Riads and booking in advance- is a deposit needed

Some do require it, others don't. I never give them my credit card info. in advance, but others have reported they have done so with no problems. If you want to list the establishments requesting such information, maybe other posters can advise you of their experiences with them.

I don't know a single reputable Riad in Fes that does not either ask for a credit card number or require a deposit in advance. As Riads are smaller establishments (sometimes no more than 3-7 rooms) than hotels, a last minute cancellation or a no show is a real hit financially...hence the need to have some sort of guarantee. Make sure before giving details that you have a copy of their cancellation policy. If you e mail the credit card details, send the info in two or three separate mails.

Marocfan and Chanel are right ,do not try to give all your info to some website without contacting the hotel itself ,because there are a lot of scummy websites out there taking advantage of people ,Morocco did not reach that level yet thanks to the Government but there are some people in UK and AUS doing it.Please call or fax the establishment. I have never made a deposit for my reservations I just need to get a confirmation with fax ,enough for me ;because I know how the Government worried about getting 10000000 tourists by 2010 and know how to deal with that issue.

If you do decide to provide them your credit card information, do NOT do it via a standard email, which is not secure. Sending it two or three times just increases the chance of having the information fall into unauthorized hands. chanol, you must not be keeping up on the increasing cases of identity theft!
Solution: phone the riad directly, or if there is time, use snail mail.

She means to send partial information in successive messages. I would also send these from different e-mail addresses.

Of course these days a hotel owner is more likely to have to use a cybecafé than a computer identity thief. But why would a telephone message be any more secure? The owner is going to write this information down someplace, as well.

I have never had to give my credit card number when booking a riad from within Morocco, but I can see why they require it. Unfortunately, none of them have the required tools to accept credit cards (somebody ought to teach the riad owners about paypal!)

I wouldn't just send my credit card number willy-nilly. My mother had hers (the number, not the card) stolen in a 5 star hotel in Rabat (Farah, if anyone's curious) while the waiter rang up our dinner. I would do it, as ainzerka said, in three successive e-mails. I would say most riads have a computer with internet.

All credit card transactions in Morocco are handled by a single entity, the CMI, or Credit Monitaire Interbancaire. It is very easy to be able to accept credit cards for payments, you simply have to have a bank account and a legal company. However you must charge a minimum of 7,000 dirhams per month in order to do business with the CMI, and they take a 4% commission on all cc transactions. Many Riads either do not have operating licenses or are not declaring all their income, hence do not accept cards. The desire for "black" cash is really the reason why so many places won't take credit cards, or say that their machine is "broken"....so be prepared to pay the Riad you are staying in in cash, even if you did supply them cc info when you booked!

"somebody ought to teach the riad owners about paypal!)"

Someone should teach PayPal about the money to be made, and relatively low risk, from allowing PayPal to be used in Morocco!