<p>So I call the desk of the hotel to make reservations. They say they are full. I say “I am looking on-line and it says you have available rooms.” They say" book it on-line and we will honor it." What gives? Same hotel ( no membership or on line discount site). So an actual live voice doesn’t count? AAARRGGGHHHHH</p>
<p>Am I missing something?</p>
<p>Out of curiosity, why not just book it online?</p>
<p>I deplore using my credit card on line.</p>
<p>I did book.</p>
<p>fwiw, I have been using my credit card online at a flurry of (reputable) retailers for a long time now. No adverse effects, no identity theft. Everything form amazon.com to Pottery Barn to LLBean to The Gap to lesser knowns that I felt comfortable with. Airlines, hotels, travel portals… and so on and so forth. </p>
<p>Remember that giving your credit card # over the phone can also lead to problems. Or to a waiter in a restaurant. The one problem we personally ever had was from using our credit card at a wonderful restaurant in Montreal. The # was used fraudulently several times before the credit card company picked it up; we didn’t have to pay. One bad apple is all it takes and using your card IRL is not necessarily any safer than online.</p>
<p>Often you can get the best rates online. Hotels will block off rooms for online booking. I usually book online then call the hotel to make sure they have received my reservation. </p>
<p>This is not a commercial for AmEx, but they will credit your card if there is any fradulent charges on your card. They will also refund charges for any merchandise that’s broken/lost within 30 days of purchase.</p>
<p>I know and I believe you about the credit card.(jmom) My point is that unless I am on line booking I am told there is no room at the inn. I had called 3 hotels before this one and believed them when they said they were booked. Now I am mad at myself because I don’t know if they were really booked or not and I would have prefered those hotels. Why can’t they just be upfront about it? Just a rant.</p>
<p>oldfort…so there are rooms for online, rooms for call ins, rooms for discount sites all in the same hotel and the lines never cross?</p>
<p>Actually we were were nabbed for the first time a few months ago after years of using our credit card online. Someone out in California got our credit card number and three digit security number, but not the card expiration date. Over a period of several weeks they attempted to charge items, fishing until they got the right expiration date. Once they figured it out, they nailed us. Chase removed the charges, but we didn’t find out about the weeks of fishing until after the fraudulent charges hit our account. Ticked me off. Chase was properly turning down the attempted charges with the incorrect card expiration dates; but apparently this activity didn’t raise any red flags with them.</p>
<p>Still use the card online like mad. No turning back time I’m afraid.</p>
<p>sax - lines do cross if they don’t good computer system, that’s why I call to confirm. Once they have the reservation they will need to honor the price and the reservation. They usually have some extra rooms(suites), even when their system shows “full”. I have been upgraded quite a few times when I arrive to find out my “room category” is gone.</p>
<p>It is maddening, sax, about the different messages re room at the inn.</p>
<p>I think the poster above may have it right that they have blocked some rooms for online reservations and “cannot have them back” to offer via telephone reservations. I have also experienced the opposite when online showed a hotel sold out, but calling directly got us and several friends rooms when we had to attend a funeral. So maybe they also have bereavement or special circumstance rooms they hold out. Or maybe they bumped some poor souls?</p>
<p>I also wonder if this phenomenon may be at work. I may not explain it correctly, but some knowledgeable cc poster will fix that, I am sure ;): bricks-and-mortar retailers and their online counterparts are not necessarily actually the same company. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. So you may buy something online from “Mom and Pop’s Zippy Store,” but if you try to return at “Mom and Pop’s Zippy Store” in your town, they can’t take it, because they don’t even sell the item and are not the same company. I believe Sports Authority is one of these. There is simply some kind of licensing arrangement between the two entities.</p>
<p>I have also experienced the frustration of finding a certain fare online from an airline (Delta) and being told by a Delta ticket agent on the phone that the lowest available rate is $100 higher. Fine. Book online. But in my case, we were exchanging a Katrina-derailed ticket and had to do it by phone. She got her supervisor on the line and the “best she could do” was meet me half way, by lowing the fare $50. Grrr.</p>
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<li><p>I think the simple answer is probably that the phone people don’t have the ability to borrow from the online inventory, or at least not until a couple of days before the date. As far as they know, the hotel is booked solid.</p></li>
<li><p>We had something of the opposite problem with our credit card recently. The day after Christmas, my wife and daughter accompanied their nieces/cousins to a perfectly nice boutique in Toronto with a somewhat suggestive name. They bought some clothes there. A week later, our card started getting declined everywhere. It turned out that BofA had put us on a watch list when we suddenly made a sizable “porn” purchase – that’s what their computers thought it was, although the amount was modest for four women clothes shopping on Boxing Day. When I later used an ATM machine I had not previously used – two whole blocks away from the usual one, by the way – the card got restricted. The only thing I was successful at using it for was paying the Harvard application fee!</p></li>
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<p>ROTFL! Let it not be said that anything will stand in the way of Harvard’s path to greater riches!</p>
