Hotel payment

[Jean-F]

Couldn't resist as if my memory is correct you are a retired black cabbie and I see I was correct in my geographical guess

It didn’t have to be much of an educated guess, as the guy in question had gone to the land that time forgot, to follow Millwall, a Bermondsey, SE London side!

I don't understand this. I, like many other people, don't have a credit card and yet manage just fine.

And long may you do so, but, and maybe you’ll never need to do these things, but if you did you’d be cattle trucked.
First, apparently getting a room in a decent hotel, and second, renting a car, particularly in the U.S.
I was at Regional South West Airport, Fort Myers, FL once, when two Irish guys next to me were trying to rent a car from the Alamo desk.
Neither of them had a CC, but one offered to put down $7,500 cash as a deposit, plus pay for a week’s rental in full, and leave his Passport as collateral.
The Alamo agent said, $7,500, and a Passport? On a $25,000 Buick? Sorry sir, it doesn’t work that way.

 

[Avenged7Fold]

You dont need a CC, a debit card works just as fine for these things.

It certainly is not unreasonable to expect people to have a debit or credit card in this age.

 

[Malevolence]

It didn’t have to be much of an educated guess, as the guy in question had gone to the land that time forgot, to follow Millwall, a Bermondsey, SE London side!



And long may you do so, but, and maybe you’ll never need to do these things, but if you did you’d be cattle trucked.
First, apparently getting a room in a decent hotel, and second, renting a car, particularly in the U.S.
I was at Regional South West Airport, Fort Myers, FL once, when two Irish guys next to me were trying to rent a car from the Alamo desk.
Neither of them had a CC, but one offered to put down $7,500 cash as a deposit, plus pay for a week’s rental in full, and leave his Passport as collateral.
The Alamo agent said, $7,500, and a Passport? On a $25,000 Buick? Sorry sir, it doesn’t work that way.

Spent an inordinate amount of time all over the US and never once had a problem getting a decent hotel or renting a decent car.

 

[Jean-F]

Spent an inordinate amount of time all over the US and never once had a problem getting a decent hotel or renting a decent car.

I seriously couldn't see this, still can't, I also couldn't visualise you as a flat out liar, to what end?
Short of emailing every car rental outfit, from Avis and Alamo through Dollar, National, Sixt, to Hertz, how best to establish if I was right to doubt you, or if you were dreaming?
I have a friend who subscribes to a U.S. based forum, and he posted a query on it for me, couched as, "Is it possible now, or in the recent past, to rent a car anywhere in the U.S. without a Credit Card, for cash, using cash only as a deposit?"
He emailed this reply that he received to the query, I have copied and pasted it exactly as it was, it's under this post.
Let me stress, I have absolutely NO desire to label you as purposely misleading, I think that your memory may have played tricks on you.

That might have been a car rental...........in 1985. We have a few car rental outfits in Canada that are local and privately owned, and they might let a cheap car go for a big cash deposit, but you still have to present an International drivers' license, issued in your home country based on your legit drivers' license from that country.

I have a credit rating in both the US and Canada. In the US it's hard TODAY to take a **** without having your credit rating checked. Canada is a little different. You get checked AFTER you pee pee.

 

[Energize]

How much cash deposit is fair?

Enough to cover the minibar?

A lamp, the TV, mattress, window or a day or two worth of business in case they cannot get the room prepared for the next guy?

It is totally understandable to only accept a debit/credit card and if i ran my own hotel - i would have a similar policy.

What you forget is that credit cards have a relatively small transaction limit. Some random hotel attempting to charge £1k to someones card will generally be blocked, this makes them roughly equivalent to cash. I myself only give prepaid credit cards to hotels knowing that they will get the best of a tenner if they try to charge my card.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Nvm