Nonrefundable and nonchangable hotel rates are one of my least favorite parts of the travel industry. Yes, they are often a good deal, but yes, they are often a recipe for disaster, especially when clients find out that the hotel means it.
When a longtime client asked for the nonrefundable rate at the Intercontinental Mark Hopkins in San Francisco, I gave her the usual warnings, but did as she asked and booked it. To be fair, it was her first wedding anniversary and her husband and she had spent their wedding night there. In addition, they live within an hour of the hotel. She basically said, “If they could walk they would be there.”
But stuff happens, and they later found out that she needed to have relatively minor but important surgery and that she would be bedridden for at least a week afterward. This emergency meant that her nonrefundable, nonchangable hotel weekend would be out of the question.
I recognized that if I sent a cancel message on the reservation there wouldn’t be a refund. So, I suggested that she call the hotel directly and nicely explain the situation. To her pleasant surprise, the Mark Hopkins offered to let her reschedule, keeping the deposit but applying it to another winter weekend.
She is of course thrilled, and will probably be a returning hotel customer for life. But it doesn’t always turn out so well.
While the nonrefundable reservations are a risk, and my client did get lucky, there were a few things that improved her chances.
First, we had booked the reservation directly with the hotel, or at least through Intercontinental hotels, their parent company. In these cases, the money goes directly to the hotel rather than an other intermediary. This may have made them a little more inclined to be generous.
For bookings made through Priceline and many other sites, the hotel gets much less of the revenue. This is either because the booking company takes a bigger cut, or because that company has just given the hotel a flat rate for the room, and the intermediary marked it up to whatever rate they felt they could get.
Second, she called in advance, as soon as she knew she could not reschedule the surgery. Giving hotels as much notice as possible increases the chance that they can resell the room if they are close to full. Just not showing up means they would have turned away a guest, or held the room out of inventory.
Third, she was nice when she called, and also indicated she didn’t want her money back, but simply a chance to stay a different weekend. While the rate was in theory nonchangeable, the hotel already had her money, but stood to potentially gain more revenue from breakfast, drinks, etc., if she stayed at a later date.
For what it’s worth, I have had other clients occasionally be able to change dates with these rates, and sometimes our agency can intercede when we have a contact at the hotel. But realistically no one ever gets a complete refund.
Even in the cases where we have a good relationship with the hotel dealing with nonrefundable/nonchangable rates is difficult. (The Intercontinental in Sydney, for example, offered a date change when clients had a visa problem, but only a refund of what would have been the agency commission.)
Which does bring up the final point. If you really want a cheap nonrefundable rate, especially for a multi-day stay and you can’t afford to lose the money, you probably can’t afford not to take insurance.
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
