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Comment by londons_explore | Hacker News Reader

If you have already paid 'in full', then I think you'd be morally in the right to just say you didn't bring your wallet because you had paid already online.

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Yes I am, but morally right doesn't mean I get the room. Also, they tend to put the refundable deposit on my card when I check in, which actually makes sense just in case whoever they admit isn't me*, or I booked long ago and my old card is now defunct.

* or more broadly, whoever they admit (whether or not it's me) has enough credit at the time of the actual stay to entrust the room to

Exactly. I was once called 2 hours after I had checked-in in a new town and informed that I must pay extra to stay due to some booking confusion between them and the travel agency. It was a huge hassle to find a new place that night and check out of the greedy hotel asap. You can be sure I left honest reviews of my experience in a few places.

Even you fully pay online, you have to put down a deposit for a room and bring your id.

No you DONT. You must live in a very abusive country if you think that is normal.

It's normal, and I don't see any other way besides just trusting that nobody is going to trash a room (and eating the cost when they do).

wat. Literally every US and European hotel puts a hold on the credit card during check-in. Cash deposit is higher and probably almost never used except very rare cases.

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