Hotel Cancellation Has Been Canceled

"Around that time, third-party travel-booking sites began to use a novel method of securing deals known to industry insiders as "cancel-rebook," Christopher Anderson, a professor at Cornell University's Nolan School of Hotel Administration, told me. It worked like this: The sites would let you book a room at the best available price, and then they would keep watching that hotel in the days and weeks that followed, to see if its posted rates would ever dip."

"If my flight were canceled, the airline would refund me for my ticket. But my hotel room in Charlotte, North Carolina, appeared to be another matter. I clicked around the booking website on my screen. Its policy on cancellation was austere: You could void your reservation only if you did so three days in advance. If your plans happened to fall through unexpectedly the night before (because, let's say, your nation's legislature had failed to pass a budget), then you'd be out of luck."

Starting around 2018, third-party travel sites began using a cancel-rebook tactic that let customers book at the best available price while monitoring and rebooking cheaper last-minute rates. That practice prevented hotels from dynamically lowering rates to fill unsold rooms without losing revenue from existing reservations. Hotels reacted by constraining cancellation flexibility, instituting stricter advance-cancellation rules such as requiring notice three days ahead and imposing nonrefundable restrictions. Consequently, travelers now face fewer options for last-minute changes and greater financial exposure when plans change unexpectedly, especially during disruptions like government shutdowns or canceled flights.

Read at The Atlantic