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How to get your money back on a non-refundable hotel
- xwdv 7y agoThis could easily fail if they do not ask the reason for your extension.
- briefcomment 7y agoSounds like the original person intended on actually staying at the hotel for two weeks after failing to get their reservation cancelled, and was pleasantly surprised by the result. But yes, probably not easily replicable.
- notlukesky 7y agoMany hotels in fact did reject refunds due to coronavirus cancellations including that of Jason Lemkin and the canceled Saastr conference.
- __s 7y agoJust have to play it right. Slip in some details, get curious about what food you can order to your room, etc. You can always decide some detail is a deal breaker & not make the close
- dave5104 7y agoOr just be explicit and share. "Hi, I need to extend my stay from 3 nights to 2 weeks. I'm just returning from a high risk area of Italy and need to quarantine myself!"
- graylights 7y ago"and I want to do it somewhere with a gym and pool"
- jbkiv 7y agoI love that hack! Very clever
- kube-system 7y agoThis sounds like a joke more than a true anecdote. Why would a hotel ask for a reason for an extension?
- irjustin 7y agoI wouldn't discount it outright. Definitely plausible - extending your stay during this time period is weird for sure. Or you could just simply slip in the detail specifically.
- hkmurakami 7y agoYup you could definitely add it in "special requests" asking whether it's okay if you did this.
- pentae 7y agoProbably because he just asked for a refund, now he's asking for an extension
- bb88 7y agoTLDR: Use the excuse you returned from Italy and need an extension of several days to self quarantine. It might work now, but maybe not when hotels start catching on and requiring proof.
- 3fe9a03ccd14ca5 7y agoHonestly these hotels are probably losing so much money right now that they’d gladly take a covid patient.
- gruez 7y agoreminds me of https://old.reddit.com/r/MaliciousCompliance/comments/dk9go7/i_cant_get_a_refund_on_my_escape_room_ok_let_me/ https://old.reddit.com/r/MaliciousCompliance/comments/dk9go7...
- m3kw9 7y agoI’m from Wuhan, I’d like to use your facilities.
- hkmurakami 7y agoA friend's fiance literally can't come to the states to join him because she's from Wuhan (though she lived in Shenzen). I imagine a lot of people are having their major plans disrupted like this. That being said this post was hilarious and I sent it to everyone :D
- OiNG 7y agoi met my non-refundable hotel half way and just asked for credits for a future stay there. they were happy to do that and gave me a 2 year expiration.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- dreadpiratebob 7y agoJust canceled a trip to California and the reverse of this was a very real concern. Popping positive in Cali and having no place to stay...
- rosybox 7y agoJust FYI, if you're lying to get out of paying for something, or to get reimbursed on false pretenses that is called fraud and is illegal. It's also wrong to do, it is an action taken in bad faith.
- gjs278 7y agoshut up. it won’t affect anyone but the scamming hotel.
- 55555 7y agoThanks Dad. I had never heard about lying before and didn't know it was wrong or that fraud was illegal.
- brailsafe 7y agoThank you so much for this information. I'll be sure to do whatever I can to continue bleeding money on pointless expenses after I get laid off instead of doing what I can to get by.
- nexuist 7y ago> it is an action taken in bad faith So is a hotel denying you a refund during an epidemic. There is an obvious power differential here between Joe Blow and some billion dollar hotel chain. You need the money for basic survival far more than they need it to pad their quarterly earnings.
- chadash 7y agoBy booking a non-refundable rate, which is generally cheaper, you took that risk. So long as the hotel is open, it's not really their problem. The fact that they have more money than you doesn't give you the right to steal from them. If you really need the money for basic survival, fine, we can argue about the morality of it. But even with a possible recession looming, it's unlikely that the price of a hotel stay is going to be the difference between life and death for you. It's unlikely you are in basic survival mode yet, unless you've already lost your job and are living paycheck to paycheck and there are no available government programs to help you right now and no friends or family to turn to.
- kmarlow 7y agoIt is a bit surprising that the hotel would not reimburse given the global state of affairs.
- wahern 7y agoIn a couple of months hotels are going to be going bankrupt left and right. Many hotels are owned by franchisees. The difference between losing your business and scraping by might be dictated by how well you minimize your losses right now. Goodwill won't be worth squat when you're out of business.
- United857 7y agoMost global hotel chains like Marriott etc have waived their refund policies. It's the small indie ones that may not budge.
- ttul 7y agoA friend just called up and said, “I feel totally fine, but I have to let you know I am from Kirkland and I live about half a mile from the care home with the COVID-19 outbreak. I am completely happy to come to the hotel and hang out with your guests in the bar, or you could cancel my reservation and I’ll stay home.” They refunded him in full.
