garyincary

I wanted to book a 6 night stay at the Adina Apartment Hotel in Berlin, starting June 3rd. When I did so, for every kind of room available, their booking policy is as follows.

This rate is non refundable and non changeable. Cancellation fee is equal to cost of 100 percent of total stay booked. A non refundable deposit at the time of booking is required. Deposit is equal to cost of 100 percent of total stay.

Is this typical for Berlin hotels? What happens if something unfortunate happens, and I'm not able to travel to Berlin? If this is typical of most Berlin hotels, then I will just go along with the way things are done there.

Thanks for your help with this

ribeirasacra

On Bookign.com these are not the reservation conditions you have quoted.
http://bit.ly/1hq8HvO

greg

Each accommodation has different ways to book. Adina is not an exception. For example, if you use booking.com noted by the previous poster, there are booking with and without cancellations. In exchange for lower price, you can book it without cancellation as you noted. If you want a option to be able to cancel, you must pay more. It is the cost of buying an option in your favor. Many accommodations around the world charge more to give you a cancellation option. If you book non cancellation type, you will not get remedy from the hotel. You have to buy a trip insurance from elsewhere.

greg

If you want to see a sample of mind boggling variations in the way cancellation policies are stated, look at www.vrbo.com, for example.

Seamus

gary - no, it is not typical in Berlin or anywhere else, but it is also not uncommon. Just as with airfares, some hotels offer discounted pay in advance nonrefundable rates. They usually also offer other rate types with less severe cancellation policies but at a higher cost. If you are looking at a third party site it may only display the lowest (and with most penalties) rates but if you look at the page of (or contact) the hotel itself you will see other rates. As to the possibility of something unexpected happening to prevent travel - that's why there's trip insurance.

Mainhattengirl

Use one of the hotel consolidators instead, like www.hrs.com to get a better cancellation policy.

love_travel_Aus

I just did a trial run dated from June 3 and found that some rooms may be cancelled up until 2.00pm the day before - but these were the more expensive rooms.
I looked at the Checkpoint Charlie Adina - but the others probably have the same rules.
We stayed in the Adina Hauptbahnhof a few years ago and it was a good little apartment.

dulciusexasperis

If you choose to book with them check your travel insurance before doing so. The allowable reasons the insurance company will accept for claiming if something happens, may well discourage you from booking a non-cancellable anything.

Personally, I would never make that booking. But then, I rarely book ahead anyway. I prefer to see a room before I take it.