One might not like it, but the chains and the franchisees are just trying to maximize their profits, and there is nothing wrong in that in this competitive environment.

IHG in the USA has mostly had 1 day prior cancel policies this past year and with US travel way up for both business and leisure travelers, the franchisees obviously felt that they were losing business with the prior cancel policy and hotel being quite tight -- so they enacted this change.

The economies of pretty much elsewhere in the world are not as strong as the US currently, and that is likely reflected in the more lax cancellation policy as Sharon has noted above.