Rugby World Cup.

Makes perfect sense to not allow people to hold flexible reservations and then cancel them last minute when their team crashes out, leaving the hotel unable to re-sell the rooms. 14 days advance seems fair enough to me.

exactly. Nothing sneaky here. The OP neglected to read the cancellation policy. Case closed.

1. Very common for properties to have longer cancellation policies during major events. Makes sense as it is hard to resell those rooms at the last minute.
2. The days when the "standard" policy was 24 hours prior to the check-in deadline are long, long gone and nobody should presume that this is standard.
3. I don't fault people who choose not to check the policy. That is their choice, but then they have no complaint later if it is not to their liking.

the jw marriott in san antonio has a 7 night cancellation policy for the booking i just made in 2 weeks time...

not quite as bad as 14 days, but it's not like the property is in times square for new years eve

I hope that anyone roundly condemning the OP reads all the terms of reference for all the software they buy, or they risk being hypocritical.

I for one am absolutely guilty of not reading the small print when I book hotel rooms. I sometimes book flexible because I want flexibility and I won’t read all the details. I understand this means that rarely a hotel chain will choose to have set terms which will screw me over and I will lose money as a result, but life is too short to assume that every hotel chain I use is trying to find ways of misconstruing their T&C’s. I will just make sure to use other hotel chains more in the future.

Cancellation policies are not buried in the 10-page T&Cs.

There is a vast difference between reading the entire t&c's and checking the property's cancellation policy. Moreover, nobody has condemned OP for the failure. It was simply his choice and he wound up on the wrong side of the risk curve.

I read cancellation policies even when booking hotels that I routinely book on a very frequent basis. There is no guarantee that the policy is always going to be the same, so I specifically look for the language like "by six P.M. local time on this date" or "twenty four hours" etc...

As noted above, a sporting event could result in an unusual number of people making speculative reservations, with a high likelihood of last minute cancellation.

However, even though we seem to all agree that the OP neglected to look at the cancellation policy, the question now is what to do about it. It will be easier to ask for a cancellation further in advance as opposed to closer in. The fact that the OP seems to have other reservations at same property seems to indicate he/she may be a repeat/regular guest. That is definitely a check mark in one's favour when asking for cancellation policy to be waived. I would try to get it cancelled if there is any possibility that it may not be needed, and then re-book there or at another hotel closer in should the need arise.

I TRY very hard to be careful about reading the cancellation policies as I’m comparing rates and making choices among hotels, locations and date combinations. I probably err on the side of being more careful and double/triple checking everything. BUT I could absolutely see a situation where I would miss this information - especially at a hotel that (& rate type) I stayed at with some regularity. Hopefully the OP can get the hotel to work with him and, perhaps, as another person suggested, move the reservation to another date for him as he’s a regular client.

Agreed!

On a 0 - 10 scale of "sneaky", this rates a 0.02.

Newman

A better thread title is: Read cancellation policy when making reservations as policy may vary due to special events.

The cancellation policy for Marriott is not in the fine print. It is right there on the same page that has the price of the room when booking.

I'm not disputing Marriott's legal right to sell "Flexible" rates which are actually not flexible (e.g. 14 day cancellation periods when you book 10 days out) or the fact that the terms are revealed, but I nonetheless don't see it as controversial that it is an anti-consumer practice which will obviously trip up people on a regular basis. I've been spending hundreds of nights in hotels per year for nearly 20 years now and I maintain the general assumption that "flexible" rates mean that I can cancel a normal city type hotel up to the last day or two before the trip. I genuinely don't see how one can defend this relatively new move by Marriott to redefine "flexible" as "actually not very flexible" on the basis that it's written down. If nothing else, hotels no longer selling actual real flexible rates should be a matter of regret for anyone who frequently travels.

Not only marriott - recently i came across a couple hilton hotels with "best available" rate being non refundable. Only builds distrust in brand imo...

It is far from an anti-consumer practice. Just a question of which consumer. By freeing the room up at T-14, there is somebody out there looking for a room who gets one.

All of this is reflected in the room rates, so it's not necessarily pro-consumer to have 100% flexibility and high rates.