Today we have a Reader Question concerning a situation that happens quite often: Passengers miss their flights or are unable to depart due to bad weather with a non-refundable hotel reservation waiting at the destination.
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Our reader was affected by superstorm Dennis that is current wreaking havoc in the North Atlantic, in particular Iceland which is where one of our readers intended to go – obviously without success.
Michaela writes:
Dear loyaltylobby team,
we’re a group of four and have book a trip on Icelandair via Reykjavik to Europe this weekend. Our plan was to stay in Iceland for three nights on a free stopover and for that purpose we booked the attached hotel to leverage my Marriott Platinum status.
Icelandair has now cancelled our flights and there are no other connections as the airport is closed. I contacted the hotel and asked for cancellation but they shrugged me off and said I’d have to pay in full without refund. The hotel was prepaid.
Is the hotel in the right here? Should Marriott offer me a refund?
This is one of the situations where it pays to not have any prepaid reservations and instead have a flexible rate. Of course the best deals are substantially less expensive when booked as a prepaid rate.
The best choice is always the use of a discount rate with flexibility such as AAA or a corporate rate which can be cancelled on short notice, often the same day of arrival.
In this case a prepaid rate was booked and the hotel refused to cancel it free of charge or against a reasonable fee (such as the first night withheld).
Unfortunately for the customer the hotel is fully within it’s rights to decline a free cancellation here. Such an instance should be covered by the travel insurance of the passengers affected by this storm and subsequent cancellations. It’s not the greatest customer service however considering the extend of damage the cyclone has left in Iceland.
I would maybe go another route and ask the hotel if it is operating as per usual and if there are any impairments then asking if the cancellation can be processed. It’s likely that in such a storm properties try to lock themselves down as much as possible.
Alternatively the guest can contact Marriott Customer Care, maybe via social media to intervene and maybe ask for an exception.
Conclusion
This situation highlights how important it is to have a comprehensive travel insurance policy, either standalone or as part of a premium credit card.
While I think that hotels should provide some flexibility in extraordinary situations I realize that we as customers have no standing in demanding refunds in such a case. It would be different if the hotel would say a substantial amount of hotel services aren’t available due to the storm, here I’d ask to cancel FOC based on these restrictions.
I cannot say often enough. Have a good travel insurance. I have a (business) travel insurance which includes my family members on private trips as well. I pay about 30 USD a month. Thats a lot but it covers a high value of electronics/camera as well. If it was just private insurance its around 20USD a month. Thats 2 hotel nights if need coverage a year!!!!
One option is to wait until after arrival to find the hotel. The travels mid March include a visit to Bali and hotel options will be plentiful.
Terrible advice for a foreign destination. The first question out of a immigration officers mouth is “What is the purpose of your trip and where will you be staying”. Telling them you don’t know or haven’t booked it yet, will result in a questionable look & most likely being denied entry in most countries.
The other option is to not book an advance purchase non cancellable booking.
I don’t understand why people think they should get a refund for a non refundable advance purchase rate. You took your chances to get a cheaper rate and you lost. It’s not the hotel’s fault you can’t make it.
Almost all hotel reservations now have a cancellation penalty, and it’s getting longer: most of the international chains require 48-hours. So despite what you may wish to believe, the real choice for a traveler is to make a reservation and take a small chance or show up with no reservation at all. In almost all circumstances, it would be wise to make the reservation. The good news is that the vast majority of hotels are understanding if something goes wrong. I usually have to cancel one or two reservations a year at the last minute, usually due to cancelled flights. I’ve yet to have a hotel hassle me about it.
When ALL flights into the country of the hotel are cancelled then they need to have a bit more flexibility in an exceptional circumstance. In the case of the OP, I’d certainly press the case with Marriott corporate, assuming that all flights into KEF were cancelled… certainly the majority of guests in a niche country like Iceland are not presumed to be local.
I had exactly this same thing happen to me a couple years ago when the biggest typhoon to hit Hong Kong came in. I was set to fly out of HKG on UA but they cancelled all fights for 2 or 3 days, I was flying into HKG on NH who also cancelled flights, and I was set to stay in the Marriott at the airport. Fortunately in my case, people were a little more reasonable. I got the NH flight refunded, Marriott after some back and forth agreed to refund due to exceptional circumstances, and got UA to change my flight to ex-NRT instead of HKG.
It seems that who you talk to and how you present your case in these situations may be key.
Almost all hotel reservations now have a cancellation penalty, and it’s getting longer: most of the international chains require 48-hours. So despite what you may wish to believe, the real choice for a traveler is to make a reservation and take a small chance or show up with no reservation at all. In almost all circumstances, it would be wise to make the reservation. The good news is that the vast majority of hotels are understanding if something goes wrong. I usually have to cancel one or two reservations a year at the last minute, usually due to cancelled flights. I’ve yet to have a hotel hassle me about it.
Booking with a 48 hr cancellation policy is not the same as booking an advance purchase prepaid reservation. In the latter case you are assuming the risk of not being able to go. I agree, if some force majeure event causes a problem with a standard refundable reservation within the cancellation period I would hope the hotel would be empathetic.
isn’t it or shouldn’t it be the responsiblity of the airline, to cover costs incurred by a cancelled flight ? In that specific case, the customer has not missed her flight, it was purely and simply cancelled.
According to the article, the entire airport is closed due to the storm. The airline is already losing revenue themselves; why would they compensate for outside unrelated bookings beyond their control?
If you have status call customer service and ask for help. I’ve never been unsuccessful taking this route. Be nice and ask if they can help you out
Is this not what travel insurance is for ?
British seem to have an obsession with travel insurance, but most of the rest of the world does not. Maybe it’s so cheap there that it’s a no-brainer, but I usually see in the neighborhood of +$100 a trip (not per year)… considering that things rarely go so wrong, you can self insure a LOT cheaper.
Just what should they go for? Hotel compensation? Or airline? Or insurance? Hmm why don’t they go for the whole lot!? Pressure Marriott -“leveraging her Platinum status” – for full refunds of their no refund rate gamble plus a free stay with full board at any hotel of their choice because they are special. Get their airline to rebook them all with an upgrade on a flight of their choice and keep them in a full board hotel while Storm Dennis plays out. Claim on their insurance for everything possible. After all, they are a special case aren’t they? And they didn’t know Dennis the Menace was going to make them lose their no refund gamble. Bless!…. They shouldn’t be made to comply with the reservations of their own choice. That’s not fair is it…. ?