This strategy can be used to reserve a hotel room/rate and avoid being charged a no-show fee in case you don't show up or cancel the reservation before the free cancellation date limit, for example because you are travelling in "last minute" or unplanned mode.

The technique requires a hotel that doesn't charge your credit card at the time of booking. Use a prepaid or virtual credit card with a low balance (ex: 3$) to make the booking, the low balance is required in case the hotel performs a temporary authorization on the card to verify that it is valid before confirming the reservation.

Now if you don't show up or are unable to cancel the reservation before the free cancellation threshold, the hotel won't be able to actually charge the card due to its low balance.

Has anyone ever resorted to this technique before ?
Unfortunately more and more hotels and booking websites charge the credit card at the time of booking