Need advice on hotel "Non-Refundable Rates" worth the discount?

Just a couple of thoughts: Travel delay/cancellation insurance would cover you if, because your trip is delayed (car breakdown), you suffer financial loss. Maybe I am out of touch, but $1200 seems awfully high for insurance that doesn't cover that. I have never booked ahead for a month long trip, and I doubt that I would if they didn't have good cancellation policies. You are right - anything could happen. I would book ahead certain key places or dates (cities that are likely to be crowded at certain times, your first night and the night before you fly home), but not every stop. And if you just can't pass up a deal for somewhere, it just has to be a priority to get there, no matter what.

I've used non-refundable rates before and they can be great deals. But they truly are non-refundable, for any reason. Doesn't matter if the circumstances were out of your control. So use them wisely. I typically use them for early in a trip or if I'll be staying in a city for a lengthy period. One or two nights in the middle of a trip is more risky and the savings isn't usually worth it. And sometimes having some flexibility is important. BTW - Be sure to check a hotel's website directly for its own deals. They can sometimes be better than the hotel booking sites.

$1200 seems very high for $6K of trip cancellation insurance. For example, I just got an online quote of $544 from American Express for $6K of cancellation coverage for an imaginary two-week trip in May. I always book the non-refundable rate. I buy the cancellation insurance if the premium is less than the hit I'd take from canceling. Compassion can occur. Twice over the years we've had to cancel trips fairly close to departure date because of emergent major medical events to one of our party. Each time I sent detailed email explanations to every place where we had bookings. Each time we were refunded all our deposits, including the "non-refundable" ones. Of course compassion is not something you can count on. Just giving you my experience.

Pretty much it is what it is. The prepaid rates on booking.com are great but if you don't show up you will lose your money. It happened to me once when I decided to skip a particular town and I just had to suck it up. It's a matter of risk/reward. Maybe some folks are better at bargaining for refunds, but I didn't get one. Your insurance quote sounds very high. I always use TravelGuard but you can also check insuremytrip.com to compare rates.

Last summer I inadvertantly booked a nonrefundable 3 nights in Dresden before I had finalized my itinerary. I had to do a bit of juggling, but it all worked out. Since then I have been VERY careful to read the "fine print." It seems to be only the last 2 years that there has been a prolifieration of non-refundable rates, and also hotels taking a non-refundable one-night deposit. I suspect it may be a result of too many tourists canceling too many reservations last minute. I've traveled a lot in the last 3-4 years and I haven't yet had to cancel a reservation because my plans changed. So I have taken several non-refundables, including a few priceline.com bids. And I will continue to do so. . . same with non-refundable plane and train tickets. If the car breaks down - you may lose a day, but would you seriously move ALL your plans back by a day and eliminate the last one? Realistically, you'd probably just scrap that day and you may only be out one night. Since most reservations require 48 - 72 hrs notice at least, so that won't help you either. Are ALL the reservations you're looking at non-refundable? (Is it really $6K?) And is the difference between that price and the refundable one that big? If you're only getting a €10/night discount, maybe it isn't worth it for 2-3 nights. Illness, injury - those are horror stories in any case. Here's hoping you never have to experience one.

If your car breaks down and you get behind schedule, the solution is to cut short the next stop and move to the following... at least this is how I'd do it. It is extremely unlikely you'd be more than 24h delayed after a breakdown. This being said, US$ 1200 for travel insurance that doesn't cover losses due to problems with transportation seems a rip-off. Now, about the hotels: those sites also offer refundable/changeable fares that you can cancel in advance. Sometimes, the difference is small, like 10 or 15% for the same room/date. This (going for refundable/easy to cancel fares) might be cheaper than the add-ons for travel insurance that totally covers you. I have used booking.com like that a lot, and it is very easy to cancel or modify reservations that are not locked-in. It takes 5 minutes, and I never had a problem cancelling such reservations.

