Stupid Hotel Etiquette Question
 

If you reserve for 3 nights but leave after 2, hotels in Italy/France are not going to get stinky and try to charge you.

Right?

I think it would depend on each hotel's cancellation policy and how busy they are. Find out before you go if you expect to do this.

It will also sometimes depend upon with whom you booked the reservation if you didn't go directly through the hotel. (People have complained a booking service has refused refunds despite the hotel giving a refund to the booking service.) If they (the hotel or booking service)have a 48 hr cancellation policy, it should be fine as long as you give them 48 hrs. notice (ie when you arrive). You can't expect a hotel to release you from a "contract" with no notice although they may if they're very busy.

I personally think they should charge you. Afterall they held the room for you. What if on your 2nd day of a 3 day stay they told you to leave to make room for someone else. What is good for the goose is good for the gander.

Hi Matt,

You will probably find that your agreement with the hotel contains a statement that "if you do not cancel prior to X days, you will be charged for one night".

Thus, leaving one day early will cost you one night's fee.

Generally, if you guarantee a room and you fail to cancel it -- usually 4 to 6pm on the day of arrival -- you will be charged anywhere from one night up to all nights you've reserved. For the most part business hotels tend to charge one night and resorts tend to charge the entire stay or some large fraction.

For me it's a one way street: if they want my business, they need to accommodate my flexible schedule . . . at least on business. Or else I won't stay there again . . . GARYNFLA's comment is nutty (sorry GARYNFLA, no offense meant . . . hotels better be a little more accommodating than you suggest.)

I often book for 3 then stay only 2 and I have yet to be charged for the 3rd night. However, I tell them at least 24 hours in advance.

"I tell them at least 24 hours in advance."

I found that to be the key in most European countries.

Keep in mind that hotels don't make money if they don't fill a room. They might be turning people away who could fill that room, and then if you decide that you don't want it the third night, they might not be able to fill it. They lose money. Check their cancellation policy and assume that they will hold you to your word.

Here's a different slant to the problem. We booked four nights, months ahead of time for the Munich Le Meridien hotel at a great rate. Then we rented an apartment for a week in Garmisch, which means that we have double booked our last night in Garmisch which is also our first night in Munich. When I called and also tryed to email Le Meridien to cancel the first night, but keep the other three they have informed me that I can't do that. Because I booked on the internet, all they can do is cancel the entire booking and rebook for three nights instead of the original four --but at a new rate which will cost me more for one night less! My reservation clearly states that I can cancel up to 6 PM on the day of arrival, so I"m hoping I can wait until that day, cancel the first night and still have my other three nights at the original rate. Here I am, trying to help them out by giving a long advance notice of cancelling, but they won't cooperate. I guess they prefer the last minute cancellation.

Personally if I was the hotel owner or manager I would charge you for 3 nights up front in full. If I knew I could fill the room the third night I would give you a refund for the third night and would expect a tip. IMHO.

Snoopy, I don't agree with you obviously! A business deal is a business deal. I understand situations do change but when you ask a "stupid question" meaning you are pre-arranging to bail-out on a pre-arranged business agreement and expect the business to possibly loose dollars due to ones un-descicive travel plans is more "nutty" than the question asked, but not nearly as "nutty" as your reply.. Hello???? Not all answers will be in favor of the travelers. I am a Business Manager for a milti millon dollar company and tend to look at the angle of "all persons concerned". Perhaps so should you....

P.S. Snoopy when you book for 3 nights and bail out on 2,you deny some of us the availabilty to book because you booked for 3 nites and only stay one. I guess that's nutty also. I guess using your sense on rationality,that is ok? I am assuming you are only interested in what is good for you and could care less about the people ypu bailed out on that may be trying to provide a living for their families. I guess according to you, that is ok as long as you got what you want??? Gimme a break!!!!

Just to show that there is another "nutty" traveler out here, I agree with Garynfla.

I ran into the same problem as Patrick (sort of). We booked a room in Vollendam for 3 nights, but discovered that we needed to push the trip ahead(?) one day so we could meet up with a student in Germany. But we would have to cancel and remake, and we were afraid to do that. So we stayed one night in Amsterdam, then went to Vollendam and told them we would only be staying 2 nights (they didn't charge us). I don't know what else you can do when they make it so difficult to alter reservations. (We did call the hotel proper prior to our trip, but since the reservation was made on the net, they claimed they couldn't change it.)

I'm in the same bind for an upcoming trip. I messed up the day/month thing and intend to leave on May 3, but my reservations show through May 5. I have finally decided to do nothing, figuring I would run into the same situation. At any rate, I will be cancelling the last two days almost a week before.

Should I at least try to call the hotel directly?

LVSue--what is the hotel's cancellation policy for the type of reservation you made?

