The usual waffle to follow from my phone later, but I had to blow off steam about this.
I just booked at El Viajero hostel in Colonia del Sacramento via hostelworld. I'm staying at another El Viajero hostel here in Montevideo via hostelworld and had no troubles.
But no. The instant I get my reservation through on the hostelworld website, I get TWO e-mails from El Viajero SCREAMING AT ME IN BLOCK CAPITALS that according to CREDIT CARD REGULATIONS I have to send them my 3-digit card security number and that they'd like my passport number for a FASTER CHECK IN. (Because clearly, their IT system is SO SOPHISTICATED that they will be able to dig it out of their records quicker than I can pull the passport out of my pocket and the receptionist can type it in.)
What's the point of booking online if I then have to go through all this? Oh, and if I don't get back to them within 24h (I'm on holiday, I might easily get that booking through, go "phew, sorted" and not check e-mail for 24h, or maybe not even have access even if I wanted to) they will cancel the booking automatically. It's good to see that they can manage to do SOME things automatically, although clearly GETTING THESE DETAILS FROM or TRUSTING THE DETAILS THEY DO GET via hostelworld isn't something that can be automated.
I just checked and the actual page for the hostel doesn't seem to say any of this. It may say it on the page where you actually book but come on. I checked the e-mail I got from hostelworld and it does say all this, so I don't think this is some brilliantly timed scam to rip my credit card off. I have sent a complaint to hostelworld which I expect will be glossed over but at least I blew off some steam.
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