Hotel have taken all my spending money ...ridiculous?

[whatshardknock]

I'll currently at a hotel in London (Piccadilly circus )
I'm here for 4 nights (checked in yesterday)
I'm meeting friends who I haven't seen in years.
It's been a bit of a treat it's a lovely hotel and I've spent £1000 on the hotel (which I never do )As a treat after a shit year.
I booked on booking.com
I checked my bank the £1000 has came out and also a pending £800
I spoke to downstairs and the £800 will be refunded after I leave.
That's pretty much all my spending money.
Aibu to think booking.com should have said and also £800 deposit for a 4 night stay is mental surely.

@fromdownwest

Without sounding harsh, but if the only money you have access to is £800, then maybe spending £1,000 on a hotel was not the best choice.

Rude and patronising! This was a very rare treat for her. What a nasty person you are! We don't all live off our husband's plastic

@FlamingoAndJohn

I have a credit card with my bank and it’s limit is £2000 as I don’t want to get into a lot of debt.

but that's not how credit cards work.
I have several cards each with a limit of between 5 and 6 k. I do all my spending on them but pay them off the same day.

It's always a good idea to have a credit card or two for situations like this and emergencies. You don't have to spend up to the limit.

Not everyone can get credit cards! I'm disabled and cannot work. For this reason, despite getting top end disability benefits, absolutely no credit card company will touch me! Believe me, I've checked every single one and re-check every year

[quote Graciebobcat]^@Graciebobcat it isn't daylight robbery, it's totally standard practice. The idea of it is to stop robbery^

It is robbery and a nice boon for hotels to hold hundreds of thousands of pounds of customers' money in the bank at once. Imagine a hotel chain doing that for thousands of customers and how much money they will be holding in the bank at any one time? Even at crap interest rates, if it's millions it will still earn them a fair few quid. Plus how many will not be setting aside the money in a separate account and just using it for cashflow for their business? Answer: all of them. What if the chain goes bust (highly likely at the moment)? The customers will be unsecured creditors and never see their £800 again.

Plus the fact, if they are going to take a huge chunk of money upfront, this needs to be highlighted in bold in an email at the least on booking, not hidden in small print, under consumer law, or it is not legally enforceable.[/quote]
You've misunderstood, it's only a Pre-authorisation, the hotel don't actually take the £800. If no damage/bill, then they never get the £800 at all.

Please google Pre-authorisations. It's the bank who have hold of that £800 right now

This surely puts people who don't have a credit card in a rubbish situation. Lots of people don't have credit cards and feel bad for you for them taking the cash out. I work be asking for a refund now and going to another hotel. I for one couldn't afford the £800 taken if that was my spending money.

This surely puts people who don't have a credit card in a rubbish situation.

Yep it does. Just like it did to the OP.

I work be asking for a refund now and going to another hotel
It could take up to 5 working days for the booking cost to be refund.
It is a pain. I don't have c.c but luckily I was aware my accommodation was taking €500 as a deposit, still it took extra saving to have the extra cash available.