It said I can cancel up until 31st October 2022. On seeing that and discovering in the app I could not cancel with a click, I called diamond desk who have tried unsuccessfully to contact the hotel. No longer than 5 minutes passed between making the booking and receiving this email and me being connected to an agent on the diamond desk.

In the UK I have to wait until 2pm to speak to the diamond desk, by which time it's 5pm in Qatar and it seems those able to sort it have gone home.

I'm now waiting with a case number and fingers tightly crossed it can be resolved.

Regardless of the booking conditions, in the UK we are very much used to cooling off periods, even for the most inflexible air and hotel fares, usually for 24h. Not withstanding, I honestly did think I was booking a flexible room anyhow