Overselling, walking guests, and reselling a failed no show aren t a guarantee. Hotels aren t at 100

Question : I recently reserved a hotel room at the Hawthorn Suites in Charleston, SC, through Priceline for a family trip with my mother. A few days later, my sister s children corporate travel and expense policies were removed from their home and taken into state custody. I was awarded foster care for all three of them and they have been with me since then.
The older children, prior to removal, were homeschooled, so the dates of the trip were not an issue. With them being in my care, they are now in public schooling. The children range in age from 22 months through 9 years of age.
When we realized that the time frame would mean I would still have the children with me in March (and not during spring break, so they would miss a week of school), I called to cancel the reservation and was told there is no refund, even in extreme situations.
I have spoken corporate travel and expense policies to upper management and emailed the executive offices, but their response is that the policy states that I am not allowed to change or cancel my reservation and will still be charged the full reservation amount.
My finances have been greatly affected by accepting the foster role, because I am family foster care, not a licensed foster care provider, so I receive very minimal financial support from the state system. The bill for the week for the hotel room is $772, and I can t afford it. Can you help me to get Priceline.com to reconsider and allow me to cancel my reservation due to extreme extenuating circumstances? — Tami Alloway , Kansas City
The problem is, to some extent, the unbending refund policies of the hotel companies and Priceline, which are designed to protect their revenues. But it is, to another extent, something that can be blamed on other hotel guests who came before you.
Hotels feel as if they need to take a hard line because customers will make up any story to get them to refund a nonrefundable room. So it s likely that no matter how convincing you tried to sound, the hotel and Priceline either didn t believe you or thought your personal circumstance didn t rise to the level of refunding a nonrefundable reservation.
But I believe you. What s more, I think if the situation were reversed — if, say, the hotel couldn t honor its reservation because of a catastrophe or natural disaster — then it would expect you to allow it to cancel your nonrefundable reservation without paying you any compensation.
In a case like this, you had already corporate travel and expense policies exhausted all of your appeals, and technically, both Priceline and Hawthorn were correct to keep your money. The most you could do was politely request another review of your case. I list Priceline s contacts on my consumer advocacy site. (By the way, if this case looks familiar to you it should. I wrote about the ethics of covering it when it first came to my attention earlier this year.)
I asked Priceline if it could take another look at your reservation. It contacted the hotel on your behalf, which agreed to make an exception to its refund policy, and it canceled your reservation without any penalty. Good luck with the kids.
I m not without compassion (believe it or not) but an agreement is an agreement. The hotel agreed to sell her a room for a discounted rate as long as it couldn t be cancelled. She agreed to that. Now that it hasn t worked out for her, she wants to change the agreement. I would bet if her trip wasn t cancelled but the hotel decided that they didn t want to honor the discounted price, and wanted more money, that she would have a problem with it and demand they follow corporate travel and expense policies their agreement.
Well, as I m not psychic I can t read her mind. I can say that, as an attorney, my ability to get to a decision maker rather than a script reader, is often all that is required to get success for a client. corporate travel and expense policies It s not necessarily about influence and power.
Perhaps reasons why don t matter to you. For many of us they do, and that s why this is a compassionate case. You said you have compassion. Under what circumstances would it be appropriate corporate travel and expense policies for the traveler to be released from the otherwise binding contract?
Stubhub exists to allow tickets to be sold for more than face value. I checked out the concert I wanted to attend and called the box office to find out the true value of each ticket type. People had 4-12 ticket they were selling. One or two tickets might be one thing, but that is rarely the case, hence why some entertainers are not allowing it thankfully!
1) Correct, you bill by the hours rendered (same here). So you ve untaken 200 clock hours @ 300/HR, the Op receives a 440,000 refund. The 60,000 is for nonrefundable services tendered. Leads me to point #2.
- Hotels corporate travel and expense policies reply upon nonrefundable reservations when managing current and future bookings. Guests might be turned away if rooms are unavailable, a guest requested room is already reserved, or current guests corporate travel and expense policies need reshuffled. Again, OP s actions cost the hotel, because his/her actions factor into managing reservations.
- Op received a discounted price for giving the hotel an assurance he/she promises to stay. Refunding money is a huge loss as there s no promise the room is again filled. Reserve last minute comes at a price, but with a guarantee you intend to travel.
