Faremax: Travel Forums

I'm used to paying in advance for hotels, and I'm a bit confused because the hotel I wanted to stay in while in Sweden only accepts payment on arrival.

I was going to pay using someone elses credit card, then transfer the cash to their paypal account... argh!  Now I need to scramble to get the cash out of paypal and hope it arrives in my bank in time to pay.

How normal is it to have to pay on arrival?  Do many places still do that?

Most of the time I pay on arrival, if anything I have bee asked to provide a credit card which is just run to make sure it works to hold the reservation.  Once when in Spain I gave a deposit on the room but that was it.  I guess paying in advance can be a good thing and takes some of the worry about what bills you have to pay while you are traveling.  

I have never had to pay in advance. When I make reservations at a hotel, the credit card information is given and to pay the small fee in case I don't show up.

I prefer advance because then you don't have to worry about it when you're there.