24 hr cancel on app with 48 hr rule hotel
 

I need to change a reservation at a RI in NC. I called the hotel and spoke to the manager on duty. He said they have a 48 hour rule and I would need to speak to the general manager tomorrow (the day of scheduled arrival).

I explained the situation to my current RI and they were amazed that I was not accommodated saying that had I been PL there should not have been this complication.

When I go to the iOS app, I can “cancel” the room but I did not go far enough to see if it threatens to charge me for one night. Does this automatically charge for one night without notice when 24 hours out of 24 hour cancel hotel?

What did your original reservation say re: cancel policy? All reservation confirmations will have the cancel policy listed. If it was a 24 hour listed in the confirmation, then you should be good with no fee. However, if your reservation confirmation says 48 hours cancel, then yes odds are you'll be charged the cancel fee if you're doing it 24 hours out.

Cheers.

Does it give a warning? Sounds like OP has a 48hr cancel reservation but wants to cancel within 24 hours & avoid the cancel fee. If the reservation does have a 48hr cancel, she needs to hope the GM will bypass it (and on something like this I'd talk to hotel, although in this case it doesn't sound promising) because the app's software will follow whatever the reservation cancel said.

Cheers.

This particular property has a 48 hour rule which is hard for me to remember since I go back to the days of being able to adjust a reservation up to 6 pm on day of arrival.

I thought some RIs were 24 hours, but the manager on duty said they were 48 hour. I looked in the app and it says 48 hours.

Given that dynamics, I wondered if the app would in fact warn me about a cancel fee since I saw “Are you sure you want to cancel” which sounds final.

I logged in using Chrome and it will not give me any option listing the reservation as “in progress”. However, the Marriott app on both my iPhone and iPad get to me the “are you sure” stage which I would think could automatically trigger to the penalty night fee.

Two weeks ago I was pricing out hotels via app (deciding whether to stay in Shenzhen or Guangzhou) and used my corporate rate code, but I didn't notice the app was showing a standard rate instead of corporate rate because it was lower, so the cancelation policy was 48 hours instead of corporate rate's cancel by 6pm day of arrival. My mistake, I booked it assuming the latter cancelation policy, as plans weren't firm yet and the stay would start in <15hours (locking in the rate before it hiked higher). When I realized, I tried canceling via app and it said it would charge the cancel fee.

Within the hour (deciding whether to just go to Guangzhou since I had booked it) I called corporate and they cancelled it over the phone without penalty. I think It's along the lines of "be nice and get a freebie cancel when still learning how to use the new app". The longer you wait, obviously less likely they will take pity on you.

I see that I can modify dates using the app so you are certain that I could then turn around and cancel? Notice I could not make any changes using Chrome and the apps listed as “in progress” but would let me changes dates or cancel.

I hope this works as it would solve my problem. Thanks for the alert!

I was demoted to lifetime gold and am on PL challenge that will be complete in 10 days

As far as I can tell, I think this worked. I will monitor emails and see if they call me. But Thank you!

I vaguely remember a post like this in the past but failed to remember it at the critical hour.

That's great! I'm legacy SPG so have never done this before, but I'm a voracious reader of FT and remember this being mentioned. Happy it worked for you!

I have used the modify workaround a couple of times. I try to avoid doing so but sometimes I have no choice when business travel plans change. It has always worked so far. The other option of waiting to the last minute to book (e.g. day of or day before the stay) is to risky. Sometimes the area is just sold out or very high rates. So there really isn't a great solution at this point. I do fear someday they will eliminate this workaround. 72 to 48 hour cancel deadline (fairly common now) is very difficult to work with for business travel. Unfortunately it has become common practice among the hotel chains. If/when the economy changes (e.g. recession) with the corresponding reduction in business travel, I expect the rules will get relaxed at that point. Until then it just makes managing business travel arrangements much more difficult. At least for me, it is less problematic for leisure stays. I can plan for them well in advance and rarely have last minute changes. YMMV....

--Jon