When I'm making plans for a trip, I'll often want to talk to people at a couple of hotels or B&B's before I decide on a place.
Sometimes during the conversation, I end up making a reservation, just-in-case, and sometimes I even leave a credit card number,
understanding that there is still plenty of time to cancel. But on my last trip, I forgot to cancel one of the reservations! Fortunately, it was at a B&B owned by a lovely woman who called my house when I didn't show up. Didn't get the message till I got back from my trip, but then called her to tell her what had happened. Of course I expected to have to pay for the unused night, but she would not charge me. I'll hope to get to her place on my next trip. Anyway, now when I make a reservation, I put a HOT PINK post-it on my wall above my desk, with the name of the place, cancellation date, and many $$$ signs.

Hope nobody out there in Fodor-land has been charged for a room that you forgot to cancel. (What is a senior moment called when it lasts weeks at a time??)

yes I do it every year and put on my little girl voice and say, "this is the first time I ever got a hotel room". Never had a time when they did not let me go.

Actually, and this may be awful, I always change a number when I give my credit card out like that. I have never made multiple reservations, but I once got charged twice and it took forever to clear it all up. So that's my little trick.

It happened to me for the first time this year with a hotel in Las Vegas. I didn't remember it until I saw the charge on my credit card. But I called and they gave me a credit with no hassle at all. Thank goodness.

Gee, you were lucky. I was attending a convention in Las Vegas and staying at the Flamingo. The policy was no refunds for cancelations. My flight was canceled so I never made it until the next day. I called but was told I still had to pay for that night.
A friend took over a room I had reserved a couple of years ago and she thought she had cancelled but didn't get a cancellation number. And they had MY credit card number. She talked them into only charging her half the amount and reimbursed me. Again, it was another convention and rooms were hard to get. I've started seeing no refund policies for convention rates because so many people would book a room then cancel later on but sheesh, we have to book months ahead just to get a decent room.

Annie,

That sounds like a great trick - I don't guess they actually verify the credit card number at the time of making the reservation.

I've found that hotels are far more forgiving than B&B's (probably with some justification - since they're smaller operations).

Mon, you're right. I own a B&B and would not refund a "no-show" under any circumstances. We don't overbook so the room you reserve is guaranteed to be yours. If I had 100 rooms maybe I'd feel differently but reservations are a contract of sort. I guarantee a room and you guarantee to pay for it! The added insult of a no-show is that can potentially spend hours waiting for the guest to arrive!

(Annie, you must be booking at places with no computer systems! My system won't accept a bogus number.)

Yes, I once booked at 2 different hotels for the same night to guarantee space while I gave a traveling companion a choice. He chose, but I forgot to cancel the duplicate. It showed up on the Visa bill and I paid it -- I figured that was the deal and ethically I owed it.

I charged 4 roome to my card in Sacramento CA for some legislative advocacy.The hearing got changed at the last minute and the leader of the group assumed I would cancel the reservations. Anyway we were stuck with the entire bill even though I walked over there at noon that day to ask (beg) for a break. They said it was not their decision. A lesson well learned....

There's no way I would expect a hotel or B&B to eat a night's revenue, just because I'm too lazy to cancel a reservation. Hotel chains are large enough that it's not a huge deal to them, but B&B owners operate on a very thin profit margin (and many don't make any money at all). It's common courtesy to only make a reservation you plan to honor. Obviously, situations can change and emergencies come up. But if there are many people like most of the previous posters out there, I can understand why so many B&Bs go out of business every year.