Cancellation allowed vs pre-paid?

I tend to book places that are non-cancellable (if available) to save on costs. But I always have good travel insurance that will cover the cost if I need to cancel.

As far as changing a cancellable booking to one that is not, I have not done that, but I would think you might run a risk of not getting a room if you wait. Maybe others here can speak to that.

Have you seen some that offer cancellation from 1-5 days before your stay? I will be in France Sept/Oct and almost all of my hotels offered that choice. You have to guarantee it with a credit card, but they don't charge the card until you check in or the time stated you cannot cancel (the 1 to 5 days.)

There is no guarantee you can cancel a cancellable room and then rebook that same room fully paid later. You could well cancel and have the room grabbed from under you. If you were the hotel owner would you let the person make the switch last minute?

If you have good travel insurance that includes coverage for pre-existing conditions (usually true if the insurance is annual or was booked immediately when first reservations were made) you can risk non cancellable. If I thought there was a good chance I'd just book non-cancellable and live with it. We have friends with serious medical issues and they just book everything to be cancellable.

The only time I book non-cancellable rates is when I have a last minute departure for an unexpected trip and I know I am leaving with certainty within the next few days.

That said, I also self-insure and don't buy trip insurance. I see the cancelable rates that I choose as my insurance limiting my potential loss to the cost of the airfare and perhaps any incidental pre-booked events if I don't travel as anticipated. I am aware of health insurance issues and comfortable with my coverage.

I think this is an individual choice. My system has worked for over 20 years for me, but others have their own preferences.

In my experience, the room price goes up even more closer to the actual dates of travel, if the hotel has any rooms available. Often they do not. Good luck

I've definitely seen price changes as well, increasing the closer to the date of stay. My favorite - a last minute necessity to add a day to a Berlin booking. That one night was equal to three nights price booked several months in advance.

Interesting about the big difference in rates you are finding. I looked at 2 of my go-to hotels in Paris for a random date of April 10. One does not even offer a non-refundable rate for that date. The other for a double for 1 person the refundable rate is 259E, the non-refundable rate is 243E, so a difference of 16E and not even 10% difference. I didn't check but both of those hotels usually offer a "deal" if you stay 3 nights or more. Maybe you stay at higher end hotels than I do?

I am not one to book non-refundable rates. I do get travel insurance but I want to be able to cancel up to a couple of days out. After Covid I want to be able to cancel anything and everything up to a few days out but that is just me being risk averse.

If you have a hotel that you like in a neighborhood you like, I'd book the cancellable rate while you think about. I don't see that there is anything to lose.

Here's my take on this.

Make your reservations cancellable this far out. It's too dangerous to make them non-cancellable. At least you're guaranteed a room.

As you get closer to your travel dates, like 2-3 days out, and you know for sure that you'll be there, go back online and see if they have any rooms available at a non cancellable rate. If they do, make that reservation and cancel your cancellable reservation.

If they have no rooms available, call the hotel and ask them if you could get a lower rate like a non cancellable one. They will either say yes or no, that's it. They won't cancel your reservation. They will not be mad at you. But by doing this, they will understand you're looking for a lower rate and you might take your business elsewhere if you don't get it. (You don't actually say this.). If this is within a couple of days of your arrival, they may not feel that the room could resold.

Always be extra polite. Whatever they say thank them for their time. Even if they don't give you a lower rate, you might get some extras when you check in.

Depending on the type of property, and their availability for your dates, rates may go up (or down) as the dates approach. The non refundable rate may become more expensive than the refundable rate that you book earlier.

I've seen rates go both directions as dates approach.

....if it is "ok" to book with a cancellation and then hope to pre-pay closer to our travel.

Where we have tried to do this in the past, the hotel is going to want you to do a new booking and cancel your original booking. IMHO not worth the hassle.

Pam, I have seen the same multi- night discounts you refer to, so that balances out paying more for a cancelable rate. I also have received complimentary upgrades when I've booked 8-9 months out. Obviously not a guarantee, but a very nice surprise at check-in. Safe travels!

