scubaccr

SO you can't cancel&rebook without $50 penalty from your flex rate BUT you can cancel and move without penalty to a different hotel which could be another competitor chain.
This is never going to work!

If hotel is at low percent occupancy in the area/hotel 1-2 weeks out and drops rates, then that is half the point of booking flex rates. If hotels do this blocking rebook to cheaper flex, we will simply cancel and book in a different nearby hotel so hotels will be worse and not better off

Booking a reservation at 9-11 months out for a popular hotel is sometimes a must, even is not a seasonal high usage date like eg thanksgiving, Easter etc

We all book flex then as plans may change, and also know that as hotel are unsure of demand that far ahead, these early flex rates are often higher than they could be and I find hotels set more realistic flex rates about 4months out, at which time I look to check and rebook
In fact even if plan 11months is firm, eg anniversary stay, even ADR/BAR rates could be set unreal usually high, so I ignore , use flex and look to switch about 3-4 months out when the hotel properly sets rates for my date

Further having locked in a "maximum" cost a year ahead, 2-3 weeks out if prices are adavantageous I cancel flex and book cheaper BAR/ADR non-cancel rate

AND if as article says if will cost $ 50 to cancel a flex rate, on possibly a $100 room, then no one will book flex months ahead anymore, which gives hotels no idea of occupancy on the night, and will force hotel to lower rates to fill their undercooked inventory making booking early flex even less likely by guests

SkiAdcock

Just curious - do many people check the rate of the hotel they're staying at 24-hours out & cancel/rebook? If I'm reading the OP correctly, the $50 fee applies to those who are not HHmembers who cancel less than 24 hours out. I know a # of folk who cancel/rebook when rates drop but it's normally farther out than the day before they check in.

Cheers. Sharon

azepine00

Nope - within 24 hr its full night penalty for everyone - that got rolled out last year iirc.
Its $50 penalty for cancelation up to 24 hr - an utter nonsense for BAR.
Cant imagine it taking hold - my company by default prohibits booking anything with cancelation penalty.

eponymous_coward

No kidding. If I wanted the cheapest non-refundable rate I'd pay it. I'm usually willing to pay a modest premium for flexibility, but if Hilton wants to add an extra premium and thus drive me over to Priceline/Hotwire/Hotel Tonight/Kayak/channels where hotels dump excess inventory, or not have me make reservations through hilton.com until close in ... so be it, I guess?

SkiAdcock

BTW - I do think the quote above where they mention the policy is for folk gaming the system yet the $50 penalty only applies to those who don't belong to HH is a bit silly. I'd bet $$ that Jane/Joe who doesn't travel enough to belong to a hotel chain's FF program is the least likely to "game the system". It just sounds like an additional money grab to me.

Cheers. Sharon

sbv72

Interestingly I just made a reservation at Hilton Adelaide and the City Break rate allowed free cancellation up to 4pm day of arrival.

I made sure I took screen shot.

This rate included breakfast, valet parking and was cheaper than prepaid non-cancellable rate for room only. Can't work that out but won't complain.

Richmond_Surrey

I always monitor prices and change bookings in case of price drop. That's before cancellation deadline of my flexible reservation. Price drops can be quite significant in some hotels.

kpbadger

Just hit this verbiage attempting to book at the Embassy Suites at SFO for a random Thursday in January. My company's travel department does not allow bookings with cancellation penalties and they had never seen this language before (nor had I until I saw it and then found this thread). Even though I'm an HHonors member, they didn't want to risk time and effort of potentially dealing with this if things went wrong. Corporate travel departments like straightforwardness and simplicity. I'm now booked elsewhere.

A change fee for this particular night is a real head-scratcher -- all the reputable SFO airport hotels are running $150 or less for the night in question, which from my experience indicates very soft demand.

(Edit: typos)

dw

Please do send a note to Hilton telling them that because of this "test" they are running, you booked elsewhere and that it was dictated by your corporate travel department.

jeffandnicole

This nails on the head why there's such a policy. You really didn't want to stay at the hotel, but didn't want to pay a higher rate elsewhere. So you booked the Hilton rate with the full intention of cancelling it.

Hilton is simply saying "Make a decision dude!".

It can also be a reason to drive people to sign up for the hhonors program, which no doubt will promote the no-fee cancellation policy if such a policy was to be in effect for that hotel.

Westcoaster

Not true. I fully intended to stay at the Hilton property when I made the award reservation. Given the high paid rates at both properties I assumed that something was going on in the area and that both places expected to be pretty full. As it turned out they both dropped their rates significantly not long before the stay. The Marriott dropped theirs first so I went with them. If the Hilton had offered the more reasonable paid rate first I would have changed the award stay to a paid stay with them. More money for them so I don't see how they could complain.

If Hilton offers me a decent value they get my business. If they put in high rates initially for a future stay and then want to charge me $50 later when they drop down to the competition's new level then they shouldn't expect me to play their game. I don't see how this $50 fee will fly if the competition doesn't charge something similar.

Westcoaster

Interesting that both test hotels we know about so far are airport hotels -- SEA and SFO. I wonder if the remaining 18 are more of the same.

MD/DC Flyer

As someone who does have travel plans many months in advance, and do have booking made many months in advance - this is going to hurt if implemented wildly. Usually I have several booking at several places I will consider to stay in and I monitor the prices regularly. If there is no extra ordinary demand the price always falls (2 months to 2 weeks prior to the stay).

That said, I guess I am the reason they implement such a change.

If they really want to be innovative, why don't just promise everyone on flex rate that they will receive the lowest rate the hotel will offer between the time of booking and the time of stay, and enforce a one night penalty for booking cancelled less than 24 hours from the stay (do as the Vegas hotels do - charge one night upfront). Of course that would mean that the revenue management department need to be smart - and of course that would never happen.

My prediction that the fee would become the norm in couple of years from now, which will make me shift my stay pattern considerably, if I cannot cancel a flex reservation without a fee.

PayItForward

Just a thought.

I noticed that this is for NON HHonors members?

Guess is that they can track cancellations by HHonors members and should a member 'abuse' the system, the membership can be revoked.

So.. Rooms are priced based on demand so more empty rooms, cheaper rates. This means if I intend to disrupt a hotel, I could fake a few bookings and cancel them later. Impact would be while I held the inventory under a few bogus reservations which I never intend to honor, the rate of that property goes up for those days in comparison to the neighboring properties making it less attractive. Fine if the rooms ended up consumed but disastrous if the property lost the original bookings and other subsequent potentials due to the increased rates. How bad is this, only the property and HHonors knows but apparently significant enough to merit them trying something.

NYC2TheWorld

Found another test hotel - Hilton Atlanta. Booked a Thurs-Mon stay for December and had the new cancellation terms. The rate is extremely low (under 100/night).