I'm becoming increasingly annoyed with hotels that hold deposits prior to arrival. I just booked a hotel for the end of November and had to put $900 on my credit card. Who do they think they are?

I have stayed at numerous five diamond resorts that do not do this. These hotels are upscale but I would not consider them any different than a Ritz or Four Seasons or other specialty hotel class. ARG.

just booked a hotel for the end of November and had to put $900 on my credit card. Who do they think they are?

One of the reasons so many high end resorts have to do this now is due to the no shows. These properties are unlikely to pick up transient traffic. I agree $900 is excessive, but it may represent first and last night booked during peak season.

what hotel is this? Gaming resorts are increasingly famous
for this. One of them in CT when you checked in would add
a 100 dollar per a night deposit to your card, so if you had 5
nights you needed an extra 500 bucks. That sparked outrage
and didn't last too long. Idiots canniablized their own revenue
doing that.

It is an upscale resort on the eastcoast. The cost is equal to one night and is forfeited if cancelled within 14 days of arrival. Talking about a great incentive for not cancelling a shop!

So apparently they have had late cancellations or no shows. Sad. Some people ruin it for everyone!

Wow $900 held on your CC until the last of November? I've certainly never reached that level on the MS circuit. I hope you are comfortable with that.

My job once booked me into a motel using the Corporate Amex card. When I checked in they wanted to swipe the card in case I drank they $3.00 12oz bottle of water they leave out supposedly for the guest, and for any incidentals. I told them that would be kind of hard to do as it isn't actually a credit card that I have ever seen. They said that they would need another card. Asked if I had a debit card, I said yes and they said that that will be fine. I told them that it would have to snow in Havana Cuba first. They insisted so I gave them the work debit card and the phone number to get money put on it surprisingly enough they took it. Guess they didn't have to use it since I never heard anything about it. I called the travel agency that books out hotels for us and they said that they would take them off of the preferred list.

A motel doesn't sound like a high end resort to me, 2stepps. Glad your company dumped them as a preferred vendor!

bestofbothworlds Wrote:
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> A motel doesn't sound like a high end resort to
> me, 2stepps. Glad your company dumped them as a
> preferred vendor!


You are right, I should have posted this somewhere else! I forgot to mention that they wanted a $200 possible damage charge for a room for the week that was 60 or so dollars a night.

How about the Casino that wants a $2000.00 deposit for the week above the cost of the room.

Hotel.

2Stepps post mentioned "motel" Kathy. Agree it's Americana, but hardly "luxury" or "pompous" eh???


My job once booked me into a motel using the Corporate Amex card.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/15/2014 07:29AM by bestofbothworlds.

It is pretty standard for a hotel/motel to swipe a card after you check in - for incidentals....even if you have already prepaid it (eg. Priceline, Orbitz, etc.), isn't it? It happens to me everytime.

This is a reservation deposit, not for incidentals. I'm not going to be checking in until the end of November.

I've had a $1200 deposit on my card for the past 3 months, and two other deposits for a bit less. It's pretty much standard practice for many resorts that are often booked to capacity and guests need to book their rooms far in advance.

I don't like to pay interest on the deposits so I end up paying them off, receiving a credit after the reversal and using that to book flights and such for other future hotel evaluations.

I've also had flights paid for many months out that I know I will be reimbursed. I don't see that as being very different from the hotel deposits. The big problem for me comes from the fact that the final hotel charges need to go on the same card as the one with the deposit for the reversal in many cases. I'm juggling three different card for MS purposes and always worry about having to present the right card at check-in.

You have to look at it from the point of view of the hotel. If you can afford to spend $900 on a hotel room for one night you should be able to afford a $900 charge up front on your credit card. It is just something you are not used to. We pay upfront for an airline ticket all the time and never complain about it (well maybe we do complain but I think you get my point). Times are changing and lots of these companies that in the past gave us more leeway to cancel are tightening up due to losses. I recently read about a few high end restaurants in Los Angeles that have started to charge a deposit when you make a reservation there. These are restaurants that do not get walk in customers as it is difficult to get a table there so no one would just show up at the door at the last minute. That table would sit empty as may a $900 hotel room the day of after 10 PM or whenever the latest check in time was.
I am sad that some of the wonderful freedoms we have had for booking hotels, rental cars and restaurants may be going away but I think the appropriate place to take this policy up would be to suggest the mystery shop company make some accomodation for us. And yes, I have often had to leave an "open" credit card with a hotel on check in just in case I drank a $7.50 sports drink from the mini fridge.

The only problem with asking for accommodations on advance charges is that these shops are also subject to effects of difficult economic times and demand for them is greater than it used to be. There are plenty of shoppers who are OK with having the advance charge so the MSC has little incentive to help out with it.

They key for me to to consider it like a 90-day reimbursement shop on a much larger scale. If I book a December stay now and place an advance deposit, then perform a shop this weekend and have that deposit credited, I can keep my card free of interest charges provided that I book a hotel of similar caliber every 60-90 days. It's much easier to do in theory than practice, however.

