Surprised by hotel cancellation charges
 

Has anyone else been burned by surpise concellation fees? I reserved at Hotel Varenne in Paris through their website and just had to cancel for health reasons. There was no obvious indication on the web (and only a reference to a 5E nonrefundable booking fee on my confirmation email. Now I discover that there is a small terms and conditions click on on the website that says there is a 3% fee on any cancellation after time of booking! It didn't even occur to me that there would be a cancellation charge this far ahead of the reservation - every other Paris hotel I considered had no fees at all until 2-7 days prior. This leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Has this happened to you?

no, I haven't, but I am pretty careful and always read the terms and conditions before booking. I looked at that web site and the notice of cancellation fees (one night for no show or within 3 days, 3 pct as soon as reserved) in the reservation booking section looked prominent to me, if you clicked on the terms and condition button, so it's too bad you didn't notice it. I always read terms and conditions before booking online, so wouldn't book without reading them or looking for them. I didn't see a 5 euro booking fee charge on the page I viewed, however.

I wouldn't book at a hotel that did that unless I really wanted to stay at a place and didn't think there would be any change of cancellation. If that is only 3 pct of one night, that isn't too bad, although if it's 3 pct of the entire stay, that seems a lot. Actually, I've run across that exact same charge schedule in a few other Paris hotels and I think it's because they are using the same booking software. Perhaps the software vendors get that fee or something for letting them run it. The Relais Bosquet, for example, also had those cancellation terms and use the same booking software.

I think hotels are trying to get the business and provide service by having a web presence nowadays, but it isn't free for them, and they are covering costs by ways such as this. They also have costs incurred by processing all these reservations and the cancellations. Possibly you wouldn't have had a cancellation fee if you'd booked directly by calling or FAXing rather than using that software (which is availpro), but I don't know.

http://www.paris-hotel-varenne.com/

Did you use the website above? This is the hotel's official site, and I see no "terms & conditions" anywhere.

If you used a different site, that was a booking site, and the fees are imposed by the booking service, not the hotel. I have never seen any hotel that imposes any sort of fee to book directly with them (as in the 5E fee). Each hotel has its own cancellation policy, which you sometimes must inquire about.

In checking with Hotel de Varenne today the reception said that the cancellation policy is 5 days prior to the arrival date. There was no mention of a penalty charge in addition to this.

The terms and conditions link is on the reservations page.

http://www.paris-hotel-varenne.com/english/main.htm.

It is prominently displayed at the top of the page.

My experience with CC disputes is that they will back the webiste as long as the terms are listed.

It's a one time cheap lesson..you'll never make that mistake again.

Whenever you book or buy anything through a web site you are executing a legal contract based on the posted terms. You must always read them - or take your chances with unhappy surprise like this. Assuming that they would have no cancellation policy is merely foolish - as you have found out. Be happy the amount isn;t larger.

That is strange if you use the reservation link to book a room at the Varenne the cancellation policy differs from when you ask the hotel directly.

Hi peg,

Why not call the hotel, ask what the cancellation policy is, and ask why you have been charged?

I've never stayed or even booked this hotel, but have looked at its website in the past - I saw the cancellation fee at that time, doubt it was very hard to find...

I'm with Lesli, I got curious and went to the website. I saw no terms and conditions anywhere, including not on the Reservations pages, unless you have to fill out the form for it to show up.

Lesli and Elaine,

If you go to the reservations page and plug in a date( s though checking availability) the link to terms and conditions is at the top of thepage on the left.

The terms and conditions shows up on the abailablity pages.

IT doesn't appear to be on the page that requests CC info.

It should appear on page pages..but doesn't.

they are there on the hotel's own web site, that's where I read them.

They show up when you try to make a reservation. That seems okay to me, as you couldn't make a reservation without going through that section, and they appear before you give them any CC info or actually make the reservation. If you try to check out availability and put in a specific date (in the "Make Reservation, display availability" section), when it comes back with various room types available and rates, on that same before appears the terms and conditions link right above the rates. YOu can't make a reservation without going through that section.

But it seems to be different when you send an email to the hotel. They don't mention the 3% cancellation penalty and the cancellation should be done 5 days prior to arrival.

I do agree that this penalty, especially if dealing directly with the hotel, is unusual. Most of the time, it is a one-night charge if cancelled less than 72 hours from arrival.
Isn't it a really small hotel, ie. 10 rooms or something? That is probably why...

Dispute it with your credit card company!

Why would it make ANY sense to dispute the charge??? The website clearly spells out all terms and conditions. Just because someone doesn't read or ignores those rules doesn't mean they aren't legitimate. We are only talking about 3% here - just be glad it wasn't a full night's charge . . . . .

Since the original message is several months old, it is possible that the website changed, or their cancellation policies changed. Certainly it is too late to dispute the cc charge now (not that there is really anything to dispute!)

I contacted Hotel de Varenne about the 3% penalty last night.
There is no penalty if you email the hotel to make a reservation. However, there is a penalty if you book online through the website.
They told me that the cancellation period for the New Year's period is 5 days prior to arrival; I believe it's usually 3 days prior to arrival otherwise.

We just reserved at a hotel that has no penalty for a cancellation, but if we had booked on one reservation site they would have soaked us $25. Ouch!