Are hotel bookings robbing us blind?
We all have on occasion booked into a hotel where they request your credit card for a pre-authorisation. I am wondering how many of us actually check that these funds have been returned to our credit card. I had occasion last week to stay at the Crowne Plaza in Adelaide and they took a pre-authorisation amount of $50. I just happened
to notice that by Saturday of that week this amount had not been returned to the card. On ringing the hotel they said that it was up to the bank to return this amount, however they had also been experiencing some problems with this and some payments were being made and others weren’t. Surely a hotel of this stature, if they realised that there was a problem, would try and remedy this and would have somewhere in their checking system a procedure to find out if this was being returned?
I wonder how many times this happens across the world. So, be vigilant and always check that this pre-authorisation amount is returned to your card. Has anybody else had a similar experience?
Yours sincerely,
A concerned traveller
Response to ‘For Bricks Sakes’ letter to the editor in issue 7…
I think that bricklayers do a great job. I have seen them at work and it is backbreaking work in all sorts of weather and the people who do it must be extremely strong and hard-working. However as a neighbour to a house that is being built, I believe that bricklayers need to respect the time that they start on a weekend.
There are local government rules which govern this and to be woken up earlier than 7am on a Saturday with a generator going outside your bedroom window is one thing, but to then request that it stop and as soon as you walk back inside, it restarts is another. We can spare a thought for the brickies if they spare a thought for the residents.