I enjoyed this thread. I think it proves that posters can have an interesting disagreement with some vehemence about a travel subject (not a political one) and even a smart remark or two in spite of registration. I was beginning to miss the old non registered free for all.

As an attorney and businessman, I think if you reserve three nights and don't tell them you are cutting out the third, you should pay. Depends on the policies of the hotel, and if you advise them well in advance, preferably when you initially make the reservation, you may have to leave early. Otherwise, they hold it open for you and don't sell to another, and rely on your honesty and ethics for this is the way they make a living. It also reflects on you and our culture and is simply good manners, which works in every culture.

I have cut short stays at hotels without being charged, at 24 hrs notice.
The usual reason was that I didnt like the hotel.
Although it would be bad form to cynically overbook, and while I can understand hotels wanting to charge for this, we need to be able to protect ourselves - hotels arent always what they seem whem booked.
On all occasions the reaction was friendly to neutral.

It's a contract issue. What does the policy of the hotel say? All hotels have policies which govern these things. Now, some hotels may be more accomodating depending upon the circumstances.

Now, I'm really curious about the consequences of my cancelling the first day of a four day stay on the expected day of arrival as I described above. Although my cancellation policy clearly states I can cancel up to 6 on the day of arrival, am I going to have a problem just cancelling the first day of the stay? Since Le Meridien won't let me cancel just the one day now and keep the other three at my original price, will the hotel let me do that at the last minute, since they won't let me do it in advance? Or will they insist then on cancelling the whole stay and rebooking the three nights at a much higher price? Incidentally, the rate I got was not for a four night stay, just a special website per night price.

Patrick
I wouldn't assume that when you cancel the first night that you will retain the same favorable rates on the remaining nights. I hope you do and wish you luck, but there may be other factors affecting the rate you got--weekend days vs weekends, minimum number of nights, rebooking fee, or any other arcane policies they may have.

As for the original question here,
I don't think it is "stinky" of a hotel to try and charge you if you don't comply with whatever their cancellation policy is, as long as they have disclosed it, even in fine print. It's inconvenient or disappointing, but not stinky imo.

Hi:

We had a change of plans in London, we made the arrangements via internet.
When we arrived, we explain that we would be leaving a day earlier than previously booked. The desk was more concerned that we were unhappy with the Hotel. Not the case, we stated. They changed the reservation and we were not charged for the cancellation.

GARYNFLA,

As I said, no offense meant, and my remark about "nutty" referred to your comment "What if on your 2nd day of a 3 day stay they told you to leave to make room for someone else."

First of all, you are correct. I don't really care about anyone else when I am making my reservations at a hotel for a BUSINESS trip. And if you want to call that cold hearted, go ahead. If the hotel's rules allow me to book 3 nights and I find out I can get back to my family after only 2 nights and they aren't going to charge me . . . well then you can stay 3 nights or give the hotel money for the third night because of your compassion for the hotel or the manager's family.

You call yourself a business manager? I didn't sign a contract and you misconstrued my comment . . . I never said I make a reservation for 3 nights and cavalierly bail out after 2. And mattsigel never said that either. If he changes his mind and decides to leave after 2 nights, you want to penalize him? If that's the hotel rule, then so be it. I don't stay at those hotels, I stay where I can have some flexibility without being charged for it.

You give ME a break! LD sledge as well . . . you are conjuring up an argument ( . . .that we are capriciously bailing out on an agreement) and then arguing that we are morally and ethically wrong. If you think you can use ad hominem arguments in court, my attorney friend, you need to go back to law school.

If you know about the changed dates ahead of time, and if it is still within the hotel's no-penalty cancellation time period, let the hotel know about the change. If the hotel behaves unfairly (e.g. tries to charge you a higher rate), tell them you may cancel the reservation completely and stay somewhere else instead. Better yet, be prepared with alternate plans when you call the hotel to notify it about the change.

If you tell the hotel ahead of time, most hotels will cooperate, because they do not want to risk losing the customer completely. From the hotel's perspective, having a customer stay 3 days instead of 4 days is still better than having the customer stay NO days, especially during these times of reduced travel and hotel low-occupancy rates.

Oops!

I said something I didn't mean to say. I honor contracts, both verbal and written. And I think it is unethical to book more days than you need . . . for whatever reason.

I am grouchy about this question because I have guaranteed a room and then been denied a room because of overbooking . . . which some hotels do just like airlines.

The Hilton in Bogota, Colombia
The Marriott in Frankfurt, Germany
The Meridien Grosvenor House in London

It happens. And GARYNFLA none of them offered to let me come over to their house and spend the night . . . they tried to accommodate me at other hotels . . . and that's it. The Hilton in Bogota offered me a free drink at the bar, but I still had to pay my own cab over to the Tequendama.

