My buddy’s band hit the road in an old VW combi van that they converted to run on french fry oil. You heard correct. It’s called bio diesel baby. Well, this band is relatively poor. Their band manager had maxed out his credit card on food and hotels. What the band discovered to their horror was that it is tough to get a hotel room without a credit card.
Why? Well, if you think about it, what is to stop a band from trashing their hotel room, breaking lamps, vomiting on the carpeting, or stealing the TV. At least if the hotel has a credit card on file, it has a way to recover its losses. What is true for a rock band is true for an individual. So, when you give them your card, odds are they put a hold on it for a few days, sometimes as much as $500, but often just the equivalent of one night’s lodgings.
Bear in mind if you are checking in using a prepaid card, they will do the same thing. They want a deposit to secure the room, and you better have enough money on your card to cover this (temporarily) or your prepaid card will be rejected. Now, often this is not convenient because of the nature of prepaid cards and the people who have them. If you don’t have enough money on the card, you won’t go overdrawn but rather the card will be declined. Oh huh. Then you have to give the desk clerk a pile of cash as a deposit on the room. When you leave, they will give you your cash back.
