Originally Posted by catwings01

It is never a good idea to use a debit card as a guarantee for a hotel reservation. Many hotels, especially during periods of demand, run a credit hold against the card at the cancellation deadline. This protects the hotel in the case of a guaranteed reservation turning into a no-show - if the card cannot "hold" credit good for one night room and tax the hotel would not be able to charge a no-show penalty and would loose a night's revenue on sold out dates. This practice doesn't affect a credit card user greatly - especially if the guarantee card is then presented at check in - because it is just a credit hold that is automatically released by your bank after a period if no actual charge is made against that credit. For a debit card, however, your bank will actually hold funds from your account to cover the credit. If you don't keep a large balance in your checking account this can result in bounced checks.