I suspect what they do is when you check in, the resort will put an authorization through on your card for the amount of purchases you're able to make. I think I read somewhere that at the deluxe resorts, it's $1,500. That effectively will reduce your available credit on that card by $1,500 as the card issuer will place a hold on that card until it receives settlement.
As you use the MB and charge to the room, it just gets tallied as a running total. Should you spend more than $1,500 the front desk will automatically settle the authorization for the outstanding amount which clears the authorization and charge the card. They will then authorize another $1,500 "block" on your card for the next amount of purchases.
As long as you return to the front desk prior to hitting that magic authorization amount you can pay in any form they accept payment. The initial authorization will remain as you ring up the charges. It's pretty standard practice for hotels that offer charging privileges, and that's the way they did it for us last year at POFQ (I think the authorization there was $1,000).
If you don't hit that limit at any time during your stay, you can just pay the total when you check out in any manner they accept, or just tell them to charge the card.
Prepaying cash or gift cards would be the same thing, but different hotels have different policies regarding that as some don't like to receive cash on account.
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(at least in my own mind) as possible.
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