Wanderlust888

My credit card has had the full value of my one-night stay next weekend pre-authorised despite this being a full points rewards stay.

Is this allowed?

scubaccr

I would not expect (or allow) my supplied CC to be charged by any hotel until the reservation passes the cancelation deadline, which may be the normal day-before-arrival/1600-on-arrival-day or more rarely more stringent 7days (or more) out if local event drives demand/rates through the roof. Charging/testing/taking-deposit post cancel deadline, pre-arrival, although quite rare, is alas an allowed/acceptable practise.

if a high demand night (some event scheduled nearby during stay period?) at time of booking, then booking could have more stringent cancel terms than eg day before arrival.

booking terms of such event nights (flex and award reservations) may even say CC will be charged for 1night/in-full 7 days before arrival

Some more careful hotel owners at various franchised IHG hotels tell manager to precharge/preauth provided CC cards at time the res becomes non cancelable and thus CC becomes guarantee, as a small percentage of res CC's are expired etc and can't be charged for non-shows

Whether that is day-before-arrival or 4pm on arrival day varies, but I have had my CC charged before arrival on flex bookings a few times, and in practitical terms an award night is same as a flex booking.

hclee01

I tend to book my hotel stay way in advance, especially during peak period, sometimes on Flexible rate, which gives me the ability to change dates. If closer to the period of stay, the credit card details supplied becomes invalidated (e.g. loss of credit card, expired credit card), will that void the booking since the hotel is not able to get a guarantee on the card?

Wanderlust888

Thank you for your post. The cancellation deadline is 4pm on day of arrival, and it's not a high demand night (based on current rates).

I'm uncomfortable with the idea that they see themselves as entitled to charge the rack rate in anticipation of a possible no-show, when this was not an amount I knew of or agreed to at the time of booking.

Dave Noble

You did agree to the rate being charged in the case of a no show. That is part of the award booking process

ajeleonard

and it's only a pre-auth, they haven't actually charged it

Wanderlust888

Was there a way to know what the amount would be?

scubaccr

In that case, a cancel deadline of 16:00 day of stay, it is not acceptable for an hotel to preauth/pre-charge anything to supplied CC before right before that 4pm deadline if guest has yet to checkin at say 15:45pm

I'd write a compaint email to both IHG and hotel stating this preauth, before cancelation deadline expires, is not an acceptable practise, nor allowed or aurhorised by you as part of the IHG booking process. I might even ask for 10k points for the inconvenience


nb
regards amount, whilst in theory an award no show could be charged at the never charged artificial rackrates (walkin off street) if sold out for your day(s) (sometimes seen on plaques on back of wardrobe doors in rooms), most hotels play fair and charge something like historical flex rate available on the day you reserved the award room, or at worst flex rate on the checkin date.

ag51

It's not a charge, it's a pre-authorisation - I don't understand why this is a big deal?

Wanderlust888

For someone using a debit card or a credit card close to its limit, it could be a big deal.

Also, as a reward stay, I don't envisage paying them anything except incidentals, which don't need to be pre-authorised until arrival.

scubaccr

Not many guests have large number of CCs or multiple high limit cards, some guests even have to use their own bank debit card. I have multiple cards and can't afford for multiple future award/flex reservations to all b e preauthed for 1nights cost.

3-fold as below

1)For those guests without corporate amex/diners/CC , and often in Europe small euro/gbp3-5k limits per card it is an issue. Whether a charge or pre-auth, access to those funds is removed.
Further whilst default preauth funds hold may be 7days, hotel can fix the preauth hold for longer periods if they wish to preauth more than 7days out.

2)Award/Flex reservations will be treated the same, guests often book rooms months ahead (if planning a trip on eg event/birthday/get-together etc) using award and flex bookings to lock in lower rate or limited award night availability.
Guests often have forward bookings for 10-20stays and 30nights, often at costly IHG city hotels/IC's (eg Amstel 500euro night, Paris 400euro night, Park Lane 500gbp night) so if hotel charge/pre-auth even 1night, then I'd have GBP5000 permantly lost from my available funds year round.


