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

I’m not sure why this would be embarrassing.

Embarrassing would be your bank phoning to check whether you’d just purchased a 100
Euro round of drinks in an underground sex club in Berlin.

Or because of repeated and suspicious purchasing of sex toys from Etsy.

I've never known anyone to do this, so odd!

The OP is booking multiple places for the same nights. Not just one place. That’s the issue. I think most of us like the option of being able to cancel a hotel room last minute if we need to. Far less of us book numerous places for the same nights with the aim of choosing which one we’ll stay at nearer the time. That’s the morally dubious bit.

Yes, I've often booked one so I've got something in place then looked/waited for other options.

I can't quite envisage a scenario where I'd have to do it multiple times but makes no difference to me if others do it. I can't quite believe the level of outrage about booking cancellable rooms and then cancelling them

I’m not surprised, because this is Mumsnet.

they’re acting like I’m paying for 500 hotel rooms and stopping anyone accessing them.

I’d say the morally dubious bit is hotels being able to price gouge for £1000s, not me refusing to engage in that!

Bloody Take That hoiking prices up.

Exactly. It’s not like I’ve waited till the day of free cancellation!

what I also do is reserve them, check just before I’m ready to book, and then cancel and rebook super fast so I get the discounted price - if it’s still the same! No doubt that would send people into a fizz

How many did you book?

Isn’t there a shortlist or favorite button? Who the fucks got time for all this? I’d be the person forgetting and ending up paying for 6 rooms. Now that would be embarrassing when my mortgage payment bounced because I’d spent all my money on hotels I didn’t want to stay in. Like when you reserve your Xmas shopping delivery slot with bottle of champagne and you end up with no turkey or celebrations on Xmas day 🤣

I honestly don’t even remember. I was chopping and changing, changing my dates and the type of accommodation I wanted to stay in. They offer free cancellation for exactly this reason

We did that once but with two bottles of vodka 🤣 the favourite button doesn’t reserve the room though

I don't understand this bit. Do you mean, for instance, you book a room & at a later point you recheck prices & if its lower that the price you booked at you cancel & rebook?

Seems sensible to me!

Yes!

so for example, I have three hotels reserved for another portion of the trip. They’re all through ALL, who often have a huge winter sale. I’m going to keep an eye on the prices, because theyre at different pricing levels. I’m hoping I can get the mid level one for a lot cheaper, but I have to wait and see!

The bank won’t care, they probably get this all the time. Even if it’s not something I’m familiar with.

The most embarrassing is when they say its been declined when it hasn't it's just not authorised as you've just hit your contactless limit and need to put your pin in, then you've forgotten your pin so you stand there transferring between accounts 😂.

This

I would be a bit embarrassed to admitting to reserving all these rooms, it's like admitting you buy loads of sale stuff and keep returning and rebuying because it's gone down in price

If I can get a hotel room for £400 instead of £1200 I’m going to!

It's the sort of thing you do quietly though, not make thread about it because you could encourage others to do the same and then that opportunity for you to do it could disappear. Like people can't do loads of returns online now with many shops because loads were doing it.

I highly doubt hotels will stop because one anonymous stranger did it!

I haven't had a card blocked but the bank did refuse to let me pay DS £5k without jumping through lots of hoops.

Hmm, you protest earlier up the thread that you're not using this nefarious practice with independent businesses... and here you are, taking the piss out of an independent business explaining why it's poor practice.