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There's no way that can be legal. I don't blame them for trying to get the money back from their bank.
There's no point having reviews if they can't be open and honest ones.

I think that £100 will cost the hotel a sight more.

How long afterwards were they fined, I wonder?

It's not normal practise to retain a customer's card details after they've left the hotel is it? I mean beyond the time it takes for housekeeping to confirm the room hasn't been trashed, and they haven't nicked the towels.

Supposedly a hotel can hold to your details for around seven days after you've left. I've heard of cases where someone has had an amount equal to the bill "held" on their credit or debit card for up to a week as well actually billed the amount on check out. EG you book a hotel for three nights and it'll cost £300, you check in, give your card which then has £300 "held" (so you'll have that much less on your balance), then when you leave, you'll be charged £300 for the bill, and the "held" amount gets released a week later.

Anyway back to the point - it's wrong to do this, it's illegal and not only should the couple get their money back butthe hotel should be fined ~ £1000.

I had that with a hotel in Singapore when I went there for two weeks with work. They held over a grand on my credit card even though work were paying the hotel bill directly.

A classic case of the Streisand effect