What the card is for
When you book or claim a room, you add a card for the hotel. The hotel holds it to guarantee your room and charges it for your stay, under its own policies: the room, taxes and anything else you charge to the room. Nothing is charged for the stay when you book. The hotel bills you at check-in or checkout.
One card, or two
Many housing companies use one card for both: the card you add for the hotel is also the card the booking fee is charged to. When you book or claim online, the page tells you which charges go on the card before you confirm. If your housing company uses one card for both, the card section of the booking or claim page is headed One card for the booking fee and the hotel. It tells you what the card pays before you enter it, and there's no way to give a separate card for the fee.
If you booked over the phone, the housing team may have taken a card just for the booking fee, with the card for the hotel still to come. Housing companies that use one card for both don't do this now, but a phone booking made before they switched may still be waiting for the hotel's card. If yours is, you'll be asked for the hotel's card separately, for example by an email saying the hotel needs a card to guarantee your stay, with a link to your room page. A booking fee that's already paid isn't charged again when you add the card.
How your card is kept safe
- You type your card into our payment provider's secure card form. The details go straight to the provider and never pass through the ITS website.
- ITS keeps only a short label for your card, such as "Visa ••4242", so you can recognize it.
- The hotel sees your card only by opening it in its secure hotel portal, and every view is recorded. It's never in the rooming list the hotel downloads.
- Your card is deleted some time after the tournament.
Never send your card number by email, text or chat message to anyone, including the housing team or the hotel. Use the secure card form instead. (If you book over the phone, the housing team types your card straight into the same secure form.)
Changing your card
While you're booking or claiming, after you've entered a card and before you confirm, click Use a different card to enter another one. If your housing company uses one card for both, the button says Change card.
If you claimed a room, or the housing team put your name on one, open the room link from your confirmation email. Then:
- Under the card on the room, click Use a different card. If your housing company uses one card for both, it's Replace this card. If there's no card on the room yet, click Add a card.
- Enter the new card in the secure card form.
- Changed your mind? Click Keep the card I have to close the form without changing anything.
The hotel sees the new card from then on. If the room still owes its booking fee, the new card pays it, unless the person who booked the block is paying it. If your housing company uses one card for both, the page says so before you enter the card.
If you booked the rooms, your booking page shows the card on file but can't change it. Message the housing team through Need help? and they'll help you replace it.
The housing team may also read you a six-character card code and a short web address over the phone. That page only lets you add a card to your room. It can't show or change anything else, and the code works once, for 15 minutes. As on the room link, a card you add there pays the booking fee if the room still owes it, unless the person who booked the block is paying it.
If the hotel can't charge your card
If you hear that your card was declined, or it will expire before your stay, add a different card from your room link, or message the housing team through Need help?. You can also pay the hotel another way at check-in, if the hotel allows it.