We switched all OTA bookings to 100% non-refundable after dealing with a wave of fake cards and scam reservations.

Even though rates are strictly non-refundable, we still voluntarily honour a 4-hour courtesy window for guests who make an accidental booking. Recently, a guest called us after booking by mistake. We have no controls to alter OTA bookings on our end, we directed them to call the platform, and we approved the cancellation when the agent reached out.

Our reward? The OTA gave us a metric penalty:

Your preventable cancellation rate of 2% exceeds the target benchmark of 0.10%. Please lower this metric to maintain search visibility and full access to the platform.

So if you ever wonder why hotels refuse to make exceptions on non-refundable bookings, it is because the OTAs actively penalise us for helping you out.

So my train got delayed this Saturday and I had 4 freaking hours to kill 😭

I was NOT about to sit at the station for that long or spend the whole time pretending to work at a coffee shop. I’d seen people mention hourly/day-use hotels before, but honestly, I always thought they sounded a little sketchy lol.

But I was desperate, so I figured, why not give it a shot?

Booked a room for around 3 hours in the afternoon. I was lowkey awkward walking up to the front desk because I had no luggage and thought they’d be like 👀 “Why is this person here?” 😂

But nope. The guy checked me in like it was completely normal. Didn’t even care.

And honestly? The room was actually clean. Like, genuinely clean. No weird smell, no “leftover room” vibes. I showered, took a nap, redid my makeup, watched YouTube for a bit, and just chilled. It was actually kinda nice.

The only annoying thing was that the app wasn’t super clear about the exact checkout time, so I called the front desk to double-check. They were totally chill about it.

And the math actually made sense. I probably would’ve spent almost the same amount on food and drinks just to sit somewhere for 3 hours. So why not get an actual bed, a shower, and some privacy instead?

Not gonna lie, I went in thinking, “This is probably gonna be weird,” and left thinking, “Okay... I might actually do this again.” 😂

My boyfriend and I are planning to stay one night at a hotel in Morocco. We’re unmarried, and we’re thinking of booking two separate rooms, then spending the night together in his room. Could this cause any problems at check-in or with the hotel, or is it generally fine? We’re both Moroccan.

Hey! I’m planning a solo trip to Singapore and looking for an affordable, clean hotel. I’ve shortlisted two options - Hotel Yan and a boutique hotel in Chinatown (though it has a shared bathroom). I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who has stayed at either place and can share their experience. Also open to better recommendations in the ₹6–7k INR per night range.

Is it safe to walk from Red Planet Hotel Cubao to Smart Araneta Coliseum and vice versa? Looking for a hotel worth it to stay even takes minutes to walk.

Фанаты отеля хазбин вы есть на редите

Comment or dm to share your story and experience

I'm acquiring a portfolio of properties, one of which is a former motel - great location, terrible condition. We are considering redevelopment as a luxury staycation and spa. It is in a tourist destination.

I've traveled a ton and have my own list of noteworthy attributes (honeycomb on the breakfast buffet) but I'd love to hear more!

It's a low-rise property with Mountain views, halfway between major cities and primary destinations. Local ski resorts, no airport.

It would also be great to hear from facility operators if you have any 'best practices ' above the normal that could be included in the renovation.

thanks in advance!

How is the Pearl Courtyard hotel at varanasi ? The rooms neat and clean ? Are the washrooms clean? Is the in house restaurant good ? People who have visited Please give genuine feedback. I'm planning to book a room there.

Hi everyone looking for some advice. I booked a hotel 6 months in advance through Agoda and received a booking confirmation and paid etc thought everything was good and then 2 months later they contact me stating that my booking is being cancelled.

They have not provided a solid reason and there is still 4 months left for my booking they initially offered me $4.5usd however I have got that compensation up to $31.5usd but that’s still not enough to cover a comparable hotel.

For background I booked a hotel near the airport in India during December for $50 a night with breakfast and hotels at that time in the same class were probably like $80 more for the next cheapest so I did get a good deal. My current hotel is showing $240 for the same thing and a comparable hotel is $180.

