I’m constantly at war with myself, cheering on the advances in technology that have made life so much more pleasurable, easier and fuller, and cautious about how tempting that convenience is for those exploiting the baser side of human nature. Two recent hotel incidents help explain what I mean.
Recently, my husband and I met with a relative and shared with her that we planned to visit a destination that’s among her favorites. “Oh, you must stay at the (favorite, repeat-visit, upscale inn)!,” she enthused. “Well, Grandma, that would be lovely, but it’s really not in our budget right now,” we explained. When we subsequently stopped by for a quick visit with her just days before departure, she told us she had a surprise and slipped us an envelope that revealed she had made reservations at the hotel for us in our name and reserved them on her card. The card was in the envelope, too, and she told us just to use it at check-out and return it to her.
First of all, we were extremely grateful and touched at the gift. But worried about everything that could go wrong. Knowing Grandma would be hurt if we didn’t use her gift and confident that she would make good the expense if there was any trouble with the billing, we took off. At check-in I provided a driver’s license showing I was indeed the person the room was reserved for. We had a great trip, exploring the surrounding scenic areas, visiting a few wineries and enjoying some great restaurants. I’m not mentioning the hotel or the destination, because in fact, what happens next could happen anywhere in my experience.
At check-out, I approached the desk with some trepidation. I had my own Visa card at the ready should there be any problems. I handed over the key card and waited as the clerk clicked through the computer and tallied the bill. “Do you want to just leave that on the card?, ”he asked solicitously. Speechless, I nodded, and WHAM, BAM!, just like that, Grandma’s card got hit with about $3,000 worth of charges. Do I look like a Henrietta, I wondered?
Of course, Grandma was expecting to pay – she had told us quite plainly she wanted to make the stay an anniversary present to us in honor of all the commemorative trips she and her husband had enjoyed there. But it troubled me that at no point in the process did the hotel staff ask to verify that the card was mine or that I had permission to use it. They had checked that I was the one the room was reserved for, but had never cross-checked that the credit card used on the initial phone reservation was mine.
This has happened to me when I have used my own cards over the phone or online, just recently even. (In fact, in that situation I was informed I qualified for ‘express check-out’ and didn’t even need to go to the registration desk). Relying on the original transaction, the facility never asks to actually see the physical card and just blithely charges everything to it.
And it happens frequently I’ve noticed at some of the best facilities there are (perhaps the five star locations are afraid to offend guests by asking to confirm their identities). It happened at a bed and breakfast (where the chummy hosts are eternal optimists, I guess). Even when I was at Disney World, I checked in on one card (during which they did confirm the card with me) but later supplied another credit card to guarantee the “Keys to the World” feature, which was not verified. Just like that, my credit score was mortgaged to every theme park and hotel purchase racked up when the card was swiped. In some cases, this lapse might be the result of an error on the part of the individual employee and not a practice of the property itself. But in light of how easy it is to commit all sorts of fraud, hotels need to concern themselves with this.
Of course, the downside is that those of us with good, honest intentions – my grandmother or even myself (when I give my son my card to use at the airport and swipe through the unattended kiosk to get his tickets) – will be inconvenienced.