Hi, I am beginning to look at options for May 2024 just to see what lodging will be in my short list per city in southern Italy. Also, I did already book lodging at two cities where I will be there during a festival.

Many are showing “unavailable” for May, but if I pull up the calendar months view for a specific hotel, the prices are just a “-“ for the whole month, actually for several months. (I’m using Booking.com) That shows me that hotel is not taking reservations, yet.

Generally, I always booked refundable hotels six months in advance when I had a firm itinerary in place. Then, 1-2 months later, I would either make a switch to another hotel and book it as non-refundable or make a reservation at my original hotel as non refundable and then release the refundable reservation. …..and then Covid 2020 happened. One hotel refunded my money! I made sure I stayed there in 2022 as a thank you to them. Two others gave me vouchers that I used in 2022. The rest were money gone.

Now, I pay the extra price for refundable. And as others mentioned, I’ve only seen prices go up the month before the date of travel.

I hope your back surgery recovery goes well! It is fun to be planning a trip and think about being in those locations next year!

It also depends on the type of room you book. Let's say you book a double room and double rooms are the most popular in that hotel. The hotel knows it can rent a double room easier than any other type. What they might do is move someone with a double reservation into a better room to free up that double room for another booking. They would rather have a full house even if that meant that a better room is given at a lower rate then not have anyone in that room at all. Remember, last night's room cannot be resold.

Actual room numbers are not assigned until the day of arrival or the day before. What's reserved in the system is room type not room number.

The two times I succumbed to the lure of the non-cancellable rate we had to cancel for reasons I couldn’t have ever imagined. Never going that route again. I also haven’t found the cancellable rates to be greatly higher than the non.

I always book at a cancellable rate, except for last-minute plans, to limit my exposure if the trip falls through. Seldom do I find a cancellable rate much higher than 10% or so. I tend to buy insurance fairly late in the planning process, and limit the total coverage ("trip cancellation") to less than my total expected cost. Frank's proposed strategy of calling them up to see if you can switch rates might be worth a try, I've never thought of doing that, but the worst that could happen is they'd say no. Another approach might be to choose two hotels, book one cancellable, then wait till closer to your departure to book the other non-cancellable (if available) and cancel the first one. That's a complicated strategy to save maybe not that much money.

As for your problem with availability next April, my guess is that those hotels aren't taking reservations yet. Try starting a website booking for a series of earlier dates, maybe a few months from now, just to see how far ahead their "window" opens, and use that to time your actual booking. Of course the rate shown for your "test" dates might differ from the one for your actual dates, but you'll know when to come back for what you need.

Although it's impossible to predict what will happen to hotel rates between 11 months out and 2 weeks out, one thing is nearly certain: for hotels offering both cancellable and non-cancellable rates, the difference between the two will shrink as the travel date approaches. You won't save much money by choosing a non-cancellable rate rather than a cancellable rate 3 or 7 days before arrival. You might save money by rebooking at some point between 11 months and 2 weeks, even making a cancellable reservation. The 11-month rate could be what the hotel hopes to get in its wildest dreams.

I'd suggest playing around on booking.com to observe the range of discounts being offered for non-cancellable reservations at different times. It will vary by hotel.

I've only booked non-cancellable rates a very few times, always for a date less than a week in the future when I was already in Europe. I don't think of cancellable reservations as something I pay extra for; to me those are the standard rates. Non-cancellable rates are discounted rates that I generally consider too risky. My attitude is that if I cannot afford the cancellable rate, I cannot afford the hotel. Yes, it's pretty easy to maintain that philosophy when your standards aren't very high.

I agree with Frank.. I book refundable rates early to get my preferred hotels and closer to my actual departure date from home I check to see what the rates are and if its worth making the change.

Many, many thanks to you all - youve given me such wonderful advice! I think that, as many of you suggest, I'll go ahead and book the hotels I really want at the rate that allows cancellation and trust that my back will be well. With a trip to Paris and London - how could it not be? A million thanks!!

Actually, I think there is such insurance. It's called "Cancel for Any Reason". It's expensive, as you would expect. I think basic CFAR policies only reimburse 50% of your insured expenses. Upgraded (more expensive) policies reimburse 75%.