not true. At the end of the day, they have carried out an unauthorised transaction on our credit card and are refusing to refund us. We phoned them and the manager called Guadelupe told us that she had e-mailed us and told us that they would be taking the money, this is a blatant lie.
So, unless you want to be completely conned, do not go near this hotel. We will go back to New York at some point, but will not set foot in the Affinia Dumont Hotel ever again and we hope you won't either.