Consumer complaint received 2025-10-01 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems — Other problem
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY

Complaint narrative:
Hello, We have a very small and exclusive Hotel, with only XXXX  Villas, " XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX '' in XXXX ( XXXX XXXX ) with a website ( XXXX ) managed by XXXX XXXX. 

The situation in dispute : a ) Our guest : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ) She booked on our website XXXX managed by XXXX XXXX, on XX/XX/year> a stay with us for XX/XX/year> ( Our XXXX  XXXX, between XXXX and XXXX XX/XX/XXXX nights ). ( XXXX below : Booking XXXX XXXX XXXX on XXXX directly on our website ) XXXX : The Booking was for the XXXX  XXXX and we changed for the XXXX  XXXX, rectifying the total amount for XXXX for the all 5 nights, as requested by the client XXXX XXXX on the subsequent emails ( demonstrated in the same document that we attached ) XXXX : You can see on the same document of her Booking with us the Terms and Conditions of our Hotel : " Terms and conditions : - A deposit of 20 % is required to confirm your Booking and the last 80 % due up to 30 days before check-in. - If we do not receive the remaining amount due up to 30 days before checking in, your reservation will be canceled with loss of the amount paid to date. - This offer can be cancelled or modified up to 30 days before the stay. If cancelled before 30 days, we will refund you 95 % of the total amount paid ( 5 % if for transfer bank commissions ). - In case of cancellation after this date, a penalty of 100 % of full stay will apply. - In case of no-show, a penalty of 100 % will apply. - A credit card number is required to confirm the reservation. - Hotel 's extras are due upon check-out. '' XXXX : Our website booking flow shows all Terms Conditions and Cancellation Policy, displayed at every stage of booking and that guests need to accept to complete the reservation at our hotel ( Document attached ) c ) Therefore, the Guest have known since the beginning. Since she Booked our Hotel on our website on XX/XX/year> that if she wanted to cancel with refund should do it before XX/XX/year>. After XX/XX/year> any cancellation has a penalty of 100 %. 

c ) The Guest Paid on XX/XX/year> : XXXX ( doc below : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ) d ) The Guest Paid on XX/XX/year> ( after XX/XX/year>, the last day that she could cancel without penalty ) the Last Payment for her Booking confirmation : XXXX ( doc below : XXXX XXXX XXXX Last Payment XX/XX/year> ) Note : This Guest paid the last payment, after we asked her, by email, on XX/XX/year> for this Payment for her Booking confirmation with us. ( demonstrated on doc below : first email of the Emails were the client allows us to open their nights booked to try to resell on XX/XX/year> ), and after XX/XX/year> ( the last day that could be cancelled without any penalty ). 

XXXX ) Therefore, the Guest agreed and paid for her Booking confirmation with us, on XX/XX/year>. 

f ) On XX/XX/year>, with only 6 days in advance from her Check In with us ( and not before 30 days ), the Guest send us an email asking for a date change or refund. 

g ) We explained, by email, on the same day, that : " Regarding your Booking, as you can understand we have a very small Hotel with only XXXX Villas. At this distance we can not make any changes to your reservation and make any exception to our cancellation policy.... '' h ) More, as we do with all our Guests when they have a situation that they can not come, less than 30 days in advance of the Check In, we explained that : " The best we can do is open on all platforms your booked nights. And if we resell your nights, we refund you the number of nights we sold. '' And added and asked the Guest : " Let us know if you want to open your nights to try to resell. '' i ) The Guest, XXXX XXXX XXXX, agreed by email, on the same day, to open the nights to try to resell, and refund the ones we could sell at the price we sold : " We can not go..... So please open the booking. 
If you can help us we would greatly appreciate it. 
Anyway, we can not come so open the booking. 
Regards, ~XXXX  XXXX You can see all emails between us and the Guest on the documents below. Everything is detailed and demonstrated ( Document : Emails on XXXX were the client agreed and allows us to open their nights booked to try to resell and refund the nights we can resell ) To sum up : 1 ) As we demonstrated above, and with the documents attached, the Guest XXXX XXXX XXXX, has no right to be reimbursed by us from the Payment she did ( XXXX ). Therefore, we do not agree to refund the guest with this amount. 

2 ) More, this Guest is not being honest with our Hotel, respecting the terms of the Booking she made, and even not being honest with her Bank, taking this action against us to ask for a refund for a reservation at our Hotel that her is not entitled to. 

3 ) However, and according to the guest agreement, in her email dated XX/XX/year> to open her booked nights to try to resell, we opened those 5 booked nights, and we were able to resell 3 nights for another guest ( from XXXX to XXXX XXXX ) at our last minute rate of XXXX. 

Conclusion : Therefore, we only agree to refund the guest XXXX XXXX XXXX with XXXX ( The 3 nights we resold, according to our mutual agreement ). 

However, despite sending all the information, supporting our position to American Express, by XXXX XXXX, the American Express just declined without any information, and took us XXXX to refund their client, and not only XXXX, as we agreed, as a comercial position, and not legal position. ( Legally the client has no right to have a refund. ) And the American Express Bank should respect our Cancellation Policy as well. We can not accept the American Express decision. 

This situation is an attack on the trust of international credit card transactions.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation