I reserved a hotel room in Barcelona for our trip next June with out American Express card. I got a confirmation from the hotel saying that a room will be reserved.
After I did it, my husband told me that he had cancelled that card and got a new card with a new account number.
Should I call the hotel and give them the new number or leave it as it is??
I am afraid that if I call, I am going to end up with two reservations, if they make a mistake.
What should I do?

Hire a divorce attorney?

Seriously, see if you can contact the hotel via e-mail. That way, there's a paper record of what was said, and a printed confirmation of that understanding you can hold in your hand.

Just my 2 cents.

E-mail the hotel and American Express and ask their advice. You will have their response in some from of writing.

Oh, and make sure that understanding includes cancelling the first reservation (sorry if that part seems obvious)!

My husband thought he had lost his card, he did not mean to block our reservations.

I would email the hotel with your updated information.

Again, if you do it via-email, if there is any laungage barrier, it will be easier for them to understand via writing. Also, it gives you something in writing when they respond, so you know it is all set.

The hotel never attempts to make any charges unless you don't turn up for check-in. Simply hand them a new card at check-in for payment. They don't sit monitoring the status of your credit card!

I once arrived at a hotel to find that they had cancelled my reservation because my credit card had expired. Of course when I arrived I had already received the new card with the same number, but when they saw the original expiration date had passed, they cancelled the reservation, so I'd definitely contact them. Make sure you include both the old and the new numbers so they know it is all the same reservation.

I use a card to reserve my hotels, that has no credit available on it. That way no one can use it in Italy while I'm still here. If the Spain hotels are like the ones I'm encountering in Italy, they merely hold the reservation with the card and won't ever use it unless you don't show up. I wouldn't worry about it.

HI
Presumably your hotel just took the card number as a guaranty for a no-show, and they haven't actually charged anything to your card yet. If they have, AmEx will transfer the charge to your new card.
I'd wait until you check in, and then present the new card

We reserved some rooms with a credit card, gave the hotel the # and the expiration date and, at check-in, found they'd cancelled the reservation when the card expired. Like Patrick, we were carrying the same card, just with new expiration date. I'd definitely e-mail and let them know you have a new #.

I can tell you from personal experience (Paris hotel) that the hotel does indeed check your card validity prior to your arrival, so that they CAN charge it for a no-show. I cancelled a card during the 5-6 months before our trip, not thinking about the hotel reservation. We arrived and found we had no reservation anymore, and hotel was full. The manager helped us find another hotel but TRUST ME, you want to fax or email them the new card right away. Don't you have a reservation or confirmation number to use in your message to the hotel?
ie. "We have reserved a room for June 2005, confirm #1234 and need to update my credit card information. This is the correct information: blah blah...
Please confirm that you have updated your records. Thank you."

For those who say the hotel is probably not going to check or will not charge anything to the card, I'm not so sure. It is not an unusual policy these days for the hotel to charge at least a one night's stay something like one or three days before your arrival. If they try that and find the card you provided is invalid, they are very likely to cancel your reservation. I repeat. I'd contact the hotel just to make sure, unless you like living dangerously.

One more voice to say that some hotels check your card before you arrive. We had an experience this spring that was very similar to what Travelnut just described. We reserved at the Aviatic in Paris, but inadvertently misquoted our credit card number. About a week before we arrived, they sent us two e-mails saying that the number was invalid and asking us to give them another card number. We were scooting around Provence at that time and didn't check our e-mail. When we arrived in Paris, they had given away our room.

The front desk staff called the Ferrandi, which was one block away, and we stayed there for the night. Nice hotel, actually.

We certainly landed on our feet, but we'll try to avoid that happening again.

Anselm

An acquaintance of mine recommended always confirming with a credit card which would expire before date of arrival, had no "room" on it, or even switching digits, so several rooms could be reserved (final choice later) and card couldn't be charged in case your plans changed and/or you "forgot" to cancel reservations not kept.

Apparently, this worked very well for him in the states.

However, he booked rooms in London, Paris and Vienna, and, upon arrival, his reservation had been cancelled in ALL THREE (to his utter shock and dismay). (Yes, you'd think he would have known after the first instance to re-confirm the other two...)

It seems often European hotels, just prior to your scheduled arrival, attempt to "authorize" (but not charge) either the first night or your entire stay to ensure that the card is valid and that you have sufficient credit to cover your stay, or at least the first night chargeable if you are a no-show.

I would definitely e-mail the hotel and advise them of your new card number. Nearly all European accomodations have someone in the reservations department who speaks sufficient English to handle same.

It defies logic that American Express would "transfer the charge to your new card" once you've reported the card lost, cancelled the account, and received a new card with a new account number.

Note also that once a hotel "authorizes" charges to your account, there is a "hold" on that portion of your credit limit. Often, upon checking out, they process the final charges and neglect to "release" the "hold". With some credit cards, the hold is automatically released after so many days. With others, the vendor must process a release.

I don't see what the big problem is. You could fax or email them, indicating that the card number had changed and not yet including the card number. Ask them what they would like you to do. I bet they just say to provide the new number for their files.

And I am in the "they do check it" camp so that they can charge you for a no show. Sometimes too they'll precharge you for the first night... though I don't know about Spain on this.

~kat

This is the same husband as in the thread about compromising with a spouse who doesn't like to travel?

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34513995

Maybe it was a Freudian slip that he cancelled the card....

LOL, Taggie, I think you're right.....

The credit card is security against you failing to show. It's possible they may have run an authorisation check on it, and if you're worried about that then why not call them just to confirm they have the booking, or dream up a minor question like is the hotel near so-and-so (even if you already know the answer), to give them the chance to say if there's a problem with the booking. If all is OK, I wouldn't complicate things by changing card numbers. They'll use whatever card you give them at the time regardless of whether it matches the number you gave them or not.

Some hotels, especially those with chain affiliations go ahead and put a hold on X dollars of your credit limit, many smaller hotels do not, as I have verified myself in the past.

If this is a source of worry, simply fax or email the hotel and tell them the old card was cancelled and here is the new number. Just confirm that
this is the same reservation as before, and ask them to confirm in turn. There is no reason to suspect that the reservation will be duplicated, unless they are incompetent, and in that case one mistake or another is bound to occur.