virtua Posted August 4, 2015 Posted August 4, 2015 First of all, I`m really sorry for posting so much on hotel/flights topic, I just need to know the experience. So I have booked a hotel on booking.com, but it hasn`t charged me at all, can anyone explain me why? It is the first time I book on booking.com
TakeruK Posted August 4, 2015 Posted August 4, 2015 Check the terms and conditions of your booking. For most hotels, what happens is that you give them your credit card # when you reserve the room but they do not charge it until after you finish your stay. If you don't show up, then you will either get charged 1 night or the entire stay, depending on the terms of your booking. Also, when you arrive and check in, they might put a hold or pre-authorization on your card to make sure you can pay for the whole stay. But in general, when it comes to hotels, unless you are booking a special cheap rate, you always pay after you leave. This is why whenever I think I might go somewhere (e.g. a conference), I just book the hotel dates immediately and then cancel if I change my mind. The above applies when you book through the hotel directly. However, a check at Booking.com and similar sites (e.g. Expedia) shows that you might also not have to pay until later (some number of days prior to your stay). So, you should check the fine print on your booking and perhaps call the hotel and confirm your reservation. My spouse worked for a hotel before and have told me that lots of things screw up when you book through a third party like Expedia or Booking.com. Personally, I always book directly with the hotel, instead of adding the complication of a third party!
ExponentialDecay Posted August 4, 2015 Posted August 4, 2015 No hotel or hotel booking service should charge you in advance for your stay (otherwise, what happens if you need to cancel?). Booking takes your credit card # on file because, if you decide to cancel within 24 hours of arrival (see the policies of the hotel - sometimes it's if you cancel after check-in hours on day of arrival), hotels can charge you for the first night of your stay. Booking isn't allowed to use your credit card for anything else. When time comes for you to pay for your stay, you can charge it to a different card or use cash, as that is between the hotel and you.
Between Fields Posted August 4, 2015 Posted August 4, 2015 No hotel or hotel booking service should charge you in advance for your stay (otherwise, what happens if you need to cancel?). Booking takes your credit card # on file because, if you decide to cancel within 24 hours of arrival (see the policies of the hotel - sometimes it's if you cancel after check-in hours on day of arrival), hotels can charge you for the first night of your stay. Booking isn't allowed to use your credit card for anything else. When time comes for you to pay for your stay, you can charge it to a different card or use cash, as that is between the hotel and you. That's not totally true--I'm going to a family wedding in September and have to pay for my room a week out, but, yes, most online booking services only require a partial deposit or no cash up front.
TakeruK Posted August 4, 2015 Posted August 4, 2015 No hotel or hotel booking service should charge you in advance for your stay (otherwise, what happens if you need to cancel?) Some hotels will have different rates that have different cancellation policies. For example, one chain I regularly stay at will give you a discount if you book 21 days in advance and pay upfront for the non-refundable rate. If you end up needing to cancel, then it is up to the hotel to decide if they will refund your money or if they will just allow you to use the amount paid as credit towards another stay at the same hotel. For one trip, a snowstorm closed all the roads to our destination and we had two separate hotel bookings in that area. One refunded the non-refundable rate due to weather and the other refused to do so. We were able to rebook the other hotel for a different night when the weather improved though. From that experience, I now realise that the difference between the non-refundable discounted rate is not really worth it, especially now that I know the slightly-less discounted AAA rate is actually refundable 24 hours prior to the stay!
ExponentialDecay Posted August 4, 2015 Posted August 4, 2015 Discount rates (and package tours) are the only situation where I have been asked to pay upfront. I'm going to a family wedding in September and have to pay for my room a week out In my limited experience with group booking, it is common for hotels to ask payment upfront when you book a shit ton of rooms, you know, because you're booking a shit ton of rooms as a group and if you decide to cancel, they're basically better off just closing down. Outside of those situations, I would find it hella sketchy if a hotel asked me to pay for anything before I actually used the service. I don't know, I'm not in the hotel business though, so maybe this is an oft-repeated white swan-black swan thing.
TakeruK Posted August 4, 2015 Posted August 4, 2015 Outside of those situations, I would find it hella sketchy if a hotel asked me to pay for anything before I actually used the service. I don't know, I'm not in the hotel business though, so maybe this is an oft-repeated white swan-black swan thing. Some hotels outside of North America operate on the model where it's "pay as you go" for everything. There was one place I stayed at where you pay a price (up front) for just the room. Everything else was extra: towels, toiletries, housekeeping, etc. So you can really save a bunch of money if you brought your own thing and treated it like a hostel. Or you can pay the full price and get North American style hotel service. For this place though, they do require full payment upfront and if you cancel, you have to spend it at another hotel in their chain. I agree that in North America, paying upfront for a hotel outside of a special rate is sketchy but this seems to be a standard business model for some hotels outside of North America. The chain I was staying at has a huge amount of properties all over the world, so I trusted it more than a mom & pop type place that might not even exist!
ExponentialDecay Posted August 4, 2015 Posted August 4, 2015 Most of my hotel-booking experience is in Europe, though I too have stayed at "hotels" while adventure-traveling that asked for money up front and didn't provide anything. They didn't usually appear on booking.com. There was one place I stayed at where you pay a price (up front) for just the room. Everything else was extra: towels, toiletries, housekeeping, etc. So you can really save a bunch of money if you brought your own thing and treated it like a hostel. But, point taken, the pricing landscape is not as standardized as I thought. TakeruK 1
virtua Posted August 5, 2015 Author Posted August 5, 2015 (edited) I got a bit confused on your posts, guys. Can I rely on Booking.com`s reservation? Or should I have reserved the room throught the hotel`s website? But I reserved on non-refundable rate, so it is late anyway. Note that it is 5-star hotel, I hope they are advanced enough to work well with Booking.com, I hope there won`t be any problem Edited August 5, 2015 by virtua
fuzzylogician Posted August 5, 2015 Posted August 5, 2015 Read the terms and conditions of your reservation. You should be fine. TakeruK 1
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