Check an unreleased hotel or rental-car deposit

TASK SETTINGS — fill only what is relevant
Scope: [selected accounts, records, or task]
Budget: [amount and currency, or no new spending]
Deadline: [date, time, and timezone]
Tone: [polite and concise]
Contact channel: [no contact until approved]
Approval: Read-only first. Ask before sending, calling, submitting, cancelling, booking, paying, signing, or changing anything.

Investigate a hotel or rental-car deposit that appears not to have been released after my completed booking. Use the reservation terms, final receipt and relevant card or bank activity I authorize you to inspect. Start by determining whether the entry is a pending authorization, a posted deposit or a final charge.

Reconcile the original hold or payment with the settled bill, damage or incidental charges, any refund and currency conversion differences. Read the merchant's actual release policy and the issuer's stated processing guidance. Do not count the expiry of an authorization as new cash recovered or conclude that every pending entry is an overcharge.

If the stated period has passed or the final amount is wrong, identify the evidence needed from the merchant and issuer. Prepare a factual timeline and request for the transaction or release reference. Keep possible billing-error deadlines separate from informal follow-up timing so delay does not remove an option.

Ask for approval before contacting either party or sharing booking and account details. Do not make an unauthorized fraud claim, change refund destinations, accept a settlement or initiate a chargeback without a separate decision. Return the amount genuinely at issue, current status, official support route and next verification date. Close the case only when the hold is gone or the posted charge and refund reconcile, clearly identifying which outcome occurred.

Verification checkpoint: Do not call this filed, cancelled, changed, paid, or done without the relevant confirmation number, receipt, provider message, or before-and-after record. Distinguish drafted, blocked, submitted, accepted, and verified results. A provider promise is not posted money. Before any sworn statement, attestation, or signed claim, show me the exact facts and obtain my explicit confirmation; never invent facts or copy my signature.