HELP! Can hotels really DO this?
 

HELP! I faxed my Visa number to secure our reservations at a farmhouse/hotel in St. Remy <BR>in late May (4 days). NOW, they have faxed me to say they are going to withdraw 700FF on my account in March as a sort of security. Has anyone else had that happen to them? Is this common? What would YOU do? --Thanks for any advice--Joanie

Yes, this is very usual in France. For hotel or appartment reservations they ask a kind of deposit (usually 25% of the total amount) that will be deducted from your final invoice. In case you don't show up, this deposit will NOT be refunded. <BR>

thank you &lt;miriam. I can relax...Bute we have travelled quite a bit in France & Italy and have never bumped into this..wonder why. Thanks again-Joa

If you travel enough, sooner or later you will bump into one of these. I can tell you what you have encountered is not the worst I have seen. At one hotel in Paris during the World Cup, I was asked to pay for the entire stay in local cash just to make a reservation. No CC was accepted during this high demand time. If you think there can't be that much demand for room when you go, try other hotels. They vary in their reservation policies.

Joanie, <BR>The reason might be that 1) it is just the hotel policy or 2) that they expect lots of guests in late May and won't take the risk that the room remains unoccupied (=no $$) because some of the guests don't show up. <BR> <BR>Another story we encountered at the French Riviera many years ago: on our last day (in the evening, because we drove back home to Belgium at night) we wanted to pay our invoice with a eurocheque. No problem, but the cashier added 10% of the invoice value if we could not pay cash. We had no other choice because the banks were closed. We had stayed there 3 whole weeks, so you can imagine that it was not a small bill we got there!

Hi <BR>I live in France. <BR>It is not very usual in France to take a deposit in order to secure an hotel reservation. <BR>But that may happen for the places in great demand. <BR>Same in USA : try to reserve in Hawaii or in Anchorage : very often a deposit is required. <BR>Usely, your VISA card number is enought

This has happened to me once, five years ago at a New Orleans LA hotel during the Jazz Festival. Since I booked two months ahead and guaranteed with my American Express for rooms for friends, I was really really shocked, to say the least. Although it has never happened to me since then, I now always ask if they are going to charge my credit card BEFORE I actually get there. Live and learn.