Fix Credit Card Payment to Hotel on Friends Behalf

[Diven]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
Technically I'm from BC, Canada but I will accept advice as if I was from Washington State.

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On March 21st I sent a scanned email to a hotel authorizing 408.80 to be charged on my credit card, for what I was told covered with the addition of 50 dollars from the friend 4 nights stay at the hotel plus a 100 dollar security deposit.

Yesterday April 2nd, I authorized a 2nd payment for 500.00 which was supposed to in addition to approx. 235 dollars from my friend cover a monthly rate. This letter explicitly stated that it was to be used for a monthly hotel rate.

Later that night I had learned that additional charges had been made on the credit card. It appears that my friend did not make additional payments towards the room that he told me he was making, and they continued to charge my credit card for the additional nights he stayed.

Currently after discussing with the manager last night, they will be charging me the 908.80, and they have received the oustanding balance from my friend so all payments are up to to date. They agreed that if my friend was to stay longer he would be responsible for the payments.

I'm more or less satisfied with this, however in the event they do not reverse the charges as they claim, or charge additional for any damages/room service/calls etc., I wanted to know what my options are.

My assumption, if I send an authorization letter for a fix amount, is that they are authorized to charge up to that fixed amount. I imagine typically they have guest sign a form that accepts all charges for the duration of the stay and assumes responsibility for any damages. However I did not sign any such form, I only sent the authorization letter to charge the fix amount. As such I feel it should have been treated as a 1 time cash transaction in advance of the 4 nights stayed.

The hotel manager was claiming that by authorizing any charge, that implicitly granted them rights to charge my credit card with additional charges. I do not dispute a hotels desire or right to acquire such a right but I believe that they need to should need to get authrization from me for such right. If a fixed credit card payment wasn't acceptable to them they should not allowed the transaction to go through.

My other issue is the 500 I specified to be charged towards a monthly rate. As it was instead used to back pay for a daily rate, I feel I might have some rights to void that transacation. This I think is much muddier. As they do have an authorization letter for the amount, My credit card company is unlikely to void the transaction... it would be up to me to prove that the service agreed to was not given. I would likely only dispute this if it went all the way to court. But I'm wondering if there is any action I should do now to ensure I do not lose any potential claim to the amount, if I have a claim at all.

[Antigone*of*Greece]

U.S. Law only

[Diven]

So please post a response based off US law. As if the event occured in Washington State. I acknoledge that information given may not be accurate in my jurisdiction. I'm currently looking for a Canadian Legal Forum, but haven't found one yet... I registered for this forum before knowing it was US law only so decided to ask my question. Perhaps lawyers here volunteer information to US legal issue only due to receiving grants, or perhaps they do so voluntairly in hopes it will lead to acquiring clients. These are fair reason to deny advice to me. If it is simply to cover your behind stating that this is true for washington state, but may not be true in bc, canada, especially after I've acknoledge understanding should be adequate.

[Zigner]

Originally Posted by Diven

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
Technically I'm from BC, Canada but I will accept advice as if I was from Washington State.

Post back from Seattle - then we'll talk!

(US LAW ONLY!)

[Zigner]

Originally Posted by Diven

Perhaps lawyers here volunteer information to US legal issue only due to receiving grants, or perhaps they do so voluntairly in hopes it will lead to acquiring clients.

Or, perhaps people (lawyers and non-lawyers alike) only answer US Law questions because this is a US LAW ONLY site. Canadian laws are different...almost as if they were from a different country!

[Diven]

Originally Posted by Zigner

Or, perhaps people (lawyers and non-lawyers alike) only answer US Law questions because this is a US LAW ONLY site. Canadian laws are different...almost as if they were from a different country!

Funny, I could have sworn last time I was in the US, they had credit cards and hotels, and that you could use those credit cards to pay for hotels. I thank you for you service to those in the US, and for not offering me information that might lead me to make an inaccurate legal decision in Canada. I felt the law un such matter would likely be very similar, but I could be wrong and if you haven't studied Canadian Law you wouldn't know for sure either. I've found a Canadian forum to ask my question at.

It might be nice to know the policy in the US as well, as I do stay at hotels there from time to time. That said I'm unlikely to put myself in such a situation again even if I'm in the legal right.

[Zigner]

Originally Posted by Diven

It might be nice to know the policy in the US as well, as I do stay at hotels there from time to time. That said I'm unlikely to put myself in such a situation again even if I'm in the legal right.

That's the funny thing about the United STATES. There are at least 50 different responses you could receive...and they'd all be accurate!