Take a close look at your travel itinerary. Notice anything? That’s right, your hotel reservation may not be refundable at all. Yes, even during a pandemic.
So if you’re in doubt about traveling and want to get a refund for a non-refundable hotel room, you may be out of luck.
Sometimes you don’t have a choice. Consider what happened to Liam Goodman. He booked a non-refundable hotel room in New York at the last minute through Priceline. When the property ran out of rooms and he had to stay at another hotel, Priceline took his money.
“Priceline says I never checked in and didn’t show up,” says Goodman, a photographer from Beacon, New York.
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Non-refundable hotel rooms are becoming more common
Anecdotally, non-refundable (or “prepaid”) hotel rooms are becoming more common. No one systematically tracks and reports the number of non-refundable hotel rooms. The deal is simple: you pay for the hotel room(s) up front and get a modest discount. Unlike with airlines, there is no chance of a refund even if you change your mind within 24 hours of making the reservation.
OK, have you checked your travel itinerary yet? If you need to book one of these non-refundable hotel rooms, don’t worry. There are ways to get your money back. But perhaps the best strategy is to avoid these tricky hotel reservations in the first place.
Goodman wishes he had. He could have avoided the hassle by asking his original hotel to “guide” him to a comparable hotel, which is standard practice in the hotel industry. Instead, he turned to Priceline for help – and was turned away. I asked Priceline about his case. The company reviewed his records and found that he had not been a no-show after all. The online agency offered him a full refund.
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So you want a refund for a non-refundable room?
I asked frequent travelers how they got refunds for non-refundable rooms, and it turns out that many of them were able to get their money back under certain circumstances.
If the hotel does not match the advertisement. I’ve seen many cases where the hotel didn’t live up to expectations. In such a case, anything is possible. Take lots of photos and contact the highest level – and your credit card company if necessary. If the answer is still “no,” you may still be able to salvage your stay. For example, when Heidi Vanderlee discovered she had to share a bathroom with another guest at her London hotel, she contacted her online travel agent. After much back and forth, the online travel agent corrected her reservation and allowed her to upgrade to a room with a private bathroom. “It could have turned out a lot worse,” says Vanderlee, a publicist who lives in New York.
When you are sick. That’s what Grant Sabatier recently found out when he got sick and canceled a nonrefundable hotel room in Washington, DC. A valid medical excuse can ensure a full refund, especially if it’s related to COVID-19. But he had to call the hotel three times before they saw things their way. “This only worked for me when I booked directly with a hotel,” adds Sabatier, the founder of financial advice site Millennial Money.
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If your circumstances change. Hotels understand that your plans can change. Chris Michaels recently asked for a refund for two nonrefundable nights at a chain hotel in Chicago. “I politely explained to a front desk agent that I was attending the big tournament in town and that my team had been eliminated from the tournament. I also said that I was a rewards member of the chain and had stayed at that hotel in the past,” recalls Michaels, the founder of personal finance site Frugal Reality. “The hotel offered to charge me a $50 cleaning fee to cover the balance for the night. Of course, I paid it and headed home.”
When there is a death in the family. But don’t expect it to be easy. Alex Beene once had to cancel a nonrefundable reservation because a relative had died. The hotel referred him to a “skeptical” manager. “But when I offered to provide documentation, he offered to refund my stay and offered his condolences,” says Beene, who works for the state of Tennessee. “Just the idea that you have a written reason for canceling a nonrefundable stay shows the hotel how serious you are about the request.”
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What if you don’t have a case?
Let’s face it: Most of the time, people just want a refund for a non-refundable room without any valid reason. And why not? Hotels can often resell the rooms, so it’s only fair that we get at least some of the money back, right?
Regular hotel guests like Anna DiTommaso, who owns a web design company in Dallas, say it’s still worth a try.
“The hotel has the right to keep the money,” she says. “But my experience is that if you have a valid reason for cancelling the room, most hotels will offer you a refund without you even having to ask.”
I agree. “Prepaid” rooms and non-refundable rates are not customer friendly. The discounts are too small and the risks too great. Often guests don’t even know they have a non-refundable rate until it’s too late. Yes, hotels hide the terms in the fine print, just like other travel companies.
Bottom line: Non-refundable hotel rooms shouldn’t exist. But they do. Now you may be able to avoid them.
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3 ways to avoid being stuck with a non-refundable room
travel insurance. If you need to cancel your hotel stay for a covered reason, you can get reimbursement for your non-refundable hotel costs from your insurance company. Justin Tysdal, CEO of Seven Corners, recommends a “cancel for any reason” benefit. “You can cancel your trip for any reason,” he says. “This allows you to cancel your trip should something unexpected happen and get at least 75% of your non-refundable trip costs back.”
Change the date of your reservation. Sometimes non-refundable hotel rooms can be rebooked for a later date. Andy Abramson, who runs a communications firm in Los Angeles, says some hotels will let you request – and get – a refund after rescheduling. “I’ve used this trick several times.”
Resell the room. Yes, it is possible. “You can resell your non-refundable hotel bookings to other people and get a refund that way,” says Galena Stavreva, CEO of SpareFare.net, which allows these room changes. She says hotels allow changing the name of the main guest on the reservation. Booking.com and Expedia also allow name changes. You can get some or all of your hotel room costs back.
Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that helps consumers solve their problems and assists those who are unable to do so. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of USA TODAY.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How to get a refund for a non-refundable hotel room
