A tourist’s behavior at a Bangkok hotel is making the rounds in Thailand, as flagged by View from the Wing. I have to commend the hotel staff for how calmly they handled this situation, though I’m shocked that there were seemingly no repercussions…
Continue reading: Credit Card Hold Confusion Causes Chaos In Holiday Inn Bangkok Lobby
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The concept of a hold is asinine.
You know a guest's information; you can just charge them later if you need to.
Hallo, Ben! This is a quick question, what method did Ford use to learn German back in 2020, or which methods would you recommend? Danke!
It can work as Asians are just not used to public expressions of anger like that. Although they have been known to just laugh.
The problem is that when I arrive at a hotel I cannot always remember which card I used for the deposit. So then I offer them a card that might be different. So for the duration I have holds on two cards.
That said I have not yet been double charged.
The problem is that when I arrive at a hotel I cannot always remember which card I used for the deposit. So then I offer them a card that might be different. So for the duration I have holds on two cards.
That said I have not yet been double charged.
When I was checking into my hotel in Riverside Ca, a Mexican was acting the same exact way. I was not surprised by his behavior. They always are so entitled.
Yeah, that’s not at all how it works. Like anything else, you should pay for the goods (hotel room) at the time you’re given access. You wouldn’t be allowed to leave a grocery store with goods and then only pay when you eat them.
You may be surprised to know how many people either don’t have the funds available upon arrival, or intentionally plan to scam a hotel out of money.
Or smile 😉
Which might give the impression to Westeners that they do not take your issue seriously
I wanted to write Holiday Inn Shitlom but this is more or less unrelated to the hotel. Could happen everywhere.
I wonder who pays the inflated rates at this depreciated hotel. My impression is that the rates doubled within the last 3 years.
And it’s an old building with need for renovations.
I always pay when I arrive or in advance, when invariably in my experience, the hold is not necessary.
I have managed a hotel or two in my time. I would have had hotel security escort him and his family off the property after explaining to him and if he got aggressive. I had no time for that foolishness.
Jesus, this guy has to be on drugs. If you traveled more than once in your life, you know this kind of crap happens. You just contact the hotel and they always correct the mistake.
What a silly comment. Holds are incredibly important because they verify that credit is actually available for the charge. It's not a perfect system -- obviously someone could charge more on room service/incidentals than the hold and then the final charge would be bounced if it exceeded the card's limit -- but it provides some level of comfort to the business/hotel.
Why deal with chasing people down and getting debt collectors involved when a simple hold works 95% of the time?
The matter if so-called "holds" on cards is an issue. There is still a charge that is processed as a hold despite what the hotel says. Ive gone through this so many times especially in the US. I use an amex platinum card for security but tend to use a different card for payment and time and again I see a charge and the reversal on my amex statement which costs me dollars because exchange rates are applied. The US hotels don't grasp that as they have no clue. They're bloody annoying.
What a dumb analogy.
You don't prepay for groceries. You pay for them at checkout, which is the end of the transaction. Same with a restaurant, you pay after you consume the meal.
The reasons why hotels do holds is so they can charge you with junk fees and for other incidentals when you accidentally take or use something that you didn't know wasn't free and then they can use that hold against you, when you complain about it.
You need to understand that those funds being held as authorizations on credit cards and debit cards make the funds unavailable to you to use so in the event of a hotel making an over authorization that can ruin a persons entire trip. Maybe they are from a foreign country and it can take 7-10 business days for the authorization to be removed. Although rare , I was working at a small hotel and a co worker incorrectly set up a reservation so when I checked someone in they now had over $2000 authorization and the business people were extremely worried. Factoring in being exhausted from traveling. To make a long story short the hotel GM called his bank or theirs overseas in Estonia to have the authorization removed. So see where these people in this story are coming from.
It is done for car rentals too..Often the hold is twice the price of the rental car?? crazy..
Yeah right. How about fixing your mistake ? What motel 6 were you a supervisor at ?
An Indian tourist’s behavior at a Bangkok hotel is making the rounds in Thailand....
I never understood people who think that this kind of a behaviour will get things solved. I had plenty of various issues (including accounting ones) during my travels, dealing with it nicely always done the job. Irrespective of what the situation was, and whether the hotel was at fault, the correct solution to deal with abusive guests would be to throw them out. Politely but firmly.
In my younger days I've had holds placed on debit cards (when I didn't have credit lines) inadvertently taking up all my usable money. Sometimes they accidentally process something twice, and it can take 30 days for the funds to be released. It's absolutely ridiculous such practices are allowed. Charge the payment card once, and a reasonable amount for incidental costs. I recall when checking in somewhere once, I had $2000 in my account, until next pay in a weeks time. They double charged me (one being a hold, that was eventually released) $800, leaving me very short of cash. This reaction isn't appropriate, but is understandable.
As another Reader texted before:
This front desk is definately NOT at the Lobby of Holiday Inn Silom in BKK !!
Its one of my favourite hotels in BKK..so I know this hotel very well.
Wrong hotel...
The hold is confirmed permission by the bank to charge up to a specific amount. The amount charged can and usually is less than the hold but the funds are guaranteed. The hold protects the vendor against someone using up their credit limit.
I'm 99% sure this hotel is the "Holiday Inn Express Bangkok Sathorn"
I've stayed there before and recognize the front desk & lobby layout.
Sensationalism for clicks? Following in the footsteps of Live and Let's Fly? I stopped visiting that site precisely due to this. Sigh...
"I’m not sure if this man has been diagnosed with some sort of an anger issue." Well go to India and actually explore the country, you will find them everywhere. It might be just a cultural thing that some people think it is acceptable, we all live in our own little bubble...
I did exactly the same thing with Live and Let's fly, the sensationalism just got so annoying. Lucky still has a lot of good informational content but it does seem to be going more in this and political content which I can only imagine is to cultivate controversy and clicks. Sad.
Agree. They are a distraction to Ben's site. I guess Ben could remove them.
Ben does provide knowledge to us, for which we appreciate.
We were at Hyatt Etoile Paris, and during our stay, the manager Audrey decided to charge a full reservation, €4,000 euros. Although that was a prepaid cash and points stay. She did not inform us. We only found it when checking our Amex account.
It took several days to have it removed as no one at the hotel knew what the other was doing.
We were not happy with that poor service, but at least with Amex we put stop payment on Amex.
The hotel staff may seem perhaps too passive. However, this is Thailand and, from what I understand, it's not behaviourally appropriate for Thais to show anger. Moreso, being in a hospitality establishment... Perhaps they are boiling deep down, but they are not supposed to show it...
Nothing new there -- "No one at the hotel knew what the other was doing." That says it all -- time and time again. This is why I use AMEX because they are willing to listen to the problem/mistakes and they fix it promptly. Glad you had good resolution. I do realize that people make mistakes, but I just cannot understand the dynamic of how a company's employees are NOT on the same page! Maddening!!
You should remember that non-Americans usually carry 1 or 2 cards at the most, as opposed to Americans holding several cards. As such, these types of holds on your CC can cause more stress just because of this, in particular when you’re out of the country!