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

That’s completely different because you are booking one place (presumably) for one date but op is booking multiple. It’s people like yourself who want free cancellation and pay on arrival for a valid reason who may loose out if people like op abusing the system causes businesses to either change their policies or increase prices to cover cancelled rooms.

Remember when we could all order an item of clothing in two sizes, see what fit and send the other back? Then a small minority took the absolutely pee and now you get warnings if you try to put the same item in your bag in two different sizes. (wanted to get matching outfits for two different ages kids)

Tbf OP, in your first post you did say words to the effect of booking these rooms now and cancelling the ones you don’t want “at some point next year”, which imo does seem shitty. I see you’ve now decided on one but to “hold rooms” for that long when you’ve stated you know they’ll go up in price due to the event isn’t great

We have a holiday let and we've just stopped using booking.com as we're so sick of bookings through them being cancelled at short notice, because the customer has booked several places and then cancels all but one.
YABVU

not the same, but i got a new credit card a few years back, went to morrisons on a very busy day, did a 'big shop' like 250 quids worth of stuff and they froze my card.
first bloody transaction.
i was mortified at the tills, with a massive queue behind me, trying to call the card company who wouldnt deal with anything as i wasnt in a private place to discuss my details.

now that was embarrassing

Oh, my heart does bleed.

im cancelling a year in advance. It’s not short notice.

As in, January - then I found a great deal so I’ve cancelled. I’m not gonna get bent over!

What’s embarrassing is your attempt at this being some sort of flex.

I would never reserve unless I'm pretty sure that's the place I'm staying in. I'll just save as favourites until I've decided. I agree it's messing businesses around and stopping others from booking.
I think it's good the bank blocked the card, it does feel like an unusual thing to do to reserve multiple places at once. I think the banks are on it to pick up on something like this.

Me neither, but I don't book more than one hotel for the same trip either to cancel some of them later. If I cancel it's usually because I stay with a friend instead or don't go to that town at all in the end.

I’d be more mortified speaking to someone like that when they explain an issue they have with their livelihood than I would the bank calling me over lots of hotel reservations

But….but….you've booked them all today and then ‘found one you loved’, so why not just….not book loads of them and spend an hour finding one you like. You’re saying you can’t wait till Jan/ Feb when they’ll hike the prices up. But you’re not. Make it make sense

I’m starting to think your username might be telling….

The more rooms that get booked the higher the demand and thus the higher the hotel prices become, so you are actually causing them to go up 😆

I'm not surprised they blocked your card after you booked multiple hotels at once. It's different to your usual activity.

Booking several is a bit much. I admit booking two for our Tokyo trip earlier this year & holding onto both for a few days until we could figure out which was the best option, but that's it. If people start taking the piss with free cancellation, hotels will stop offering it. In fact, I'm on a basic beach trip and once I choose free cancellation the listings halved. It used to only cancel out a few. The managers & apartment owners only get paid when people stay so understandable.

The only reason for being mortified is if some part of you recognised how grossly unreasonable you were being. So maybe there is some hope for you.

I've just thought how this method would actually help a traveller. I've read stories of people booking hotels a year in advance and then when you get there, they are battling a new bed bug infestation.
I've started reading recent reviews of places I've booked in the weeks leading up to a trip to see if anyone mentions them. If you had multiple places booked then you could safely and cheaply have a back up place to go. Very rare but definitely happens. 🤔 Note to self book two places from now on. Just kidding I never book anywhere in advance, I just holiday when I fancy it.

it always amazes me how offended MN gets at things like that. You lot get upset at the slightest thing! It's disorganised, but not selfish - there are thousands of hotels in Barcelona and the OP will not be keeping any rooms from people who actually want them.

fwiw I always book cancellable rooms on Booking.com. I generally only book one, but often do change my mind several times before I end up with the one I want. Booking. com and the hotels are well aware of people like the OP doing this and neither would participate if they're losing money.

OP it's not embarrassing to be subject to a security check by your bank

She really isn't being grossly unreasonable, you need to get a grip.

Then why would she be mortified?

She's mortified at the security check not the fact she's booking several hotel rooms at the same time.

I don’t get it, you don’t have to book it to see the price? Surely you can edit your search to “list by price, low to high” ? It’s fucking weird to book them. Unless you think there’ll be an event happening, they’ll hike the prices and you can sell your rooms on ? It’s just so odd.

She's mortified at having to explain her bizarre behaviour.

What the OP has done seems completely normal to me. I will often book more than one place for a holiday because I want to show my DP or whoever I'm travelling with then I cancel the ones I don't need. Sometimes I book the same places on slightly different dates then cancel once I have booked a flight. Obviously I don't wait until the last minute to cancel so there's plenty of opportunity for other people to book the place. Places usually charge more for the privilege of being able to cancel so they don't lose out by people cancelling.

that is really shit @slippedawaylikeabottleofwine

We do this on sites that have free cancellation. I don’t see a problem. I just don’t get what the big deal is? Why do you need to be mortified or embarrassed? Just say “no it’s me, and I’m doing it on purpose. Should I need, I’ve checked and there’s a free cancellation, thanks for checking.” End of. Whys that embarrassing?
eta: clarifying id book, then if I find cheaper cancel the first in advance. Not have several bookings in a go. And nothing that requires payment. If you’ve paid, it’s quite horrible to cancel