Originally Posted by
jabbered
I have read the topic.
The hotel charged your DEBIT card for a 5 night stay on the 1st night.
Charging debit cards upfront is pretty normal practice for hotels and most every other business I've ever seen or heard about.
With a debit card, it makes no sense to let you stay in a room for 5 nights, then when the hotel tries to charge at checkout, they find out you've blown all your money on souvenirs and other things and have no money left in your account to pay the hotel.
Dear jabbered, your point is most prescient. Westgate manager exercised business sense to pre-sell me 5 day stay at rack rate (where 5 day stay was already pre-sold to me by OTA they have relationship with), without anyone's suspicion. That made business sense, because I might have owned an account that was not necessarily infinite! That was kinda (pleading with trepidation) my consumer point: how can a responsible US business manager covertly deplete guest's bank account by 240%? How many other commitments of that account might have been placed in jeopardy by his blatantly unscrupulous act: "for the sake of awarding guest the last remaining accommodation in the city, not be forced to sleep in the streets!"
Edit: meets with approval of Doc Savage's himself