Third Party CC Charge?

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Generic

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Okay, this has never really come up before and I'm a bit apprehensive. Someone booked a room for someone else and has emailed us asking to charge their CC. I don't usually do this and/or accept this. What do you think that I should do, because I'm not sure I'm comfortable with this. How do I protect myself from a charge back, considering that they aren't going to be here to sign?
 
Tell them you are processing it as a gift card. Do it now so if it's stolen the rightful cardholder will know before the arrival.
I don't like these either but we do sell a lot of gift cards so I guess I do it all the time!
 
Keep the email!
Ask if they want the gift card mailed to them to give to the guests.
Get their address either way as well as the guest's street address.
 
We get a lot of these because of hosting a lot of honeymooners. Many times the stay is paid by a family member. Never had a problem.
Often, the reservation is done online through auth.net and we never even know it's not one of the couple that has paid for it.
 
We do this as gifts and weddings nights often. If you call and they authorize it is usually a go ahead with no worries.
 
I also accept CC payments for gift certificates. Have never had a charge back.
 
When this happens I process it as a gift certificate - and the gift certificate is not mailed nor e-mailed until I receive a check. I will not punch in numbers for a gift certificate.
WAIT! I must eat my words - I had a call (several really) from a woman whose daughter was traveling with horses - so she NEEDED to stay here. Daughter did not have the money so Mama made the rez and because it was special circumstances, I punched in the numbers. There was no problems from it but that was a one of as far as I am concerned.
 
We do this too because lots of people buy the stay as a gift for a family member. However, this is timely because husband got a booking today and the guy said the credit card was his mother's and she was paying one night and he'd be paying the second night when he comes in a few months on his card because his mother is going back to Columbia (I'm guessing the card may be listed from there) and he does't have the funds for the downpayment but will have the balance in October. Told him the mother had to call and verify all information - waiting for the call. Was thinking we should require the mother to send us an email saying that she is authorizing the deposit on card X____ for her son so we have something in writing. Once she's back in Columbia we wouldn't have a way to verify this. Thoughts?
 
MtnKeeper said:
We do this too because lots of people buy the stay as a gift for a family member. However, this is timely because husband got a booking today and the guy said the credit card was his mother's and she was paying one night and he'd be paying the second night when he comes in a few months on his card because his mother is going back to Columbia (I'm guessing the card may be listed from there) and he does't have the funds for the downpayment but will have the balance in October. Told him the mother had to call and verify all information - waiting for the call. Was thinking we should require the mother to send us an email saying that she is authorizing the deposit on card X____ for her son so we have something in writing. Once she's back in Columbia we wouldn't have a way to verify this. Thoughts?.
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I think we need to listen to our intuition more and when something doesn't feel right, do what you need to do. Absolutely ask for an authorization email if that's what you want.
 
we deal with this a lot as conference guests are often paid for by the company etc- however the best way to cover yourself is a credit authorisation form - ie comes from the person you could email it ill try and find and scan one - basically all the card info, amounts to be charged, full address and so on and then they have to sign it and send back - that way you have covered yourself as much as you can, could be a scanned email or fax.
 

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