Hotel Cancelation Fees

[dewey089]

Or a a literate write might put it, cancellation fees.

In general, when booking hotels we expect free cancellation up until a few days before arrival and even late cancellation usually only forfeits one night's fee. However, taking that for granted without seeing it in writing may bring a surprise. Take the Easyclick travel site. Here is their policy:
Q. What is your
hotel cancellation policy?
Change or cancellation requests received by our
Customer Support 3 days prior to check in time (noon local hotel time)?
will be subject to 1 night's fee

Change or cancellation requests received by our
Customer Support 1 day prior to check in time (noon local hotel time) will
receive no refund

No-shows will not be refunded

I don't quite see the difference between telling them a couple days ahead or just not showing up, but they must want to spell out both scenarios, at least in the fine print. They probably know that their policies are rare.

Also, if looking at good deals at Terribles, even on the booking.com site which has no regular cancellation fee policy itself, I see that the best deals in price come with no refunds on cancellation. This is new to me. I saw these no refund options on the Super 8 Koval site, but did not encounter them before when pricing Terribles.

Many of us get last minute free rooms from places like the Four Queens. And all of us might have an emergency and need cancellation. It is always best to book directly with hotels, but even most discount bookings have come with generous cancellation (although rigid modification) policies.
Keep reading that fine print.

[keno60]

Re: Hotel Cancelation Fees

Dewey,

I have booked a 4 night stay with the 4 queens, thurs.-sun. The 2 weekdays are comped. I was wondering if they might comp fri. or sat. night.
The last time the host comped the BOGO day and some meals..He based it on my increased play. I had never stayed there before so it was easy to play more, as I usually took a short trip downtown. My play is .25 VP. Thanks in advance.

[dewey089]

Re: Hotel Cancelation Fees

Just call, ask for the host number, and ask.
I get comped weekend nights every trip, but my offers are for 3 nights and I use them on weekends as that gets the most value. Then I get mailed slot tournament weekend dates that give 3 nights as well.

Do you play live poker.
Binions has an interesting poker rate that I may try next trip. It is cheap and the days comped through Binions do not show up on your Four Queens trip days as long as you don't play at the Four Queens during that time. The two systems come in on separate computers. I hope it will be a way to stay a week at Four Queens without screwing up the calculation of what I'm worth to them by how much I play. I'll then concentrate my VP bankroll on the days that the Four Queens comps me and my poker play on the days that Binions gives me a poker rate.

[Mr. Island]

Re: Hotel Cancelation Fees

They have to differentiate between cancelling on short notice and not showing up, because customers love to argue and look for loopholes.

Actually many hotels now offer Advance Purchase rates where you pay for the reservation in full at the time of booking. You usually get a discount of anywhere between 10 and 25 per cent, but you lose the right to modify or cancel the reservation. As someone who worked in hotel reservations once upon a time, I never book any hotel without noting what the cancellation policy and fees are.

Also some rental car companies also have Advance Purchase rates. Alamo's is a 15% discount off rack, again with no cancellations of modifications.

[dewey089]

Re: Hotel Cancelation Fees

I think this is more a marketing tool of the discounter EasyClick and the cancellation fees are paid to them, not to the hotels in question. I see the same pattern in offers for El Cortez, cheap deals secured with cancellation fees.
If that is the case, it may just be a case of boilerplate posting where both possibilities are offered by the software they use to post deals.
So Easyclick might be a good deal a few days before we take possession of the rooms, maybe a good last minute deal once we are already in Vegas and cancellation fees are less of an issue because cancellation is less likely. Until then, when booking in Vegas, flexibility is essential as deals emerge all the time.
I'd be glad to hear from folks of other details on cancellation fees that apply even with early changes. Anyone know of any others?
The other downside of using discounters is they don't allow easy modification. So if you want to drop a day in a reservation, you need to cancel the entire reservation and rebook, usually at a higher rate than you found months before. Some casinos offer to match the price of the discounter, so it is good to call and do that whenever possible. That way you pick up the modification advantages.
Gold Spike on line bookings at their site that need to be modified can be, but the clerk won't always be willing to do it. If told no, wait and call again. Also stress that you would like to go there, but if you have to rebook, you can find cheaper deals. They can drop a day and still keep other days at the rate you booked.
I did hear from one clerk that the hotel will match other discount booking rates. I have not tried that yet.
Generally, I book in sets of 3 or 4 days even if I am going to stay six or seven. Two overlapping reservations can be blended usually very easily at hotels, but also one can be cancelled easily, leaving the other completely in tact. I have to plan flexibility because at the last minute I'll get the Four Queen mailings for 3 free nights, but I won't wait that long to book my backups. I leave the weekends as 3 day weekends and hope the Four Queens deals will match those. If not, wherever I book the Friday and Saturday I can add the third day usually cheaply as well. I don't like staying shorter than three days at any one place. Too much check in and check out.

