hotels w/o a credit card
- Thread starter caffieneaddict
- Start date
Some will take a prepaid credit card, like the platinum card you can get from Moneymart. A lot of smaller motels will take a cash deposit.
Many hotels will accept a cash deposit ($100-$250 in my experience). The problem is that most often they will say they don't if you call in advance to ask but may say yes if you are asking in person instead. Their official policy is no but if the person is in front of them and seems trustworthy, then they often make a judgement call and accept a cash deposit. But some hotels also categorically refuse whether you ask in person or over the phone. That's the annoying part - there's no real way of knowing until you show up and ask. And that's true for 2* hotels like for 4* hotels (I don't think I've tried at a 5* - there aren't very many of them around anyway! haha)
For obvious reasons, most hotels would not want to advertise that. From my experience, it's possible to find hotels who will accept cash but I'm a sweet and innocent girl who probably looks trustworthy
so that probably helps a little.. although I did always travel with my large dog and that could have been seen as a risk of possible damage. But in the end, I was able to find many hotels that let me give a cash deposit. Must have been my smile. haha Actually, lots of hotels employees were totally in love with my dog and she makes friends everywhere, so she probably helped more than anything else. (She's awesome and very few could resist her )
I've also used a pre-paid and most hotels at the time (2-3 years ago) had no problem accepting it. (Whole different story for car rentals: they don't accept it and don't make exceptions) I only had 1 hotel say anything about it but I was still able to convince them to accept it. That's it, everyone else just accept it as they would accept any credit card. (For some reason I had issues with cab drivers on more than one occasion - they don't seem to like the prepaid cards.)
For obvious reasons, most hotels would not want to advertise that. From my experience, it's possible to find hotels who will accept cash but I'm a sweet and innocent girl who probably looks trustworthy
so that probably helps a little.. although I did always travel with my large dog and that could have been seen as a risk of possible damage. But in the end, I was able to find many hotels that let me give a cash deposit. Must have been my smile. haha Actually, lots of hotels employees were totally in love with my dog and she makes friends everywhere, so she probably helped more than anything else. (She's awesome and very few could resist her )I've also used a pre-paid and most hotels at the time (2-3 years ago) had no problem accepting it. (Whole different story for car rentals: they don't accept it and don't make exceptions) I only had 1 hotel say anything about it but I was still able to convince them to accept it. That's it, everyone else just accept it as they would accept any credit card. (For some reason I had issues with cab drivers on more than one occasion - they don't seem to like the prepaid cards.)
To reserve a hotel via phone or on-line you need a credit card. Hotel policy charges the room rate for no-shows or for last minute cancellations.
If reserving via phone, advise Reservations that they can hold your room with your credit card BUT when checking out, you'll be paying with cash only. Every hotel is a little different with payment options. The only possible way of avoiding use of credit card is to "walk-in" without reservations and placing a very large amount of cash for damage deposit. Just be sure to get a receipt with your cash transaction.
If reserving via phone, advise Reservations that they can hold your room with your credit card BUT when checking out, you'll be paying with cash only. Every hotel is a little different with payment options. The only possible way of avoiding use of credit card is to "walk-in" without reservations and placing a very large amount of cash for damage deposit. Just be sure to get a receipt with your cash transaction.
I have found they all want a credit card as a security deposit ... but i usually pay my bill cash There is some times a hassle with the security hold on my card not being taken off right away... I have found that in the last year this is now standard policy . At first i would just pay cash and they would take a credit card imprint .often I had no balance on my card .. Now they run it so i have to have $400 or $500 on there .
I found out the hard way that you can't get by with out a credit card in today world ... I liked my American express
I found out the hard way that you can't get by with out a credit card in today world ... I liked my American express
Keep in mind that using a prepaid cc they do hold the deposit for a bit after you check out ...
VK
VK
you can book a room with a credit card (as they only do a 'pre-authorization' at thet time), then pay the bill using cash when you check out. they then cancel the pre-authorization and give you the visa cancellation slip along with you separate cash receipt. sometimes they get the staff to do a quick check of the room but that takes place faster than processing the paperwork
