About a week ago, I reserved a non-refundable rate at the Holiday Inn Old Sydney because for the first time, the advance purchase rate was significantly cheaper than my employer's corporate rate I can use for leisure travel, and I'm taking this trip come hell or high water, so it made sense to pay for the room now and lock in the much lower rate.

But, it's been a week and the credit card I used to reserve my room hasn't been charged yet. It's a Barclay A+ card that I had sockdrawered for a few months and haven't used, and I'm only using it now to redeem my leftover points against this travel purchase before I cancel it when the AF comes due. So I guess I'm worried that perhaps there was a fraud alert (not sure how proactive Barclay is in actually contacting you if there's an FA, never had one) or it didn't go through for some other reason (it better with a zero balance), and that I'm going to get to the hotel after flying for 90 freaking hours or whatever it is from DFW and they will say "Sorry sir, but your credit card was declined, your reservation was canceled and there are no rooms available"

So my question is, and it's probably a dumb one, is it normal for days, if not weeks to go by before booking a nonrefundable rate and them actually charging my card? And if there are any issues with charging my card, will they shoot me an e-mail well in advance for me to take care of it, or surprise me when I get to the front desk?