Alliance Reservations Network Precharged my credit card for a hotel reservation. When I cancelled the reservation with the hotel, the charge remained on my credit card - I was not aware I had to contact a third party to cancel. Customer service unwilling and explain a strange charge on credit card bill. Phoenix, Arizona

Within the travel industry there are many times one must prepay for their travel.  Airfare, Cruises and Vacation Packages come to mind.  Prepayment for a hotel room is not unique to online travel; many major hotel brands offer their lowest rates based on prepayment. Sometime the lowest rates come with harsh cancellation penalties, as in the hotel purchase being non-refundable.  At Alliance Reservations Network we strive to offer the public the lowest available hotel rates.  Usually, if one wishes not to prepay there is a slightly higher rate available that would not require a pre-payment, and we offer these rates as well. If there is a prepayment needed we make this very clear before the booking is placed and confirmed.  Same goes for the cancellation policy - on all bookings made thru us the deposit policy (if any) and cancellation policy needs to be reviewed and accepted by the user before a reservation can be placed.  These policies are noted on the Guest Receipt we provide the client once the booking has been processed as well.  Thank you.

"Who has heard of being charged for a hotel weeks before you actually stay there? "

 It's fairly common when you use a third party reservation site. I made reservations through a well known hotel reservation site (not the one you used) last month and the charge hit my card the next day, even though the hotel stay was three weeks off. I understood that the reservation site was pre-paying the hotel for my room. Of course, before doing that I had carefully reviewed the cancellation policies on the site before agreeing to the charge.

 Third party travel related websites have varying rules for cancellations or changes once a reservation is made. It's a good idea to read them over carefully before agreeing. I'm not saying what they did was fair, but you need to acquaint yourself with all of the rules whenever you're dealing with a third party. They usually have different requirements than if you were dealing directly with the hotel.