Pota

I stayed this Saturday to Monday at the JW Marriott Marquis Miami for two nights and had an unusual situation with credit card pre-authorizations. After check-in I noticed that I had received two seperate pre-authorizations notifcations, one for $200 and one for $429. I enquired at the front-desk and found out that the $200 were the usual hold for 2 nights ($100 each) and after some additional investigation I was informed that the $429 were a mistake, but "it is only a hold and I would not be charged for it".

I had expected hat the hold on the erroneous $429 hold would be released as soon as possible, however yesterday at check-out the $429 hold was still there. I enquired again at the front-desk and I was informed by the front-desk agent that "there is nothing they can do about it and I would need to contact my bank to have the hold released". I am fairly frustrated about the situation as I do not want to have to deal with my bank for an error purely caused by the hotel. I will not be starving due lack of funds, but I am more annoyed at the lack of understanding by the hotel for the inconveniences caused by the hotel.

Is there anything which can be done in this situation and is it true that I would need to be contacting my bank if I do not want to just wait it out?

By the way, for anyone interested in the explanation for the erroneous hold. I had booked the room with points and I was told by the front-desk agent that on award bookings two separate reservations are created - one customer-facing and one internal reservation against Marriott. The internal reservation against Marriott is then used to charge Marriott for the award stay and apparantely my credit card information had been used for this process.

Kacee

Pre-authorizations drop off automatically if no charge is processed, usually within 7 days.

cfischer

Wow, really? On such a small amount? I have had much larger pre-authorizations but I always tell the hotel I dont care. If they’d have authorized thousands ... sure, that’s worthy of a complaint ... a few hundred

Jon Maiman

While I sympathize with your frustration with the hotel (and would also be annoyed), is it truly impacting you? E.g. are you close to the credit limit on your card? Was it a debit card? Since you already stated you won't be starving funds, I wouldn't sweat it. Mistakes happen and I'd move on. If you really do want to pursue, you will indeed have to talk to your bank.

--Jon

arlflyer

Yeah, I've had that property pre-auth way more than that. They're used to people coming in and running up big tabs so they probably put a bigger cushion on it. Never thought twice.

Pota

Well, thank you all for the reality check.

I kind of always get annoyed about pre-authorizations and in this case even more so as it was a pure error on the hotels side, but maybe I should have just listened to my girlfriend and let it go.

MePlatPremier

The hotel can easily solve that issue by closing the pending transaction with a charge for the final amount of zero. However, for some reason (I suspect related to cc fees) hotels do not like doing that and prefer to let cc pre-authorizations expire, which usually happens 15 days from the date the transaction was initiated.

Often1

With a CC, unless you have a low CL, there is nothing to be concerned about. While I believe that for vendors coded as hotels, the drop off is 15 days, the fact is that it is not a charge, there is no interest charged, and the sole impact is that one has less credit available (which is only an issue if you can't get a decent CL).

In the event that the CL really is an issue, call your card issuer (bank). Unless you are delinquent, they will generally grant a temporary CL increase to cover the hold.

Jinxed_K

Different hotel chain, but similar situation.. the front desk explained to me the hold (5 day stay rate + $50 incidentals fee) would drop off after checkout then the 'real' charge will be placed, but there may be a delay between the two and not to be alarmed by the 'double' charge.
I gave it a few days and that's exactly what happened.

I'm usually more concerned when the hotel puts a hold for a bigger amount that I booked for and it turns out they added a $50 or $100 incidentals fee to the one hold rather than making one for the room and one for the fee without telling me, especially at a first time property.

Flyertalker1

would echo the solution here is to increase your credit limit for your card. not sure how this works for a debit card, but can understand the concern if that's the case.

this illustrates the benefit of having a credit card company who will take your side in this case if the charges were fraudulent.

writerguyfl

None of the above was true when I worked in hotels. Pending authorizations were closed automatically by the system. When they cleared depended upon the card holder's bank. Some were almost immediate and other ones took much longer. There was nothing we go do to hurry up the process.

Additionally, there were no fees to cancel an authorization.

MePlatPremier

That’s not true. Pending transactions do not close by themselves unless the merchant takes active steps (whether manually or an automated internal procedure) to complete the transaction by charging a final amount (even if zero) or by cancelling (reverting) the transaction altogether. If the merchant does not complete nor revert the transaction within the specified time limit (for the hospitality industry it’s 15 days) the transaction expires and the pre-authorized charged is reverted back into the cardholder’s account.

However, even after expiration the merchant is allowed to resubmit the transaction (it’s called a late presentment) and the issuing bank is required to accept that charge unless by that time the account no longer has available funds or, regardless of the availability of funds, more than 180 days have elapsed since the original authorization.

Depending on the payments processor and the acquiring bank, if the merchant cancels transactions above a certain threshold monthly number it will incur on cc processing fees. I believe this does not happen in the case of pre-authorizations that are allowed to expire.

gengar

Closing a preauthorized transaction does not necessarily free up the held funds; that's still up to the bank (I've experienced this from both sides). Note that many hotel systems and hospitality-related PoS systems actually void out preauthorizations immediately, as they just want to make sure some valid form of payment is on file. Banks just aggressively hold funds anyway as CYA (as I've previously mentioned on this fourm, Citi is particularly horrid at this, which is why I don't use them anymore).

Merchants don't accrue any additional CC fees no matter how they handle preauthorizations. That's just not how that works. They aren't "canceled" transactions.

writerguyfl

I literally was in charge of authorizations and all credit card transactions at a hotel in an accounting position. So, yes, what I wrote is true.

MePlatPremier

You just probably weren’t very good at it though...