I have also used bookings. com for a number of hotel reservations and never had any problem with cancelling. I typically do not do the prepaid as I like to be able to change my plans. However, for the first night or last night I sometimes will take advantage of the savings. I find bookings.com an easy way to keep all my hotels in one place. I sometimes have a hold on 2 or 3 for the same date till I can decide which one I want, then I look them over and cancel the ones I will not be needing. Again, it keeps it simple for me.

You have many people suggesting that you don't need to worry about pre booking all your lodging, but if I remember correctly you need quad rooms. In my opinion, you absolutely need to book your rooms ahead. If you are that worried about being able to cancel and not lose money, how much will you actually save by booking the non refundable rates?

Check with Travel Guard. And, don't over insure. Insure just the non-refundable parts of your trip, because that is all you will be paid if you have a claim (along with any incremental expenses covered by the policy for missed connections/medical, etc.). Another poster already said that if you miss a day due to car problems, just skip that day and press on with the rest of the trip. For your airline, if you have a $250 rebooking penalty, and you think you will use the air ticket another time if something happens, then just cover the rebooking penalty and don't insure the entire ticket. $1200 insurance cost is wayyyyyyyyy tooooooo expensive for a $6K
trip.........unless you are 90 years old and you are adding every add-on to a travel policy covering any and all things that could arise....the cost is out of line. Get the Gold policy with TravelGuard and look carefully at what you really want to insure. And, click on TravelGuard's customer service tab to look at the Strike and Alert lists to insure you are not using any of the providers at risk for financial default, and to see what strikes would be excluded from coverage (I glance at those lists before choosing airlines, etc.) If you have others traveling with you, remember, too, that the hotel cost is divided by the number of people staying in the room....you don't each have to insure for 100% of the room cost....just your share. If you are saving 30% or more on the no cancellation rooms, I'd be tempted to book them....but also look for included breakfasts, etc. with full price deals......or email hotels to see if other specials are available.

It seems the non-refundable rate is a full 20-25% cheaper.... that will add up! Sorry guys I wasn't clear. The total trip price is around $25,000. Only the hotels were $6K. Summarized from my Excel spreadsheet budget, here is hopefully a realistic breakdown: 30 Days London to Rome, 2 adults + 2 kids Flights 5200 Hotels 6750 Food 6420 Rental Car+Gas+EuroStar 3000 Entertainment 1300 Misc 500
Contingency 1000 total -> 24170 I'm probably going to buy the airline as I don't think the open jaw $1,200 flights will come down significantly in price, then I'll just reserve (non-refundable) just about everything. Thanks for everyone's thoughtful advice! Pete

Just thought I'd add my 10 cents worth here- I think you have to put aside the issue of cost for a moment and decide if having to get to a place on time is going to spoil your vacation because you're stressed. Whatever you decide- have a great time!

Peter,
I found great travel ins service and rates at www.squaremouth.com. that said, I would not book a non cancellable rate unless I could afford to walk away from it. So many places allow cancellation, why pen yourself in to a situation that is unyielding? Just adds to stress.

Peter - your breakdown of costs helps. Many of those are things you do not need to insure, such as food, entertainment and other "refundable" costs. You really only need to insure the things that you will not be refunded for. The hotels and maybe airline tickets. Even a rental car may be refundable if you don't use it. You're getting varied opinions on the non-refundable hotel rates because each person has their own priorities and comfort levels. You'll need to take all the opinions and apply the ones that best fit you. Good luck and happy travels!

We always book directly with the hotels. We like the option of cancelling if need be without a penalty. Anything can happen. We have even paid up front at some hotels, so our credit cards aren't charged such a huge amount at check-out time. With all the hotels we have used, we haven't needed insurance. As long as we cancel 24 hours in advance, we aren't charged for a night. We always get travel medical insurance though, if we are going oversea,s through American Express (800) 437-9209.. It is extremely reasonable. It is something like $35 a month. We have never rented a car overseas, as we have read WAY TOO MANY horror stories. We always take day tours with Gray Line or some other reputable bus tour company. We did have trip/health insurance when we took a Tauck tour (land/cruise) of Greece and Turkey this past summer. Tauck does a WONDERFUL job of their escorted tours.