Paying for room with gift card

[Brittney Cornwell]

When you pay for a room with a gift card can you put the whole thing on it including the deposit that was held with a credit card?

 

[cruisehopeful]

I haven't tried to do that. I've always just paid the deposit at time of booking (as required) and then gave my gift card at check in for the rest of the stay. Maybe if you make the reservation via phone, they would be able to do the deposit on a gift card.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

Yes you can, but they do it when you check in. They can reverse the deposit back to the credit card, then you can pay everything on a gift card at the hotel.

 

[whoever]

Yes you can but they do it when you check in. They can reverse the deposit back to rite credit card then you can pay everything on a gift card at the hotel.

I'll have to ask about this next time. Would be great to just use the points.

 

[Mac2008]

When you pay for a room with a gift card can you put the whole thing on it including the deposit that was held with a credit card?

**SORRY here I am referring to the room deposit taken at check in (against damages, etc)! Not the original payment for the room. Leaving this info in case it is helpful**

Yes, however this is not necessarily what you want to do. I have lots of very recent experience with this at both the Disneyland Hotel and the Grand Californian.

1. You can put the deposit on a gift card. However if you do this, you will not be able to use those dollars until they are refunded after you check out.
2. You can instead pay the deposit in cash - depending on the hotel it is $200 or $250 (subject to change, so call ahead and ask). Not everyone working the front desks at the hotel know that you can do this, and will need to involve their manager. You may need to educate the person at the front desk that you can do this and encourage them to get assistance
3. DO NOT HAND OVER A CREDIT CARD until you are very certain that everyone is on the same page with what is being charged!

Note that if you use a gift card or cash to pay your deposit, you won't have the ability to charge purchases to your room.

The cash deposit method comes in handy especially if you're in a situation where you have multiple reservations back to back (like staying in smaller room first then moving to a larger room when more people join you later); otherwise you'll have multiple holds eating up the available balance on your credit card. In this case you can just move the envelope of cash from one reservation to the other.

hope that helps!

 

[LAS2AMS]

FYI - many hotels will not accept gift cards as a form of payment (unless it's theirs) due to the fraud associated with such cards. The manager cannot control this (the system simply won't accept the card), so have a backup plan.

 

[Brittney Cornwell]

FYI - many hotels will not accept gift cards as a form of payment (unless it's theirs) due to the fraud associated with such cards. The manager cannot control this (the system simply won't accept the card), so have a backup plan.

Thanks! I should have been more clear.... I am staying at GCH and want to get the Disney giftcards from Target to save 5%