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Paris hotel reservation

Wife and I are booked on the RS Paris tour June 24...we plan to arrive from London on the 23rd and called the Hotel Duquesne Eiffel to reserve a room the night before the tour begins...there are rooms available but the authorization process requires a back/front copy of my credit card in addition to a copy of my passport.....is this standard procedure? Card number and date is one thing but actual copies implies undo security risk

Posted by
11034 posts

Are you sure you were on the hotel's official site?

I went through the booking process up to the point it asked for the credit card info, but saw no request for passport of copy of the card.
( https://secure.bookassist.com/card.action?bcapp=bassist-live&bcseq=91f4358b7bae4c3c2461d3ba4fb8a421&bcsid=ccd3dff576f1b8beea7934b8b1bb8032 )

I did not enter a card number, so if the request for a copy happens after that, then I did not get that far

Posted by
2537 posts

is this standard procedure?

Absolutely not. And do not email anything that you want to keep private. FAX, post office mail, or telephone call are the only secure transmission strategies.

Posted by
1174 posts

Find another hotel. That or phone them and ask for the manager. All you should be asked to provide is a valid credit card number and expiration date on a hotel's website as you book the reservation. Don't use a third party site. We stayed there several years ago and didn't have to send copies of anything, nor have we ever at any hotel in Paris, or elsewhere for that matter.

Posted by
2094 posts

Is this the same hotel where you will be staying with the RS tour? If it is, just email the hotel and ask if you can add an extra night. There’s a sample email in the appendix of all the RS guidebooks. At some point you’ll need to give them a credit card to hold the room but we’ve never been asked for copies of the card or passport.

We always arrive at least 1 day in advance and the hotels have always been able to accommodate us (9 RS tours so far).

Posted by
142 posts

I booked the same hotel for the day before the RS tour in May. The reservation form I filled out did request a copy of credit card front/back and passport. I faxed both to the hotel. Might be worth asking RS Office if you have concerns. I did this months ago and no suspicious charges on my credit card.

Kathleen

Posted by
4025 posts

Site Officiel:
http://www.hotel-duquesne-eiffel-paris.com/en/

I ran a dummy reservation for your date, and it went all the way to the payment page where I would fill in the details of my card -- just like buying on Amazon or Expedia or all those other Internet commerce sites.

You could certainly use an agency site such as Booking.com, Expedia.com or so many others. Those agencies routinely take your credit card details. The only variation may be when the charge is sent to your account. The prices look a little higher, though. No-cancel bookings on the Duquesne site are somewhat cheaper than those where cancellation is available.

Checking on whether your tour operator might be able to do the transaction seems smart; it might have a discount, and might help with meeting the tour group.

Posted by
6 posts

Thank you again one and all for the helpful input...going so far as to test the on booking procedures and other suggestions...appreciate your efforts