MsEverywhere

My son has a new job where he will travel a lot for business. He will need to use his own credit or debit card and then be reimbursed. I got him a Marriott gift card, but from what I learned on the gift card thread, it will be better to 1) have him check in with his own card,
2) present his MBB/MPP upon checkin or during his stay,
3) and then just present the gift card upon checkout.

When I spoke with him yesterday, he didn't know how long he would stay, so I booked him a room @ a RI for 2 weeks. Would they pre-authorize the whole 2 weeks when he checks in? Would they ask him to settle up after a week or so? I just wanted to make sure he has enough "room" on his card.

MillardDJr

I've stayed at CY's many times, and every time the bill hits $1K, they hit the card. That's their particular "house limit". Residence Inn might have a different cap, but each will process the charges once they reach a certain threshold. You could call the RI and ask...

MsEverywhere

MillardDJr,

I see, that would be when they "settle" that part of the charge. I'll call the hotel to see what their house limit is, and he might be able to stay below that limit by presenting enough MBB/MPP before he hits the limit.

But what about the amount they "pre-authorize" on the card, at the time he checks in. Would that be the $1000 or whatever their house limit is, if his
(# of days X daily rate) is higher than that?

When I checked in to the LAS Ren last week, they pre-authorized about 150% of my (# of days X daily rate) on my debit card. I didn't expect more than 100%.

joshua362

Most definitely use a charge card at check-in and never, ever a debit/gift card.

They will immediately deduct much more than the room charges per night and be slow to reimburse it back at checkout.

My colleague had a week long reward stay at a RI, presented a Debit card at check-in for "incidentals" and had $2000 taken out of his checking account at Christmas time. Checks went a bouncing and it took weeks to clean up.

Also, if something so screwy with the stay, you have some credit card protection if you can't get satisfaction locally. Keep it on the card for protesting later on.

Just my opinion.

USFreak

I despise Credit Cards and use a debit card all the time to check into hotels.......I've never had a 2K hold on my card before--it generally is $25-$50 a day for the duration of the stay in addition to the room rate and tax.....Now, This is CY and FS Marriotts.....I've never done an RI. Townplace held $0 in addition to the room rate and tax (why would they need to hold anymore? They don't sell services but laundry) a few weeks back. If they hold 1K in addition to room rates (assuming a 2 or 3 night stay), throw a fit because no one and I repeat no one would ever spend 1K in incidentals for a 2 or 3 night stay. If they did, then they would set those type of expenses up with Sales.....that's my feeling

cyberdad

Well, I was in a CY last week in KC and they hit my card for $1,060 when I checked in. Guess they needed my extra sixty bucks. (My bill when I checked out was $740).

Anyway, I prefer using my debit card and haven't had too many problems. There are, however, a few hotels that get a bit "carried away" with the pre-auth IMHO. These tend to be resorts and other FS hotels with extensive facilites (meaning lots of opportunities for room charges).

As for how long the authorization stays on the card, that's generally up to the bank, not the hotel. With my bank, its three business days. On longer stays, I've actually had the authorization automatically come off before I check out. Also, my bank will honor any checks that come in if/when my "available balance" is tied up with authorizations, but not actual charges.

In other words, if I have $300 in my account, and then the hotel authorizes $200, I have $100 available balance remaining. Then along comes a $200 check. The bank will honor the check without any overdraft fee, etc. They'll also honor the actual hotel charge when it comes through, if the pre-auth is still hasn't expired. If/when the combination of the two exceeds my balance, then I'd get hit with one overdraft fee. So in my example, if the actual hotel charge is $150, on top of the $200 check, then I'd get hit with an overdraft fee....after the authorization expires, if I don't deposit additional funds into my bank account.

cedric

The pre-auth amount is generally based on a specific formula, not whatever round number pops into the mind of the check-in clerk. Even if the house limit was $1000, the hotel would likely initially take a pre-auth of the full amount to ensure that you had sufficient credit to cover your entire expected stay.

I recently used a check in kiosk at a Hyatt and it specifically mentioned that it would take a pre-auth of $75/day above the room and tax amount for incidentals.

At the (high-end, independant) resort where I work, we take $300/day plus the room and tax amount as a pre-auth. However, I do have some latitude in this and if I notice that a guest who is checking in is on a package which includes dinner, spa, etc. then I will normally lower the pre-auth accordingly as it is likely that their incidentals will not be as high.

MsEverywhere

I called the hotel today and was quite surprised when they said they don't have a "house limit" for settlement. When she said that, I didn't bother to ask how much they would pre-authorize.

VA1379

Some hotels will not settle a bill until you checkout, no matter how high the bill is. I heard this explicitly from one manager at the Washington Dulles Marriott Suites.

socrates

typically it's only the extended stay hotels that have a house limit...very few full service hotels have one and only settle it upon checkout

holtju2

They didn't take anything out from the debit card but rather authorized the amount that would cover the stay and then some extra.

Hopefully your friend learned a lesson. Only an idiot would use a debit card to pay anyway.

SkiAdcock

PLAN FOR THE WORST; HOPE FOR THE BEST!

