TIME was when a call to a hotel before 6 p.m. the day of arrival was enough to cancel a hotel reservation without penalty. Not so in today's wired world.
Canceling a hotel reservation, made online, often comes at a cost, whether the reservation is made with an online travel agency such as Expedia or Travelocity or directly through a hotel's website. It is important to note the exact policies for each website, but Expedia's cancellation policy is typical.
"Any changes to or cancellation of your reservation may result in fees from $25 up to the full cost of your stay," Expedia's site explains. Pretty straightforward, though it is more accurate to state "\o7will\f7 result in fees" rather than "may" because once you make a reservation, cancellation fees apply.
A recent check of Expedia showed that you have until midnight Mountain Standard Time (11 p.m. Pacific) the day before arrival to cancel, but that comes with a $25 penalty (that time is subject to change so double-check in case you need to cancel a reservation). The price of canceling later than that goes up -- it's the cost of one night's stay if made before check-in. After check-in, there is a 100% penalty per room. In other words, you pay for your entire stay whether you stay or not.
Howard Scott of Irvine was aware of Expedia's cancellation policy when he made a reservation through the website for three rooms at the Bell Rock Inn & Suites in Sedona, Ariz., for late November. So when his plans changed, he dutifully went online to cancel his reservation.
He pulled up his itinerary, scrolled down to the "How to cancel this hotel reservation" link, clicked on it and canceled his hotel reservation. Or so he thought until he received his credit card statement. There he found a charge for the original reservation of $817 but a cancellation credit of only $247. He had been credited with canceling one room (minus the cancellation fee) but not the two others.
"When I entered the itinerary number to cancel, there was no reference to having to cancel each room," Scott wrote in an e-mail to Expedia.
If Scott had scrolled down an inch more, he would have seen that he needed to cancel each room separately. But he was working on a laptop with a small screen and missed that.
I studied Scott's situation by making a reservation using Expedia for the same number of rooms at the same hotel. Expedia agreed to waive any cancellation fees I would incur.
