Paying for a hotel room in Italy

[mrochester]

Hello.

My dad has a booking with a hotel in Rome. It’s the type of booking where you pay when you arrive at the hotel but they pre-authorise the card before he arrives. The hotel has contacted my dad to say they can’t pre-authorise and when my dad has spoken to them they absolutely insist they only need the card number and the expiry date. My dad is insistent that they need the last 3 digits on the signature strip, but they claim they don’t need it. The pre-authorisation keeps failing.

Is my dad right that they need the 3 digits to process a payment/authorisation when the customer isn’t present?

Many thanks.

 

[EGuitarStar]

Not really. Have you checked to ensure the card issuer isn't blocking the transaction?

I had my Amex pre authorised without the 4 digit code.

 

[Participant]

Tell your dad's mistress to use her credit card instead

 

[mrochester]

Not really. Have you checked to ensure the card issuer isn't blocking the transaction?

I had my Amex pre authorised without the 4 digit code.

The bank says they can see the hotel trying to do the transaction as a ‘customer present’ transaction.

 

[Nazbit]

Customer present does not require cvv2.

Point of Cvv2 is to "prove" you're in possession of the card during a customer absent transaction.

 

[mrochester]

Customer present does not require cvv2.

My dad isn’t present. It’s over a week before he’ll be staying at the hotel. The hotel say they don’t need the cvv2 number to do pee-authorisation.

 

[Greebo]

My dad isn’t present. It’s over a week before he’ll be staying at the hotel. The hotel say they don’t need the cvv2 number to do pee-authorisation.

that is correct

 

[mrochester]

that is correct

I wonder why the transaction is failing then?

 

[Participant]

My dad isn’t present.

Agreed.

 

[Efour]

Go to a different hotel Hotels.com... always cheaper, maybe even the same one....And they will take the booking not the incompetent.

 

[Nazbit]

My dad isn’t present.

I get that. You said they're trying to do a card holder present pre-auth and asked if the CVV2 number was required.

As I said it's not required for a card holder present transaction.

It may tripping a fraud rule or something the bank will be able to tell you the failure reason.

 

[mrochester]

I get that. You said they're trying to do a card holder present pre-auth and asked if the CVV2 number was required.

As I said it's not required for a card holder present transaction.

It may tripping a fraud rule or something the bank will be able to tell you the failure reason.

I know the cvv2 number is not required for card holder present. But the hotel are also claiming the cvv2 number is not required for card holder not present transactions and the payment was repeatedly failing.

 

[ci_newman]

Why not just ask them to take full payment now, instead of a pre-auth?

 

[MrRockliffe]

Last year I made a large corporate booking in Rome and didn’t need the last 3 digits. It failed the first time and so I had to contact the bank to authorise.

 

[Tuppy_Glossop]

Has he informed the bank he's going away? If they don't think he's there why would they accept a customer present transaction? Having said that, I'd have expected them to call you about suspicious activity.

 

[Rotty]

Go to a different hotel Hotels.com... always cheaper, maybe even the same one....And they will take the booking not the incompetent.

and will match even if not cheaper and you get 10% credit reward too, very rare I use anyone else

 

[MouthBoy]

Depending on their EFT supplier they may not may not need it. Sometimes the payment solution needs to be told it's CNP rather then CP and so maybe they are not doing this.

I work in the EPoS industry and it is a common request to have a button on the till that changes this depending on if the customer is at the till or over the phone for example.