Has anyone noticed this occurring as described in the travel blog post for relatively high credit card charges made when a new rewards reservation made.


One Mile at a Time

Yep. W Koh Samui $3k USD refundable charge on your cc for a 5 night award stay.... nope

And they want the deposit paid by check or money order sent by mail?!... does anybody still mail checks to pay for hotels?

how about you test it and report back

A refundable holding charger or even hold on a credit line, is interesting since on rewards reservations they already effectively prepay by deducting all the points for the reservation at the time of booking.

a number of times I’ve done prepaid non-refundable nights and my card hadn’t been charged until checkout.

If if they’re going down this path and cancellation of rewards bookings are a problem, why not just have a discounted rate non refundable rewards points redemption and CLEARLY state it as such as is done with cash bookings.

To be fair, from the property’s point of view the reservation has not been prepaid with points. It’s Marriott that deducts the points. The property will only be paid several weeks after the guest checks-out. If the reservation is cancelled (even after the cancellation deadline) Marriott pays the property zero and returns the points to the member’s account. Property is compensated for a late cancellation by charging a cancellation penalty directly from the guest. Now, it’s only natural that a property would like assurances that the cancellation penalty would be paid in the event of a late cancellation, especially in the case of seasonal properties (ski resorts, etc). However, requesting that the full cancellation penalty (or even a higher amount) be prepaid seems disproportionate. A hold on the credit card could be acceptable, as long as it is clearly stated in the booking process. A full transaction seems absolutely inadequate.