Thanks for your comments, Mr. Island. We may come at this from different experiences, mine being all consumer and never provider; however, we arrive at one clear agreement, check cancellation policies before booking.
I think of booking rooms just as I think of playing live poker. The others at the table in the play are my friendly opponents. I'm not sympathetic to their issues, but merely want to make the best bets and win the pot.

Sometimes I do get sympathetic, however. Lately, I am feeling quite supportive of the way that Eastside Cannery is marketing and renting rooms. As well as all the free amenities: pool, wifi in the room, 202 bus service to the edge of the parking lot, no fee Bank of America ATM across the street, Claudine Castro Latin music late Monday night with Cannery beer at about a buck and a half so that sitting in the lounge is not an expensive night out, the most friendly live poker room management and an easy 4 hour play for free buffet, a $10 senior discount on rack room rates, I see that for the most part the rates over time change less than they do at other casinos, especially the Tues-Wed-Thurs $30 senior rates. So I am appreciative of their offers, although I wish the few full pay VP machines they have ( in the coin dropper room) would also disburse some points.

On another fee note. I've learned two new bits on resort fees. One is that although most of the bookings at the Orleans of comped rooms come with no resort fees, they do have some, usually those first timer promotions, that require a resort fee. And the clerk also told me that resort fees are required after booking on B Connected, although that has not been my experience at Gold Coast, Orleans, Sam's town. My cash bookings on B Connected for those places, while promising a resort fee, did not charge it. I'd appreciate any experience with this as well. (B Connected is the site you join using your player's card number that keeps track of Boyd casino offers and promotions.)

The second bit of news is that there is an "access fee" now for folks who have comped rooms with Station casinos, (or at least at Boulder station,) but want the free internet that usually comes only with a resort fee that is not charged on comped rooms. The access fee is just over $5.
It is this nickle and dime crap that keeps me from Boulder Station, compared with Eastside Cannery. The Eastside Cannery comes out cheaper if I am making a cash reservation, and were I to play enough for a comped room, there would be no wifi access fee to jump up and bite off a bit of my comp. I feel the same about airlines. Southwest is a simple booking and I don't have to worry about how I'll pack. And there is no cancellation fee their either, just a requirement to use the money on another ticket wintin a year.

[keno60]

Re: Hotel Cancelation Fees

Just call, ask for the host number, and ask.
I get comped weekend nights every trip, but my offers are for 3 nights and I use them on weekends as that gets the most value. Then I get mailed slot tournament weekend dates that give 3 nights as well.

Do you play live poker.
Binions has an interesting poker rate that I may try next trip. It is cheap and the days comped through Binions do not show up on your Four Queens trip days as long as you don't play at the Four Queens during that time. The two systems come in on separate computers. I hope it will be a way to stay a week at Four Queens without screwing up the calculation of what I'm worth to them by how much I play. I'll then concentrate my VP bankroll on the days that the Four Queens comps me and my poker play on the days that Binions gives me a poker rate.

Thanks for the tips. I have not played poker in Vegas, just friendly games at home. I will play a lot of VP .25 level at the 4 Queens during my stay, I was planning on asking a host at the end if they would pick up at least one of the weekend nights.