FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Problems with payment with Marriott group hotel
Old Sep 8, 2018 | 8:53 am
  #9  
A380 Flyer
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 710
Originally Posted by SkiAdcock
It's not a credit card vs. debit booking. MAR doesn't discriminate between the two methods of payment. Seriously it doesn't. It really sounds like a specific property issue. If I were you I'd contact the property again & tell them the bank can see the attempts. If you're willing to do this, i'd conference call the hotel/bank & let them talk to each other & let them figure out the problem (might come in handy to hear the conversation in case you run into it again).

BTW - the Poland example I gave above that friend told me about when we were chatting int'l stuff. Debit card situation. This was after check-in; a bit of a long stay, The Poland bank considered every attempt by MAR to do a pre-authorization as an actual charge, even though it wasn't. MAR's system, if there is a decline, is to attempt to authorize each day. So the 'charge' kept adding on on the Polish side/way over limit. The guest contacted the bank who said the 'charges' would drop off after 7 days, so the hotel (which knew the guest) temporarily switched him to a cash payment so MAR software wouldn't keep piling on. After 7 days, the 'charges' (even though they weren't) dropped & they were able to charge the stay then.

Friend is dealing w/ another Polish guest in the same situation, so it really is dependent upon bank/country.

Cheers.
Thanks for the advice, but it seems my problem isn't going to go away.

I am trying to cancel the booking directly with Courtyard, and then book the same thing on Agoda, which allows me to use my debit card. Courtyard by Marriott Novena in Singapore only allow credit card pre-payments online, so that is certainly a hotel-specific thing.

However, I am on a no cancellation/no amendment booking with Courtyard - yet what are they going to do? They cannot debit my account with a penalty fee, so it is in their best interest to cancel it. At least they will still get my custom eventually...
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