crhptic

The official word from the priceline.com terms and conditions is:

Sounds like it was a good idea to call the hotels ahead of time and find out if they take debit cards and how much they would hold, as well as whether there are any alternatives (i.e. cash deposit, or posting no deposit but declining all "extra" services).

daniellam

Based on past experience (high school out of town field trip to Florida many years ago where none of the students, except myself had credit cards), when on a pre-paid stay at a hotel, even if you don't provide a credit card (authorization) and/or a cash deposit when checking-in, the hotel in theory can't deny you from staying there.

All that would happen is that they would prevent you from using any incidentals that are charged to the room. For example, none of the phones in the rooms for the student's had the capability of calling outside the hotel (they all had to use the payphone in the lobby to call home - this was during a time when cell phones were not common among high school students), the minibars were locked, pay per-view movies disabled, and when one of my classmates tried to order room service, he was told that he had to pay cash to the server directly as they can't charge the room.

Myself on the other hand, had a supplementary credit card from my parents and went to the front desk to ask them to swipe it for an authorization. This allowed me to use the phone in my room to call home, order pay-per-view movies, and charge purchases from the hotel gift shop to the room.

ralfp

You're a student. You're supposed to be "cheap".

Anyways, even as a foreign student, you may want to build a credit history in the US... do things like get savings and checking accounts in the US (you may already have this), getting a credit card (even a secured card with a low limit), etc.

jackal

Just a clarifier: a savings or checking account in the U.S. will do nothing for your credit history. They don't get reported to the three credit bureaus.

A secured card will, however, and that's good advice.

LKHomemail

each hotel does their own thing. each case is different.

the problem with using a debit card is that the holds for authorization they take affect your daily balance and they take up to a couple weeks to get released. if you are in and out of hotels frequently, you could have a couple thousand tied up for a month in no time at all.

it is better to give them a credit card or give them cash (if you are not worried to be carrying larger sums of paper money). this way it is returned to you more promptly.

starlanet

My own experience earlier this month: $50 (fifty) hold for 4 nights in Los Angeles: The Andaz West Hollywood hotel, a couple of weeks ago. Minibar is complimentary only for non alcoholic beverages there, also there were 3 bottles not in the minibar well worth more than $50 plus other valuables in the room (for example two interesting books on the history of the Sunset Strip and Hollywood in general). I had booked the room via Priceline, I think I paid $470 for the whole stay (w/taxes). I didn't touch anything, only the complimentary water and tea.

Now those charges are gone.

Since they get your credit card number, I think they can charge as much as they want, if -and only if- after your stay they find out you drunk their alcohol or done some kind of damage to the property. But $500 in advance is way too much, in my opinion.