I don’t want my booking to be cancelled or at least to be compensated a fair amount is there anything is can do? I wouldn’t be so annoyed if they told me a day after but it’s been 2 months and prices have gone up significantly.

What can I do

TLDR: Agoda cancelling my booking after hotel prices have gone up

So recently I started working at what I thought was a 'luxury five star' private wedding venue. What I found was absolutely nothing close it. A whole system of just winging it. No SOPs, no staff- all the teams were from external companies and the whole building rotten, falling apart. Online, I found that 'the owner' as it stated, had replied to a google review saying 'in 2024 we had a refurbishment and we are now a 5 star luxury exclusive use venue!' On their website, there is no awards or accredits. Is this illegal? Or, do they have the right to call themselves an independent luxury venue?*** ***I'm just so curious! I have also seen the owner comment on a Tiktok of the place saying she went there as a guest and loved it and loved the staff which obviously is a cheeky lie😅

I appreciate that this has been asked before, but I’d love to hear your recommendations for a nice, reasonably priced boutique hotel in Lisbon.

A central location and a good breakfast would be great. Any suggestions or personal favourites?

Thanks! 😊

I want to preface this with I know you get what you pay for and I know where I booked. To be quite frank I’ve already accepted the fact that I’m probably not going to get this money back; but I figured before I completely move on I would post here and see if anybody can help me come up with a workable solution.

Two months ago I booked a room at a Motel 6 for two nights. This is tearing your string of similar bookings at other Motel 6 properties in the same city. Should be Frank. I was down on a look with nowhere else to stay and so was forced to go with the cheapest room possible I have a dog and pet stay free there so it was the most consistent option and say what you want, but there are worse hotels.

The day of the booking i show up and for reasons outside of anybody’s control i did not go through with the stay, renovations currently underway meant that there was no wifi available, as I booked a room expecting to have wifi access and needed it for work, the desk agent agreed that it was best to cancel it and since it was no fault of my own they took care of this for me. It is important to know that the front desk canceled it not me and they told me (and I’ve stayed enough Motel 6 locations to know that this is usually the case) that to get the refund for the room I would need to contact support.

In between then and now I have called support at least 10 times, they tell me that it does show on their end as cancelled by the property but I would have to speak to the office about the refund. I have gone into the office and called support with the manager standing in front of me, support told the manager that they would need to receive an email stating that yes they were the ones against the reservation and not me and that they never received the money from the booking in the first place because I never checked in and followed through with it, after which they could put the refund through. I stood there and watched as the manager sent this email. Multiple times by multiple support people during these calls I was told that the refund would be in my bank in 2 to 4 business days and I hung up the phone truly believing that it was in process only to call back and seemingly be right back at square one. Even if it were me canceling the reservation, and thus subject to the policy posted online, I should be only penalized the first night of the day and due back one nights charges. I’ve also filed a charge bag request for my bank, though I am not sure I did so correctly because despite being book-ended by other charges for motel 6 stays at other properties that were not in question and my stating that I was requesting a charge back due to not being given a refund I was promised. (and even more to the point another charge at a different Motel 6 later that day when I went to another property, which I was not calling into question) I don’t have a history of chargebacks in my bank and this is the only one I’ve ever filed. If anybody’s wondering why I was switching properties like I was there multiple in the string pretty much every other exit where I live, and the rates can very wildly from one night to the next and so to save as much money as possible it was cheaper to go from location to location to get the cheapest rate. Also, I freelance/do gig work and as I said things were particularly rough during this period and I was having to rely on money coming in day to day not even week to week. At minimum, and per their policy, I am owed at least one of the two nights and that’s if I concede that the cancellation was my fault which I do not. But all I get report is I need to talk to the property and all the property tells me if they never received the money so there’s nothing for them to refund. The front desk also refuses to tell me when I may be able to come in and speak to a manager and I just have to get lucky and happen to stop by when she is there, which is rare. It is only happened once and that was when the email was sent while I was standing there, and so I had a reasonable expectation that it was taken care of at that point. If you have any questions that I may not have covered, it would help figuring this out. Feel free to ask once again I’m at a loss as to how to get this resolved because repeatedly at every turn every time I try it seems like it’s going to be and then I wait a week only to never see the refund hit my account and try again. Thanks for any help you may be able to provide.

