Wednesday, January 23, 2008

I’ll never do THAT again

I was going to save $20 or $30. Now I’m out $250. That’s the last time I opt for the non-refundable rate.

I’m part of a group that gets together semi-formally to talk about employee communications. Most of the members work for Fortune 100 companies and their travel is covered by their employers. There are a couple of us, though, who were invited to participate based on our expertise; we were also involved in creating the group. So, when the group meets, I pay all expenses on my own nickel.

This time around, the meeting was in Atlanta. It was a lock, a set date. I even coordinated a presentation with another participant. Then, last minute—that being today, with the meeting on Friday—the meeting was postponed. Too many people canceled due to illness or work or personal emergencies.

Rescheduling my flight was one nightmare, costing me about $500 in change fees and fare differences, but that was offset by the unused portion of my original itinerary being put in a bank for my use any time during the next year. With my schedule, I’ll probably use it within the next week. The real killer was the hotel. I booked with the Hilton Suites Atlanta Perimeter. Since I’m using my own money, no reimbursement, I opted for the special non-refundable web rate, pre-charged to my credit card. I called to cancel and found there was no accommodation at all. No putting the money in a bank for another night. No points to my Hilton Honors account (I’m a Silver HHonors VIP, whatever the hell that’s good for), no nothing.

I’m not blaming Hilton, mind you. It was clear when I booked it that it was non-refundable. But I will never, ever, avail myself of that option again. This meeting was a sure thing and yet it isn’t happening, and I’m out $250.80, just because I wanted to save $20 or $30 over a refundable rate. I’d rather pay the higher rate and be able to cancel than risk losing it all. My advice: Stay away from these offers. Under the circumstances, I have to question why the hotels even offer them.

Posted by Shel in • Hotels
(7) Comments • Permalink

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  1. I learned the same lesson the hard way years ago. My schedule has a habit of changing suddenly on a regular basis, so I don’t use those web rates unless I’m already en route to the destination (in other words, it is a same day booking). What always irked me the most was what you noted—even though you are out the cash, you don’t get the points or credit for the stay. To me, that’s wrong.

    It’s a good deal for the hotel, though, to offer these rates.

    Chip Griffin  on  01/24  at  09:56 AM

  2. Unless there is a really big price difference between refundable and non-refundable (as in more than $100) I always go for refundable.  I do look at the non-refundable rates again a few days before checking in (to lock in savings once I am confident I will be staying).  That way I minimise my “change of plans” losses, and can often benefit from reduced flexible rates in the interim.

    Just a tip to always make a new booking and get that confirmed before cancelling the old booking.

    If someone almost never needs to change their plans, the $ saving to go for non-refundable could be lower - but at a minimum I’d want to save 10% no matter what.

    The Global Traveller  on  01/27  at  10:09 PM

  3. Hey,

    Thanks for the warning, I actually found this blog while looking for information about that particular hotel smile funny how quickly they pick stuff up.
    Anyway i’m from the UK (heading to America) and I have never seen this kind of offer in the UK before, I think it’s very strange they offer it at all, must be especially for lulling people into a false sense of security about cancellations, I wonder how much they make out of it a year?

    Frank Wass  on  02/06  at  11:27 PM

  4. It’s not just hotels that do this (and the UK is just the same). Trains and planes often have “advanced purchase” rates that have little or no flexibility.

    There is a place for these kinds of rates especially if you are not travelling on business but if the nature of your travel is that your diary changes from one minute to the next, common sense says keep clear.

    Mark Roddis  on  02/09  at  07:34 AM

  5. It can sometimes make sense to book non-refundable tickets even if your travel plans change a lot.  But only as long as the savings are sufficiently large.

    My travel schedule changes a lot but I have no qualms booking certain air tickets as non-refundable knowing that over a course of a year I’ll lose maybe half a dozen of them.  For me, the savings over more flexible tickets more than outweighs the cost of buying a few tickets at the last minute.  For others it may not work out so well.

    Note also in some jurisdictions the taxes including fuel surcharges and fees can be refunded without penalty - only lose the ticket base fare which could be rather low.

    The Global Traveller  on  02/09  at  10:51 AM

  6. I feel your pain.  I recently purchased a discount ticket through the AA website, only to find out that I was going to be placed on standby status because there were no seats left for purchase.  When I tried to cancel the ticket, I found that there was no such thing at AA.  (Or at least for me, a non-AA frequent flier.) I ended up talking to three or four different, extremely helpful (are they in jail somewhere??) AA employees before I found one that would allow me to exchange the ticket for another flight.  sigh.

    Steve  on  02/14  at  09:34 AM

  7. This is why I always insist on Business Class travel; the number of times I’ve had to resched flights due to changes in client priorities, sickness, etc., is mind-numbing. And as for hotel accommodation, I couldn’t agree more. Those ‘bargain last minute’ deals on websites like http://wofit.com.au are equally risky.

    Lee Hopkins  on  02/14  at  11:10 PM

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