Why Hotel-Room Cancellations Disappeared (msn.com) 61
Hotel cancellation policies have transformed over the past seven years. Travelers once could cancel reservations up until the day before check-in without penalty. That flexibility has largely vanished.
The shift began around 2018 when third-party travel-booking sites deployed "cancel-rebook" strategies, the Atlantic writes. These platforms would monitor hotel rates after securing initial reservations. When prices dropped, the sites automatically canceled existing bookings and rebooked customers at lower rates. Hotels lost already-booked revenue whenever they reduced prices to fill empty rooms.
Hotels responded by introducing tiered pricing structures. Travelers now encounter prepaid non-refundable rates at the lowest price point, mid-range rates with two- or three-day cancellation deadlines, and higher rates for same-day cancellation flexibility. The cancel-rebook sites could still swap reservations until deadlines arrived, but the damage to hotels diminished.
Christopher Anderson, a professor at Cornell University's Nolan School of Hotel Administration, told the outlet that hotel cancellations differ from airline cancellations. Most hotels operate as franchises rather than centrally-owned properties. A canceled Ithaca Marriott reservation cannot be converted to credit at a New York Marriott Marquis because different owners operate each location. Anderson suggests travelers call hotels directly to request exceptions. Hilton confirmed it evaluates cancellation waivers case-by-case and extends broad waivers during natural disasters or major disruptions.
The shift began around 2018 when third-party travel-booking sites deployed "cancel-rebook" strategies, the Atlantic writes. These platforms would monitor hotel rates after securing initial reservations. When prices dropped, the sites automatically canceled existing bookings and rebooked customers at lower rates. Hotels lost already-booked revenue whenever they reduced prices to fill empty rooms.
Hotels responded by introducing tiered pricing structures. Travelers now encounter prepaid non-refundable rates at the lowest price point, mid-range rates with two- or three-day cancellation deadlines, and higher rates for same-day cancellation flexibility. The cancel-rebook sites could still swap reservations until deadlines arrived, but the damage to hotels diminished.
Christopher Anderson, a professor at Cornell University's Nolan School of Hotel Administration, told the outlet that hotel cancellations differ from airline cancellations. Most hotels operate as franchises rather than centrally-owned properties. A canceled Ithaca Marriott reservation cannot be converted to credit at a New York Marriott Marquis because different owners operate each location. Anderson suggests travelers call hotels directly to request exceptions. Hilton confirmed it evaluates cancellation waivers case-by-case and extends broad waivers during natural disasters or major disruptions.
Really the trend is moving away from 3rd party (Score:5, Informative)
As someone who does a fair amount of work travel it really has become preferable to book through the hotel and airline sites than use Priceline or Expedia. Hotels generally don't give you rewards points, they won't handle issues at the front desk (you'll have to call Expedia) and as mentioned the policies are different. Most hotels will honor the price rate a 3rd party site offers as well if you ask them to.
Re:Really the trend is moving away from 3rd party (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Really the trend is moving away from 3rd party (Score:5, Interesting)
Yup only takes one time waiting on the lobby at 2AM on the phone with a Priceline rep trying to figure out why the hotel doesn't have a record of your reservation to change ones tune as it did mine.
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Same, unless I'm using up some credit card points, I just book directly with the airline and the hotel as much as possible. They will generally bend over backwards to help direct book people before they do whatever they can for those who booked third party.
Exception, at work we use AMEX travel, and they get stuff done for us. I assume that because they represent so many large company travelers and they negotiate for good rates, but aren't the ones going for the $40/night room specials the hotels and airli
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Oh man at an old job they had an Amex business plan with all the travel options and that is nice I will say, they did have people to take care of you when you needed it.
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Re:Really the trend is moving away from 3rd party (Score:5, Interesting)
The challenge is that you have to be sure you're booking with the actual hotel. The middle men are sneaky and make the web site look like they are the real thing. The actual hotel web site is never the first on the search list. Blame the shitty SEO merchants. SEO should be renamed "FIO" Fraudulent Impersonation Optimization.
Re: Really the trend is moving away from 3rd party (Score:1)
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Yeah that one was shitty for sure but at least IME when I book with Hilton.com or IHG.com I have recourse with the person at the desk who I need right there in the moment and regardless of the actual building owner and if that's an issue I can in fact reach out to Hilton directly about their property, franchise or not, the franchise is a representative of the corporation just like I can go to McDonalds corporate.
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Very true. They won't handle issues or modifications at the front desk, plus they're unlikely to give you an extra upgrade or anything like that.
