This topic has always been a sour point for me. I travel on trips that usually last 3 or 4 weeks and are continuous and hotel changes along with city changes are frequent. Right now, I am in the same boat with the Richmond Marriott West. They authorized $200 above the room charges which caused my card to decline. I said that was impossible and sure enough, hotel holds are not dropping as fast as they were. I had the front desk agent manually post the total charges (with taxes) and then I had her include internet charges to post. S he did so and the card worked fine. Anyway, I am still dealing with an extra $150 they authorized that is still sitting on my card as a hold 7 days after I checked out. A call to the accounting department yielded no return call and my credit card issuer can't do anything about it. I never utilize hotel extras except for internet so it really kills me that they do this to an exorbetent amount. I understand incidental charges, I really do, but the amounts need to be put on the checkout page when making a reservation so a customer can plan and expect for these types of things to occur.