SK AAR

That is actually a valid point. The OP booked a long stay (and presumably was fully aware that this was a non-refundable rate) but when the hotel lowered the rates afterwards (for Black Friday promotion?) the OP wanted to get out of the deal that was already accepted. The OP can't do that; trying to get a lower rate in this situation is the OP trying to scam the hotel. Just my cents.

DCAFly

I don't understand this? How can you book a hotel room with a phony CC number?

:D!

This thread is about non-refundable rates - some hotels do not charge you immediately upon booking, so it gives you a bit more time to decide. I hope you see why this is unethical though.

I always book prepaid non-refundable rates unless using points, or there are no prepaid rates available, or flexible rates are inexplicably cheaper. Only once in hundreds of hotel bookings have I ever not shown up, which was due to my wife being unexpectedly pregnant and not wanting to travel to a Zika virus area. A handful of times the rate has gone down later, but overall the money saved compared to booking flexible rates covers these "losses" many times over.

DCAFly

Thanks - was not asking as in "how do I do it?" just wanted to understand. I would have assumed that most hotels would verify the CC even if they didn't charge it (pardon the terrible English there). And, IANAL, but seems to me this is unethical at a minimum and borderline fraud.

SK AAR

I can assure that many hotels do not verify CC numbers when the booking is made. Obviously, if it is a prepaid/non-ref. rate the hotel will most likely at some stage try to charge your CC for the stay and you will get an email requesting you to provide a new CC number as otherwise the reservation will be cancelled. Sometimes you get such email quickly after booking, sometimes it takes longer.

RollAnotherFatOne

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Repooc17

I can't think of any good reason any particular hotel would "target" you specifically.

Hotel rates go up an down; some rate changes swing wildly based on room availability. Here is a recent example of my own: heading to Asia in a few days, Marriott SkyCity at HKG was under 1K HKD/night when I looked last week, then it jumped to over 2K HKD earlier this week (with my plans firmed), with only executive suites. Now, base rates are back to a little over 1K HKD, with availability of deluxe rooms (likely due to prior cancellations).

Next time, before you hit the reserve button, read the payment/refund policy carefully. Most hotel reservation systems process your payment immediately on non-refundable reservations. That said, most chain hotels and reputable OTAs provide flexibility within the first 24 hours of booking on non-refundable reservations. Again, read the payment/refund policy, so you would not be surprised.

writerguyfl

Correct. Outside of running the algorithm that verifies the card format (that keeps people from entering a random string of numbers), most hotels do not check to see if a credit card is an active account during the reservation process.

The reason behind is simple: Authorizing a credit card costs money. It's usually between $0.05 and $0.40 per transaction. If you did that for every reservation, it starts to add up.

I used to work in hotels as a Revenue Manager. That's the person who is responsible for maintaining room rates. Today, changes in rates is all done by computer software. It is an automated function that uses wildly complex calculations. Since it is automated, the likelihood that any human being at the hotel knew that rates would drop is slim to none.

You were not scammed.

This is a completely false statement.

Just because you've never seen it doesn't mean it doesn't happen. I literally worked in the hotel industry for over a decade. I assure you that large changes in rates is common. As demand changes, the computer software will adjust rates accordingly.

RollAnotherFatOne

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Efrem

(and several other posts along similar lines)

If anyone thinks hotels change their rates just because they booked something, they have a highly inflated idea of their importance to hotel revenue management software.

I know a good deal about that sort of thing, having published several papers and a couple of textbooks on decision-support and decision-making software. While it may seem odd that (a) happened right after (b), that does not prove that (b) caused (a). In this case, I can assure you that it almost certainly did not. In fact, if there was any connection between the two events, it would be in the other direction: the software would see that fewer rooms remained and would raise, not lower, the rates on the remaining ones. If the rates went down, it was for some other reason - such as there not being as many bookings within a certain time frame as would normally be expected - despite (not because of!!) yours.

Bottom line: you did NOT cause the rate drop. They are NOT out to get you. They did NOT try to get you. Relax. Chill.