Doing without credit cards and staying in hotels

[trixymalixy]

I would like to get rid of out credit card, but the main thing stopping me is that whenever we have stayed in a hotel, they wouldn't accept a debit card to " guarantee" the room. So although we paid with a visa debit card we needed a credit card too.

What do you do if you don't have a credit card, as it seems to be taken as a given that you have one?

Something like a fifth of all households in this country are unbanked or under-banked, they don't have access to credit or debit cards. It must be possible; probably easiest to phone around to local hotels and pester about the alternatives. I imagine a cash deposit would do it.

If you're only staying in hotels once or twice a year wouldn't it be easier to retain one no-fee credit card, use it solely for that purpose and then pay off the bill immediately afterwards?

I need to stay in hotels once a month for work. There is talk of me getting a corporate Amex, but even then I would like my own card as back up.

We do only have one card that is supposedly for emergencies only but it's too tempting sometimes.

We have ceased to have one because it lead to debts... If there is any hotel that does not accept us, we just shout down the phone that it is disgusting and that we demand to talk to the manager. Sometimes that helps, sometimes not.
Then there is always the possibility/probability that they accept Maestro, which is not a credit card, but international debit which has a credit card-like number. (This does not apply for people living in Belgium or Luxemburg).

Anyways, any hotel that does not accept anything other than credit cards is unworthy of the name hotel.

Amongst which is The Midlands Hotel in Manchester. No Maestro other than the usual one AND you are to arrive before 4 in the afternoon. Try to do that with Ryanair.
Out of principle, no.