Logistics of renting a Chicago hotel room for a family member in June (and I won't be present)

In My Humble Opinion
1

My younger brother (late 30’s) has had a rough go of it throughout his life, granted most of it self-induced. He has a 10-yr-old son that I see once every couple of years, but that I don’t have much of a relationship with in-between.

Brother and I have never been particularly close, but we’ve never had any big fallouts. Moreso you live your life, and I’ll live mine, and see you at Thanksgiving (fortunately he and I see eye-to-eye politically, so no awkwardness over Mom’s turkey).

The kicker is that his credit is in the toilet, and from what I gather (albeit not by asking him directly) is that he only carries a debit card but doesn’t own a credit card.

My mom told me recently that one of his (and my nephew’s) lifelong dreams was to visit Wrigley Field and see a Cubs game (they’ve lived in Colorado for as long as I can remember).

I’ve been fortunate at work recently (our department got an unexpected bonus based on 2019 results), so I wanted to help my brother and nephew out by sending them to Chicago for a long weekend in June. I’ve agreed to pay for the tickets to the game, as well as the hotel.

Rather than sending him cash, I decided to give him my credit card information. 16-digit number, 3-digit code, expiration date, my address, everything.

I wanted to maintain some “visibility” to the costs, and at the same time make sure that if this trip falls through (three months is a long way off) that I haven’t sent him hundreds of dollars in cash that I would expect to be returned.

He’s reserved the hotel, but now the thought has hit me – what’s he going to do when he arrives, and:

a) he doesn’t have my credit card in-hand (because that ain’t gonna happen),

b) the name on the reservation doesn’t match his name, and

c) he doesn’t have a credit card to substitute in its place

I’m mulling over options for what I should do, and I keep coming back around to just Paypal-ing him cash the week before he departs, and having him pay cash for the room when he checks in.

Worst case is them being stranded in the lobby of a fully-booked hotel with no real recourse. Is there any chance in hell that the clerk overlooks the name difference, and processes the charge to my credit card, and everything is a “go” as planned?

Any ideas for how you would handle this if you were in my shoes? Any first-hand experiences (on either side of the hotel desk) for this sort of scenario?

Thanks for any input.

2

We do this for clients sometimes. Generally we have to fax the hotel with authorization to use our credit card (which they won’t have at check in) Don’t wait until they’re standing at the front desk, contact the hotel now and see what they’ll need.

3

If you don’t trust him financially, then just sending him the credit card information (without the card) means he could buy stuff on the internet up to your credit card limit–an amount vastly greatly than the total cost of the hotel and game.

4

Done it a few times with my (adult) kids. Just call the hotel and tell them what is going on. My experience has been anything from scanning the card, filling out a form, etc. to them just saying “Ok… I’ll put a note on file.”

Never has been a problem at check-in.

Otherwise, my son is renting a house a few blocks from Wrigley Field. If they would rather stay in a house with a bunch of frat brothers I’m sure they could work something out.

5

Thank you for the reassurance. I’ve been concerned that calling the hotel and “coming clean”, would possibly lead to them cancelling their reservation altogether. Thank you and Procrustus for the helpful responses!

6

I can’t remember the last time I stayed at a hotel where - even if the reservation itself was paid for by someone else - I didn’t have to give them a credit card for “incidentals.” Does he have enough ready $$ on his debit to cover that?

Aside from that, my first thought is “why not buy a pre-paid debit card that covers all the costs and send that to him?” He can use that to pay for all the things. and it’s not as risky as just sending him your credit card.

7

Why did your brother reserve a room in someone else’s name? I would think this is a bigger problem. They’re going to want ID to see that the person checking-in is the same as the name on the reservation.

There are ways of getting around needing to show the credit card the room was booked under but he’ll still need to show one with his name on it, (or proof he has authorization), to make a hold for security and incidentals. I suppose the hotel can take cash for guests without credit cards but I’ve never heard of this so you or he’d better check with them. They’ll probably want around $50-100 per night.

8

Pretty sure the brother made his reservation under his own name. Presumably he has a different name from his brother, our fellow O.P. under whose name the credit card is listed.

No way in hell they’re gonna cancel the reservation, as some kind of “punishment” for the horrendous crime of a dude buying his bro a vacation. They do want to take your money - well, SOMEone’s money - after all.

9

Shit, on my phone so can’t edit - sorry - but I had meant to explicitly state to the O.P. that this is a really sweet gesture.

10

No, people pay for other people’s reservations all the time. But. You DO need to contact the hotel and explain because otherwise they will cancel at check in due to no credit card to swipe. A piece of paper is meaningless because it might be a stolen number. These days most want a physical card to swipe. My hotel emails out credit card authorization forms, and we CANNOT use the credit card used to guarantee the room with without the form.

They most probably WILL want a card for incidentals. Which includes charging meals to your room, making calls, ordering pay movies and the minibar. Also as protection in case of damages.

11

Do you trust your brother 100 percent? You could make him an authorized user on your account and get him his own card for this, then lock the card when he is done and take the card back.

I did this for my daughter when we went on a joint vacation and I wanted her to be able to do things on her own. In our case, it also boosted her credit score, which helped her when she recently applied for a new rental house.

I keep “her” card and have it if I need it for a future similar situation.

12

I use my work credit card to reserve rooms for other folks all the time. As has been said, your brother will still need to present a card at check-in for incidentals. And the hotel will be happy to work with you on this reservation name issue, so they can get somebody’s money. :slight_smile:
The only thing I would add is that you would probably want to send them the credit card authorization form during the week before the stay. If you send it too early, they may lose it. But don’t wait until the day of the stay either.