Why Canceling Hotel Points Bookings Can Be Deceivingly Expensive

This is clearly deceptive, and no, it wouldn't hold up in court. The trick is *getting into* court: every hotel rewards program has terms and conditions that require members to use out-of-court arbitration to settle any disputes, and members waive the right to participate in class action lawsuits. Arbitration is time-consuming and one-sided, and few attorneys would want to deal with it, which is exactly why these terms exist.

Lol any half decent attorney knows their way around what you just said.

Ben,
Shouldn't this be called "outside the cancellation period"? If I'm within it then my cancellation would still be OK.

If you are "within" the cancellation deadline, then you're on the hook. If you're outside of your cancellation deadline/period, then the date has not yet been reached and you can still cancel.

I’ve yet to find a travel insurance policy that covers no show fees. Only prepaid deposits, but not things charged after arrival.

If someone knows of one, please advise.

I’ve yet to find a travel insurance policy that covers no show fees. Only prepaid deposits, but not things charged after arrival.

If someone knows of one, please advise.

I’ve only had to cancel one points hotel booking after the cancellation deadline had passed, as I made the mistake of not realizing the deadline was 5 days before instead of the 2 I usually expect. Called Hilton (not the hotel) and gave them an excuse and thankfully they did cancel the hotel no charge. Probably helped I’m Diamond (thank you Hilton Aspire) and I had never asked for forgiveness previously.

Goes to show that it never hurts to ask once in a while.

FWIW, I’ve had success avoiding the “no show” fee on World of Hyatt bookings by changing my reservation to a later date after the cancelation deadline to a date much further out, then canceling the updated reservation a couple of days later. It definitely can’t hurt to try if you’re in a pinch, such as a winter storm closing your destination airport like in my situation. I didn’t lose any money or WOH points as they were immediately refunded (even got a portion back by changing my dates the day before the original check-in date.)

You can cancel your credit card the same time as you're cancelling the points booking. What are they going to do

How is it legal to hide the fee amount from the customer? They don't disclose the amount upfront - just mention "fee" which can be $10K or any number they like. Doesn't the FTC require them to disclose all fees upfront?

How is it legal to hide the fee amount from the customer? They don't disclose the amount upfront - just mention "fee" which can be $10K or any number they like. Doesn't the FTC require them to disclose all fees upfront?

I’m a class action lawyer, and I certainly wish that were true. But companies succeed in kicking class actions out of court every day on this basis, including against the best plaintiffs lawyers out there. Thats why there is an entire cottage industry of firms that now practice “mass arbitration” as a workaround.

I have successfully done the same thing with IHG reservations.

I recall that at least some hotel chains will allow you to forfeit the points rather than pay the cash penalty, as per the T&C. Might be Hilton or Marriott. I am surprised Ben did not go into this level of detail.

He said at the very beginning that Marriott and Hyatt are the only chains that do this

What's even more disgusting is that the St Regis has 30-day cancellation policies on award stays in peak season. I can't imagine booking a room on my points and knowing that if ANYTHING were to happen I'd be out $1500/night.

If you are gonna cancel a hotel reservation booked with points, do the following:
1. Log in to your card app and lock the card temporarily from receiving any new spend.
2. Cancel the reservation.
3. Don't use the card for a while, maybe a month or two, or only unlock it when you know you are going to use it, then lock it again.
4. After a time, unlock the card; they probably won't charge you anything.

No need to cancel the card, temporarily lock it. They can't do anything? Send it to collection? Tell them you don't accept any debt and that this amount is disputed. They will have to sue you, and this would not hold up in any court. They will have to prove damages. that they couldn't sell that room to anyone and that you caused them damages, out of the way they couldn't minimize, for example, by selling the room again. Most of these hotels do sell that room, so they can't prove anything in court. Now, can they cancel your frequent hotel program? maybe but I don't think that Hyatt/Hilton/Marriot will do it if this only happens once. If they get multiple reports from hotels that you are doing this, then maybe. But once you're probably ok.

I know Hilton also doesn't.

Stuff like this needs to be done by regulation. The cities/states need to regulate the industry like Mandani is doing in NYC. https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2026/01/mamdani-administration-bans-hotel-hidden-fees-and-unexpected-cre

This is great, this prevents people from making bookings they do not or unsure if they are staying; removing inventory from those that actually need it.

Also, kind of your fault for not reading that fine print. I have been at fault in the past but just decided to not cancel.

It was headed that way in the last American Administration, including an airlines passenger bill of rights ...

But, Americans do as they do and screwed themselves.

Will likely unscrew in Nov of 2026 and 2028 - then mess everything up all over again in 2030

This is also the case with IHG, and my recollection is that they do not give you the choice of forfeiting the points instead of paying that day's cash price.

What happens when they keep burying details deeper and deeper and requires you to get legal counsel to explain... Oh wait that's been happening for a few years now but no worries it will get worse so you can victim blame more people on not reading. I can't wait until you find out what you have up to use AI on a browser.

Another issue with this (both Marriott and Hyatt) is that the cash cancellation rate may be an inflated rate... I remember booking a hotel where the nightly rate fluctuated in June between $400 and $700. I booked one of the "$400 nights" with points - the follow-up email said that if I cancel I'll be charged $700-ish.

I just experienced this at Westin Anaheim, they sent their boiler plate threat of $911 cxl fee.

What if I my travel is delayed by a day? I get the honor of paying $911 for ext issues?

Bonvoy needs to fix this.

The biggest problem with this is when your flight is delayed, and you miss your night paid with points through no fault of yours, and still on the hook for a large cash charge for a no-show.

This has been policy with Hilton for perhaps the last 30 years. But so far even though I have cancelled late I have never been charged:
- If you have a good excuse like flight cancellation Hilton has been 100% agreeable to changing the date if you contact the hotel directly
- even when changing the date they have still only charged the original advance booking rate
- Hamption SEATAC South Centre was even kind enough to change the date for free and then cancel the reservation when the Alaska flight was totally changed and eventually arrived 16 hours late with a routing change.
Hilton at one time had a policy for non-refundable reservations that allowed hotels to change the date as a courtesy without fee as well. Don't know status on this.