Originally Posted by
Steve M
I have started to see this at Hiltons in NYC in the past year or so. When I thought about it a bit, it makes total sense. Whether it be a cancelable post-paid reservation, or an award reservation, the credit card is on file as a guarantee to pay the no-show penalty should you no show. Without a valid credit card on file to which the penalty can be charged, the reservation is not valid. I would imagine that properties that historically had too many "credit card guaranteed" reservations that they were unable to collect the no-show penalty from would be the ones to implement such a policy.
I agree the test is probably necessary to make sure the card remains in good standing for the guarantee - hence the Crowne Plaza put a 10 euro test around noon time at arrival date. However authorize the FULL rate a day BEFORE arrival date in my opinion the hotel has gone too far. On top of that at check out they still require the physical card to rerun the actual charge when could not use the pre-authorized code to do the billing. This AC Hotel (Carlton) has a screwy system - when I showed the front desk clerk the reservation print out, he said, "Is it all you can show for your reservation? You dont have any voucher?" Would he be able to see how the reservation is made? (directly on Marriott site with fully refundable rate later adjusted lower due to LNF claim but it was still a fully refundable booking pay at check out.) He then needed to make a copy of my print out of the reservation. What if the guest only has the electronic version saved on a device? The AC Atocha 2 blocks away has zero question on the reservation and never pre-authorizes the SAME credit card.