- nsxwolf 7y agoI'd worry about getting slapped with a bioterrorism charge.
- Terr_ 7y agoBio-extortion, at most...
- enraged_camel 7y agoI hope you are joking...
- nsxwolf 7y ago"Refund my money or I will expose you and your guests to a deadly virus"
- instaclay 7y agoI feel like pointing out cause and effect isn't a threat unless you're trying to play victim to it. * "If you run around the pool, you may slip and fall." * "If you charge me for this stay, I will use it, and that may expose your guests to a virus."
- seanmcdirmid 7y agoKind of related, but our daycare just shutdown for more than a month and asked us to keep paying monthly tuition. It makes sense, the daycare workers still need to live, but it feels kind of weird in that we have to have this burden on our own since a lot of us are affected also.
- LanceH 7y agoIs it the kind of place if you can't pay for a month they would keep watching your kid? (serious question) If it isn't, then you should cancel the monthly. It's pretty simple.
- jhy 7y agoBut good luck getting back in when they reopen. The waitlist was brutal before, and now you're on the bottom of it.
- seanmcdirmid 7y agoIf you don’t pay, you lose your place in line and there is usually a waiting list (though with the upcoming recession, those might go away). You also don’t endear yourself with the staff if you don’t plan on switching.
- wolco 7y agoDo you think putting your kids in daycare will be a popular choice going forward? There will be plenty of spaces for a while after this ends.
- conception 7y agoPeople generally don’t choose daycare. It’s a requirement because they have to work.
- pmiller2 7y agoIt’s a business relationship at the heart of it. If my business associates can’t provide the service I’ve contracted for, that doesn’t endear me to them, either.
- fenwick67 7y agoLife hack: avoid paying for things by stealing them
- ajxs 7y agoI'd be very surprised if there was one ounce of truth to this. I've worked implementing payment systems for large institutions. It's standard for the existing balance of the transaction to be taken into account when an amendment is made to a purchase that has yet to be settled. Example: You purchase $100 worth of widgets, process the payment then 5 minutes later call up and add another $100 of widgets to your order prior to the order being shipped. Your original purchase won't get refunded. Your order will be amended and you'll be charged another $100 to settle the outstanding amount. I'd be a little surprised if something as sophisticated as a hotel booking system didn't implement a basic account ledger.
- jjeaff 7y agoWhat does all that have to do with the story? The hotel supposedly cancelled his 3 day reservation because they don't want him staying there at all if he might have corona virus. The 10 day extension was just a request to add credence to the story.
- tempestn 7y agoThe point is that he's implying to the hotel that he is carrying the virus, and therefore they don't want him there, so they refunded his original booking.
- ajxs 7y agoHa, I guess I missed the joke.
- Scoundreller 7y agoI see a lot of law on Force Majeure being clarified over the next 12 months: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_majeure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_majeure Or Frustrated Contract Law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frustration_of_purpose https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frustration_of_purpose And it's not just for businesses to use against consumers.
- break_the_bank 7y agoHotels usually have a more flexible cancellation policy than Airbnb.Its way easier to find cancellation up to one day before at hotels than an Airbnb in the same city. Was supposed to travel to Spain last week. Had a few Airbnbs booked. When the cases started spiking on the 2nd of March it looked like Spain was going to be another Italy. So we cancelled our trip. Got most of our flight tickets & hostel stay money back. Airbnb returned 50%. Spain did become like Italy was on the 2nd of March.
- jobigoud 7y agoYou might want to double check with Airbnb because they have put in place a special policy related to covid-19. I am airbnb host, we had someone scheduled for next week. They cancelled and they got a full refund including the airbnb service fees, even though we are normally on strict cancellation policy (50%). They also changed the way cancellations work from the host side, we can cancel without penalty and without loosing superhost status.
- justlexi93 7y agoUnfortunately, if you chose and booked a non-refundable hotel on any website then "non-refundable" means just that. People often have the choice to booked the cheaper non-refundable deal, or often a slightly higher priced one offering Free Cancellation up until a specific time and date before arrival. Yes, it was obviously a mistake that you didnt see/notice or read the bit about it being non-refundable. Their Terms and Conditions will be very clear about non-refundable and its meaning. You can cancel it if you wish, but you will not receive a refund. I think its the hotels themselves who set the rules for their hotels deals, either non-refundable or Free Cancellation.
- Emore 7y agoOr you can just ask. I emailed asking for a refund, citing corona, the (pre-paid, non-refundable) hotel I was going to stay at for SXSW and they refunded me the entire sum. Very impressed, and I'm sure preferable to credit card charge backs.