Why is there a charge on my credit card when I only made a reservation request?
Credit cards can temporarily hold a portion of your credit limit (called a provisional hold) to verify the reservation amount.
At AutoReserve, we temporary hold a corresponding amount from your credit limit at the time of your reservation request in the following cases:
- When the restaurant has a cancellation policy (including AutoReserve no-show policy)
- For reservation requests that incur a reservation fee
Some credit card companies may show this as a charge, but it's only a temporary hold and the amount is not actually deducted.
Your credit line will be automatically released if you cancel a reservation without a cancellation fee or if your reservation request with a fee is not successful.
Why is a credit line hold necessary?
In the event of a cancellation subject to cancellation fees based on the restaurant's cancellation policy, in addition to ensuring that the restaurant receives the correct cancellation fee, pre-securing a credit line allows us to confirm the reservation without needing to charge you later if a cancellation fee applies.
Why are there multiple charges on my credit card?
The credit line hold has a time limit. If there is a period of time before the day of your reservation, the system may periodically run an automatic credit line suppression.
Credit acquisition may also take place after the reservation date for cancellation fee. The reason for this is that some restaurants notify us about the unattended reservation which applies cancellation fee after the reservation date.
If a credit limit is acquired multiple times, the previous credit limit will be released upon reacquisition.
Please see here for credit release dates.