? about cancellation charges
 

This is the one from Mas de Romarins in Gordes

CANCELLATIONS : any cancellation must be made known by fax or letter.
Cancellation more than 21 days before the arrival date : 30 euros fee.
Cancellation less than 21 days before arrival, or in the case of a no-show: loss of your deposit or the sum equal to 1 night.

Is this typical? It seems like a lot to me. I thought I could cancel with no fee..dreaming eh?..

Curious as to some of your experiences.

Yes, it is very typical. The days of making reservations and not showing or not cancelling ahead of time, are long gone. If you don't show, and the hotel cannot fill the room... they have to be covered for loss of income.

That is what we got when we rented the apt in Paris.
I think you might be dreaming..too many people lose too much money from last minute cancelations.

How's this: I cancelled a reservation for 2 rooms in Paris 6+ MONTHS in advance of reserved dates, and Hotel du Pantheon's reservation dept not only charged me a 2.50euro non-refundable booking fee, but ALSO charged me a 39.60euro cancellation fee, which they insist is NOT refundable as well (despite many requests for consideration, in light of the fact that I cancelled within 2 days of making the reservation).

One only has to read the many posts such as the following to understand why hotels are doing this more and more:

"Please help. I'm holding five hotel reservations for a week in Paris and need to choose which one to keep before we leave here in a couple days."

I see differences in the approach taken by large hotels (especially chains) and smaller hotels. Many larger hotels seem to be able to offer a more generous cancellation policy (probably because a last-minute cancellation isn't as significant to them as it would be to a 10-room hotel). Some chains, however, (e.g. Holiday Inn) offer a range of room prices prices, depending on how flexible you want your reservation to be (e.g. non-cancellable - cheapest room, 7 day cancellation - cheap, 24 hour cancellation - expensive). The price isn't set out in a so-called cancellation fee, but in the room price itself. Others (many Hiltons, I think) let you cancel almost up to the last minute without any penalty (but you can bet that they've priced the risk of last minute cancellations into everybody's hotel room costs, so those who don't cancel at the last minute, in effect, subsidize those who do cancel at the last minute).

Trip insurance can cover such things as non-refundable deposits and cancellation charges, along with other good features.

Not mentioned here as a reason is that you are talking about a hotel in Provence in a popular tourist town with a limited prime tourist season. That is the main reason for those terms -- many small Provence hotels have very stiff cancellation terms in high season regarding how far in advance you must cancel. A small hotel outside a major city cannot risk losing that income in high season.

It depends on the hotel, location, and time of year. Many hotels still offer free cancellation up to 6 PM of scheduled day of arrival. Others, like Mas de Romarins, are much more restrictive. And there's just about every possibility between the two extremes.

Loisco, I would not stay at Mas de Romarins, specifically, because I had such trouble getting a refund from them last May! I was going to stay there, but decided on something in St.Remy instead - but I cancelled at least 2 (possibly 3) months ahead. Of course I accepted the 30 euro cancellation charge and expected that. However, they had debited the first night on my credit card when I first made the reservation -and it took them at least 5 months after my return to credit it back to me (minus the 30 euros). I reminded them (very nicely, I might add) several times, and they very nicely said they would do it - but didn't. Anyway, I was surprised when I finally got it!

By the way, the places I stayed during my 2 weeks in Provence were all wonderful. And the little B&B near St. Remy (Presbytere St. Thomas) was especially memorable. The owner there never asked for a deposit of any kind, nor did the lovely B&B in Vaison-la-Romaine. That was my first experience at B&Bs, and both were wonderful.

I have gone to France twice a year for the past 4 years, and have never stayed at a place with a non-refundable cancellation fee (Mas Romarins was the only one I had ever booked like that).
There are plenty of wonderful places in Paris and the provinces that don't have those policies, so I book them - and I've never been disappointed - 4*, 3*, a couple of 2*, and the B&Bs.

Thanks for the info. I am gong to rethink my plans for that area...

An even worse case is paying in advance for a night's lodging, arriving at the hotel, discovering that the reservation has been lost AND that the hotel is fully booked. That happened to us at the Bégude St-Pierre, near the Pont du Gard. The hotel sent us off to a nearby, but much more expensive, Relais et Châteaux property and made no offer to cover the extra costs to us.

The following day we returned to the Bégude and spent an hour with the chief reservations agent while she hunted through all the Visa slips for the month we paid the deposit and finally agreed that we HAD paid.

Then came the argument over getting our money back--hotel's fault, but they wanted to keep the deposit. We finally got the refund, but I would never recommend the hotel to anyone after that bad experience.