Deposit Policy
We require a deposit equal to the first night's lodging plus applicable taxes for all reservations.
The deposit is payable upon booking. We no longer accept credit card guarantees for
reservations. All cancellations are subject to a US$30 transaction fee. The deposit is
subject to forfeiture for "no shows" and cancellations received later than 72 hours prior
to check-in time (3 p.m.) on the scheduled arrival date.
Please note that we do not retain credit data on site. On-line credit card transactions are handled
by a secure credit-card processing site (AUTHORIZE.NET), that guarantees full compliance with current
credit card security standards.
These credit card security standards were recently revised by the major credit card
issuers (Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express and others) to
improve protection for credit card users. The revisions have a direct impact on the way
your personal data is secured and how hotel bookings are guaranteed.
Called the PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard), these guidelines were developed in 2006 to help
organizations that process card
payments reduce credit card fraud, hacking and various other security
vulnerabilities. Compliance with the standard became mandatory December 31, 2008.
Among other things the standard calls for frequent security audits and
other measures that are prohibitively expensive for small
merchants, so credit card processing is often outsourced to
third-party processors who can guarantee complete security. Thus,
the
Roosevelt Inn no longer processes on-line payments in house.
The Roosevelt Inn does not receive credit card
information that you provide on-line. As a practical matter this means:
- Your personal information is secure.
- Since we can no longer offer credit card "guarantees" to hold rooms we must now require the deposit.
You may have already noticed the effects of the PCI DSS elsewhere. For
instance, when you use your credit card at many retailers, there is
a terminal where you swipe your own card directly. This prevents
the clerk from knowing any details about your credit card.
For businesses in the travel industry this new standard presents special problems.
The old method of holding your credit card information is a security risk which is not in compliance with
PCI DSS. For instance, a clerk might have
access not only to your credit card data -- including the CCV code --
but also your home address and phone number. The new system reduces the risk that this
information will be seen by unscrupulous store clerks.
Although we all can applaud this improved security, it comes at the
cost of less convenience. Notably, this means that if you
wish to change or cancel a reservation you must do so in the same
manner as the reservation was made. For instance, if you make a
reservation on line and you wish to change or cancel it, you must do so
on-line also -- you cannot do it by phone because the phone operator
does not have access to your personal data.
Finally
because credit card transactions are held for only 120 days, we cannot facilitate any refunds
for rooms held longer than 120 days. Please bear this in mind
when booking.