DECLINE AND FALL Some years ago I stayed in Dubai for three nights at a new, boutique hotel. I arrived at midnight, tired, and handed over a credit card (Traveller letters, February 6). Being used to the system where they took a paper imprint of your credit card for security and then tore it up when you checked out, I took little notice of the comment about a deposit. I had some cash and two cards, one of which I always leave in the room safe for security. The next day I paid cash for a taxi to the nearest mall where I chose items at a favourite shop. Embarrassingly, my card was declined. The ATM refused cash and I knew I had just enough cash for the return taxi fare but not coffee as well. The hotel had taken full accommodation payment and 50 per cent of that sum for the deposit. These charges had used up the card's daily limit and, unfortunately, I had taken that card to go shopping. There was no ATM in the hotel, so I couldn't get cash from my other card. Because of the time difference, for two days I was without financial means, other than what I could put onto my room account. Dare I say, it was a form of hotel quarantine.