Grandmother reveals pitfalls of paying by cash at Sydney hotel

A New South Wales woman has shared the perils of trying to pay for a Sydney hotel room with cash after she attempted to check-in to the Holiday Inn at Parramatta last weekend.

Albury grandmother Sharon Walsh, 60, had reserved a $209 room for Sunday night at the four-star hotel through online accommodation platform Booking.com.

Walsh told 9news.com.au she arrived at the hotel around 7.30pm that evening, after driving down from Nelson Bay where she attended two family baby showers.

The grandmother said she told staff at the check-in desk she needed to pay for the room with cash, as her bank account had been recently hacked and she was waiting on a replacement card.

"I said, 'I am paying by cash, that is all I have' and I pulled the money out," she said.

However, Walsh said she was shocked when hotel staff requested a $300 bond on top of the price for the room.

As Walsh was only carrying $375 in cash, she didn't have enough money to cover it.

"I offered to pay for the room in advance and the car park fee, which was an extra $20," she said.

"I had an iPad and iPhone so I didn't want to watch any movies. And basically, I didn't need anything else that would require a room fee."

Walsh said she wasn't able to put the bond on her credit card as she had reached her limit after splashing out on family dinners during her trip to Nelson Bay.

"I had money in my bank account, which I transferred to my credit card, but it takes 1-2 business days to transfer," she said.

Walsh said she did not feel comfortable asking a family member to use their credit card because, under the hotel's policy, their card details needed to be sent to the hotel by email, along with a copy of their photo ID.

"This all started because I got hacked. So I was very conscious about security and I don't know what the hotel's security is like," she said.

With hotel staff refusing to budge, Walsh said she was left with no option but to try to find somewhere else to stay the night.

"I was feeling very vulnerable, being a lone, female traveller from the country, where was I to go?" she said.

Too tired to make the five-hour plus drive back home to Albury, Walsh said she was worried she would have to sleep in her car.

"I was thinking, will I have to stay in my car and where do I stay where I am safe? And then I will have to be on guard," she said.

Luckily, Walsh ended up being able to book a room at the nearby Novotel Sydney Hotel at Parramatta.

"I rang (the Novotel) and asked if they were happy to accept cash and they were.

"They were amazing and they even waived my parking fee. I think they just felt sorry for me," she said.

Walsh said she was disappointed with the lack of empathy shown by staff at the Holiday Inn.

To make matters worse, Booking.com had not accepted her cancellation for the hotel room, and had attempted to charge to her credit card for $209, Walsh said.

"I am telling friends not to stay at Holiday Inn and I am boycotting them now," she said.

Holiday Inn Parramatta general manager Anurag Sharma said his hotel was happy to take cash payments from guests.

"Our hotel does accept cash and there is no problem with that whatsoever," he said.

However, the hotel's rules required the payment of a refundable bond, which was also mentioned in the information about the hotel provided by Booking.com, Sharma said.

"If anyone is paying $200 for accommodation, they are required to pay a $300 bond to cover any kind of extras in the hotel; your car parking, your food and beverage bill, your in-room dining bill, movie watching in the room," he said.

"That money we refund at the time of checkout.

"If the guest doesn't provide enough cash then we can't check in the guests. That's our very simple hotel policy."

As Australia moves toward a cashless society, many customers have become more vocal about their desire for businesses to keep cash as payment option, or stop making it more difficult to pay by cash.

Recently, debate has turned to whether Australia should introduce laws which require businesses to accept cash.

Last week, independent federal MPs Andrew Gee, Bob Katter and Dai Le introduced a bill to parliament which includes hefty fines for businesses that refuse to accept or don't carry physical money.

However, businesses argue cash payments are increasingly unpopular with customers and come with extra security concerns for staff, as well as transport difficulties and costs.

According to the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), cash accounted for just 13 per cent of all payments made in 2022.

Contact reporter Emily McPherson at emcpherson@nine.com.au