Do not give deposit in cash without getting a receipt!
 

Picard Hotel in Paris asks me for key deposit in cash, but it did not give any receipt. It claims that the key is proof of payment, and the cash deposit will be returned after I check out and returned the key! But the key deposit was not returned to me, and the hotel staff denied its existence!

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What is a key deposit?

Agree - never heard of a key deposit. When they run your credit card that is you deposit. I would send a detailed complaint to the manager.

What is cash ?

The hotel kept your money because you cannot say hellogoodmorninghowareyouthankyou

After all you were in france.

Did you return the key to the hotel?

I've heard of key deposits plenty of times, lots of hotels have them in the fine print (not to the room, but often to the minibar or safe), but I've never heard of it being required in cash, just that if you lose the key, they put it on your bill for checkout.

I'm not clear on what the hotel staff claimed if they always take deposits for the keys, how could you get one otherwise.

But in general, not giving cash without receipts for important things is a good rule in all kinds of matters.

Hotel Picard is a budget 2* hotel, that may be why this happened (the way this was handled, asking for cash, etc.). Because I've been in hotels that do have key fees if you lost it, as noted, (and it's in the terms you sign when you check-in) but never one that asked for it in cash up-front.

I suspect the key deposit required from the OP may have been to a safe key or something like that. Again, I don't understand how this happened if they had such a policy, you couldn't have gotten the key without it.

It is possible it was an error by a dumb employee, no harm in complaining to mgt. I have had employees make errors in hotels, such as quoting me a different rate that I could see on their own website, etc., and I had to be pro-active.