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+1 here too. Frequent travelers, incl myself, won't even pretend to bother with 3rd party sites even if it it appears cheaper. For one, it's likely not cheaper with all the weird surcharges, etc. And two, as others have noted, once you've been screwed over by a missing or incorrect reservation for hotel, car, flight, that slight bargain is erased time 10
I would also add that the same applies when I am booking flights for relatives/friend who are infrequent travelers. I'm not going to risk Aunt Stacy's
Agreed (Score:3)
We used to use 3rd party booking sites. If everything went fine, there were no issues. If anything went wrong, it was a disaster. Hotel overbooked? The hotel won't help you. Wrong room type? The hotel won't help you. Can't find your reservation number? The hotel won't help you. You get to call Expedia and pray that a human picks up and can do something for you. This happened once to a friend, where a hotel was overbooked so Expedia got them a new hotel room on the other side of town. Didn't help our friend
Sneaky... (Score:2)
Talk about exploiting a loophole. Had no idea that was happening. I'm assuming they did not pass on the savings. I've never seen a third party booking go down in price after being booked.
When I book directly with Marriott while signed in, the lowest price is usually 'flexible' (You can cancel it.) Sometimes I use third party sites to get a really low price if I know I'm not going to cancel, but lately I've been booking directly with the hotel to avoid hassles if it's a major chain I have a login for.
Du
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Normally I don't give a flying Fibonacci about reducing corporate profit, but... yeah. I'm totally on board with this policy change. Especially since the exploit-bots hurt franchise owners rather than Big Hotel.
I mean maybe, in theory, but how often do prices actually drop on hotels? Prices are usually based on occupancy, so unless somebody cancels a block of a hundred rooms or something, this seems unlikely to make a meaningful difference in hotel revenue.
Meanwhile, if this had happened five years ago, it would have meant not going on trips for me, because traveling with my dad in his last couple of years had a decent risk of having to cancel.
There are people for whom being able to cancel a trip without signific
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Hotels often drop prices when they have unsold rooms and it is getting close to the date. They would rather have a lower income than let the room expire without any income.
That's why I usually book rooms at the last minute when traveling. I find I can get a better deal. Also, the risk that I would have to cancel so close to the date is small.
As far as availability goes, it's rare for an area to be fully booked and I've always been able to find a suitable room.
Prices (Score:1, Offtopic)
Cornell? (Score:1)
Cornell University has a school of hotel administration?
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They also have a School of Ornithopters, which is where Merlin learned to fly
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They also have a School of Ornithopters, which is where Merlin learned to fly
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a leader in that field of study, and they have an free app called Merlin Bird ID that helps birders identify the birds based on sight and sound. The Lab also has a feeder web cam (which can entertain you, or your cat, for hours).
At least someone here got the joke :)
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Google is your friend
No it isn't.
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Re: Cornell? (Score:2)
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Cornell University has a school of hotel administration?
Yes, and it is rather well respected in the field of hospitality management in the US (I don't know if they are still ranked #1 in the US, but they are certainly in the top tier). The graduates tend to be able to find work with the top tier hoteliers in all the nicer places.
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I prefer the Norman Bates School of Motel Management:
https://www.facebook.com/TonyP... [facebook.com]
Dumb managers manage dumbly (Score:4, Interesting)
When prices dropped, the sites automatically canceled existing bookings and rebooked customers at lower rates. Hotels lost already-booked revenue whenever they reduced prices to fill empty rooms
Why penalize your best customers who reserve the longest in advance?
Personally, I hate spending time hotel shopping, but I do, because the price and quality can vary greatly and it's the only way to get a good price and a good room. But it is dumb management policy because it forces your customers - your best customers - to shop around every time they are looking for a room.
Instead, I would be happily loyal to a chain that had uniformly good quality (not luxury, just good - clean, working pool, no bedbugs, hot breakfast) and guaranteed the best price (and they will lower my price if they decide to lower the price to "fill rooms"). Done.
Why are managers so shortsighted and dumb?
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Customers who reserve though a middleman probably felt no penalty because they never got the savings to begin with. The 3P fulfills the reservation and keeps quiet about little switcheroo gimmicks behind the curtain.