Thanks for the nice debate. AC's experience is what I expect. Snoopy's comments are apt for business travelers and you hope that the leisure hotels follow it.

Obviously the key is to ask ahead, but you have to figure at any decent place, even if you book for 6 nights and leave after 1 because you didn't like it, the hotel has to bite the bullet. I think GARYNFLA's hard-liner stance is bunk, because the hotel takes the risk that they will please you, and if not they lose your business.

Regarding the comments about changing my reservation. When I called Le Meridien, they told me that if I had made the reservation by phone, there would be no problem -- I could modify it. But they said website reservations cannot be modified -- "a quirk in their system" -- that there is no way to modify those reservations, only to cancel and redo them. Seems like they are out of date when they can't figure out how to make web reservations as effectively as phone ones.

Patrick,

That "quirk" in their system is simply that they've chosen to offer a "web" rate . . . meaning that you aren't "bothering a Meridien employee and annoying them with making a reservation" . . . and because it's self-service, they don't really want to let you have that rate if a Meridien employee has to get involved.

It's true, they may not have an elegant programmatic facility for modifying a web-originated reservation. I think, however, that it's arrogant of Meridien that you should suffer the ills their poorly designed system.

The original post was not to check out early because you had a bad hotel experience nor was it referencing a business trip that was completed early allowing you to return home quicker.That is entirely a different circumstance and my opinion of that would be different.
My interpretation was if you bail out 1 day early on a 3 day reservation should the hotel be "stinky" and charge you. I absolutely believe they should charge you then. They held the room in good faith. Just because a few hotels occassionaly overbook is no justification to not fulfill your verbal agreement with the hotel. I have never had a hotel do this to me in my 17 trips to Europe or any other part of the country for that matter. I do believe that "you get what you give in life" and what " goes around comes around".
What has happened to me is a couple of times I requested reservations at a few very special small hotels and was told they had no rooms available. I then booked elsewhere and was contacted later by hotel that "at last minute" they had cancelations and/or no shows and the rooms were available.
The hotel like any other business is tryng in most cases to make the best of the business. having the rooms rented as often as possible is the goal. It is hard to fill the vacancy for the 1 night and especially with short notice.
With that said if when you reserve your room and their policy says 24-48 hour notice then I feel you should be able to cancel the reservation with no cost.

Sorry to "hijack" this thread, but here's an update to my situation. After thinking about the above comments, I finally found the email address for the Munich LeMeridien and emailed them directly with the situation. I just received a return (within about an hour of sending my email) in which the general manager has changed my arrival date and kept my original rates (135 euro with breakfast, rather than the current 175 euro without breakfast the website or phone reservations wanted to charge me). He did mention, however, that "no further changes will be possible".

Snoopy, I do think that is a cold attitude to have. I always care about other people, always have , always will.
First of all, you are correct. I am pasting your statement below.....

"I don't really care about anyone else when I am making my reservations at a hotel for a BUSINESS trip. And if you want to call that cold hearted, go ahead."

I care about the hotel staff trying to support their families, I care about any travelers that may be inconvienced because of my actions, and I care about the perceptions of my actions to people in other countries.

I don't think Gary's original comment was "nutty" at all. He made a very good point -- it hasn't happened to me but I have read comments on travel forums, probably this one, about people with reservations being told by the hotel when they get there that they overbooked or don't have a room so they should go elsewhere.

It doesn't happen to me very often, but I also get shut out of room reservations at times when I try to book way in advance and I suspect rooms may open up later on when people cancel, but I don't have the time or effort to constantly monitor this. Also, when I book a hotel, I do have standards as to my own behavior, and I don't arbitrarily cancel hotel reservations for no reason, especially when I've had a personal dialogue with them, which I usually do.

Many times I've seen on Fodors posters asking about hotel recommendations AFTER they've booked rooms, because they are thinking of cancelling. Why they don't ask before booking, I don't know. Some people plan on cancelling because they will say they have booked 4-6 hotels for the same dates.

As for business travelers, they do have different needs and may need to change plans and I don't think should be penalized, but that's why I think they should stay in more expensive, large chain hotels near their business who can accommodate those type of changes more easily and have rates set for that market. I think business hotels are used to that kind of thing.

I think hotels in France could well charge you in resort areas or places where their policy requires considerable advance notice of a cancellation.

As for changing reservations online, I think some of that can be due to arrangements with a booking site (eg, londontown.com) -- I think the site gets paid per reservation night or something, and they must keep track of that.

Matt
I have never had a problem with checking out early of any European hotel.But I would ask specifically in advance of making a deposit if required.I am sure they would give you an honest answer.Ask "What if..." or something like that.If you have to prepay your hotel stay,that might be tough.But just ask so that you know for sure.Check out time is usually late morning to midday.So if you tell them the day before that you'll be leaving a day early and then check out early if that does not conflict with their policy then you should be OK.It seems like more and more hotels in the US are going to a "fee to check out early" plan but I havent seen that in Europe.

