>I made a reservation last June at the La Quinta Palm Springs Resort Hotel in California for the next VFP DevCon. At the time of my reservation, I was not informed of the requirement of a deposit that was billed to my credit card for the amount of $127 (one night's rate). I have never in my life been required to front any hotel (resort or otherwise) an interest free loan for 10 months. This is absolutely shameful.
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This hotel policy has more to do with location than the hotel or conference host. For example, just about EVERY hotel in Las Vegas has had this policy for years. It's simply to crack down on the number of reservations that get cancelled. It's a way for the hotel to not be left with empty rooms. I personally think a better solution is to have them take a credit card, then state clearly there is some cancellation fee of like 25% of the room or something. But of course, they want that other 75%.