In Reply to: Debit Mastercard - use at hotel?? help! posted by paradise_island on Monday, 31. May 2010 at 12:35 Bali Time:
Sometimes we haven't taken a c/c to SE Asia, and some hotels will insist upon having a cash deposit for possible room service, drycleaning charges.
It doesn't matter if you don't want room service or drycleaning, they still want the money upfront. One hotel said it protects them against breakages, damage to linen, theft etc.
The amount can vary depending on length of stay and how upmarket the hotel is.
It's good you're finding out about this now because the first time we were taken by surprise and had to cough up what amounted to a lot of our spending money.
We got it all back on check-out but we could have used it for our holiday