Watch out for sneaky 14 day cancellation policy
 

I was in the process of cancelling a one night reservation I had for next Friday when I noticed the 14 day cancellation policy. What?!??!? When did that start? I've stayed at the same hotel before and I have future reservations at the same place and all have the usual 2 day cancellation.

So, be careful out there. It will sneak up on you.

OK - I'll bite - which hotel?

David

.....and when? (NYE?)

My reservation was at the Moxy in Tokyo. I checked my future reservations at the same hotel and all show a one-day cancellation requirement (not 2 as I mistakenly wrote). The other hotels I looked at don't show anything unusual for next Friday as far as cancellation rules. The rates, however, are absurdly high everywhere.

Was the cancellation policy not disclosed when you made the reservation?

I spend 175 nights/year in hotels...and not one of them without reading the terms of the contract to which I am agreeing. Sorry, but not sorry.

The cancellation policy was disclosed when I made the reservation. There was nothing unusual about the cancellation statement (as far as font or color was concerned). So I assumed it was the same statement I has read on the reservations I had made earlier that day for other dates (some of them the same week). That's why I described it as "sneaky".

Can you modify the stay or ask the hotel to move it rather than cancel. You could cancel one of the other stays and move it into that slot.

EVERY Marriott reservation I have made directly clearly shows the dates/days by which you must cancel on the reservation page before completing the purchase. There is nothing sneaky going on here.

When everything else is one day at property, it's not going to be clear theres a difference. It may not be sneaky, but imposing a 14 day cancel is so outside the norm there that it warrants at least being bolded or something to alert you. Just like you're alerted when booking a no change/cancel reservation.

So what difference or value makes it worthy of highlighting. Is it 3 days? 14 or 30? I’m not sure you understand the IT hit to deliver this type of feature. It isn’t like the cancellation date is buried in the middle of 4 pages of T&Cs.

Might it not be because of the enthronement ceremony this week?

If it's anything but standard 1 or 2 day then it opens popup would be very easy. Not hard from an IT standpoint at all.

The Rugby World Cup is on in Japan at the moment, so it may be to do with that.

Find your confirmation email and it would tell you whether it's your mistake or not. :)