3)It is also a matter of principle (if not legality too), as hotel is not authorised during initial reservation process to charge or precharge the supplied card in the OPS outlined scenario. Guest specifically authorises charge to CC only for
a)Advance Rate booking
b)guarantee of late arrival if CC guarantees to say 4pm/6pm day of checkin
c)guarantee payment after cancelation date/time expiry against a guest noshow
d)early preauth/charge for 1night/full-stay nn nights out (or immediately) on Award/Flex reservation only if stated suring making of the reservation as is sometimes the case when booking high demand nights.

serpens

I have had an organization do a pre-auth for $1 to test if the card is valid. If the hotel just want to verify the card is valid, that is sufficient.

I'm hoping someone will provide an authoritative answer to hclee01's question.

scubaccr

Lapsed/Invalid CC/Debit-Card does not invalidate an initial reservation except if claimed as BPG when supposedly one can't chance the BPG res even at CC level. If CC charging to originally supplied card fails then the BPG can be disallowed by the hotel, though many BPGs are adjusted to free before arrival.

Apart from BPG limitation above, you can always supply a different valid CC/DebitCard at checkin time if your reservation is not already cancelled by hotel before your arrival.
Some hotels do insist on seeing CC supplied online even on ADR precharged bookings to protect hotel from fraud, just like airlines can do.

Most times a guest knows if CC is going to be refused, and should be proactive to inform his hotel, not rely on hotel to email. May hotels tell me they can not see my IHG email info at checkin.

If invalid CC on Advance Rate booking, hotel can simply cancel reservation at time they attempt to charge card, more likely if hotel is soldout, or choose to try and reach out to guest direct or via IHG Some hotels still don't charge guests on ADR until checkin if small value 1night stay anyway.

On a Flex/Award night, if hotel tries to ensure payment at cancelation deadline time and CC bounces, some soldout hotels could cancel guests room and readvertises/sells online and if guest turns up later they have no room.
(example, HIE Botley, Southampton, England (owners have 4x IHG hotels) )

If hotel is low occupancy them mostly room is not-cancelled and you then either get room at later checkin, or if fail to arrive, hotel chases you for noshow via IHG corporate as you guaranteed room rate with a CC in event of noshow

serpens

Thank you for the explanation, scubaccr.

There is a wealth of information on FlyerTalk, with many knowledgeable posters. Sharing that information requires that it be understandable. In general (all posters), when using abbreviations or jargon terms that are not in the glossary, please have them added to the glossary.

Happy

Not IHG property but last year an AC hotel (Marriott chain) in Madrid - it did CHARGE a fully flexible rate booking 2 days prior arrival. Not a Pre-authorization but a REAL CHARGE POSTED on my card. When posted in Marriott forum about this, several said that it was not uncommon for AC hotels in Spain to do that. I dont like this hotel practice at all. Generally dont like AC chain. The booking at AC was done solely for the Megabonus promo as 1 of the 2 stays needed to earn the FN cert so it was more than an annoyance than anything.

Obviously it could create a problem should the guest cancel the fully flexible rate booking before the deadline, the guest has to monitor if the refund is processed by the hotel timely.
If a debit card is used, then real money is blocked from the account until the authorization released or refund processed. For debit card it is particularly a lengthy process usually takes 7 days - one comes across complaints of this sort on TripAdvisor all the time.

I forgot which chain / properties, when booked way in advance months before the card renewal date, I got an email telling me the card was invalid (passed expiration date) a few weeks before arrival - apparently the hotels attempted the $1 charge and failed. But instead of cancelling the reservations, the systems generated an email to inform the guest to update the CC info. On one of such occasions I did not see the email several days after the deadline to submit valid card info but at check in there was no issue despite the email "threatened" about cancelling the existing reservation should card info not been updated passed the deadline. My guess is, the hotel is no where near fully booked hence the reservation is kept alive.

In this days and age, it is not uncommon that the initial card is compromised and a new card is issued with different number. Hotels can certainly run a test for the validity of the card close to arrival and then inform the guests what need to be done.