Jon Maiman

Very true with IHG (don't use Accor so don't know with them). Other downsides I have found with IHG are point inflation for stays [most desirable properties in cities and many suburbs are 35K plus per night sometimes as high as 60K per night (i.e. as expensive and even more so than Marriott for the equivalent class property, especially in the suburbs)]. For families, only a small subset of urban properties are offerings rooms with two beds for award stays. IHG also doesn't have a fifth nigh free program. So you need to earn more IHG points vs. Marriott points to have the same award spending power.

On the plus side in addition to the generally more flexible cancellation terms, for rural areas and more distant suburbs/small cities, IHG still works well. That said, IHG also has many properties that are 24 hour and some are 48 hour cancellation in the larger cities. After doing both programs for approx. 3 years now, I still prefer Marriott but IHG does have its uses as a secondary program. The annual Chase MasterCard free night is also great since it isn't category restricted vs. the ridiculously low Marriott Cat. 5 certificate. End of ramble...

--Jon

sdix

I'm not at 10 but getting closer.

This past weekend I wanted to book in San Jose but plans were fluid and when I went to book I was already past the cancel deadline so I didn't book and the Fairmont got my business.

Perhaps a benefit for Plats could be 6pm day of arrival cancellation. Unless of course we are the biggest offenders.

Lani1

Same here - certainly Marriott can do what they want ....but so can I

1120

Like many here, I have a number of reservations on the books right now. As far as I can tell, there's no change (yet) to our Megacorp contract cancellation terms.

For personal travel, this just makes me more likely to get a reservation and then see if prices get better. Traditionally, I've not bothered with this approach partly because I feel it's unfair to the hotels. (Plus I'm also too lazy.).

I just went went through a less than helpful Pt "guarantee" experience and finally got a room. The hotels where I'm staying realized in the last week or two that their decision to invoke the special event exception and gouge the #%*! out of their guests was not going so well. I looked and changed hotels three times in one week and ultimately got a rate that's about 1/4 of what it was a couple weeks ago.
For most of my travel, there are multiple Marriott properties in the area I'm visiting.

We as consumers have the ultimate power as to where we'll spend our dollars. I get that hotels are running a business and, during a strong economy, they want to maximize revenue. But that works both ways - I'm running a "business" for my family - and I'm not about to waste money.

pokee

Yeah, Marriott is the bomb for points stays. Not only do they have the 5th night free perk, but you don't need the points to make the points reservation, and it's the only hotel program that allows this. And I use this perk every single time I book!

And since I'm always reserving a room with more than one bed, I love that Marriott always gives the option of multiple beds. Heck, on a recent reservation at a resort in Maui, I even got to select a higher room category on a basic award stay. (This is why I don't use SPG points for SPG hotel stays!).

In Canada, the Chase Visa also only offers a Cat 5 cert, but I'm okay with that, since there's a Cat 5 hotel I stay at every year!

We no longer have the IHG Mastercard - bummer, since I got a great points stay after my 50K sign-up bonus and heavy usage a couple of years back.

At any rate, the new cancellation policy is unlikely to affect my hotels of choice by much, but I'm certainly going to be booking IHG stays for my more 'speculative' hotel stays, where there may be a last minute cancellation involved!

Happy

Notice the SkyCity in Hong Kong has a 7 days cancellation policy on an award booking for stay end of Aug / beginning of Sept.

JWM on the other hand., remains the existing one day before arrival.

I never quite figure out exactly when is the cut off of the previous day - midnight or 4pm or 6pm of the day before arrival? SPG gives a specific time but Marriott just says the prior day...

SkiAdcock

Midnight. If your ressie is on Thurs, cancel by midnight Tues from what I can tell.

Cheers.

Happy

Thanks Sharon for the clarification. That is what I have thought, at least to be on the safe side.

Although there were some posters (on this thread?) said when in the past they canceled the booking on the day before policy the system would always give a warning but their cards were never charged. Personally I would not take the chance.

kklems

I wonder if an unexpected consequence of this new rule will be more overbooking and walking of guests which in turn will cause them to lose business as well.

Had two cases this weekend of overbooked hotels for what should have not been a prime weekend not prime locations. (an airport springhill suite and a fairfield inn in a suburb of a large city) Both properties and areas had rooms as of 2 days prior to my stay but come day of the stay they sold out. It actually worked out better for me because I was able to cancel my stay and get home sooner for the one property. They were more than happy to cancel, the FD clerk said she had already been walking guests at 4pm.

One another note in the same city I had a reservation at a RI for one night and United cancelled my flight that day. I called and the FD didn't hesitate to cancel my reservation, nor did she want my flight info. (they were not sold out) In the future I will use that property due to their good cs.

sdsearch

Not any more apparently:

pokee

Ugh, that blows. I think you can get around this though, if you modify your reservation last minute, and then cancel within the new 24 hour rule. I'd be curious to know what hotel websites would allow this, though?

sdsearch

You may still be able to get same-day cancel all over the place, but you may have have to "downgrade" your hotel standards a lot. WyndhamRewards is still giving 4 pm cancel day of arrival at many of its low-end properties (Super 8, Days Inn, etc), not sure about Wyndam FS. To parrot an old rental-car slogan, WyndhamRewards "has to try harder" (that's also presumably why they instituted flat 15k redemption for all their hotels in all their brands a while back, while all the other hotel programs are going in the opposite direction).

jr1202sr

How long until they start selling fully refundable rooms that go for 1-2x the original rate to try to get more from business travellers. Like the airlines do with refundable airline tickets.

pokee

...or force pre-paying for rooms!

I'm still baffled that I can reserve cars with no credit card! I laugh at people that pre-pay for a measly discount!

ChinaShrek

Actually, I would like to see the hotel guarantee my reservation and room. If I have to cancel two or three days before check-in then they should have to do the same if they are going to be overbooked. How long before a hotel has to drag someone out the building because the person's booked room isn't available?