On Sat, 16 Jan 2010 16:20:35 +0000, Alasdair put finger to keyboard
and typed:

Most hotels, these days, will not allow you to book a room with cash.
They insist on card payments.

From the guest's point of view, the down side of this is that charges
could be added to the card without the cardholder's knowledge or
consent and he only finds out about them when he gets the bill.

That's precisely why they do it. From the guest's point of view, that
also allows them to complete the checkout process quickly (or even not
checkout as such at all, which is common in minimal-service motels
such as the Travelodge chain) as they don't need to wait for their
room to be checked and other bills to be added up before they leave.
So it's not entirely a one-sided benefit.

Are there any ways to avoid this happening by using a pre-paid card
where the cost of the hotel room is all that is available?

No, because they'll want to check that there are also enough funds to
cover any additional fees that are likely to be added.

Mark
--
Blog: http://mark.goodge.co.uk
Stuff: http://www.good-stuff.co.uk