Mcmrjm , this is not the first time you have had a problem when planning.. you must be far more careful to read and reread terms and condtions.. and not to ever expect a business to just forgive you for breaking them.

When you misunderstood/misread your airline ticket on Air France.. and had to start a thread on how they were "not understanding " and charged you a full walk up rate for next flight.

Another time you flew into one airport.. meaning to fly out of another.. and so booked a hotel at wrong airport for a next day flight( you could have stayed in Paris that night, but instead stayed at a hotel near Orly for a flight out of Charles De Gaulle) .

Travel is often a bunch of details.

Details are not my strong suit, and I know it.. so I read, reread and then triple read anything before I hit the "submit payment " button.

Good luck with further travels, be careful.

OK, weekender has found an example that makes sense. They do sometimes offer discounted rates that are non-cancellable. Why anyone would book one is beyond my understanding but to each his own.

However, the OP is still wrong in writing, "Radisson Blu has a "no cancellation" policy."

Clearly, if the OP did book directly with the hotel, they had to have chosen that option which does not allow a cancellation.

So any suggestion such as the OP is trying to make, that somehow the hotel is at fault, is nonsense.

Odin, contrary to what you seem to be thinking, I travel a lot but I do not book ahead very often. I prefer to have the freedom to go where I want, when I want and never follow an itinerary. I do sometimes pre-plan going to one place for a specific reason and specific period of time. Those are the only times when I might book ahead but I would never book something non-cancellable.

People who book things without knowing what the terms of the contract they are entering into, have no one to blame but themselves when something doesn't work out the way they expected. Quite often though, they are quick to blame anyone except themselves. Unfortunately, they can blame a hotel without fear of being sued for libel in a forum like this.

As for cancellation policies, they of course vary per hotel.

I just checked the policies for 3 nights I just booked refundable..

2 gives a one day notice, one a 3 day notice.
All hours are different. 6 am, noon, midnight.

People who sign anything have no right to complain, methinks

Mcmrjm--

Did you contact the local hotel management directly and ask to move your dates? I had to do something similar once--the nonrefundable, non-changeable package rate was too good to pass up--and the hotel (not a chain hotel) did accommodate me the following YEAR without any sort of penalty. That is, once they heard my reason (situation with a family member), they were kind enough to allow me to postpose our stay. And made us boosters of the hotel FOREVER. I did have trip insurance as a back-up and could have used it, but I chose to work directly with the hotels, airlines.

>>Well janisj, I don't see anywhere on the Radisson Blu site that offers a non-cancellable price.<<

I guess you didn't look very hard (Booking.com also offers a discounted non-cancellable rate).

Why is there an argument about no-cancellation rates? This is common. The no-cancellation rate is often considerably cheaper than the regular rate. The rate and conditions on sites like booking.com and the hotel's own site, are not always the same.

Look before you leap.

Many hotels will let you change the dates anyway, but are not obliged to do so.

And anyway, I wouldn't stay at the Radisson Blu Astrid in Antwerp. The area is not very nice.

We have stayed at many different Radisson Blu Hotels and they almost always offer and non cancellable rate which is lower than the other rates. We never book these rates as it is very clear that they cannot be cancelled or changed. We always book directly with the hotel.

Tulips, the OP did not write that there was a no cancellation rate, the OP wrote that there was a no cancellation POLICY.

Anyone reading the title of the thread and believing it, will be mislead. The OP has made it sound like ANY booking with Radission Blu is uncancellable which is simply not true.

So the argument is not really about 'no-cancellation rates'as you put it.

Yes, they do have a >>no cancellation POLICY<< . . . When one books a no cancellation <i>rate</i> . . .

Dog eared I doubt if anyone has been misled by the title.

sundriedtopepo, I think the OP was quite clear in what s/he was trying to say.

"On February 10, we made a reservation at this hotel for three nights in May. Our trip plans changed so on February 22 we tried to cancel and were told we were still responsible for the three nights...impossible to cancel...three months before! They do not have a cancellation policy so we are out over 300 euros! How many hotels have this policy?"

If you can somehow interpret, "They do not have a cancellation policy" to 'they have a cancellation policy but it didn't apply in our case', you must be in charge of rewriting and defining the entire English language.

The OP clearly meant to say any booking with Radisson Blu is non-cancellable/refundable. The OP is of course wrong in that belief.

It's very easy for us to know where the OP went wrong. Hindsight is 20/20 as they say. But it is only easy to know where they went wrong if you know more than the OP obviously did. You have to know that there can be differences depending on the rates offered.

What you cannot do is assume that everyone will know that. Someone reading the OP's post and who has no more knowledge than the OP did, can just as easily believe what the OP wrote. Raddison Blu has a no cancellation policy. End of story.

So yes, people can be misled by the title.