Wondering What People's Experiences with Pre-Authorizations for Hotel Stays Are Like

LJediNite77 on 12/12/2024 - 07:26
Last edited 12/12/2024 - 09:12 by 1 other user

Hi all, long time lurker, but pretty much first time poster.

I recently (27/11) had a business trip in Sydney and stayed at a 5 star "single letter" (v?x) hotel and as part of staying with them they took out a pre-authorization of $200. I was only staying with them a night, so checked out the following day, but here we are two weeks on and the pre-auth is still on my card. I rang the hotel about two days ago and was advised this sounded like normal practice and to give it another couple of days for it to be returned. They asked me to send a screenshot of my bank statement showing it was still being applied against the card, which I did that same evening.

I was wondering what everyone else's experiences with pre-authorizations are or if they have any advise on what I may be able to do to get this returned ASAP. Holding a pre-authorization for two weeks, when it was one single night's stay with nothing to finalize on my account (did not crack into the min bar or anything), seems like a crock to me.

Cheers,

JediNite

• 

  randomusername2017 on 12/12/2024 - 07:53

  +2

  On the higher end but not unusual.
  Some card/hotel combos faster some longer

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  Dollar General on 12/12/2024 - 08:02

  +3

  They invested the $200 into bitcoin and want to HODL

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  cerealsmok3r on 12/12/2024 - 08:18

  yeah it happens. timing really depends on the hotel.

  I haven't had any experiences where it lasted longer than a couple of days

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  JimmyF on 12/12/2024 - 08:41

  +1

  as part of staying with them they took out a pre-authorization of $200. I was only staying with them a night, so checked out the following day, but here we are two weeks on and the pre-auth is still on my card.

  All normal, 1 night or 20 nights, they'll take a preauth.

  As for how long it'll stay on the card, it'll depend on a few things. How quickly the place releases it, and how quickly your bank releases it. Some banks are faster than others once the hold it let go.

  A preauth doesn't mean you owe money, it means they have credit held from your limit. In this case, they have reserved $200 of your credit limit. It'll disappear in a few days.

  • 

    JediNite77 on 12/12/2024 - 18:16

    Would be nice to have the $200 back in my account especially this time of the year!!!

    Thanks for the feedback!!

    • 

      JimmyF on 12/12/2024 - 18:31

      Would be nice to have the $200 back in my account especially this time of the year!!!

      Is this a credit card or a debit credit card?

      For a credit card, a preauth is a reduction in your credit available that can be used. It is not money you 'owe' as such, instead it has allowed the W to reserved part of your credit limit for their use at a later date if they wish. It will be lifted if they don't use it.

      But a debit credit card is a different story. Guessing you used a debit credit card? Next time use a credit card if you have one.

      • 

        JediNite77 on 12/12/2024 - 19:36

        Yeah was a debit card. Have since read that it can be a factor in how quickly they reverse the pre authorisation. Don’t understand why this really results in a difference in the timeframes though.

        • 

          SlickMick on 13/12/2024 - 19:59

          @JediNite77: With a credit card it's just a credit hold, you don't even notice it unless you are likely to spend right to the limit.

          With a debit card, they obviously can't do that, so they have to actually do a transaction on your account. And they can't give it back until they're sure they don't need to make a claim against you…. e.g. the next guest reliases you did some damage not obvious when cleaning (just as an example).

          The answer is definitely use a creditcard, or if you have reasons not to, then you just need to suck it up.

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  Danstar on 12/12/2024 - 08:44

  The W Hotel? :D

  • 

    MS Paint on 12/12/2024 - 08:47

    +4

    No. The ? Hotel. It's pretty exclusive but questionable pre-authorisation practices.

    • 

      DashCam AKA Rolts on 12/12/2024 - 12:24

      +2

      Take more than cents. Cheers.

  • 

    JediNite77 on 12/12/2024 - 18:13

    Yeah was the “W Hotel”. Was trying not to name but gave enough hints to their name… :)

    • 

      Danstar on 12/12/2024 - 20:30

      I like the bar in the evening

      • 

        JediNite77 on 12/12/2024 - 22:42

        +1

        The bar up on Level 29 ? Yeah was nice, especially when someone else is paying for the drinks!

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  ihfree on 12/12/2024 - 09:17

  It sounds like a good business trip if you don't even know your hotel's name.

  The pre-auth has always been gone in about a week each time I have done it.

  • 

    JediNite77 on 12/12/2024 - 18:15

    It was the “W Hotel” as some people deduced. :)

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  apple2016 on 12/12/2024 - 10:28

  pre-auth is just instructing the card issuer to hold the amount. It usually expires after 2 weeks (set by card issuer- visa / mastercard /amex etc.) if not confirmed. I am guessing the above hotel is just letting it expire instead of cancelling it. I have seen some hotels do it this way.

