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Walt Disney World Resort Hotels Change Credit Card Authorization Policy

Rikki Niblett
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The Walt Disney World Resort hotels will be changing their credit card policy for Guests who wish to leave a credit card on file. Under the new policy, hotel Guests will place an incremental authorization hold on the card for estimated incidental expenses, in addition to any remaining balance that may be due on the reservation.  Any authorization holds in excess of the balance due will be released at the end of the resort stay.

Under the new policy, on the day of arrival, the Resort hotels will place an authorization hold on the card on file for any balance due on the reservation plus $100 for estimated incidental expenses. If Guest spending exceeds the original $100 hold, additional incremental holds will be placed on the card automatically. The initial authorization holds on the card will not exceed the current balance due plus $100.

Guests can opt out by not leaving a credit card on file, however, by not doing so, Guests will be unable to charge to their room or use their MagicBands for purchases.

This change is being done to align with hotel industry practices. (And as someone who knows something about other hotel chains and this type of policy, I do know that this is a standard practice and I’m going to be honest, I’m surprised this wasn’t standard practice before.)

Walt Disney World Resort Hotel Guests will be advised of the payment card policy during online check-in through their My Disney Experience account or at the front desk.

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Rikki Niblett

I am a co-host of the Be Our Guest Podcast and do lots of other fun Disney stuff all around the interwebs! You can follow me on Twitter or Instagram at @RikkiNibs or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/rikkinibs

3 thoughts on “Walt Disney World Resort Hotels Change Credit Card Authorization Policy”

  • Trying to understand this. We don’t charge anything to our room account, we charge as we go (actually, we use Disney gift cards for payment 90% of the time). So, we will have a $100 charge to our credit card account to cover incidentals when we check in and then at some point that $100 charge will drop off? Sounds like I need to not add my card to our profile since we never use our MB to charge back to the room anyway. But, I need my CC in my profile to reserve dining. Not sure what to do.

    • I think that the CC that’s in your MDE profile you use for dining is used just for that – dining. When I went to do the online check-in for my December trip, I had the option to use the CC that was in my profile (which was the one I used for dining) or add a new one. I don’t know if you’ll be able to do online check in without a credit card though…

  • I was also always surprised they did not authorize the card in the first place- like every other hotel. This actually caused me quite a problem one time- they did not try to authorize my card until we had had several expensive meals and shopping trips. Once they did, it set off a security alert on my credit card! Disney did not notify me of this, so when I went to pay for breakfast the next day, they declined my Magic Band. I did not carry my credit cards with me to the parks (since I intended on continuing to use my Magic Band). I had to spend a lot of time on the phone getting in touch with my hotel and then my credit card company. If they had put any kind of authorization on my card at check in, the security alert either wouldn’t have happened at all, or at least would have happened at a more convenient time than after breakfast on our way to the parks! I know that some people may see this new policy as an inconvenience, but I find it more inconvenient to have problems with your card mid-trip. I have also heard from cast member friends that a lot of hotel bills are left unpaid- whether intentionally or not- because the hotel doesn’t know if that card is valid or not until charges are already on the bill.

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