To think this is the most embarrassing reason to have your card blocked??

[slippedawaylikeabottleofwine]

I’m going on holiday next year and because of that I’ve been reserving a ton of hotels on booking.com, all for free, with a view to deciding where I’ll be staying next year at some point. Nationwide blocked my card after I did about four in a row! I just had to call and explain what I was doing, they blocked it for “suspicious activity”.

Fair enough, it looks odd, but now I’m mortified

Ger. Mongolians don’t say yurt. And Inner Mongolia is in China. Outer Mongolia is just ‘Mongolia’ now.

It also means ‘home’ BTW and they all point in the same direction. Fascinating place.

I also think booking ‘tons’ of places is silly and annoying to people who want to book one.

Why be embarrassed?

its just unusual spending and they’ve blocked it to to protect you

and it’s been easily resolved

Maybe you’ve never stayed in a hotel before, in which case fair enough, but they tend to have more than one room.

I’m really surprised so many people are puzzled and perplexed by the OP taking advantage of flexible bookings - how quaint you all are

it’s a sensible way of securing good deals.

‘Quaint’?

I take advantage of flexible bookings all the time. I don’t book 6 rooms at the same time.

then you are missing out

If you find that embarrassing then you have lived a blessed life.

What on earth do you think is getting missed? Extra life admin when all of extra hotel rooms have to be cancelled?
I get booking one in advance and then keeping an eye on prices for a better deal. But I really can't fathom the benefit from having a dozen booked at once. Could you explain it please?

I’m not. I just book the one that has the best reviews and fits the budget and then go about my day. Why would I book 6? It’s batshit. If I genuinely couldn’t decide and there were two and I needed to look at something, I can see booking 2 very briefly to check. Why more? It’s the ‘giant haul from SHEIN, I’ll return most of it’ of hotels.

Rude.

It's like budget airlines - they have X number of rooms at £75, when those are booked the price goes up, the price changes according to demand. And your ridiculous booking 15 rooms while you dither is making hotels think their product is more in demand than it is. Maybe spend less time making reservations, cancelling reservations and explaining yourself to a credit card company, and more time just making a decision?

You do realise by doing this OP, and if everyone did this, YOU are then the one who is driving the prices up because it looks like it’s much busier than it actually is, less rooms available so the value of those rooms is higher = higher prices?

How odd not to just do your research now and THEN book one room. Also, how much research is involved anyway😂

Booking a hotel where you have the option to cancel is not the same as holding reservations at dozens of hotels.

Well quite, @Jellybunny56 , especially if as she says it is large chain hotels. Which hotel is nearest, which does a decent breakfast, which has a pool, which has the best price, do I prefer Hilton or Marriott. Book. Job done.

Stikes me if you're in the habit of holding reservations on a "ton" of hotels it would be very easy to forget to cancel one and, effectively, end up paying a huge fine.

It would serve her right if that happens.

Well they ve acted rationally really...I wouldn't dwell on it too much.
I was hoping you'd gone large on male masseurs 😁😄🤣

I don't understand why you're embarrassed.

Good on the bank but you can do research without actually booking anything.

My bank account was once blocked because I was loaning my sister £50k but sent £50 first to check with her I had the details right. Once my sister had confirmed that was done I sent the remaining £49950 but it tripped the fraud checks as a double payment. I had to phone up and unblock it and the guy commented I must be rich to send £50 not 50p first as a check. Seemed a bit overkill to me but hey?! Each to their own as with booking multiple places… I’m not sure I could be bothered with the faff of checking and remembering to cancel

It’s not just the hotels that you’re messing around but other people who might be wanting to stay there.

I am pretty sure this isn’t normal behaviour and is not appropriate.

Right? What a strange thing to be embarrassed by ...odd!

Wow op i'm really surprised by the reaction you're getting here!

Booking.com has a whole function allowing this. I travel a lot for work & personal reasons

I regularly book more than one room or apartment & then cancel the ones I don't want. Its perfectly normal & I know loads of people who do this.

I have no idea why people are getting so worked up about this!

It's a sensible way to book accommodation especially if you're travelling with others.

Reserve, send around the various links, make a choice & release the rest.

But would you book and hold 4 - knowing you only needed one?

Because she's been exposed as a flibbertigibbet (or thinks she has).

The bank probably blocked your card because Booking .com have been majorly hacked in the past and had criminals using people's accounts. I myself had my account email address changed - twice - to some randomer's email address. This is why I never save my card on websites such as this.