dulciusexasperis

LOL, you write as if it is only poor people who don't use cards and as if staying at a Hilton or Marriott means you do have money. My Brother does not use cards because of a lack of funds, he does not use cards because of a belief that using them gives too many government agencies and just plain hackers, access to too much information about you. And in that regard he is of course correct. But if he wants to stay in a Hilton type mid-market hotel or an upmarket hotel, he still pays cash. I suppose he can just call his banker and have them transfer the money to the hotel's account.

I find your asssumptions about who uses cash and who doesn't amusing. Oh and by the way, he doesn't own a cellphone either. For much the same reasons. Big Brother is watching.

As for someone paying it on their card and earning points, well I suppose that would be a benefit to someone who doesn't have enough money to not care about points. Maybe my Brother would hand you cash and let you get points from the hotel. A form of charitable contribution on his part. LOL

dulciusexasperis

Interesting that Germany still does 80% of all transactions in cash. I wonder why? Perhaps just a cultural thing. Or perhaps wiser than we realize.

When the power fails and the computers are down, our world today comes to a sudden and total halt. Even my Brother using cash can't pay for groceries at the supermarket if their computerized cash register won't add up the purchases and the drawer with the cash won't even open to make change. Imagine some of the younger people today trying to add up a column of a couple of dozen figures with a pencil and piece of paper. They actually couldn't do it in many cases. But my Brother can walk up to the check-out with a steak marked, '$16.50 on the plastic wrapped package, hand the clerk a $20 bill and say, 'keep the change.'

Try to imagine how long you could survive an extended power outage. Do a Google for 'Black Sky event' and see what you find. Makes for interesting reading. Even a weather induced event that last for more than a few days wreaks havoc. Computers have brought us many good things but they have also bought us potential unintended consequences as well. The more we move towards a 'cashless society' the more vulnerable we become to those consequences.

CPRich

Did you wake up on the "I am God" side of the bed today?

btw, it's 74% of transactions. You're entitled to you own opinion but not your own facts.

GUWonder

tmiw

In the US, the only flights that I've noticed that accept cash involve the smaller regional jets (CRJs, Embraers, etc); the mainline aircraft from the major airlines are card only in my experience. The distance theory may still come into play as well since the former tend to operate shorter routes compared to the latter, but it could also come down to other factors. Of course, it could very well be different elsewhere.

:D!

I don't have a problem with this, if it is made clear at the time of booking that cash is not accepted.

If a hotel decides to go cashless, it should continue to accept cash for all bookings that were made prior to announcing this.

The Quality Hotel View at Malmö Hyllie is also cashless. I booked this via a 3rd party site which indicated that cash was accepted as a payment method, so I got an unpleasant surprise when I noticed the sign by the front entrance stating that it is "cash-free", and the hotel's own website is clear on that fact too. The staff were sympathetic to the fact that there was an error on their listing on that 3rd party site, but the only thing that could be done was to complain to that booking site, since the hotel's computer system was no longer able to record that payment had been made in cash, and would not allow check-in until payment was made by card.

When I was in New Zealand recently, I noticed that all my hotels had a sign at their front desk, stating that credit card payments incur a 2% fee, and if one wished to avoid this fee, to change the payment method to cash, and indeed I paid for all my hotel stays in cash (as I don't have a New Zealand debit card, otherwise I would have preferred to use that, obviously).

I guess cheap motels and hostels will continue to accept cash for some time (though maybe not in Sweden), but actually I would think that Hiltons and Marriotts would be among the last hotels to stop accepting cash.


With regards to cash on board airlines, I notice that flight attendants of low-cost carriers are very efficient at handling cash and giving change, and airlines such as BA which decided to never accept cash from the start (ostensibly with one reason being to save time) can be extremely inefficient.

Most problems with change can be eliminated by pricing items sensibly.

ft101

Just as you and some others gave examples of where booking direct was the best option, there were also many, many examples of where that wasn't true. Shame you missed them.

cbn42

Does he also wear a tin foil hat to stop the government from sending radio waves into his brain?

Because he sounds like some nutcase conspiracy theorist.

If he has a bank account, the government and hackers can already do what they need to do, but he clearly hasn't thought that through.

I've noticed that too. Maybe people don't buy much on short flights so it's not worthwhile to set up the machines?

Why would you think that?

I don't think card payments generally save time, especially for small amounts. It can take longer to run a credit card transaction than to accept a note and give change. My guess is that airlines don't want to bother storing and transporting cash.

Scots_Al

tmiw

Contactless cards aren't really a thing in the US though. Not to mention there are still a significant number of (smaller) businesses using dialup for their card processing.

Honestly, I'm surprised that businesses aren't doing more to discourage their use considering how much some dislike the whole concept.

:D!

This is all from personal experience, but I guess my impression is that higher-end hotels have a wider range of facilities available and one of them is dealing with cash. No Hiltons I've stayed at have balked at receiving cash, and at least in Europe, they all have those large boards full of coins to make change, and they all readily exchanged my coins into notes (and I have watched other guests exchange large notes into smaller notes or coins as required by the guest), whereas lower classes of hotels seem to be more awkward with cash transactions.

Well sometimes they need to enter the amount and pick up the card reader to hand over to the customer.

I visited some Christmas markets in Scandinavia a few months ago, and I observed that cash payments were far more frequent than one might be led to believe.

For my own transactions a lot of the time using cash was much faster than card would have been, as I always try to have the correct amount ready, unlike some slow people who always seemed to have coins of multiple currencies in their purses and had trouble adding up. So the merchant handed me the item, and I handed over the cash, done. Alternatively, they hand me the item, then they fumble around for the card reader, enter the amount, then I have to put my card in (while holding the item), type the PIN, then wait for a connection and a receipt.

Of course, contactless is great.

MSPeconomist

Another reason to pay with cash is to avoid dynamic currency conversion and/or foreign transaction fees. Normally you can pay with a credit card that doesn't have such practices, but it can be a problem if the hotel or other merchannt in a foreign country doesn't accept all major credit cards.

Until recently, In Argentina, one got better foreign exchange rates for cash, so it made sense to avoid using credit cards, even for major expenditures such as hotel bills. Everyone seemed to be doing this.

Somewhat similarly, during periods of rapid changes in foreign exchange rates (such as very severe inflation in the destination country), it can make sense to avoid using credit cards that will be eventually billed in your home currency. Posting delays can be expensive in asuch cases.

ItsAnAdventure

I've always found cash acceptance interesting. I've found it doesn't necessarily always correlate to the caliber of hotel here in the US, including deposit policies.

I've been to Full-Service Marriott properties that will take cash with a reasonable incidental deposit (in cash), but yet seen RIs that won't take cash at all (or they'll take cash for payment, but still want a CC to hold room + incidentals on)

I've also been to low-end properties that won't take cash, or require an absurd (Read: $300) deposit for those paying cash.

The only chain I've found to consistently accept cash (with no insane incidental deposit) is, unsurprisingly, Motel 6.

etch5895

Until they trash the room and your credit card is stuck footing the repair bill/loss of revenue days/whatever other charge the hotel can get away with charging

Redhead