Cancellation Fee for award nights
 

Are there situations where you will be charged the cash rate for canceling an award night? I recently canceled an award night and went back and looked at the original confirmation email they sent me which includes the following language:

"Canceling your reservation or failing to show will result in a charge for the entire stay per room to your credit card. Taxes may apply."

The credit card that was on file at the time of the booking has been closed for several months (and was closed when I made the booking). I called and there is no pending charges on the closed credit card and my IHG points are back in my account.

When I look at the same hotel they have "non-refundable" under the IHG rate and under the "Best Flexible Rate & Deals" (cash price) they also have "non-refundable". Is this just a bug with the website?

Some hotels put cancellation fee in form of the room rate for the first night.

They do that when there are some special events and the hotels are busy.
But if they not charge you yet , i think you are fine.

OP, would you mind sharing the name of the hotel? I've booked over dozens of award nights across several chains but never encounter such strict cancellation policy.Could this due to some IT failure at IHG?

Had this happen at a Holiday Inn in the Netherlands. Customer service could not cancel the reservation without penalty and said they have to check with GM at property. However received e-mail from GM within 24 hours stating they were 'waiving' the cancellation fee. The cancellation was done months ahead of the arrival date. I believe there was a special event going on in the city. I thought the property would be happy to have more rooms available for the special event!

I have seen this policy when Cardiff rugby is on..the HI is around the corner.. but basically it said the rooms were non-cancellable rather than being charged..