As a federal contractor, our contracts permit us to use the government rate while traveling on the government's dime. When I make my travel arrangements, the only thing I can pay in advance is a plane ticket. Anything else has to be expensed after the fact with a receipt.

My company's fine with the plane ticket sitting on the card as there's no other way around it. We don't do the city pair program or have the luxury of holding a reservation until a few days before departure to ticket. I usually buy refundables and it's not too much of a problem, but there are times when I don't too.

While my travel, once booked, often occurs as planned, there are times when trips are canceled at the customer's request (i.e. they're not ready, project canceled, etc), or funding disappears. I've seen trips canceled the day before departure. Things happen. Now that Hilton's forced the canceling beyond the day before, I can see this a problem of Hilton's own making.

On what was supposed to be my last trip, I was in a bad car accident the day before departure. It was really difficult to cancel the reservation. Hilton told us to call the hotel to do it. Not a problem if it's in the US - but it becomes problematic when it's in Korea. Fortunately, we had a friend over there that could help us cancel it.

Having to prepay the government rate would be a nonstarter for me. I would end up booking under another rate, such as the Best Available or AAA rate - both of which can be canceled without penalty - or simply look elsewhere. I'd just change it to the government rate if it's still available, or cancel it and go elsewhere.

If Hilton really has a problem with this, or if certain properties do, they can do what others have said: don't offer a government rate. I think Hilton would end up losing more business, though, than any hassle for cancellations on their end.