3) You refunded some of the money under the guise of hardship. Some being an operative word, after suing the individual. You have to make a living, as do corporations, to remain viable. The Some might be work tendered or a penalty? The Hotel (and airlines) rely upon the same inflexibility.
1. Bad analogy. That tortures the word refundable corporate travel and expense policies . Refundable by definition necessitates that the benefit conferred to the purchaser can be returned. The 200 hours of time spent cannot be returned to me, much like we don t talk about a refundable restaurant corporate travel and expense policies meal. Money might be refunded if there is a service failure, but refundable is generally only used when the goods can be returned. Which is why its almost never used when discussing services such as my legals services.
2 Until recently, the hotels I stayed in only had refundable fares. I doubt if the back end operations have radically changed in the past 5 years. Plus, most rates at a hotel are refundable, particularly if the hotel caters to business travelers. You may book, cancel, and rebook with wanton abandon. So once again, the back end operations can t be the issue.
The point about turning people away is the only real legit point. corporate travel and expense policies However, hotels regularly overbook which factor into the analysis. Moreover, refunding the money is not a true cost unless he hotel turns way potential revenue as a result. I point out that many hotels do not charge the entire stay at reservations, even for nonrefundable fares. The loss is the anticipatory.
3. I returned some money, because I felt compassion. corporate travel and expense policies Unlike the hotel however, I had provided the contracted service. The appropriate analogy would be if the OP had actually stayed corporate travel and expense policies in the hotel, a hardship arose after she stayed, and wanted a refund for the nights already stayed.
The likelihood that there will be somebody that needs a last-minute seat from NY- LA on a weekday morning is approx. 100%. If you can pick and choose which routes you cover, it d be easy to make a killing, given the vast difference between last-minute and advance-purchase fares.
1) I disagree. Services rendered corporate travel and expense policies by you are nonrefundable. Man hours, use of the booking system, and time allotted to accommodate guests are also nonrefundable. Time was dedicated ensuring the OP s booking.
2) Refundable rates come at a premium and minus heavy discounts Customers must choose corporate travel and expense policies the Risk (Heavy Discount Nonrefundable) or Reward (Room with Flexibility Refund) booked last minute. Hotels discount the rooms and manage capacity from guaranteed revenue.
Overselling, walking guests, and reselling a failed no show aren t a guarantee. Hotels aren t at 100% capacity day to day. There are no assurances a room rebooks. Returning the money means 100% loss.
3) Compassion but not enough to return the full amount. Hotel also provided a contracted service. Customer agrees to no refund (Legal and Binding), for the joy of a lower rate. Court of law Business Wins. See above.
I think you re having a misunderstanding regarding what it means to be refundable, We do not use the term nonrefundable unless there is a concept of being refundable. Services, whether legal, corporate travel and expense policies medical, cleaning, etc, are not thought of as being refundable because you cannot return the service the way you might return a book to Barnes and Noble.
However, if the benefit has not been conferred, corporate travel and expense policies i.e. the service is has not been performed, then the payment may be refundable. For example, if you hire me to write your will and pay me say 5k upfront. The 5k is fully refundable, regardless of what the retainer states. But once the will has been written, the surgery corporate travel and expense policies performed, the floor cleaned, there is no concept of refundable as the time and effort spent cannot be returned.
corporate travel and expense policies In the hotel case, you can ask any GM. Your reasoning for refundable v. nonrefundable is simply not part of the hotel thinking. Your understanding is backwards, (as was mine before I spoke to a hotel GM). If the hotel is under 80 percent occupancy, the hotel is much more likely to waive nonrefundable, late cancellations, etc. The reasoning is that the booking did not cost the hotel any money. The term is detrimental reliance. A hotel looks at it like this,. What would the revenue corporate travel and expense policies been has the OP never booked.
corporate travel and expense policies Consider, a 100 room hotel with 55 rooms sold. If the OP never booked her room,the hotel would still have 55 rooms sold. By contrast, the same hotel with 99 rooms booked corporate travel and expense policies (say there s a big convention in town) is likely to sell the last room and be at 100 percent occupancy. If it holds the last room for the OP and the OP no shows, instead of selling a likely 100 rooms had the OP never booked, the hotel only sold 99, thus loosing out on one room s revenue because of the OP s actions.
From the hotel standpoint, waiving corporate travel and expense policies the rules does not represent a true loss to the hotel in the first ca