The Lemon Fool

Hi,

Has anyone had any experience of booking hotel rooms on a flexible rate which allows you to cancel?

There appears to be little point in doing so ie:

I booked 5 nights in a travelodge. I booked well in advance so got a good price even though i paid the top amount to allow me to cancel / change my booking (or so i thought)

I will be travelling by train, due to a train strike, I can't get there on the first night. I therefore looked to change the booking from 5 nights to 4.

Even though travelodge allows me to cancel the first night, in order to 'check out' again and officially reduce my stay to 4 nights, I am now asked to pay the difference between the amount I paid for those 4 nights months ago and the price of the room as it costs on the website now which has doubled. So I either leave the booking as it is or change it from 5 to 4 nights and pay way more than I have paid for 5 nights. Obviously i will leave the booking and just turn up on night 2 of my 5 day booking. But so much for being flexible. What a con!!

p.s what I could have done perhaps is made 5 seperate bookings, in which case I would have been able to cancel the first night.

Has anyone else experienced similar?

Thanks

Andy46 wrote:p.s what I could have done perhaps is made 5 seperate bookings, in which case I would have been able to cancel the first night.

If you do that and the hotel is feeling difficult, could they not insist that you check out each morning, vaacate the room and then check in again in the afternoon?

Have you tried speaking to them or just trying to resolve online?

Logically, if something is fully flexible you would be able to cancel the last night and get a refund (if the situation was the train strike meant you were leaving a day early).

Therefore, you would expect the reverse to be true - but I wonder if their online systems don't like the changing of the check-in date as opposed to the check-out data such that it would need to be done over the phone?

If you are going to just leave the booking as is and not turn up until the second day, make sure the hotel knows that's what you are doing.

Otherwise they could well assume that you haven't turned up, don't want the booking and let the room to someone else.

The Travelodge T&Cs state (in part):

Cancelling a Flexible Rate Booking

1. Flexible Rate bookings are refundable.

If you have not checked in, you can cancel a booking by notifying us before the check in date, or before 12pm on the check in date, via:

(i) Manage Booking portal, or

(ii) calling the Central Reservations team at 08719 848484 (calls cost 13p per minute plus your phone company’s access charge)

If you have already checked in, you can cancel one or more future nights included in a booking by notifying the hotel before 12pm on the first day that you wish to cancel.

Andy46 wrote:Obviously i will leave the booking and just turn up on night 2 of my 5 day booking.

Just be careful they don't assume you're not turning up at all, and they let somebody else have the room. If the hotel's not full it shouldn't be a problem, but if it is...

Scott.

swill453 wrote:

Andy46 wrote:Obviously i will leave the booking and just turn up on night 2 of my 5 day booking.

Just be careful they don't assume you're not turning up at all, and they let somebody else have the room. If the hotel's not full it shouldn't be a problem, but if it is...

Scott.

Yes, I would have cancelled the entire booking, and then rebooked for 4 nights. Hotels and airlines are sneaky with this stuff. Or at least the cheaper ones.

Of the cheaper hotel chains my experience is a lot better with Premier Inns and Ibis, than with Travelodge and Britannia.

Lootman wrote:Yes, I would have cancelled the entire booking, and then rebooked for 4 nights.

Paying way more than the original booking? I don't think I would.

Scott.

swill453 wrote:

Lootman wrote:Yes, I would have cancelled the entire booking, and then rebooked for 4 nights.

Paying way more than the original booking? I don't think I would.

Maybe but it is not a given that booking later means paying more. I have seen hotel (and airline) prices drop as the date approaches if demand is less than anticipated. For example I managed to get rooms at the London Conrad at a few days notice for one third less than had been previously advertised. I have also got some good last minute deals on airline business class fares.

Hotels and airlines use sophisticated yield management software to match supply and demand. That means prices can fluctuate a lot.

Lootman wrote:

swill453 wrote:Paying way more than the original booking? I don't think I would.

Maybe but it is not a given that booking later means paying more. I have seen hotel (and airline) prices drop as the date approaches if demand is less than anticipated. For example I managed to get rooms at the London Conrad at a few days notice for one third less than had been previously advertised. I have also got some good last minute deals on airline business class fares.

Hotels and airlines use sophisticated yield management software to match supply and demand. That means prices can fluctuate a lot.

Maybe you didn't read the OP. It literally states that booking 4 nights now would cost way more than for the original 5 nights.

I'm sure in some scenarios this might not be the case, but it is in this one.

Scott.

swill453 wrote:

Lootman wrote:Yes, I would have cancelled the entire booking, and then rebooked for 4 nights.

Paying way more than the original booking? I don't think I would.

Scott.

Me neither.

Lootman wrote:Maybe but it is not a given that booking later means paying more..

Except the OP explicitily says

So I either leave the booking as it is or change it from 5 to 4 nights and pay way more than I have paid for 5 nights.

so back to the OP - "Has anyone experienced similar?"

swill453 wrote:

Lootman wrote:Maybe but it is not a given that booking later means paying more. I have seen hotel (and airline) prices drop as the date approaches if demand is less than anticipated. For example I managed to get rooms at the London Conrad at a few days notice for one third less than had been previously advertised. I have also got some good last minute deals on airline business class fares.

Hotels and airlines use sophisticated yield management software to match supply and demand. That means prices can fluctuate a lot.

Maybe you didn't read the OP. It literally states that booking 4 nights now would cost way more than for the original 5 nights.

I'm sure in some scenarios this might not be the case, but it is in this one.

In any event my point is that it is only the entire booking that is fully refundable. And not a part of it.

It is not changeable without a fee or cost. So the OP can cancel the entire booking and get his money back. No problem. But he cannot expect to change to a 4 or 6 night stay, or a 1 or 9 night stay, and enjoy the same nightly rate. That ship has sailed.

So the choice is between cancelling and re-booking 4 nights, and sucking up the extra cost. Or keep the existing booking and finding another way to travel. Or I guess just cancel the trip altogether and go another later time.

Also I do not believe that checking in online on the original starting date would work. But it might be possible to ring them and ask for a "late arrival", which would presumably be the following morning. It could work at an upmarket hotel but maybe not a Travelodge.

swill453 wrote:

Andy46 wrote:Obviously i will leave the booking and just turn up on night 2 of my 5 day booking.

Just be careful they don't assume you're not turning up at all, and they let somebody else have the room. If the hotel's not full it shouldn't be a problem, but if it is...

Scott.

Hi

Thanks. I'll give them a ring closer to the time.

Andy

Hi

I've found another way round it ta. Its only the so called fully flexible rate (which is by no means fully flexible) which has increased. I've realised I can cancel my whole fully flexible 6 night stay and re-book for 5 nights on a none flexible rate for cheaper, so i'll do that

Thanks again
Andy

the0ni0nking wrote:Have you tried speaking to them or just trying to resolve online?

Logically, if something is fully flexible you would be able to cancel the last night and get a refund (if the situation was the train strike meant you were leaving a day early).

Therefore, you would expect the reverse to be true - but I wonder if their online systems don't like the changing of the check-in date as opposed to the check-out data such that it would need to be done over the phone?

Have you tried speaking to them or just trying to resolve online?

When my kids were at uni, I used hotels in the Accor group -Mercure, Ibis, Novotel etc and booked via the Accor website. I stuck to Accor at the time just for their Loyalty card, (which I realised later was not worth it!)

The Accor website was terrible and I was forever having problems with it.

However, in every case, I simply phoned the hotel and the staff put everything right in their own system. Much safer to phone them and speak to a human.

Steve

PS Yes, I know that speaking to a human is getting harder each year.