@jasimae wrote:The bottomline question is whether the OP read the terms of the hotel and/or room policy when he booked the reservation. Whether or not the agent read the cancellation policy to him upon his call to cancel or whether or not he cancelled because he received a lower rate shortly after booking and decided to cancel based upon that. All of those facts are irrelevant. It's was to the OP, as the consumer, to read and understand the terms of everything he purchases. Just as he reads his credit card statement, telephone bill or any other contractual obligation. It doesn't matter if the hotel hadn't charged him before he turned around and re-booked another reservation and then cancelled the first. He had already authorized the first reservation and was bound to the terms of the reservation. I know we want to feel sorry for him, but the bottom-line, if that IS the case, is what the cancellation policy is. Any representative will gladly cancel a reservation. I've never heard of a non-cancellable reservation but non-refundable reservations are pretty much a practice. Anyone can easily cancel any reservation but whether or not, according to the cancellation guidelines, they get their money refunded back is what the policy defines. If business simply refunded everyone their money simply because they cancelled they'd be out of business. That's why these policies are in place in the first place. I do hope the OP is able to get his money back, if he was clearly in-line with the hotel's cancellation policy, but I firmly believe if he wasn't...then he hasn't a leg to stand on. If, in that instance, AmEx does side with him and refund him the money, it doesn't necessarily mean he was right, it's just that AmEx, as a multi-billion dollar establishment has extended the OP courtesy. Another reason why one should always read the fine print.
yes but he stayed the same nights and got billed twice for the same room,, now that's just highway robbery
@jasimae wrote:The bottomline question is whether the OP read the terms of the hotel and/or room policy when he booked the reservation. Whether or not the agent read the cancellation policy to him upon his call to cancel or whether or not he cancelled because he received a lower rate shortly after booking and decided to cancel based upon that. All of those facts are irrelevant. It's was to the OP, as the consumer, to read and understand the terms of everything he purchases. Just as he reads his credit card statement, telephone bill or any other contractual obligation. It doesn't matter if the hotel hadn't charged him before he turned around and re-booked another reservation and then cancelled the first. He had already authorized the first reservation and was bound to the terms of the reservation. I know we want to feel sorry for him, but the bottom-line, if that IS the case, is what the cancellation policy is. Any representative will gladly cancel a reservation. I've never heard of a non-cancellable reservation but non-refundable reservations are pretty much a practice. Anyone can easily cancel any reservation but whether or not, according to the cancellation guidelines, they get their money refunded back is what the policy defines. If business simply refunded everyone their money simply because they cancelled they'd be out of business. That's why these policies are in place in the first place. I do hope the OP is able to get his money back, if he was clearly in-line with the hotel's cancellation policy, but I firmly believe if he wasn't...then he hasn't a leg to stand on. If, in that instance, AmEx does side with him and refund him the money, it doesn't necessarily mean he was right, it's just that AmEx, as a multi-billion dollar establishment has extended the OP courtesy. Another reason why one should always read the fine print.
What you're saying is technically correct, but it's a stupid way to do business. People make mistakes. Hotels are in the hospitality business. If you think the customer made an honest mistake and isn't trying to game for a better rate, you should credit it back. It's $500. Over $500, I don't know that I'd say that I would never stay at Hilton again. I'd probably get over it after a while, especially if it meant inconveniencing myself by having to stay at a property that was further away from a meeting or was substantially more expensive. But there are lots of other options out there. And I can guarantee I wouldn't stay with them the next several trips, and probably would choose another hotel every time there was a similarly priced and convenient option for quite a long time. So Hilton can stand on it's policy, keep the $500, and start losing money on me pretty much immediately if they want to. Doesn't take too many trips before they're out money because they wanted to keep that $500.
Starting Score: ~500 (12/01/2008)
Haha. Egg on my face. The T&C refer to rooms as cancelable or non-cancelable, it doesn't use the terminology of refundable or non-refundable. There are a lot of T&C such that I'm not sure this would apply for OP, e.g., have to notify them within 24 hours and other things I didn't read. But I thought it interesting that they refer to rooms as non-cancelable. This breathes a little life back into the argument that if OP has a cancelation confirmation, couldn't have been a non-cancelable room (although I still don't think this is a winner, but some lawyer needs to rethink these T&C's).
