Paying Cash for Italy Hotels: Problem?
 

I did my research via "search," but didn't really find an answer to my question.

Our hotels in Venice and Rome offer a 10%discount for paying cash. Sounds good to me - does anyone see any problem with this?

I understand that we won't be getting credit card points, and the logistics around carrying that much cash are not an issue for us. But am I missing anything?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Some people point out that paying in cash might mean you are helping them evade taxation.

Other people point out that the use of credit cards is a burden for a small business, for various reasons - labour, the possibility of chargebacks, dealing with invalid cards, etc.

So it's up to you.

On very rare occasions I've read of people who've paid in cash and then get double-dinged by a credit card charge, so make sure that doesn't happen of course and that you get a proper receipt.

Our hotel in Venice required that we pay cash (Locanda Barbarigo) and the same with our agriturismo in Tuscany. We actually just went to the ATM on the day we got there and took out the money and put it in the safe. It wasn't a big deal for us.

I've been in many smaller hotels in Italy that prefer cash. And evading taxes is a national sport in Italy.

Thank you, WillTravel, for suggesting that I pay attention that we don't get double-billed. Good to know.

We're staying at the Locanda Barbarigo as well...I didn't realize that cash was required, but as we were strongly leaning toward paying in cash anyway, it's not that much of an issue. But thanks for the heads up - I had forgotten.

We paid for all of our hotels/inn in cash in Italy as well as in France and saved at least 15% on the published rate. these were all fairly small family run establishments-never had a problem with charging the card, they actually made a point to rip up the number for the credit card in front of us.

Just go to an ATM the night before you check out to cover any other expenses you might have incurred like drinks from the mini-bar...

We have done this and did not have any problems. Also visited the ATM the night before or day of checkout. No double billing ever occurred. Go for the discount... in Venice, every little bit helps! =) Have fun!

We did exactly this in both Italy and France. Would go to the ATM on morning of checkout. I found that we won twice. We always got the room at a better rate (usually 1 -3 star places) and we also found the ATM exchange rates were better than cc exchange rates. We compared when the some of our cc bill came in.

We paid for all of our hotels in Italy in cash, with no problems. Some gave a discount for this (Hotel American in Venice comes to mind) and others didn't. We stayed mostly in 3* hotels.

I hope hunnym doesn't mind me piggybacking on this post.

We will be making our first visit to Italy in a few weeks time. We booked both of our hotels (in Bellagio & Bergamo) direct on line & reserved the rooms by credit card, although we don't actually pay until check-out.

There was no mention of a discount for cash on either of the hotel websites. Do you think it would be worth asking at reception or would that be considered as being cheap or rude (for want of a better word)?

Jim

Go ahead and aks if there is a discount for paying cash....but I would suggest you do this upon check-in and NOT as you check out. I say this because at least one of our hotels said they'd give the discount if we informed them when we arrived that we intended to pay cash when we checked out. We, too, always paid at the end of our stay.

If one asks politely while checking in if there is a discount for a cash payment there should be no problem. If the answer is no just thank them for their answer and that should take care of everything.

It is the smaller family run hotels that will offer the discount, generally.

I've been to hotels in Germany that want to be paid in cash. The reason is quite simple and may have nothing to do with tax evasion. If you pay by credit card, the card company will charge a commission (perhaps 3%) and the hotel will receive its payment six weeks or more later. If you are paid a salary, how would you feel if your employers said they would deduct a 3% handling charge and pay you six weeks later?

I suspect this is not infrequent, but is rarely advertised. When a merchant enrolls with one of the credit card companies, he agrees that he will not give a discount for cash; those who go ahead and do it risk losing their affiliation, so they would probably not want it advertised. You certainly can't be hurt by offering.

Clevelandbrown's caution definitely applies in the U.S., where the merchants' agreement with the credit card issuers prohibits them from giving a cash discount.
But the custom must be different in Europe -- I've seen Amsterdam hotel websites boldly quoting different prices for cash and credit cards, and in Copenhagen I received a restaurant bill giving me a choice of three different prices -- low for cash, several percentage points higher for a Denmark-issued credit card, higher still for credit cards issued outside Denmark.

I will caution you that paying in cash is a real probem if you can't come up with the cash! Many ATM's in Italy have fairly low daily withdrawal limits (250 Euros). Make sure that you plan accordingly. Don't wait until the day before to withdraw cash only to find out that you can't access your own money due to withdrawal limits.

In Italy, there is no penalty for early withdrawal!

A note about the maximum allowable cash withdrawl....my husband and I took both of our atm cards and each made a withdrawl, one right after another. We were able to get $500 Euro instead of just the $250, by both making $250 E withdrawls. We have a joint account, so that might be worth checking out.

We never encountered any problems paying with cash even though the room was secured via CC. Usually it is smaller hotels and some B&B's that ask for cash. It is probably the tax issue.

I've always paid cash - I've lost track of how many times I've received a discount by paying cash. Reduced rates, free nights - cash works for me.