Originally Posted by
Often1
It's why I book whatever I want and then either submit it to travel insurance or if it's not covered, just eat the cost. Over time, it's not worth sweating staying at 1* properties.
Bingo. Remove the need for someone else to control where you sleep and you can then only blame yourself. Annual/single travel insurance policies are cheap and IMHO an absolute necessity even flying domestically. They become even cheaper when they pay out.