A woman arrived at the Holiday Inn Bangkok Silom two days ahead of the rest of her group. She asked the hotel a href=”https://aseannow.com/topic/1358551-indian-tourist-causes-uproar-at-bangkok-hotel-over-credit-card-dispute/” target=_blank>to place a 14,626-baht (US$437) authorization hold on her card to cover all four rooms for a five-night stay.
But she also told staff to collect payment from a relative when he arrived. Front-desk agents followed that instruction at check-in on April 17th, swiping his card for the same amount, but only as an authorization, not a charge.
By the next night the man learned of the earlier hold, assumed he had been charged twice, and demanded an immediate refund—even though the original hold had already been voided.
Staff cancelled the second hold and re-authorized the woman’s card. But not before matters escalated, with shouts of “bloody rogues, bloody thieves, bloody fools” while thumping the desk and waving at staff. There was 3 minutes of sustained shouting – including opening lobby doors and yelling to passers-by.
Indian tourist has an insane freakout after being charged twice at a hotel
byu/Nuubae inActualPublicFreakouts
Staff remained calm, kept a formal tone, tried to explain the hold-versus-charge difference. Bangkok police arrived. Ultimately, no charges were filed; the family completed its stay and checked out without further incident.
Memes riffing on “Bloody Rogues / Bloody Thieves” spawned jokes and remix requests. And it’s now shorthand for losing it at customer service.
Hotels regularly authorize cards for room and tax plus incidentals. The money never leaves the account but the spending limit shrinks until the bank releases the hold—typically 2–14 days depending on the issuer. Debit-card trap – If you hand over a debit card, the “hold” removes funds from your available balance and may take a week or more to return. Credit cards are better!
Regardless, stay civil! More than the money, this family was giving their kids a lifelong memory of who their father is.
whoever they are, they’re as repulsive as angry canadians angry who booed during our national anthem.
@Don H,
…or ugly Americans yelling at Mexican servers at resorts in Mexico.
And treating them like slaves.
Seems they obviously don’t understand holds vs the money actually being taken, but I found myself in a similar situation and almost got as stressed as this guy.
I had just arrived in NYC and had used a suite upgrade at a Hyatt hotel. The suite would have cost $10000 for my nights (vs the ~$1500 of my actual stay) and because the hotel was new to Hyatt/perhaps an IT issue, they put a hold on my card for $10000, which was basically my limit at the time.
It caused me a lot of stress as I had bills that were auto paying that week and I had obviously planned to spend a couple thousand in NYC. My credit card company wouldn’t increase my limit because I was a relatively new customer. It took almost all week working with both the hotel and cc company to get the hold dropped. I was livid. BLOODY ROUGES!
I really don’t see a problem with what the hotel did. The only people who should have been there to talk to the hotel staff was the first credit card holder and the second credit card holder. Then find out who is going to put the charges on their credit card. No need for any of the rage. The problem was caused by the first credit card holder wanting the charges to eventually be placed on the second credit card holder’s card without that person being there and agreeing to it.
If you can’t afford the security deposit you shouldn’t be staying in any hotel