| Update: As a follow-up, the hotel has made this situation right by reassuring the guest it will still honor the reservation. The hotel also apologized for the way the initial email was worded, so I’m happy to see that the hotel ultimately did the right thing. You can find the original post below. |
I’d like to award the Fairmont Udaipur Palace the prize for the worst handling of canceling a guest reservation that I’ve ever heard of. And that’s quite an accomplishment, because there are a lot of hotels out there that don’t actually care about hospitality.
Fairmont hotel brazenly cancels bookings due to wedding
A couple of months ago, OMAAT reader Karl made a booking (directly via Accor) at the Fairmont Udaipur Palace, for a stay in under two months from now. Just yesterday, he received the following email from the hotel, letting him know that they won’t honor the reservation, because there’s a wedding party at the hotel:
Greetings from Fairmont Udaipur Palace,
This email is in regards to your reservation at Fairmont Udaipur Palace, arriving on 12.02.2026 for 2 nights of stay, for 1 room received via online channels, via reference number as [redacted]
We request you to amend your room reservation to another date in February 2026, as we are completely booked to a wedding ceremony during your current stay dates (12.02.2026).
We can offer you the alternative dates in February as 16th , 17th , 24th , 25th , 26th , 27th , 28th.
We look forward to your response in order to move your booking dates so that you have a comfortable stay at the Palace.
Should you require any further assistance, please feel free to connect with us.
The first thing that shocked me was that the hotel offered no form of apology. Like, the word “sorry” is in there zero times. Canceling a legitimately made reservation and not even apologizing? I’m in disbelief at that level of customer service, especially since this email came from the reservations manager.
Then the second issue is that they didn’t offer an alternative accommodation. Like, most foreigners booking hotels in India plan an itinerary, and can’t simply move a stay forward or backward a week. Since Karl’s trip is fully planned in terms of the dates he’s visiting, I suggested he ask the hotel if they’re offering any alternative accommodations. The response was as follows:
Greetings from Fairmont Udaipur Palace,
We regret to inform that we will not be not be in a situation to book another property at this time.
Kindly advise us on the alternate stay date of yours to amend your stay.
We look forward to your response.
What’s a hotel’s obligation in situations like this?
I’ve written in the past about the obligations that hotels have when they cancel reservations. The short answer is that there’s not necessarily all that much legal protection, so what’s offered typically comes down to a hotel’s desire to offer half decent service. Furthermore, for larger hotel groups, they often have published policies when it comes to these situations.
Let’s be clear, the hotel is making a business decision to accept a wedding block, presumably because it’s more lucrative. However, the decision to enter into this contract should also take into account the need to make the guests whole who already have a reservation booked.
After all, think of the practical logistics here. If a hotel can just cancel a reservation for any reason without any sort of offer, how far could that go? If a hotel is booked out a day before arrival, should it offer to book someone else for $50 more, and then cancel an existing reservation? “Tough luck,” right?
For what it’s worth, I had a look at Accor’s terms & conditions, and here’s the part that would potentially apply:
In the case of a force majeure event, an exceptional event or impossibility to carry out the Service and, in particular, making the room of the Establishment available to the Customer, the Establishment may reserve the option of providing accommodation to the Customer, in whole or in part, at an Establishment in the equivalent category or perform a Service of the same nature, subject to the prior agreement of the Customer. The reasonable expenses relating to the transfer (additional cost of the rooms, transportation and a phone call) between the two Establishment shall be payable by the concerned Establishment in accordance with the existing standard procedure of the said Establishment.
So it seems to me like this hotel is just choosing to ignore Accor’s policy, which requires (at a minimum) accommodating a guest at another property, and covering reasonable expenses associated with the move.
Bottom line
A lot of hotels don’t do a great job with customer service when they cancel reservations. However, I’d argue that the Fairmont Udaipur Palace is in a league of its own when it comes to how poorly it handled it. The hotel didn’t even apologize when telling a guest it wouldn’t honor the reservation. The only thing it offered is a rebooking on another date, with no option to be rebooked at another property, and no offer of compensation.
I’ve seen hotels offer so little, but I’ve never seen a hotel not even apologize for something like this.
What do you make of how the Fairmont is handling this canceled reservation?
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