Last October, Marriott announced that they would be changing their global cancellation policy as of January 1, 2015. Not surprisingly, Hilton matched within a month, also for stays starting January 1, 2015.
They were changing the cancellation policy on the most flexible kinds of rates, which previously mostly allowed cancellations until the day of arrival. With this change, cancellations now have to be made prior to arrival in order to avoid any fees. Of course as a business traveler this sucks, since you paid a premium for the flexibility of being able to cancel until the last minute.
So why would hotel chains make cancellations more restrictive?
- Because they can. Hotel rooms are full, so hotels don’t have to be as generous with promotions, benefits, and policies.
- Given how full hotel rooms are, the opportunity cost of an empty room is as high as it gets.
Anyway, not surprisingly, Starwood is following the lead of Marriott and Hilton, and being even more restrictive on top of that. As of January 15, 2015, Starwood will require cancellations by 6PM local time the day prior to arrival.
Meanwhile Hilton and Marriott let you cancel until 11:59PM local time the day prior to arrival.
Here’s the explanation from Starwood Lurker on FlyerTalk:
Effective January 15, 2015, Starwood will implement a change to our room cancellation policy, which will be implemented at all Starwood hotels globally that currently offers a same-day-cancellation policy. After this change takes effect, guests must cancel a reservation as of 6:00 pm local time the day before arrival. This change will impact about 35% of our hotels, which currently allow for same day cancellation without penalty. The majority of Starwood hotels already have a cancellation policy of at least one day prior to arrival or greater.
The minimum room cancellation policy will apply to all new reservations made after January 15, 2015.
Starwood will be honoring any negotiated contractual rates. Reservations made under contracts will be governed by their negotiated terms.
Oh well!
This is where using your corporate rates for personal travel really count. As most corporate rates have very liberal cancellation policies. So in the event you have travel dates that aren't set in stone, using the corporate rate, which may not be the lowest available, could save you from having to pay for a night not used.
Oh don't mind me - the screenshot is for pre Jan 15 bookings!
Er, the boxed text in the screenshot says "cancel by 6pm Day of Arrival" not "day before arrival". Or am I missing something?
Call me crazy - but thought this was always the way they did standard cancellations ?!
@ Andrew -- It all depends on the property. As Starwood Lurker stated, this impacts about 35% of hotels, so only a third of hotels allowed you to cancel until day of.
plat too, once got my arrival date wrong for a 3-day res, so i actually arrived 1 day later. they looked at my res & changed the date w/o any fuss.
I like how people rejoice that...if your Plat it MAY go away. I'm plat. But it still rubs me the wrong way. It's the slow March towards crappie and crappie "benefits" we have see clawed away over the past decade+.
@Daniel
For SPG, cancellation policies aren't one of the criteria for BRG approval.
This is where being Platinum really helps. Just call them and ask them to make the cancellation penalty go away and they will call the hotel and go to bat for you. My win rate is over 90%.
at least corporate rates are still being honored as my corporate rate (for the most part) are originally 6pm cancel.
My favorite hotel chain, Hyatt, cancellation policy is generally by 4 pm of the day before the stay - some locations or corporate codes may have more generous cancellation allowances.
On the other hand, this may make BRGs easier.... unless those become even MORE restrictive
Hope IHG won't follow the three.