There are both advantages and disadvantages to these types of shops and you have to take the good with the bad. You may receive air miles, hotel points, credit card points and a bevy of meals you won't be responsible to foot the final bill for, but it's at the cost of filling up your credit card and paying a little interest now and then….and gaining 5 lbs. on that weekend away.

I understand about cancellations and how that affects a hotel. However, if there is a cluster of high end resorts in one tourist area and the client is the ONLY hotel to charge a deposit, that may be a turn off for some visitors. Like I mentioned, there is actually a Ritz Carlton and a Four Seasons Hotel just within a few miles from this particular resort and neither one charge a cancellation fee. There is also another small brand with approximately 80 rooms resort that doesn't charge a reservation deposit. If I was a regular tourist, I would definitely pass this client.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/15/2014 05:07PM by LindaM.

Linda M
Is it the case that you cannot ever cancel and get your money back? Or can you cancel up to a certain amount of time before the visit date and get a refund?
I really think that if you are in the economic space where you can afford a resort at this price then it may not really bother you as much as you now think. The charges will not even be due for payment for a month and a half or so. Perhaps this will bother those who cannot really afford to stay there and that might be a helpful warning sign to them that they should not spend their well earned money in this way. I am sure the hotel is not basing their policies on mystery shoppers. In any case if it is way out of line the policy will soon change, if not then the other hotels will probably follow suit. Hopefully there is a provision for early cancellation for regular customers.

The Ritz-Carlton does have a Cancellation penalty, though it's much more lenient and accommodating; the full room is charged if not cancelled at least 24 hours before the schedule date. I'm sure Four Seasons has something similar as well.

It's property dependent, Linda. I've been charged advance deposits from Ritz & Four Seasons in the past. Hawaii is very big on advance deposits, though most are refundable if cancelled within a certain time frame.

Some hotels will also offer reservations without deposits at a higher room rate, which helps recoup potential losses. You should always ask when booking the room if that's an option. I'm generally not concerned with the room rate since I'm getting all the money back anyway.

First of all, I can afford it but I reserve the right to think that it's still a pompous policy.

Most Ritz I know will charge a fee if you cancel within a certain date but they don't charge ahead of time. This hotel charged the card at the time of reservation and it will be lost if cancelled within two weeks of arrival.

Linda, you absolutely have the right to feel anyway you want about it. I believe the advance cancellation policy is also to prohibit losses when flights are delayed and such. If you show up a day late, you are still on the hook for the night you didn't use when the hotel could not book out the room.

If you want a silver lining, the policy also has some good points to it, as it keeps hotels from over-booking like many airlines do. If you have a guarantee for the first night, that room is yours no matter when you show up. Nothing worse than having a delayed flight and showing up in a remote location at 1 AM to find out you don't have a room!

Back when I was scheduling hotel shops, I had a shopper (who's also a forum member here) show up late due to a flight delay and get "walked" to a nearby hotel when no rooms were left at the hotel they were supposed to shop. The shopper got a room the next day and was able to report the interaction, then complete the assignment, but it always leaves me scared of that happening now. I have a shop in Central America on Thursday with no advance deposit and I'm taking the red-eye flight out tonight to be sure I check in as early as possible. Crossing my fingers that I don't get a chatty neighbor on the flight and can catch some sleep along the way...

This is a good point about overbooking and mystery shopping. I once booked a room (not a mystery shop) and arrived at a decent time of day. Evidently they had over booked and everyone showed up that particular day, or perhaps some people just did not check out when expected. They had a lobby full of people they were shuttling off to different hotels. I lucked out and got a room there but most did not. What a nightmare that would have been had it been a mystery shop.

If I had to take a commercial flight to do a hotel shop, I wouldn't accept hotel shops that are out of town. Fortunately, my husband is a pilot and we fly to hotel shops that are out of town. Airports are such a hassle and I do not have the patience to deal with all of the people, baggage, waiting for the flight, etc.

If I schedule a physical with my doctor, and then cancel the visit within 24 hours - I am charged a fifty dollar fee. I don't see any difference.

I have had the full amount of my night charged to my card to "hold" the reservation, and when I checked in, they still required that I pay AGAIN. The "hold" was separate from the room charge and wasn't relinquished until a full week after I'd checked out.

I called and complained after a week of it still being there, and they relinquished it the next day. It's apparently to cover no-shows or damages to the room, smoking fines, stealing hotel things like towels, bathrobes, etc.. They return the entire hold if you didn't do any of those things.

Still... it was $1200 tied up on my card for awhile. Thankfully I'd only booked the reservation two weeks ahead.

sandyf Wrote:
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> This is a good point about overbooking and mystery
> shopping. I once booked a room (not a mystery
> shop) and arrived at a decent time of day.
> Evidently they had over booked and everyone showed
> up that particular day, or perhaps some people
> just did not check out when expected. They had a
> lobby full of people they were shuttling off to
> different hotels. I lucked out and got a room
> there but most did not. What a nightmare that
> would have been had it been a mystery shop.

That happened to me on a personal trip to Chicago. We (including the pilots and stewardesses) were shuttled to a somewhat rundown "resort" 30 minutes outside of Chicago. It's an interesting thought if that had happened on a shop! The hotel comp'ed our room and if it was a shop, I'm sure they would've paid the fee also.