Hotel Bookings with Free cancellations

[Saleen836]

Browsing hotels for my up comming trip, what is it with hotels offering 'free cancellations' up until a day or two before check-in but upping the nightly cost by approx £100 a night for the priviledge?

I have very good travel insurance so guessing save myself approx £1000 over the trip and claim off insurance should anything happen, sensible?

[Jader1973]

8 years ago I had a bit of hassle because I had to cancel a holiday so now I just book the cancel late option.

I had to cancel a holiday again this year, and not having to bother with hotels made things a bit easier. One click and they were cancelled.

[miniman]

Saleen836 said:

Browsing hotels for my up comming trip, what is it with hotels offering 'free cancellations' up until a day or two before check-in but upping the nightly cost by approx £100 a night for the priviledge?

I have very good travel insurance so guessing save myself approx £1000 over the trip and claim off insurance should anything happen, sensible?

Travel insurance will cover the need to cancel in extreme circumstances such as illness etc but not if you simply decide to cancel. Most hotels have a flexible rate and a cheaper “no changes” rate. Most business travellers will choose the flexible rate so if plans change they don’t lose the entire cost of the booking, at the (literal) expense of a higher rate.

[omniflow]

Saleen836 said:

Browsing hotels for my up comming trip, what is it with hotels offering 'free cancellations' up until a day or two before check-in but upping the nightly cost by approx £100 a night for the priviledge?

I have very good travel insurance so guessing save myself approx £1000 over the trip and claim off insurance should anything happen, sensible?

They're either very expensive hotels, or you're comparing room only with bed and breakfast.

You can normally save between 10% and 15% by taking the no cancelation option. In some cases this means paying when you book, in other cases they just take your card details.

For big trips that are planned and booked months in advance then I pretty much always take this option. I know that I'm going and that the only things that would prevent me from going would be covered.

I did have to cancel one trip due to a death in the family. I think there were 6 different hotels, 4 car ferries and a Villa. There were no issues claiming it all back on my travel insurance. In most cases, for the hotels, all they needed to see was the booking confirmation which had the cancellation terms on it.

For more casual trips, I book hotels with the flexible option.

[M11rph]

What Omni' said.

I find the flexible option is around 10% extra.

I often choose it when planning longer multi stay trips. It means you can build the itinerary over a period of weeks rather than needing to do it in one go, I'll often book a hotel and subsequently change the route/schedule so for me it is money well spent.

Travel Insurance covers the other costs associated with needing to cancel the whole trip.

[Puggit]

As our kids are now 17 and 19, Mrs Puggit and I have started going away for weekends occasionally around the UK. What we are doing is booking early and booking flexible and then cancelling if our plans change. It's very useful!

By booking early we're still saving a huge amount of money and the fleixble rate about 3-6 months out is still a lot cheaper than the cheapest rate about a month ahead.

[bennno]

Puggit said:

As our kids are now 17 and 19, Mrs Puggit and I have started going away for weekends occasionally around the UK. What we are doing is booking early and booking flexible and then cancelling if our plans change. It's very useful!

By booking early we're still saving a huge amount of money and the fleixble rate about 3-6 months out is still a lot cheaper than the cheapest rate about a month ahead.

We do that, but we will now book the cheapest offer 2-3 days before and cancel the original offer.

Ive been stung on the cheap deals with a lock in way in advance, often the hotel will be doing a better deal closer to the dates of your stay etc.

[DJC76]

Another vote for booking with “free” cancellation, regularly checking the price and cancelling and rebooking. Same goes for using cashback sites such as Quidco. If the rate shoots up as it has in the past then I’ll cancel and rebook under that option. Depending on where and when the accommodation is booked it may well get very cheap nearer the date of travel at which point you’ve got the option to cancel and rebook at that bargain price. I save a huge amount of money each year doing this.