Bed and Breakfast.com offers gift cards, if there are places in the ares they are heading, I always thought that was a better gift than a hilton or a sheraton.

A visa or mastercard card can be used for a hotel, but probably not for the hold they put on it when you check in. They could use their own card for that, and let them know that they will be using a different card to settle the bill, or they could do a prepaid rate (and still use their card for the deposit).