Originally Posted by
jackal
That's because it's not possible to do so.
Well, almost.
...
I think most cashiers/clerks/CSRs aren't even aware of what it is and may not even fully understand the difference between a payment and an authorization, so I doubt you'd get much help from them if you ask them to void the authorization.
I was in hotel management for 10 years, and spent 10 years installing hotel software. Jackel's analysis is spot on.
Another issue is the actual credit card interface the hotels are using. In the US we are accostumed to everything being in one system. You check in, I swipe your card, and the hotel system manages the authorizations from then on. If you stay extra, there is another authorization. When you check out, the system matches all the authorizations, applies a payment, and sends all that to the credit card company in near real time.
Outside North America, I have noticed many hotels check you in, then go over to a separate machine and swipe your card, generating a paper authorization that they staple to your record (called a folio). This may be a symptom of still using dial up for the interface, as opposed to broadband, near real time that most US hotels use, or it may be just that's how we've always done it, there's no reason to change.
You stay extra, or have a £200 meal, and a human has to manually get more authorized. You check out and I swipe your card again, and manually match an authorization to the charge. Or not, and voila, you have an auth or two sitting out there waiting to fall off.