Hotel’s rebuff raises queries

Jade Legge and her family should be celebrated for not owning a credit card. Instead, they’ve been penalised by a hotel chain’s indoctrinated policy that requires a credit card, or you don’t check in.

Jade, her husband Brad and young kids Paisley and Mackenzie travelled about 300km on Saturday to be told they were not allowed into Scenic Hotel Te Pania in Napier.

From Pirinoa in South Wairarapa, they came for a well-earned break.

Pirinoa is a 3h 40m drive from Napier on a good day. Add in school holidays and travelling with young kids and it’s a bit of a hike.

Scenic Hotel Te Pania must have seemed a great spot — walking distance to the Napier CBD, playgrounds and cafes nearby.

Except Jade’s family didn’t get past reception.

The accommodation had been booked online, but Jade used a debit card.

Debit cards allow the user to book and pay for items and services online. They are like an Eftpos card, they access accounts in credit and do not incur debt.

The sticking point for Jade and her family was Scenic’s insistence on a credit card as a bond before they checked in.

It is a common practice. That way, if you drink the mini-bar dry, or damage the room, then the hotel gets paid. It’s a policy that protects the hotel, and fair enough. Although as Jade points out, she and her family aren’t “ratbags”.

To be fair, the hotel doesn’t know that. But empathy for Scenic begins to wane when they refused to take Jade’s offer of cash as a bond, or a credit card number that a family friend offered.

Scenic says the hotel’s stance was company policy, consistent with many hotels around the globe, that required the presentation of a photo ID and credit card upon check-in.

Is there also a global trend that says the application of discretion and common sense is not allowed?

Jade’s debit card allowed her to make an online booking, so she can be forgiven for assuming there wouldn’t be any problem checking in.

Debit cards are becoming more popular — they are deemed safer than credit cards. Credit card fraud is a global issue.

See, it’s easy to use a global comparison when it suits us.

But what happened to local solutions, or a bit of Kiwi ingenuity?

Post lockdown, we are imploring people to come to Hawke’s Bay for a Baycation.

Jade’s family barely got a daycation.

The situation that Jade’s family found themselves in cried out for some sensible discretion.

Justifying the policy because it happens around the world doesn’t cut it.