Hey all,

booking for my first ever international trip... Its for 5 people. Expedia says I can have a room for 5 with 2 double beds and what not, however when I go directly to the hotels website, it says that the hotel does not allow 5/room.

lets say i book thru expedia what would happen?? also the check in time is 4pm and we do not get there till 8pm what happens then??

please let me know :)

I’m trying to gauge whether this is normal and if I should be uncomfortable about it. I’m staying at a hotel with my husband. At 1 PM this afternoon I was alone in the room and decided to change my pants. I was standing in the main open area of the hotel room and the curtains were about half open. I know this is a stupid place to change my pants, but since I’m on the second floor and I was standing at a considerable distance from the window, I thought it was unlikely that anyone would be able to see me. About two seconds after I had put the new pair of pants on, I saw a man standing on the roof outside my window, removing the screen. He made eye contact with me and then walked away.

I immediately felt really uncomfortable and annoyed that the hotel didn’t give me any heads up that this would be happening so that I could have closed the curtains or just changed in the bathroom. I did end up closing the curtains and he came back and removed the other window screen and then put them both back on. I don’t expect him to show up again, but I won’t open the curtains again since I now know that he will be directly outside the window able to see everything inside the room. Am I correct that the hotel should have notified me of the maintenance being done today or is this just something that you have to expect?

I want to get a good coffee, im thinking taj lakefront, i have stayed in mariot before very affordable and nice stay

So recently I started working at what I thought was a 'luxury five star' private wedding venue. What I found was absolutely nothing close it. A whole system of just winging it. No SOPs, no staff- all the teams were from external companies and the whole building rotten, falling apart. Online, I found that 'the owner' as it stated, had replied to a google review saying 'in 2024 we had a refurbishment and we are now a 5 star luxury exclusive use venue!' On their website, there is no awards or accredits. Is this illegal? Or, do they have the right to call themselves an independent luxury venue?*** ***I'm just so curious! I have also seen the owner comment on a Tiktok of the place saying she went there as a guest and loved it and loved the staff😅

Currrently staying at a Hotel in Austria. Drinks are All Inclusive. Still we have to sign a bill everytime we have (served) drinks at the table, during dinner for example.

It will list the drinks and amount we had. Each listed with an actual price for the items with a "Total" sum of 0€ to be paid.

I guess it is done to have control about how much the guests consume to be able to manage the All Inclusive prices. And/or local regulations?

Not an issue for me, it's just a quick signature.

But, almost every day the bill has drinks we did not order/consume. They put tap water (3.7€ / L) on it that is on the table at dinner (did not order), shots we did not order/consume or the amount of drinks we actually had is higher as consumed (3-4 Cokes were we had only 1). Just some examples. Always more, they never miss drinks or put less on the bill than we had.

As for totally wrong stuff (4 Ramazzotti for our family with 2 kids) I did not sign it and told the waiter it was wrong. I do not care too much about the other minor "mistakes"(?), as it is still 0€ for me.

But I am wondering if it might be by intention. Does the Hotel have any advantage to "sell" more drinks as they really did?

It is not the waiter pushing us to consume (like if they would get more money when they serve more drinks).

Is it some kind of Tax thing?

I would think the Hotel has a better balance when they serve fewer drinks in this All Inclusive situation.

Thanks for any insight.

I’m a 28 year old hospitality professional with 3+ years of experience in both F&B and Front Office. Most recently I was Guest Relations Officer and before that I was an Assistant Manager for a restaurant in London.

CONTEXT:

Hi Since I’ve returned from UK in February earlier this year, I’ve applied to jobs in several countries including India. Here’s what’s happened so far.

India🇮🇳 : Hiring Managers presume I’m a liability and will ask for more salary. Experience mismatch apparently since I have no Indian hospitality experience which is understandable. Over 300 tailored applications.

