$150 assurance charge and being charged Double.
When I reserved a night, the total that was said was $141. I arrived at the hotel and they had a $150 holding fee that I was not told of. Now, my card has been charged double and I am out $430. I was ... more
When I reserved a night, the total that was said was $141. I arrived at the hotel and they had a $150 holding fee that I was not told of. Now, my card has been charged double and I am out $430. I was told by the hotel I wouldn’t get anything back till Monday and I stayed at the hotel on a Wednesday night. less
Peter Callan, Owner at Best Western Plus Marina Shores Hotel, responded to this review
Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience of having the extra funds on your credit card being withheld. It is unfortunate that almost all hotels have had to adopt the policy of pre-authorizing credit cards for anywhere from $100 - $200 extra to try and protect themselves from damages, theft or in room smoking violations caused by guests. Although these issues are infrequent, they are very costly to hotels. As far as when the authorization hold is put back in your account - that all depends on the bank or credit card company. We release the hold as soon as you check out. It seems that most of the time, cardholders see the funds back in their account within 72 hours, but we advise people that it could be up to five days, just to be safe.
Car rental companies have used this security authorization policy for years. Hotels usually only placed an additional hold of $20 - $50 for incidentals, but as the industry has seen the trend to more damage from guests, we had to increase the amount. I am truly sorry that a few inconsiderate customers has created this headache for the rest.
Peter Callan, General Manager