johnash

I have just tried to make a booking online - I have made a number of these over the past month or so. This time, things have changed. Firstly the system asked for first and last name on the credit card, then it went to my bank which sought approval to pay the full amount, even though this was not a pre-paid rate. Anyone else experience this, please? I have not made the booking as I most certainly don't want to be charged for this now.
UPDATE: I went ahead and booked and discovered the procedure was for pre-approval. My card shows a 'charge' but for zero pounds. Just being overcautious and untrusting, as usual!

ChinaShrek

Lots of people are using virtual credit cards now with no funds on them to make reservations. Hotels need to be careful.

Bartolo

There’s also this pilot project (Hilton isn’t saying which locations) where Hilton is charging a fee for cancelling a refundable rate.

MichaelA380

The first part - asking for names - is quite normal, some algorithms also ask for country of issuance and/or post code, all of which - together with number, CVC and expiry - are used to verify the authenticity of the card (not all jurisdictions are obliged to offer 3DS).

The rest is fine as well, I have been experiencing this for over a year now (I guess from the beginning of 2023), though as you say it is confusing - while the full amount of the stay is mentioned, in reality it only looks to provide a preauthorisation in case they need to charge you at a later stage in case of e.g. no-show, etc. The first time it happened to me I also cancelled the process and contacted HH, they explained the whole thing and since then I have never had any issues. That being said, I made a few reservations earlier this month for stays later in the year (2x London, 1x Berlin) and the preauthorisation process correctly displayed a zero amount. (For reference, IHG follows the same process, and provided that one is booking a flexible rate the preauthorisation amount is displayed as zero as well).