Re:Dumb managers manage dumbly (Score:5, Informative)
When prices dropped, the sites automatically canceled existing bookings and rebooked customers at lower rates. Hotels lost already-booked revenue whenever they reduced prices to fill empty rooms
Why penalize your best customers who reserve the longest in advance? Personally, I hate spending time hotel shopping, but I do, because the price and quality can vary greatly and it's the only way to get a good price and a good room. But it is dumb management policy because it forces your customers - your best customers - to shop around every time they are looking for a room. Instead, I would be happily loyal to a chain that had uniformly good quality (not luxury, just good - clean, working pool, no bedbugs, hot breakfast) and guaranteed the best price (and they will lower my price if they decide to lower the price to "fill rooms"). Done. Why are managers so shortsighted and dumb?
Did you read what you quoted? Those are the worst customers.
The hotel needs to book X rooms at $Y to break even on a given day. They know their average room-fill rate, and they build their asking price based on that, with the target profit on top, getting $Z. A customer books a room in advance, and agrees to pay $Z.
All is well so far.
Now, as the day approaches, the hotel sees that they are not booking to capacity. So they offer the remaining rooms at below $Z and possibly even below $Y because empty rooms bring zero revenue.
You can view that the long-booked customer is getting a poorer deal than the last-minute booker. Okay. Too bad. You agreed to the terms you agreed to. And you got the guarantee that your room is held, where someone who waits until closer to the date may not get a room. It's completley fair.
The problem comes in when a customer uses a third-party booking company that cancels and rebooks, artificially replacing foundational income that was used to determine when discounts could be issued, replacing a $Z consumer with something less. That act undermines the hotel's profitability and stability.
I don't know why booking anywhere but a hotel is even a thing. Makes no sense to me whatsoever for a third party site to generate a discount. And playing scummy games that erode the predictability necessary to operate something like a hotel or restaurant... also not cool. I don't see how the hotel's actions are in the wrong.
I find it illuminating that your demands are simply the best quality and the lowest price. Easy-peasy, right? You're part of the problem.
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So they offer the remaining rooms at below $Z and possibly even below $Y because empty rooms bring zero revenue.
You forgot there's also a cost to booking a room to the hotel - utilities, wear and tear, room cleaning, running the pool, having sufficient staff to handle the # of guests on hand, etc. So at some price point, selling more rooms will cost you more than you bring in. Empty rooms have zero revenue but also less cost than a filled room.
You can view that the long-booked customer is getting a poorer deal than the last-minute booker. Okay. Too bad. You agreed to the terms you agreed to. And you got the guarantee that your room is held, where someone who waits until closer to the date may not get a room. It's completley fair.
The current model pushes consumers to become last-minute bookers who ONLY pay the lowest minimum price that the hotel will accept. AND it forces customers to price shop and com
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> So at some price point, selling more rooms will cost you more than you bring in.
You'd be bad at running a hotel, then. Unoccupied rooms are a capital investment (likely under mortgage for tax reasons) that isn't paying for itself. Just ask any landlord.
Last minute cancellations by a third party to give you a lower price is an abuse of a system meant for exceptional circumstances.
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Unoccupied rooms are a capital investment (likely under mortgage for tax reasons) that isn't paying for itself. Just ask any landlord.
Certain losses and capital expenses can be used to lower the corporate tax. But even without these financial games, there are costs to booking a room that you don't get if you don't book it. Room cleaning, for example. I don't know the going rate in all markets, but probably around $15+ just to clean the room (for just a normal level of grime), plus some laundry costs, so probably around $25-$40 for a single night just for cleaning? Plus wear on the room. Plus electricity. Plus water. Plus the throw-away ke
Re: Dumb managers manage dumbly (Score:2)
No one is really suggesting"at ANY price point". No one thinks renting rooms at 10 dollars is better than nothing, but renting rooms at 100 dollars that normally rent for 200 is better than nothing. And there is nothing stopping you from renting last minute, except the possibility of not getting a room or at least the room you want. If you want to take a chance of not getting a room to save 50 dollars you go right ahead.
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The current model pushes consumers to become last-minute bookers who ONLY pay the lowest minimum price that the hotel will accept.
Only consumers who are okay with possibly not being able to book a room.
I actually do this quite often on vacation. We like to fly to an interesting place with only a rough itinerary -- basically a list of things we want to see in approximate order based on a rough driving route -- then during the trip we book each night's accommodations that day, usually mid or late afternoon. By searching the whole area reachable by driving from our current location (and in the direction of what we'd like to do the nex
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Why penalize your best customers who reserve the longest in advance?