Hi, as a former manager of a small boutique hotel, bear in mind that cancelling 24 hours should be acceptable ,however sometimes the damage that can be done to hotels in certain periods- when it is full or when there is is a big demand -is larger than one room night, often hotels have to turn down a bigger
reservation for not having that one extra night. that a guest could be holding for just in case...
Of course hotels have to show some
flexibility but guests should also play a fair game as much as they can....

My sister runs vacation rentals in Hawaii and we have a strict policy that if you leave early, we don't refund any money. We are not a hotel with a sign in front that can get walk-ins.

But I think that some hotel have more lenient policies because they can get walk-ins. However, being on the side of the hotel/vacation rental owners, I strongly believe that if you signed and made an agreement with a proprietor to stay with them for a certain amount of time, you should live up to your agreement. The costs that can incur because one person leaves early can be huge. As someone mentioned, maybe a larger party had to be turned away because the one date that you cancelled was not originally available.

Bottom line, make sure that you stay only at hotels that you don't make agreements with prior to your stay.

Hotels are businesses. Years ago I instituted a pay in advance policy at my lodge. I told customers that it was just like buying football seat tickets. The policy worked. I lost a few customers, but gained more revenue. Previously I had customers ignore their reservations and leave me with vacant space and no way or time to fill it. Talk to any hotel person and they will tell you horror stories about the behavior of some guests. Maybe our USA schools should have courses teaching proper tourist behavior.

GARYNFLA,

Im all for spirited debate, but too often on this forum my debate has been called mean spirited. Before you reach that point, let me say a couple of things.

I care for people. And I care for hotel managers and staff and so forth. When I said as you quoted "I don't care . . . " what I should have said is I care MORE about my own priorities than theirs. If yours are on equal ground with hotel managers, etc. then more power to you.

Next, I believe we are saying the same thing . . . just in different ways. I think that people who deliberately book several nights in a hotel knowing full well that they only intend to use 1 or 2 are probably doing something that is negatively effecting more people than they realize. I don't think it's quite as bad as people who book seats on the 1:00pm, 2:00pm, 3:00pm and 4:00pm flight from Houston to Dallas because they don't know when their meeting will end.

The issue we are debating seems to center on mattsigel's use of the word "stinky". I think that if the hotel charges him for a cancellation following a published policy, then they are not stinky. If they charge him and it isn't based on a published policy then I think you and I would both agree that would be stinky.

I think our wires crossed when the issue of "bailing out" entered the debate. The term "bailing out" to me implies something sneaky and leaving someone holding the bag. If I book 3 nights, and after the first night decide to leave and cancel my remaining night's reservation . . . AND hotel policy allows me to do that without being charged, I don't consider that bailing out.

On the other hand, if the hotel policy says they will charge me in that instance and I get all torqued out of shape and call them stinky, I am wrong.

I care about all of the things that you stated that you care about. However, if I decide that I want to cancel a reservation and the hotel's policy allows me to do that without charging me I am not going to consider the hotel's staff's family needs before cancelling that reservation . . .

I booked a week at the Sophie Amalie in Copenhagen because the hotel I normally stay in there, the Scandinavia, was full. On my way from the airport to the Sophie Amalie, I stopped at the Scandinavia and told them where I'd be if a room became available. The next day the Scandinavia called and said that they could accommodate me. The Scandinavia gave me a better rate, a nicer room, better service . . . and the Sophie Amalie mangager tried to charge me for the full week when I told him I wanted to check out. I asked him to show me his cancellation policy and the only thing he could produce said that I needed to give notice 24 hours prior to check-in if I wanted to cut short my stay.

What would you have done GARYNFLA?

The beat goes on! So much for a whole thread for apologies.

When I make reservations for several nights, knowing that I might cut my stay short or leave for a night or two in the middle of my planned stay, I tell the hotel when I arrive that I am not sure of my plans and ask how much notice they would like me to give them if I decide that I will NOT need the room for certain nights. Then I figure out what I'm doing and make sure that if I need to cancel a night or two, I do so earlier than the date/time that the hotel requested.

If I simply showed up at the desk one morning and announced that I no longer needed the room that I'd reserved for another few days, I'd assume that the hotel would charge me, unless they could easily re-rent the room immediately.

"I asked him to show me his cancellation policy and the only thing he could produce said that I needed to give notice 24 hours prior to check-in if I wanted to cut short my stay."

I guess you forgot to do that.

Well, just because I was feeling guilty, I called and changed my dates and had to problem even though it had been booked on the internet! I feel better.