Okay, so I need to fly to Dallas/Ft Worth during Labor Day weekend on ‘church business.’ Just flying in on Saturday and coming back Sunday afternoon.
An associate of mine bought her plane tickets the other day – $265. Not too bad for non-stop both ways.
I go to make my reservations today for the exact same flights – $399. I looked on a couple of different websites, all were $399-$400 for the same flights. It’s no longer within 21 days, you see.
Oh well. It would have been nice to save my church $135, but it can’t be helped now. So I pull out the credit card and start to book my flight on Travelocity.
After I’ve selected my flight, I see a bonus offer – “Book your hotel now and save!” Well, I’m visiting Plano, not Irving or wherever the airport is, so I’m about to skip it. Then I see the bonus price: $256.00. For the same flights I was about to pay $400 for, plus a hotel I don’t need.
So, needless to say, I jumped on it. I have my confirmation right here. There is nothing in the fine print about having to pay a penalty if I don’t show up at the hotel. Obviously, I can’t cancel my hotel room without also cancelling my flight, but why would I cancel a hotel room when I’m getting $145 to let it sit empty? Maybe I should just stop in for a quick shower before I go out to Plano.
What a crazy way to do business.
I hope this is mundane and pointless enough for this forum… I don’t spend a lot of time here.
You probably should double-check that, as I really don’t think there are hotels anymore that won’t charge you a penalty for not showing up, since now pretty much everywhere requires a credit card number to make a reservation. Usually, however, the penalty is just that you have to pay for one night, so if that was included in your ticket price, you may be all set.
I think you should call the hotel and ask what the cancellation/no-show policy is there, but don’t tell them your name or your reservation number. If the penalty charge is still less than the flight would have been without the hotel room, then good for you!
When we went to Vegas under one of these airline/hotel/car deals, the fine print said if we broke any of the sparate agreements (airline, hotel, car), all reservations were immediately cancelled. Conceivably, that meant if we found a cheaper hotel than the one we had as part of the package, the entire package would be cancelled, including our return flight home.
You might want to check into that sort of thing with your deal. You really don’t want to be stuck in DFW. 
Go to the place - get the key - take a dump - don’t flush thus proving you were in the room- go on about your business.
I was thinking along those same lines. Go to the hotel for an hour and bring a companion. If you don’t have one, just pick someone up. Go to the room, jump on the beds, have a pillow fight. Have a squirt gun fight in the bathroom. Get some soft wax sticks and write weird poetry on the mirrors. Arange all the furniture into furniture porn scenes. Be careful not to break anything though because you would be in big trouble.
That’s kind of the idea behind my thought of stopping by and taking a shower. Leaving some evidence of use.
However, I’ve paid for the room. What would they care if I don’t actually use it? I’ve read the agreement carefully, and it only says that I can’t cancel my hotel reservation without paying a penalty. It doesn’t say anything about not cancelling, but never showing up. But probably safe rather than sorry.
Some people have way too much time on their hands.
If you have booked your flight and hotel through Travelocity, that’s who your contract is with and that’s who you pay, usually up front. Travelocity pays the airline and hotel later. If you don’t show up, the hotel and airline will bill Travelocity according to their no-show policies (usually 100% for the airline and 1 room/night for the hotel) and cancel out the remainder of the reservation so the space can be sold again to someone else. Everybody’s happy, except maybe you.
Right. All you need to do is check in. With many hotels these days, there’s “express check-out” where you have to do nothing but call the next morning and say “now I’m checked out, mail me the receipt” and that’s it.
Desk clerk here…
The hotel will charge you if you don’t show up, but it won’t be anything more than the price of the room. They don’t care what you do with it. They just want the money they ought to make for the room.
You might call them up and tell them in advance that you won’t be staying there. At least that way they can sell the room. You might be able to cut a deal. But if you’ve already paid for the hotel (as opposed to paying on check in) that won’t work because they will charge the Internet booking company.