Originally Posted by
alphaeagle
The price ended up dropping for the dates I had wanted to keep, so no harm for me in this situation.
I've done this before, it is more of a hassle though so I prefer not to do it when I don't outright see a need to. Like not knowing the exact date I'll be leaving until close in. I always wondered if hotels don't like you doing that though.
I would imagine that the hotels (in chain hotels with an automatic res system) are agnostic towards this method. Since it's illogical for a person to make reservations that he/she has no intention of using I believe that a reservation is a reservation to them. People cancel, that's life for them and they don't get worked-up if you do.
And sometimes the hotel benefits since the earlier reservation had a lower price and it opens up a room to book at a higher amount. It's a dynamic process.