<p>I had the opposite experience recently, where online the room I wanted was not available (specific room with a special weekend package rate), but when I called, I was able to book it.</p>
<p>So I guess it can go either way.</p>
<p>It can go either way in hotel reservations, airfares, and retail shops. I’ve actually paid LESS for a flight on NWA on travelocity than at the actual NWA site. Sometimes that flight doesn’t even exist on their site. I’ve tried to buy something on a retail website that they don’t carry in the store, and vice-versa. </p>
<p>As for the credit card problem. I more trust a secure website than the clerk behind the desk. As I explained to a friend who wouldn’t use his credit card online and insisted on mailing a check: if you wanted to steal someone’s credit card number, or checking account information, which would be easier? Hacking into the site or stealing the envelope out of the mailbox? A few people I know had their credit card information stolen by the waitress who took their card to the cashier to run it through.</p>
<p>sax - Was your on line source the hotel’s actual web site or was it some other internet thing like hotels.com or travelocity?</p>
<p>We have also found that the online booking prices are almost always lower.</p>
<p>Okay, former hotel manager here so I’ll see if I can clear things up a bit (or perhaps make them more confusing…we’ll see…) </p>
<p>Hotel rooms are like airline seats. Yield management is at work…in other words, you are trying to get the fullest hotel at the best possible prices for each room. You have some rooms you can sell at the AAA discount, some at the low low discount, then you have a certain number committed to onlines like Expedia.com. Those cannot be sold directly by the hotel until the last minute. </p>
<p>So if you find that expedia.com says “no rooms” it may be that only expedia’s allotment is gone. You will probably find a room by calling the hotel but the price will be more.
Conversly, if the hotel says the rate is higher by calling direct, you may well find a lower rate through expedia because in order to be listed on expedia you must offer a discounted rate. </p>
<p>As far as the credit card security goes, I think you probably have a better chance of a hotel clerk stealing your number than using a secure online like expedia or a hotel reservation service.
Also a good credit card company, Amex or even my citibank mc will call you anytime they see anything strange. I have had both companies call me when I have been travelling and spending outside my pattern and in a new location. </p>
<p>One other note though: if you book through a service like expedia, be it a rental car or a hotel room, often your requests, like non-smoking rooms, are requests only.<br>
I booked a rental car once through expedia. Got to Avis at JFK and was told that even though my expedia confirmation said “unlimited miles” Avis was not going to honor it. Took me about an hour to convince Avis that they were going to honor it. I had to call Expedia, because my agreement was with Expedia, not Avis. </p>
<p>The same applies for hotel rooms. So if you for instance are asthmatic and must have non smoking DO NOT book through expedia. Book directly through the hotel so that you have a firmer ground for the room not being switched on you. Also tell the hotel clerk that you must have non smoking and that you want it noted in your reservation that you will not accept a smoking room.</p>
<p>I have a credit card I use only for online purchases. I have instructed the card issuer to not raise the limit above $1500, and to verify ALL purchases with me by phone. No issues in 6 years & I use it a lot (online only). It’s through Chase, who I also have another account with. They are very user friendly.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the posts and clarification. I tried to book through the usual discount sites but no rooms were available. Then I went to the hotel (non chain) website checked availability, called, was turned down and then booked on line. Argh…so many games and so little desire to play them. I guess I just felt like the customer standing at the cashier with my wallet open while the clerk picks up the phone to help someone else and leaves me standing there like an idiot.</p>
<p>As per credit card stories, I once received a charge on a card from Hawaii amid other usual charges half a world away. I called the company and they stated my card was swiped through the machine in Hawaii so therefore it had to be me and refused to refund my $15. I had been with this company for 20 yrs. They promptly lost my business (and they couldn’t care less).Oh well.</p>
<p>My husband uses one specific card for the internet too. He feels that he could cancel it immediately without causing major problems to the rest of his purchasing power. It really does make sense.</p>
<p>Thanks ebeee for the inside scoop.</p>
<p>I always book hotels on line so I can get an e-mail confirmation. Guess you could request one over the phone as well but I like seeing it show up just minutes after booking. The next month or so when I need the info, I can just pull it up. I always sign up for the hotel preferred guest plan if it’s free and put that in along with my AAA number for the best deals.</p>
<p>Credit card companies refund your money for fraudulent use?</p>
<p>HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA</p>
<p>…only after months of trying to convince them that you are telling the truth… and then… the charges reappear the next month and you have to start all over.</p>
<p>I’ve had problems with VISA (fixed after 5 months and higher-up involvement) and American Express (never fixed). I was told by VISA that if my card was not reported as lost or stolen (it wasn’t - it was in my wallet), that I was responsible for the charges.</p>
<p>As for American Express, they kept saying that I <em>could</em> have made those charges myself. They took off the charges, put them back on, took them off again, then put them back on and said that was it. Sorry, consumer.</p>
<p>Maddening and time consuming…</p>