deposit payment

[Frieke]

Hello,

first of all I would like to thank you all for the usefull information !! I've been reading a lot of threads and it helped me a lot!

I'm going to Tulum for more than 2 weeks and I thought of booking 5 nights at hotel Ana y José. They sent me an email with all the info and this is what they wrote about the payment:

"Should you require to make a reservation, please specify the suite, exact arrival and departure dates, and we will send you an immediate confirmation and a payment form which deposit must be paid within 3 days after you receive the confirmation 50% deposit required, credit card information sent on the payment form must be signed, photocopies of credit card on both sides included, photocopy of 1 identification must also be included."

I'm no expert in online payments but I'm really concerned about this ! They ask me to send a copy of my CC and my ID ! And I have to sign the information as well , so they would have my signature as well ! Do they mean I have to scan all these copies and send them by mail?

Is this a normal way of paying for a deposit ?
Is there someone who has already made a deposit for Ana y José ? And did you also make the payment this way ?

Thanks so much !

[BinkyLover]

I don't like those guys. I looked at reserving a room in the off-season and they said that I had to book a series of spa services that we didn't want, which upped the price to something like $400/night. I would never ever send a photo copy of my credit card over the internet via any method and even cringe at the thought of sending a paper copy via regular mail.

FYI, Tita Tulum requested a wire transfer, but because my bank couldn't figure out how to send one (go figure), Tita accepted PayPal instead. That was actually very convenient.

[beachreader]

Wire transfers were the rule for a long time in Tulum ("long time" meaning up until about a year ago), but more and more places are accepting PayPal.

I would write back to AyJ and ask about using PayPal, which is a secure site for transferring funds either from your bank account or credit card.

If AyJ doesn't accept PayPal, I would tell them very clearly that you will not be sending them that kind of credit card information and you will find another hotel to stay at that does accept PayPal.

AyJ is too large of an operation to not accept PayPal, when so many smaller places take it!

{by the way, I would not be so firm with a smaller hotel, instead I would offer a wire transfer, since I believe they have to pay a fee to accept PayPal just as they have to pay for cc transactions.}

[Gale in KY]

Sending you a pm.

[Frieke]

Thanks a lot for all the good advice !!