Non refundable hotel reservation in Paris for end of August

If the hotel is still closed by French Government order then they will refund (as they will be closed). If they are open your room will be awaiting you. A decision on RS tours for August is months away.

Thanks,
so wait and see is the best approach.
Liam

Liam,

If travel is still off the table, US, Europe etc still closed by the end of summer the world is going to be having huge issues well beyond prepaid hotel rooms.

Keep staying positive and read up on where your going. You’ll get there and have a wonderful time.

First, yes, it is way too early to expect that they would refund a non-refundable rate five months in advance.

Do not dispute the charge with your card, there is no fraud. Not sure what seeking relief means, you willingly made the charge what was probably months ago, I assume you paid the balance off, if you were carrying the charge on your card and paying interest, that seems like losing money on paying ahead.

Finally, do not assume you will get a refund, travel may very well be possible...or at least they may be operating and available, things may be fine there, but a mess here, you not being able to get there would not constitute waiving a non-refundable deposit, they would need to at the least still be closed under some order...but even then, that may not mean a refund.

About all you an do is wait until maybe late July and reassess.

I booked all non refundable Best Western hotels in France for this summer. Four in total. Yesterday they announced they were allowing all future reservations to be cancelled. I went for it. Who knows where we will be in June and July? But if travel is back to normal, I guarantee you I will book the same places because of their fidelity.

To me, it seems way too early to have any sort of leeway with either the hotels or the credit card company. Maybe in three months, but not before.

"I booked all non refundable Best Western hotels in France for this summer. Four in total. Yesterday they announced they were allowing all future reservations to be cancelled. I went for it. Who knows where we will be in June and July? But if travel is back to normal, I guarantee you I will book the same places because of their fidelity."

Alexander, that is amazing and yes, companies that are responding well to this catastrophe deserve my business.

About travel insurance - I have a trip planned late June which I insured.Received an email saying that since it is pandemic they will not cover my losses unless I had “ cancel for any reason “- unfortunately I don’t

Thanks everyone for your input
For my trip to France I am stilling planning to go if I can. I have pre- booked two hotels, my flights and my RS Tour. If any of those items are canceled or the hotels are closed I probably won’t go.
I don’t want to cancel any of them.
So I will just have a wait and see approach to this unexpected experience.
Liam

Credit cards generally won't allow a contest of a charge after 60 days.

Yes, they will.

For "services not rendered/product not delivered" you can file a dispute at any time after the day the service/product was to be provided.

First, read your travel insurance policy to see if there is any coverage. And when did you make the reservation? There is a French or maybe it is an EU directive addressing this issue. Here is what i read about it (In French): "Toute annulation faite entre le 1er mars et le 15 septembre 2020, quel qu’en soit l’auteur, sera traitée de la même façon.

Le professionnel concerné doit :

vous proposer un remboursement immédiat de l’intégralité du prix payé pour la prestation annulée ;

ou, dans les 30 jours de l’annulation vous remettre par email ou par courrier papier un bon d’achat valable 18 mois à partir de son émission, correspondant au montant payé initialement. Vous pourrez utiliser ce bon en tout ou partie pour acheter une ou plusieurs prestations proposées par la même agence. Le solde du bon d’achat vous sera remboursé à la fin de sa durée de validité, en principe sans démarche de votre part.

et, dans les trois mois de l’annulation, vous faire une nouvelle proposition pour une prestation identique ou équivalente à la première sans supplément de prix dont la date est fixée d’un commun accord. Cette nouvelle offre reste valable 18 mois et vous pouvez la refuser."

Basically, if you or the hotel cancel between March 1 and September 15th, you can get a full refund but the provider of the service (in your case, the hotel) has the option of giving you a voucher good for 18 months. If you have not used that voucher by the end of the 18 months, you can get a refund. The provider may also within 3 months of the cancellation offer you an alternative at no additional cost and that offer must remain valid for 18 months and you can refuse it. Many tour operators, hotels, etc. are opting for the 18-month voucher so they can live to fight another day. With this refund scheme in place, if you try to get help from your credit card company, it will be interesting to know if they credit your account.

Well, I spoke too soon. Best Western changed their policy to not include Europe. 2 of the hotels I booked kindly cancelled, 1 isnt responding, and the last one that I prepaid in full said absolutely not.

This article seems to imply that if the restrictions are not in place at the time of the proposed stay, a credit or refund does not have to be offered. Thus cancelling too early without insurance can be an issue. I think this interpretation takes into account the other codes referenced in the shorter government publication (of 26 March).

i had a non-refundable reservation for 5 nights in Paris starting on April 27.
I sent several emails to the hotel pointing out that they were now officially closed so that the non-refundable aspect should no longer apply. I also asked my credit card to reverse the charge.
i do not know why or how, but I did receive a full credit to my credit card, without any notice other than the money appearing on my statement.
I am very inclined to stay at that hotel in future, but I worry that I will receive icy stares and the worst room available if they only refunded my charges after threats from my credit card company.