Debit card acceptance in hotels

Does anyone have advice on using debit card at hotel check in for incidentals. Last visit to airport hotel at Jakarta airport , would not accept debit card and I had to look for ATM in back streets to withdraw cash to pay deposit. Hotel was already prepaid. Similar experience at Carlton hotel SIN although used my CC when debit not accepted. Thanks in advance

Yes, I often find that hotels won't take my debit card for as prepayment for incidentals, and I don't want to hand over my stash of local currency because that's for my spending, not sitting in some hotel safe! I find the easiest option is to carry a €100 note in my travel wallet and hand this over as a deposit: I won't be spending that €100 in Asia but it's sufficient to cover around three days of incidentals.

It's even easier to just hand over a credit card for a pre-authorisation, even if you pay another way for any charges at the hotel when you check-out - saves going to back streets to get cash out and carrying currency around. ;)

I've experienced all sorts of delays by hotels in releasing the so called necessary pre authorisation, despite the fact accommodation usually has been paid weeks in advance fully. I wouldn't be going to backstreets for atm withdrawals. I prefer using a credit card rather than a debit card, and have usually had good assistance from the bank when needed.

Thanks everyone.

On a recent trip I had no issues using a Debit Mastercard for security deposit at Hilton KL, Hilton PJ and a villa in Bali.

It might seem overkill to some but I’ve resorted to emailing each hotel I’m pre-booked into for specifics about their various security deposit requirements. They’re all different and I want to know what I’ll be up for in advance and prepared accordingly especially as I don’t want a string of pre-authorisations on my card.

This might work.

I used to live across the road from the Story bridge hotel in Brisbane.

I would get a tab going at the bar for convinience.

One fine evening I tried to use my credit union Visa debit card.

The bar chick came back and said we can't accept V debit for a tab.

I walked into the bistro, grabbed a steak knife and carefully scratched off the printed word "debit" in a neat little triangle.

Went back to the bar, different bar chick gives me a tab no problem.

Now I remove the debit immediately when I receive a new card.

Within Aust, I have used my Visa debit without question.

While in NZ, I have used ING and also a credit union Visa debit, also without question.

In SIN in 2013, I also used the ING Visa debit without question.

Now, the coming back of the deposit/pre authorisation timeframe, that is another matter, have waited 10 days at some hotels for the funds to come out back to me.

Edit:

Just get a Diners Club or Amex Charge card of some type. Even if you dont need to use it much as a credit card I find it's great for Hotel check-ins... I do alot of those and either of these work out well.

For some, Amex is Diners are not an option .

The issue may be that pre-authorisations can't be done on (some) debit cards the same way they can on credit cards. That would certainly explain why some hotels won't accept them.

My humble advise is NEVER hand over a Debit Card to a Hotel. I say this from bitter experience, Hotels can take total amount of your stay from the card, even if you have given them another credit card, and take up to a month re reinstate the money. This happened to me at Hilton Milan. It was towards end of a trip and blew out my card causing considerable trouble managing funds before departure for Australia. My card issuer told me that this can happen on cruises also.... Beware of this “ trick”