Pretty much every hotel (doesn't matter what chain) I've ever stayed at puts a hold of the room charges+tax (over the entire stay, so room charges x 7 is an example), 'plus' a bit for each night for (room service, phone, internet, yada, yada).

Some hotels only do room+tax, some r+t+small amount over, some r+t+large amount over.

I've been in situations where I use my credit card (normal) & debit/visa card (rare, but happens).

Recently, as those on the Marriott forum know, I was in AMS last month. Huge room bill due to convention rates; no biggie, I had the credit. I even had extra for normal incidentals, but - put $100+US/night (their idea of incidentals), which over the course of my stay was $1,000 - so ate up the available free credit on the cc I had. Normally not a biggie, but still...

Hello - it's a regular Marriott w/ only 1 decent restaurant, a Characters bar, a Pizza Hut, and room service. Does anyone think I'm going to be spending $1K in food there given a) the few restaurants, but more importantly, b) I'm in AMS where I'm going to eat outside the hotel 90% of the time. Geesh.

BTW - before everyone complains about AMS Marriott, the concierge & exec lounge staff totally rocks (they're getting Xmas cards from me this year) & now (after the fact) I know the incidental charge policy, so I'll be pre-warned (which is part of what FT is about).

But - without thinking I had brought the credit card w/ the $3.5K credit line, which normally would be no problem. Alas, the room+tax+'the incidental' ate that up, even though the 'real' credit was going to be $2.5K. Because I had packed at 3:30am (not Marriott's fault; let's make that clear) I only packed the one credit card so no extra credit available. So I ended up using cash out of my ATM for 9 days to cover all dinner expenses rather than my credit card. Grrr. Which also sucked - I get reimbursed, but still $$ out of my checking account until expense checks come in (and of course no FF out of an ATM). And note to self - next time, even at 3:30am, pack 2 cards.

But here's the part that really made me nervous - in a 'gazillion; years of overseas travel, for some reason the 'hold' did not drop in 3 days as per the norm. And as someone else noted, it's not due to the hotel at that point. It literally dropped the night before I was leaving (8 days later!). If it had not I would have been in deep doo-doo. I literrally had the credit available for the hotel + the incidentals, but if it hadn't cleared the pre-auth & they had then checked me out at the check-out amount in addition to the pre-auth, it would have put me over the limit & I would have been fubar'd.

In another instance I was at the LHR Ren. For a 55GPB 1night stay, they put a 250GBP hold on my debit card (credit card had been stolen as I left for London, so I only had debit card but no biggie; $$ available). Check in at 2pm; check out at 9am; room rate 55GBP & they put 200GBP in addition as a hold against room service., so basically $500 for a $100 stay. I was pissed (not the UK pissed, btw ). I had the extra, but as noted above it puts a hold on your checking account - or credit card - the hotels don't care which you use btw, as long as it says 'go' when they swipe the card - it's just the debit that gets ugly cuz if you didn't know, like the example a couple posts above & they tack on a lot, it totally screws you up.

I'm almost getting to the point, regardless of credit or debit, of asking what the hold is going to be so that if something really outrageous (ie, 250 vs 55 on a 1-night stay) is going to happen I can nip it in the bud.

I don't think check-in clerks are trying to screw anyone. Some of it is policy, but some of it is just laziness. They punch in a # w/o thinking how the amount might affect others. If it happened to them I'd guess they'd take it more seriously.

BTW - I think the comment in the post a couple above re: 'only idiots' was rude. It assumes everyone is as savvy as we are, and yes we can say they should check out their (fill in the blank cards - after all, even c.c.s have fine print), not everyone does. Even some of us savvy travelers don't. The comment about it being a very expensive lesson was spot-on however.

Cheers.

SkiAdcock

None of them 'settle' a bill until checkout. EVERY hotel puts a pre-hold on the credit card, which is totally different & I'm sure the GM at the IAD Suites would back that up.

Using the AMS Marriott example, last year they put a hold of 'x' (rm/tx/incid) on my card when I checked in. Was approved. Last year's hold fell off 3 days later. The actual amount finally charged/settled was the amount owing at the end (as is proper), BUT - I had to have the 'hold' amount available at check-in, regardless of the 'settle' amount at check-out. And there have been instances (see the LHR example above) where the hold amount was larger than the settle amount.

Cheers.

socrates

FYI the clerks haven't entered a number for years (at least 10)...the computer automatically does the entire process, it places a hold for the number of nights X room & tax and adds some for incidentals - there is no way for the clerk to change/set the amount of the auth (the computer does keep track of the holds and continues to get additional holds as you charge incidentals to your room that have exceeded the inital incidental hold amount)

socrates

Actually that's not exactly correct, most extended stay hotels have a policy where they will place a settlement charge every $1k or once a week etc (I have seen a few non-extended stay hotels do this as well but it's very rare and in a special situation usually)

Soc

PS it doesn't matter the type of service establishment you use - the holds will always be larger than the settlement amount to ensure the transaction will process, it's the only way the credit card companies will guarantee payment