How to get some cash at the hotel lobby ?
 

As a frequent user of US hotels, I noticed that am entitled to get cash at the counter, and themore my level in the FFP of the hotel I am, the more money I can get.

How does this work ?
Is this something that you can get just with your credit card (could you give me 50 US$ and put in on my accoutn ?)
Is this possible with a US personnal bank check ?
I understand that is is not possible with a European bank check, obviously.
Thanks for your feedback, Felis

Depending on your status, some hotels will allow you to cash a personal check at the desk.

Lots of Hotels now have ATM's in the lobbies, so it's not the attraction it once was.

a hotel i worked at let guest cash up to 100? JUST from a personal check no CC. We didnt have ATM's because we didnt want people off the street to clog our lobby.

This may be a bit off topic, but recently I was on Celebrity Cruise Lines and they allowed you to charge $150 per day to your credit card and receive cash back from the
charge.

On our 7 day cruise, many charged the full limit each day to earn the FF miles, kept the cash until the end of the trip, deposited it into their checking account and sent a check to the credit card company when the bill came due and earned over 1000 miles for "free". Of course this is only "free" if you do not carry a balance.

I would also like to know if any hotel chains allow you to advance cash to your room folio, then pay the balance upon checkout with a credit card.

[This message has been edited by FrAAmer (edited 04-14-2001).]

To further the comments from FrAAmer, on a cruise a number of years ago on Royal Carribean, we were able to charge, as a charge, not a cash advance, on our Gold American Express card in the amount of $500.00US per day, allowing for a significant number of points on our card. They would not allow this option on the green Amex cards, only on the precious metal cards.

In the days before international ATM networks, this was a hugely important thing to business travelers. If you were on the road for a 3 week trip in Asia twenty years ago, you were generally forced to carry a large amount of cash -- or travelers checks. Therefore, being able to cash personal checks was a huge perk.

The limits on cashing harken back to those days. Can you imagine trying to do a full days worth of business, meetings, and meals with clients in Tokyo today for $150US?

Some hotels will give you cash and just charge it to your room ... but usually this just means that they will let you cash a personal check.

On Princess Cruises, you can still charge Casino chips to your room (don't think any other cruise line lets you) which you can pay for with your miles earning credit card at the end. If all you wanted was the miles you can max out the charge, cash them in, and use the money to pay off the card.

there is a daily limit and a per cruise limit per cabin, think it's $500 per day and $1,500 per cruise.

The day with cashing personal checks at hotels is that you avoid out-of-network ATM fees.

I find that nice boutique hotels will give you cash and put it on the bill when you have stayed in them several times and they know you.

I believe that Marriott allowed a cash advance at one time and just added it to your room account. Say 200$CAN.

At a later visit, they wanted to give me the LOW exchange rate in $CAN and charge my account in $US. I said you can't do that, since the accout is in CAN$ and you are giving me CAN$! Ended up, saying forget it!

At this point, I am curious, just what is the way it is suppose to be handled in a foreign country.

Thanks,
I understand now how this work, and why Marriott is giving different level of cash. There are effectively cases where it is helpful to be able to do that. Felis

tHE EXCHANGE RATE POSTED AT THEIR CURRENCY DESK is lower then any other service.

If they give you 200$CAN, then the same amount should be added to your room account.

Starwood allows $300 cash for a personal cheque to Gold and Platinum members.