Walking out on bad hotels
 

I've read several posts about people leaving their reserved hotels for another when they're not happy with the accomodations. Fortunately, I've never stayed in a place so awful that I had to leave (although we came close in Venice). <BR>Is it normal hotel policy to allow this without repercussion? Are you not forced to pay a sort of fee as you have clearly not given a 24 hour cancellation notice? <BR>I suppose, if a facility was bad enough I would leave even if I had to pay for unused nights, but wonder if that's necessary. <BR>Thanks, j.

Most hotels don't require 24 hrs. to cancel the remaining nights after your first. I left a hotel in London once after spending a noisy overpriced first night. I don't remember having any prob. cancelling.

Actually, my husband and I left a hotel in Naples after one night because it was very unsatisfactory. (And, it was in Rick Steve's book - so there goes the idea of always finding something decent if you stick to guidebooks). Anyhow, the management gave us the run around about fixing the problem (no running water in our bathroom) and kept telling us it was fine (it wasn't). We finally got our bags and left - paid for our one night. We were not changed for additional nights. <BR> <BR>I guess every place is different. However, I think if you have a legitimate complaint and the hotel chooses not to fix the problem and you leave - if they were to charge your credit card you could request that the credit card company withhold payment. I think this situation is very different than just simply changing your mind or plans and not giving notice of the cancellation to the hotel.

<BR>I suppose it could depend on the local laws and regulations. I wouldn't expect an hotel to charge me for the "unused" nights in such an instance, though...But I could well be dissapointed (I suspect also that the fact the law allow/forbid it doesn't mean the hotel will actually charge/not charge you).

In Greece we had to pay for the night we stayed plus %50 of the remaining nights booked. Ouch! In Granada we just paid for the night we stayed.

In Venice, Hotel Reiter on Lido, we didn't even stay the first night - the place was that bad! Our double bed was actually two single beds pushed together (I know that's common) but the beds themselves were only cots - metal frames with 2" mattresses. My travel companion was 300+ lbs. and when he sat on the bed, the bottom springs touched the floor. <BR>We went back to the lobby, expressed our disappointment with the room, and were roundly insulted, berated, abused, sworn at etc. (and I'm a pretty mild-mannered person - we did NOTHING to invite this abuse) so we paid for the unused first night and sprinted out of there. 2 blocks down the street, a wonderful hotel, 20% more expensive, beautiful room, good breakfasts, wonderful staff - the night we paid for and didn't use was well worth it to find Hotel Le Boulevard on Lido...

We're not fussy--just want a clean room (clean sheets, bathroom, etc.) but have had two bad experiences with mixed results: Booked four nights at a B&B in Dublin and arrived to find the room was in the basement, muddy bathroom floor, cigarette butt floating in the toilet, trash outside the door, etc. Even though the e-mail contract said "24 hours notice" to cancel, the owner wouldn't let us out of our four night commitment (we told him at check in we wished to leave and offered to pay the first night). He had our card and would have used it. <BR>A small hotel near Victoria Station: I have no problem with small rooms, but this fit a bed only (climbing on from the bottom to get in or out!), shower & sink in one closet, shower in another, ALL ROOMS FREEZING, informed the hot water tank was blown & we wouldn't have water until the next day, etc. We had to pay two nights to get out of our one week commitment. By the way, we weren't paying fleabag rates for these places! Does anyone have a solution that beats being humiliatingly berated as you pay for rooms you won't use? I realize we could have fought the credit card charges when we got home, but who wants to go through that hassle?

I am not speaking from european experience but I have worked at a hotel in the US which was located in a state park and a high tourist area. what we did was charge people a deposit when they made their reservation the deposit was $75 (equal to one night stay) the deposit had to be paid upon reservation or 14 days prior to arrival whichever came last. If someone wanted to leave early they paid for the nights they actually stayed but lost their deposit. If you stayed the full time, the deposit was credited to your bill. In otherwords,you paid one "penalty night" for leaving early but did not pay for the balane of the reservation. I think this is aVERY common practice now in the US and even abroad.

A couple of times I walked out after (politely) informing the manager that the hotel was unsatisfactory. And if the hotel charged my card, it really was a simple matter to call the credit card company and explain why I shouldn't be charged. Both times I did this, the cc company dropped the charge with absolutely no hassle. <BR> <BR> <BR>