Accomodation refund fee

I would like to confirm a rumour I heard first before I visited this place. The agent charges key and damage fee that you need to pay in addition to your accommodation amount and it should be refundable 7days after check out. So I went to for a holiday in April and stayed by one of their apartments for 5day, I checked out on the 15th of April and checked with them if they happy with how the house looked after my stay and they will refund me the R1000.00 damage deposit and I should wait 7days counting from the 23rd of April. After 7 business day I noticed that the money hasn't been paid back to my account and tried to follow up on the refund. A consultant tells me that I need to call my back and request the amount to be reversed to my account because when I was paying my accommodation fees I used my card as method of payment so Im the card holder and they don't have my banking details. when I call the bank they explained to me that the transaction was done as Pre-Authorization and the merchant needs to release the money back to the account since I signed and used my card and pin to authorize them to put a hold on my account for a amount of R1000.00. and that I understand. I was told that CTHA doesn't pay back the damage fee they stall and delay people till they move on and forget about the money. Be aware of the fine print before booking and never swipe your card authorising a Pre-authorized transaction because the bank cant assist unless one has to log a claim and its a process.