Originally Posted by
Often1
When you book through a prepaid third party site, the site has typically paid a heavily discounted rate for the room. The hotel has no access to anything you used to pay for the room, including a credit card. I have no idea what the hotel's experience has been, but if it suffers a high rate of vandalism or other damages, $300 isn't really that much. It's annoying, but it's one of the downsides of third party sites.
its not even that.... if one books through marriott or the property-itself, if you put cash down as a deposit, i would think the property will check the room before returning the cash deposit. same deal with 3rd party. has nothing to do with the hotel not being able to see 3rd party booking CCs.