"Hard" dining reservations/credit card charge coming?

[Maistre Gracey]

Remember that Visa/MC are the authorities in this situation. The merchant and issuing bank agree to abide by their rules in exchange for utilizing there services. The issuing bank then makes these rules part of their agreement with the cardholder. Visa/MC are in the middle. They need to keep the merchants happy so they will accept Visa/MC, and they need to keep the cardholders happy so they will use Visa/MC. As the cardholders as a whole wield the greatest power in this scenario, they will get the benefit of the doubt more often than not.

So Visa/MC tries to take a practical view of these situations, with a lean towards the cardholders.

In the vast majority of cases, the restaurant does not suffer any real financial loss. If they have walk-ins, they still fill the table. If they don't have walk-ins, then they wouldn't have filled the table anyway. So since the restaurant's loss is minimal, Visa/MC isn't going to penalize their cardholders.

Of course its the issuing bank (BofA, Citi, etc) that acts on the cardholder's behalf, and how they deal with things can vary. But all are bound by the Visa/MC rules and regs.

Note that hotels are handled differently. They do have the right to charge you for the first night (and first night only) of a stay if you are a no-show. This is because they are less likely to have "walk-ins" and likely would suffer a financial loss due to a no-show. They cannot, however, charge you for your entire stay.

I'm curious how DCL makes this stick? We booked a concierge suite for May 2007, and we were informed there would be an $800 non-refundable deposit for all DCL suites.
We cancelled that reservation last week, and although DCL is holding the money for some possible future reservation, they will not refund it. I'm not complaining, as I was informed of the policy prior to booking and decided to risk it.
They said they have this policy because too many people book suites, then cancel.
This policy seems contradictory. If DCL must take a non-refundable deposit, than they must believe they will miss out on filling that suite if I cancel... But, if they can't fill that suite in the next 8 months, doesn't that mean I'm not denying anyone else from booking it?

One would think if they can't fill the suite in 8 months, than there is no need to have a non-refundabler deposit.

MG

 

[raidermatt]

Well, just because they do it doesn't mean they can make it stick. They may tell you they won't refund it, but that doesn't mean they wouldn't be required to accept the chargeback from your issuing bank.

That said, I'm not sure how the rules would apply to this particular situation. Its different than a hotel or restaurant reservation. Intuitively, it would seem that 8 months is more than enough time for them to re-book the suite, and therefore keeping the deposit doesn't seem all that reasonable.

But that doesn't mean they can't do it, provided proper notification was given, as it sounds like it was.

I'm curious, so I'm going to see if I can find more info...