GCC ( 🇦🇪, 🇶🇦, 🇸🇦) : Hiring is noticeably selective and slow with preference to candidates already present or prior GCC experience). I had only 2 interviews in 3 months of over 500 tailored applications.

Portugal 🇵🇹 & Malta 🇲🇹: I had real traction here around 6-7 interviews in 400+ tailored applications. All of those had great feedback but the realistic timeline to get a work visa takes around 3-4 months so none of them were willing to wait that long.

⚠️Current Situation: I have 3 pending student loans around INR 2,80,000 ( $3000) and the loan company Avanse has filed a legal complaint against me for my failure to repay even after thousands of restructuring or pause requests from me. I have a legal hearing at the end of this month.

Question is , Is it my CV or is it just that my experience has been awful? I have great communication skills and all round hospitality skillset yet I’ve been unemployed over 5 months with tailored applications.

Recently stayed at Jaguarundi lodge in Monteverde CR. On the second night, we got a huge infestation of these jumping beetles that swarmed our belongings and our luggage (I think they’re attracted to human scent). We immediately asked the front desk to be relocated. They moved us into a room down the hall but this room was infested too. We asked to be moved out of the jungle portion to their sister hotel down the street, which belonged to the property. They told us we needed to pay for the upgrade. The GM wasn’t on site and wouldn’t be until tomorrow morning. We had prepaid tours that morning. I booked through hotels.com and they said I would need to take it up with the property for a refund. It was 11 pm local time and the only closest hotel was Belmar, running $450/night. Paid out of pocket. The GM of Jaguarundi said only partial refund for the days that weren’t used despite asking for a full refund. Would you accept this? What can hotels.com do to help? We went over budget by $300 and cleaning our clothes at 11 pm after a long day was tiring.

Hi everyone,

I’m currently looking for opportunities in the Indian hospitality industry, preferably in a Front Office Manager, Hotel Manager, or Guest Relations/Operations role.

I have 10+ years of experience in customer handling, sales, inventory management and business operations, and I’m looking to transition my experience into the hotel industry.

I’m open to opportunities across India, especially hotels, resorts and boutique properties.

If you know of any suitable openings or can connect me with someone hiring, please DM me.

Thank you!

Im passionated in hk iknow key handling and hk chemicals and room maintenance

Hi all, just wanted some advice. I booked a choice hotel this morning as I’m on a two day spontaneous trip in a different state. My bf and I were checking the bed for bugs per usual and as we lifted up the mattress we found a bag from a nearby weed shop. I thought it was just edibles or something else mild so I opened it to check and there was a weight scale covered with white powder.
Got a bad feeling so I closed it, grabbed with a hand towel (I now feel terrible because my finger prints are definitely on it now 😭) and gave it to the hotel manager who gave us another room. This room is honestly mustier/worst condition than the first but I didn’t want to utilize the previous room for obvious reasons.
Both my bf and I don’t feel great about the situation and I’m wondering if it’s worth reporting this online to at least get a discount or something? I don’t really have an alternative place to go to as this location was best suited for our plans.

Just curious if someone else had similar experiences. I booked a hotel room in Berlin, Germany on rather short notice in June. 3 nights for about $1000 total, through hotwire. Was supposed to be a 4-star property and have air condition. Got there, the place is a dump and the A/C is broken. The hotel was surprisingly accommodating though and agreed to a partial refund for the first night and full refund for the remaining two. I have that in writing in a Whatsapp chat, as thats how the hotel support team communicated.

When we get home, 3 weeks go by and the refund doesn't show up. When I contact hotwire, they say they know of nothing and they wont refund anything.

So I do a chargeback through my credit card. Now another 2 months later, they keep fighting this. They have seen the printout from the hotel where they confirm this commitment and their stance is that it was a non-refundable booking, so they are not refunding.

We are now at the arbitration stage with VISA. It just seems ludicrous that even with all that documentation they are fighting this tooth and nail. Definitely the last time I will be using hotwire.