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  RogerLoger on 12/12/2024 - 10:40

  I can't think of a logical reason it cannot be refunded the same day as check-out. I'd be getting fairly antsy about it after that long. Either they have an inefficient process or somebody is slack at their job.

  High level managers need to know what their businesses do that make people unhappy or they can't fix problems. Write to the chain manager and complain (not a rant). 'This is what I expect; this is what I encountered; this is what I expect to be done about my problem' format.

  • 

    JimmyF on 12/12/2024 - 18:33

    I can't think of a logical reason it cannot be refunded the same day as check-out

    You must be new to banking….. All refunds take 'days' to magically appear but in your account, but the funds instantly disappear!

    • 

      RogerLoger on 12/12/2024 - 19:32

      -2

      You're right. I don't know much about banking. I do know that lots of $200 pre-authorisations not repaid for a long time would average out to a healthy sized free loan. My guess is the hotel chain is managing refunds for the free loan. Inneficiency pays … except when it come to collecting money. They like their deposits in advance.

      • 

        miwahni on 12/12/2024 - 23:07

        +2

        It's not a free loan to the hotel though. They don't have your money. They have had a hold placed on the funds but the funds remain in your account; you simply can't access them.

        • 

          RogerLoger on 13/12/2024 - 05:58

          -1

          @miwahni: That's a new method for me. Still inneficient to not remove the lock on the day of check out.

  • 

    Benno007 on 13/12/2024 - 09:53

    It depends!

    Some POS systems batch up transactions and refunds at night, which means that aren’t processed that day. If the next day happens to be a non business day, then it still won’t get processed. Then it has to be processed by both banks.

    I have built many ecommerce systems and from experience there’s been a few reasons:
    1. The process that triggers the refund is manual, ie goes into a workflow requiring a support ticket to be raised and handled manually
    2. The process is batched daily or weekly so delayed at least that much
    3. When a refund happens, there may be insufficient funds in the venues payment gateway to process the refund (if it’s a day or two after), so the refund will be pending until new funds are added from new transactions, the payment gateway debits the venues bank account, or someone manually tops up a float of funds (this is the case when using Stripe at least, when you have automatic payouts enabled, they don’t retain enough to cover unexpected refunds)

    Pre authorisations on credit cards anyway, the venue doesn’t have your money, like at all, until they confirm that pre authorisation or release it. It is possible that hotels actually do capture funds and use ‘30 days’ as a way to capture more interest, but most holds in Australia should be released within a few working days, and then updated in your bank a few working days later, really no more than a week… that’s when I start to get concerned.

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  hasher22 on 12/12/2024 - 11:14

  It will go around 2 to 3 weeks in my experience.

  Just depends when the hotel, if they processed it. Some hotels are lazy AF or the rep doesn't know they need to process it to be cancelled.

  Fastest I had it wiped is around 1 week.

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  kwijybo on 12/12/2024 - 11:46

  Canberra Novotel at 30 days has been my only outlier

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  Darkscythe on 12/12/2024 - 13:14

  Normally gets cancelled after a few days but I did have 1 hotel which we had to make several calls to get cleared as they forgot to cancel it when we checked out.

  • 

    JimmyF on 12/12/2024 - 18:34

    Preauths will 'time out' and automatically remove if the hotel doesn't use it.

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  JediNite77 on 12/12/2024 - 18:18

  Thanks all for the feedback. I think I will give them until tomorrow and then ring their complaints number and see if they can escalate it. Definitely will not be recommending the place. It was a really weird layout and pretty substandard in a lot of respects.

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  Darayus on 13/12/2024 - 10:23

  +3

  I always give my Amex ( which is underutilized due to limited acceptance) for pre-authorization and Amex is quite prompt to release it immediately once the hotel releases them.

  Never give your debit card. They actually block your cash, and sometimes, it makes it difficult to release it, as it can take almost four weeks to get released.

  • 

    JediNite77 on 14/12/2024 - 00:02

    Definitely a learning experience :(

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  2esc on 13/12/2024 - 22:28

  Any more than a couple days is not acceptable. It most certainly should have been purely out of respect for the customer. Personally i wouldn't stay there again and they deserve any review placed to mention the behaviour.

  • 

    Darayus on 16/12/2024 - 11:33

    it depends upon your card issuer and how fast they release. Many hotels has an automatic release system once you check out and the account is square NIL. Think they have 150 rooms, so all systems are automated.