If I understand correctly, part of the problem is that your son's business won't reimburse him if a third party pays the tab with a different credit card. One option is to lend your son the money (cash), to pay for the room charges at check-in. That way, the system will only place a hold for the incidentals. On the folio it will show that the account was settled with cash. Presumably your son's boss has no problems with your son paying the bill with cash.

He's not on an expense account. He's on a per diem.

His problem was that he had a reservation for multiple weeks, at the "regular" room rate. This was more than the amount available on his credit card.

Now, after his MBB/MPP vouchers were applied, and after he started getting his expense checks, he could pay the bill with his Marriott gift card and his credit card when the gift cards run out.

But of course, the gang warned us not to pre-authorize hotel stays with debit cards or with the gift card.

Maybe chop up the multiple week stays into shorter blocks of reservations to avoid the huge holds?

I also had to fax authorization forms to Marriott Hotels in the past and sometimes would be asked for a photocopy of the front & back. I did it without thinking but realize the real risk is the 3 digit "CID" number on the back (4 digit on front for AMEX) that every internet site asks for.

I'm also jealous of your son's per diem arrangement. I'd make a game of it and see how much I could come home with after paying for the barest of accommodations. I'd also be a lot skinner that I am now!

just out of curiosity, what industry is your son now in?

Is the 3-digit (or 4-digit for AmEx) security code more of a risk for identity theft, or would the entire account # be more of a risk?

I masked (marked out with a dark marking pen) the first 12 digits of my account #, but left the security code unmasked on what I FAXed. I had considered masking that code also, but figured it wouldn't do them any good without the account #.

He's in the defense industry.

I'm sorry, I might have misunderstood. The few times I preauthorized a colleague's stay at a Marriott, I had to fill out a form with my entire 16 digit card number. A few of the hotels also wanted a photocopy of both sides of the card too, which I blindly complied with.

In retrospect, it wasn't the brightest move since the account number and CID and expiration date and home address is what is needed for internet shopping. But in reality, every time you hand your card over to a desk agent, the can basically "note" the same info.

And credit card rules limit your liability anyway to $50 and I don't think they even try to collect that, so the paranoia we all now seem to have about credit card numbers is blown out of porportion.

Well, this authorization form that I've been using is a soft copy.

I emailed Marriott Customer Service, and asked for a soft copy of the authorization form. What they sent me was text in an email, with all of the info they needed, copied from my reservation, with the first 12 digits of the CC masked by asterisks. I copied the text and pasted into a Word doc that I printed and FAXed in.

So for the subsequent stays, I've just copied the form, changed: dates, amount, res #, and the name of the hotel. So far this has worked, and they haven't asked for the first 12 digits of CC.