Originally Posted by
laxsnaogg
As to the "logic", I suspect from the hotels point of view, if you had cancelled earlier, they could have got a paying customer into the room, rather than it going unoccupied.
That is undoubtedly what the hotel would assert if you sued them. Although it does seem like an unenforceable penalty, since the hotel had already agreed to accept the specified number of points for the room.
In any event, while rather consumer unfriendly, this is an industry-wide practice.