There was a problem with flights on Christmas Eve as I flew into Philadelphia and I missed my connecting flight out to SF. US airways gave me a voucher for the. Clarion hotel. Fine and dandy. On handing in my voucher at reception, along with other US Airways refugees, I was asked for a credit card. Why?, I asked. Standard policy, was the answer. I imagined it was to protect the hotel from damages etc. to my surprise today I found that the hotel had charged me $25 on my credit card. Does anyone know what this is all about? Thanks
Did you ask the hotel?
no, i m in Hawaii at the moment. I guess i have to waste my time with phone calls today?
Many municipalities have additional local taxes on hotel rooms that are a flat per night charge that would not be waived or credited as the hotel will be charged the tax for an occupied room whether the customer pays it or not. Most likely this is all you were charged.
My take is that they qualified your card for $25.00 against potential incidental charges (minibar, pay-per-view, etc) and that the charge will drop from your card.
But do call the hotel and inquire.
Sales tax in philidelphia is 8% so it would be a pretty snazzy room to rate $25 there may be other surcharges I am not aware of. If you look at the back of a hotel room door there is often a sign there with a bunch of relevant info about such things. IF you are in a hotel in Hawaii you should have a similar sign.
For the amount of time you took to write that first post, you could have made a phone call and gotten a definitive answer from the hotel instead of a bunch of speculation from us.
I wouldn’t worry about it just yet. See if it disappears in a few days. They might pre-approve the card and the charge might stick around for a little while. If it’s not gone after a 48 hours or so, I’d call.
if it concerns ou give it a call , to the hotel, airline and credit card. Good luck. 
I’m guessing it’s that. They often make a token validation charge to ensure that the card is valid for incidentals. Once they close out your account the validation charge will disappear and any actual charges that haven’t already been paid will appear. But that can take a day or two.
If the charge is still pending, wait for it to clear. If it clears and the charge is still there, call the airline and request reimbursement. They should take care of this because they’re the ones who told you to use the room. It may be that they pay you back and then pursue the hotel for reimbursement, but that’s up to them.
Unless the hotel is charging you for something, like using the minibar or bottled water (even if you didn’t). That’s something you need to take up with the hotel.
8.5%, which is the hotel tax, sales tax isn’t charged here. About $294 per night, if that were the case.
It’s been awhile since I’ve noticed a “hold” on my card, but isn’t it usually some indecipherable description, or something vague like “CHARGED AMOUNT” and not “Holiday Inn, Philadelphia, PA ZIP”?
ETA: and if it were something like the minibar, you can probably convince them to clear it. Not sure/doubt if you could for the tax.
Concur.
yes, i just called and it appears to be a “security hold” that is supposed to disappear after a few days as mentioned by someone above. I am a complete novice when it comes to hotels and credit cards, so pardon the interruption. I thought this was a good place to ask.