Can You Get A Refund If Your Hotel Has Roaches – Consumer journalist John Matarese shows us a big downside to paying up front during this pandemic, so you don’t have your money.
HOUSTON — So far, most people who had to cancel spring break due to the pandemic have received refunds or credits. However, some people who have booked non-refundable hotel rooms are still struggling to get their money back.
Can You Get A Refund If Your Hotel Has Roaches
Sara Pruitt and her best friend planned a St. Patrick’s Day trip to Savannah, Georgia in March.
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“We tried to cancel the room through Expedia,” she said. We repeatedly canceled the room for 8 hours with Expedia to no avail, so decided to dispute the charge through the credit card company.
These days, the lowest hotel room rates are almost always non-refundable, no matter where you check in.
This means that if you have any problems or issues, getting your money back is nearly impossible.
Expedia and other travel sites have started offering refunds for trips affected by the nationwide shutdown. However, Sara’s trip was a week earlier, so she tried to go to the hotel, but was unsuccessful.
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“The hotel manager said they sold the room to Expedia and Expedia owned the room for that night,” she said.
Travel forums have hundreds of complaints about people not being able to get their money back on prepaid discount rooms, but non-refundable means you’ll lose what you paid for if you cancel.
“Rooms are non-refundable, I wouldn’t recommend them at all,” Pruitt says. “They create so many loopholes that you can’t get your money back.”
It’s most of the remaining risk to get the lowest price, especially in this pandemic year, so don’t waste your money. Why pay a ton for a place to sleep? Here are some money saving tips for hotels.
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That said, if you’re in doubt about your trip and want a refund for a non-refundable hotel room, you may be out of luck.
Sometimes you don’t even have a choice. Let’s see what happened to Liam Goodman. He booked a last-minute, non-refundable hotel room in New York through Priceline. When the hotel ran out of rooms and he had to stay at another hotel, Priceline did not reimburse him.
Goodman, a photographer from Beacon, New York, said: “Priceline said I never signed up and was away.”
Non-refundable – or “prepaid” – hotel rooms seem to be becoming more and more common. The deal is simple: you prepay for a hotel room and get a modest discount. Unlike airline tickets, there is no chance of a refund, even if you change your mind within 24 hours of booking.
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If you’re stuck with one of these non-refundable hotel rooms, don’t worry. There are actually many ways to get your money back. But perhaps the best strategy is to avoid those complicated hotel reservations in the first place.
Goodman would have liked. He can avoid trouble by asking his original hotel to “drive” him to a comparable property, which is common practice in the hospitality industry. Instead, he contacted Priceline for help – and was turned down. I asked Priceline about his case. The company reviewed his records and discovered he was not an absentee after all, and the company offered him a full refund.
When the hotel is not as advertised. I have witnessed many instances where the hotel failed to meet expectations. All bets are off when this happens. Take lots of photos and engage as much as possible – and, if necessary, with your credit card company. If the answer is still “no”, you can register your stay. For example, when Heidi Vanderlee found out she had to share a bathroom with another guest in a London hotel, she called her online travel agent. After many back and forths, the online agent corrected her booking, allowing her to upgrade to a private bathroom. “It could have been a much worse outcome,” said Vanderlee, a reporter who lives in New York.
When you are sick. This is something Grant Sabatier discovered recently when he fell ill and canceled a non-refundable hotel room in Washington, D.C. A valid medical reason may warrant a full refund. But he had to call the hotel three times before he figured things out his way. “It only worked for me when I booked directly with a hotel,” adds Sabatier, founder of financial advice website Millennial Money.
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When your situation changes. The hotel understands that your plans may change. Chris Michaels recently requested a refund for two non-refundable nights at a Chicago hotel chain. “Friendly, I explained to a receptionist that I was part of the big leagues in town and that my team had been dropped from the tournament. I also said that I was part of the rewards chain. And I Stayed at this place in the past,” recalls Michaels, founder of personal finance website Frugal Reality. “The hotel offered to charge me a $50 cleaning fee to pay for the rest of the night. Needless to say, I paid and went home.”
When you have a death in the family. Alex Beene had to cancel a non-refundable reservation when a relative died. The hotel handed him over to a “suspicious” manager. “But when I asked for documents, he offered to go ahead and refund my stay and offer my condolences,” said Beene, who works for the state of Tennessee. “Just having written a justification for canceling a non-refundable stay shows the hotel how serious you are about the claim.”
Sometimes people just want a refund for a non-refundable room for no good reason. And why not? Hotels can often resell rooms, so it’s normal that we get at least some money back, isn’t it?
Frequent hotel guests like Anna DiTommaso, who owns a web design company in Dallas, say it’s at least worth a try.
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“The hotel has the legal right to hold the money,” she said. “But I find that if you have a good reason to cancel, most places will refund you without you even having to ask.”
I agree. “Prepaid” rooms and non-refundable rates are not suitable for guests. The discount is too low and the risk too great. Often customers don’t even know they’re on a non-refundable rate until it’s too late. It’s true, hotels bury the terms in their fine print, just like other travel companies.
Conclusion: non-refundable hotel rooms should not exist. But they do. Now you may have a way around them.
Travel insurance. If you need to cancel your hotel stay for a covered reason, you may be able to get a refund of non-refundable hotel charges from your insurance company. Seven Corners CEO Justin Tysdal suggested the “cancellation for any reason” benefit. “It allows you to cancel your trip for whatever reason you want,” he says. “That way, if something unexpected happens, you can cancel your trip and get back at least 75% of your non-refundable travel expenses.”
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Change your reservation date. Sometimes non-refundable hotel rooms can be changed to a later date. Andy Abramson, who runs a media company in Los Angeles, says that for some hotels, when you reschedule, you can request — and receive — a refund. “I’ve used this trick many times.”
Sell the room. Yes it’s possible. “You can resell your nonrefundable hotel reservations to someone else and get a refund that way,” says Galena Stavreva, CEO of SpareFare.net. She said that hotels allow changing the name of the main guest in the reservation. Booking and Expedia also facilitate name changes. You can recover all or part of your hotel room. Travel issues could persist this winter with storms exacerbating staffing issues amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Look carefully at your travel itinerary. Notice anything different? That’s right, your hotel reservation may be completely non-refundable. Yes, even during a pandemic.
So if you are in doubt about your trip and want a refund for a non-refundable hotel room, you may be out of luck.
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Sometimes you don’t even have a choice. Let’s see what happened to Liam Goodman. He booked a last-minute, non-refundable hotel room in New York through Priceline. When the property ran out of space and he had to stay at another hotel, Priceline picked him up.
Goodman, a photographer from Beacon, New York, said: “Priceline said I never signed up and was away.”
Anecdotal evidence suggests that non-refundable (or “prepaid”) hotel rooms are becoming more common. No one is consistently tracking and reporting non-refundable hotel rooms. The deal is simple: you prepay for the hotel room(s) and receive a modest discount. There is no chance of a refund, even if you change your mind within 24 hours of booking, unlike airlines.
OK, have you checked your route? If you’re stuck with one of these non-refundable hotel rooms, don’t worry. There are many ways to get your money back. But maybe the best
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