I used to work in hotels. People would book rooms on third-party sites like Booking.com with stolen cards to test them. They would never show up and usually the credit cards declined when managers try to charge them for no-shows.
We would also get people who do a scam where they tried to trick you to put in a "manual authorization" to override a declined card. They would have an accomplice call your hotel claiming to be their bank. They also might hand you their cell phone and claim it was their bank on the phone.
"It was horrible," guard Jeff McInnis said.
"I took 100 naps and we were still in the air."