In Reply to: credit card details by email to hotel??? posted by nay888t on Wednesday, 6. September 2006 at 07:09 Bali Time:
if you were to call a hotel in your capital city and book a room they would require your credit card details to secure the room. Very few places would hold a room without some sort of security that you are going to show up. It wouldn't be fair for them to hold a room for you and turn away someone else only to have you change your mind and not show up and they are the ones out of pocket. I can understand the reason for wanting it. Anywhere that we have travelled and called ahead to book a room they have asked for CC as security and we were told that payment would only be deducted if we cancelled (1 night accom). Other than that payment was to be sorted upon check out and we could pay anyway that we wanted (cash, T/cheque etc). The only place that I have ever had any problem with fraud was a small hotel in America (New Orleans) and after a phone call to them they sorted out the "problem" on their end and the money was instantly deposited back to our account. I seem to remember some time back a similar question being asked on here about CC and passport and there was some mention of it being a requirement of all guests in Bali hotels. I will see if I can find it. I know that people are going to say that the hotels are so quiet at the moment that there are plenty of spare rooms. Looking at it that way - there is no need to book ahead. Just show up at the door and pay by any form that you wish. In saying all that for these circumstances we have a seperate credit card that only has a $500 limit so should anything go wrong there is a smaller amount of damage that can be done. We also only fax the details over and call the hotel just before faxing and speak to the person that we have been dealing with and tell them it is going to be faxed now and can they wait by the machine for it to arrive. 9 time out of 10 they then email or call back to say that it has arrived.
I don't know if that is any help
Kylie :)