Miscommunication: Marriott - Protea
 

Made a reservation on the Marriott website for a Protea Hotel in Cape Town containing a free cancellation clause on the day of arrival.
However, I got an email today from Protea saying they did not receive any payment and will cancel my reservation in 24 hours.

Seems like there is a major miscommunication between Marriott and Protea.
I already send an email reply back to Protea but it responded with "out of office". Now what.

Cancellation and pre-payment or deposit are two entirely different things.

A property could require prepayment of one night's stay, X nights or the entire stay. It could require a CC (as most properties do), or nothing. But, that has nothing to do with the question of what happens if you cancel prior to the deadline for cancellation.

Print out your confirmation, read it carefully and then call the property. Forget about email.

I think you misunderstand.
I made a reservation on the Marriott website, with free cancellation before Friday December 25th at 4pm.
Now, Protea sends me an email saying they WILL cancel the reservation if no payment is received by December 24th at 6 pm.

This is clearly a miscommunication between Marriott and Protea as 12/25 4 pm is not the same as 12/24 6 pm.

I did call the hotel directly and attempted to explain the situation. However, due to the bad quality of the line I am not sure they completely got it.
I will call back tomorrow morning again.