Who said they are the best customers? You're looking at this from the customer perspective, to understand this you need to switch it around. The best customer is the one you can separate from their money from the highest sum they are willing to pay. If you had a customer book something for $300, and then they turn around and cancel then rebook for $200, they aren't your best customers. Your best customer is the one that can be milked the most. This is usually those who book the day before and pay $700 for t
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When prices dropped, the sites automatically canceled existing bookings and rebooked customers at lower rates. Hotels lost already-booked revenue whenever they reduced prices to fill empty rooms
Why penalize your best customers who reserve the longest in advance?
100% this.
Smarter hotels should tell their customers they would refund the difference if their room prices (for the same class of room) dropped after the booking. That, plus no penalty cancellation, makes customers more willing to book long in advance, in turn allows better planning for both the hotel and the customers.
What hotels do now only encourage travellers to book only in the last minute and hence create sudden surges which is bad for both customers and hotels. It further discourages people from tr
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Instead, I would be happily loyal to a chain that had uniformly good quality (not luxury, just good - clean, working pool, no bedbugs, hot breakfast) and guaranteed the best price (and they will lower my price if they decide to lower the price to "fill rooms"). Done.
Yeah, the hotel industry is in a sorry state right now. Most are clearly neglecting maintenance and then jerk you around on price and amenities. Oh, and they are shrinking the rooms too! [youtube.com]
What cancel-rebook sites (Score:1)
This entire article stinks of hotel cancellation policy being more consumer hostile being excused as "we didn't want to make it worse for travelers but some really shitty underhanded people made us do it..." to launder the reputation of major hotel chains as good rather than taking maximum possible advantage of industry consolidation in the last
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Huh? Where? (Score:4, Informative)
Literally every hotel I've booked in both Marriott or Hilton chains has a cancellation policy including night before. Literally. Every. Single. One. I only have about 500 nights in a hotel since 2018 including plenty in several states in America. Is this some hyper localised trend where the writer lives or something?
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Literally every hotel I've booked in both Marriott or Hilton chains has a cancellation policy including night before. Literally. Every. Single. One. I only have about 500 nights in a hotel since 2018 including plenty in several states in America. Is this some hyper localised trend where the writer lives or something?
That's because you're taking the default, most expensive, booking option. On hilton.com, which I almost always use for business travel, click through the "more rates" link and you'll typically see rates for prepayment with no cancellation, rates with 2-3 day cancellation and rates with 24-hour cancellation. Also rates with free breakfast, rates with double points, etc.
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No it's far from the most expensive option. But yes it's not always the cheapest, but that's completely beside the point, TFA postulates a scenario where the cancellations have disappeared. They objectively haven't. They are right there and you're not even denying that fundamental point I was making.
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No it's far from the most expensive option
Uh, yes, the 24-hour cancellation option is always the most expensive one for a given room (ignoring paying extra for add-ons like free breakfast or extra points). What other option would be more expensive? The one that gives the consumer the most flexibility is the one with the highest risk to the property, and that's priced in.
TFA postulates a scenario where the cancellations have disappeared.
Yeah, TFA overstated it. Though if you're not booking through the chain directly, in many cases it is hard to get a 24-hour cancellation policy. Many of the travel aggregator se
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Literally every hotel I've booked in both Marriott or Hilton chains has a cancellation policy including night before. Literally. Every. Single. One. I only have about 500 nights in a hotel since 2018 including plenty in several states in America. Is this some hyper localised trend where the writer lives or something?
I live in the US and often pay extra for my reservation to allow cancellations. Even when booking directly through the hotel's website. Marriott is the worst offender IMHO.
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I was in Chicago only 5 months ago I didn't pay a cent extra for 3 day cancellation. The Hilton I stayed at 2 weeks later (the Marriott was sold out) had 24h cancellation, no extra charge.
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Why not just fair prices? (Score:2)
If the hotel would make a price the room is worth there would be no use in playing cancel-rebook. Decide on a price and stick to it.
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It's always been a game. Without the pricing game, they don't really make money. If they just charged "fair" prices, competing hotels would trivially undercut them.
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It is just another pricing game ... like buying a car, buying an airline ticket, buying a house or condo, buying Hi-Fi hardware, buying electricity (in the USA), even buying "services" from the "after hours specialist" at the nearest street corner (or window, if you are in Amsterdam?).
If you want a stable, predictable, won't change price ... not sure where you will find that except in a Socialist or Communist market economy.
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Agreed. And in that Socialist or Communist country, that price won't be realistic. Just as rent controls disincentivize landlords from maintaining their properties or building new ones, controlled pricing by Communist regimes causes people to not produce the things people want, but rather, produce the things they can get party leaders to support.
"Scalpers" killed the radio star? (Score:2)