Credit cards are mandatory

[figgyx]

Why is it so hard to understand that most (if not all) hotels require a valid credit card at checkin. You are welcome to pay cash but we need a credit card on file. The owner of the hotel where I work has been burned too many times by cash paying guests who smoke in the room or do damage to the room - and we have no credit card on file.

So, cue this dude who walks into my lobby on a Saturday night. He can't understand why if he is paying cash why I would ask for a credit card as well but provides one - which is promptly declined. He walks out and brings me another one - his girlfriend's. I tell him I can only take this card if she comes in with a valid drivers license and signs for the room. So he goes out and gets her and she looks none too happy. Well, her card is declined and so is the second one she hands me. When I decline to rent them a room she states "No wonder you are so empty."

Arggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[TheSHAD0W]

Well, it's true, if you let SCs stay there then you'd be full. Bankrupted, but full.

A friend who owns a hotel allows customers without a credit card to leave a cash deposit instead.

[dakhur]

Why? I pay cash, I don't want you to have any details other than there's a person in this room.

[roguesqd]

Not so much the giving of information as having a way to charge the person if they trash your hotel room, or steal everything out of it

[Marmalady]

Not so much the giving of information as having a way to charge the person if they trash your hotel room, or steal everything out of it

When I did motel housekeeping (for about a year) there was a couple who stayed one night and (amongst other things) smeared the walls with Viennetta ice cream dessert. The housekeepers, myself included, did our level best but even after scrubbing for ages it looked awful, so it ended up having to be re-decorated. And someone got their credit card charged for the cost of the decoration, plus the o/time we had spent trying to clean it up.

[XCashier]

When I did motel housekeeping (for about a year) there was a couple who stayed one night and (amongst other things) smeared the walls with Viennetta ice cream dessert. The housekeepers, myself included, did our level best but even after scrubbing for ages it looked awful, so it ended up having to be re-decorated. And someone got their credit card charged for the cost of the decoration, plus the o/time we had spent trying to clean it up.

Good. Lesson learned, hopefully. I do hope they didn't try to fight the charge.

[MadMike]

I only know of one place that let people pay cash without a credit card on file, but that was over 20 years ago, and the place is no longer in business. It was the place where my friends and I stayed when we took our beach trip, back when I was 19. We had trouble even finding a place that would take us. Most of them would only take families.

We finally found a place that may not have been the nicest, but it was available to us. It was owned by this nice lady who knew how hard it was for groups like us to find a place, and she was willing to give everyone a chance.

Since none of us had a credit card, each of us had to put down a $50 deposit. We kind of grumbled about that part, but she just smiled and said that we'd probably run out of money faster than we think, and that we'd be glad to be getting our deposits back at the end of our stay. She turned out to be right. We ended up cutting our vacation short one day because we burned through all our spending money. We must have done something right, because she told us we were welcome to come back next year.

[bhskittykatt]

Alas, my chain does not require CCs, nor do we require deposits. We are probably the last of our breed. Many times, I wish we did. It's truly amazing what some SCs can do to a room in one night. Give them a week, it gets worse. Give them six months or more, and you can get some fantastic awfulness! I have witnessed this first-hand, and cleaned it up.

We have a few regular transient guests who are actually very neat, and they will get a room for a night or two when they have saved up enough money. They would suffer from a CC/deposit requirement, so it would be nice to waive it for them. But until you've proven yourself, I really, really wish we could require deposits!

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Why? I pay cash, I don't want you to have any details other than there's a person in this room.

You may direct that question to the filthy pigs who can't be adult enough to not trash their hotel rooms, or steal anything out of the room that isn't bolted down.

As I always say, the few mess things up for the many.

[PepperElf]

back when i was in my navy A School there were hotels in the area that took cash. BUT you had to pay a deposit.

[infinitemonkies]

At one of the hotel locations I worked at, the manager allowed cash-only rooms with a deposit of $100. There were two problems with this:

A: Roughly 40% of 'guests' who had no cc would smoke in the room. Note, cleaning fee for smoking in rooms was $250.
B: About 10% would cause physical damage to the room and/or building. Any time damage was done, it was never less than $500+

In either case, the only recovery of costs we would ever see is the $100 deposit.



It was eventually proven to the manager that overall we were losing money by allowing cash-only guests to stay.

[figgyx]

Dakhur - all hotels require proof of identification before checkin. You simply can't just occupy a room unless you can prove who you are. Cash paying guests especially need to give drivers license.

[Mr Hero]

My hotel bumped up our smoking fee from $75 to $150, and we bumped up the deposit from $100 to $150. We find that this weeds out a lot of guests who can't display a little self control to not destroy their rooms.

[RealUnimportant]

there was a couple who stayed one night and (amongst other things) smeared the walls with Viennetta ice cream dessert.

Replace Vienneta with motor oil, and I've heard of a very similar situation... The whole room needed redecorating to the extent that they had to strip & replaster the walls!

[Seshat]

I once caused a need to redecorate a room....


I was a child (four or five), I was supposed to be asleep in the 'childrens' room at my grandmother's house, and I'd found a crayon.

Apparently the walls were decorated in child-art to as high as I could reach.