They'll accept cash if you fork out a $300 deposit, and the people who are likely to both pay cash and trash a room rarely have that much extra money on hand.

A friend of mine works night audit in a rough part of the valley. As soon as he says the magic words 'we require a major credit card or a $300 deposit', they immediately hang up.

This heavily depends on the country, plenty of places in the US and other credit-card-loving countries are credit (and specifically credit, NOT debit) card only for this reason. Plenty of tourists from countries where such cards aren't as popular get bitten by this.