Data Gathering for short notice hotel stays

[Matt]

Hey Guys,

I'm (rather selfishly!) gathering information for short notice hotel stays. We have a situation coming up where my wife is going to be returning to the US 'at some time before her flight' so it could be that she needs a room for the night, and could be that she will go directly to the airport.

We had considered booking a throw away room, IE take a cheap award room and if we no show just drop it, and lose the points, however, not only are we losing points here, but often times these hotels penalize that with a cash payment also (never understood that.. but hey..)

So I thought it would be cool to build a list of the chains and their policies, so if you are ever in this situation, or perhaps your flight is canceled for weather reasons and you need to get a room, you know which one to call first.

The threads are here, feel free to start new ones if I missed any, and I'll compile them into a master list/wiki when we get some good data.

• SPG
• Hilton
• Hyatt
• IHG
• Club Carlsoe

If you answer in one of those threads with an affirmative 'booked in the lobby' please make sure that you use the poll at the top also, as that will allow me to quickly find the result.

 

[RoamingOnPoints]

I did this quite a bit over the last year while on an extended travel trip where my plans were extremely flexible. My gut reaction is that all of them will let you do it last minute (although I have no personal experience with Marriott).

One "quirk" that I wish I had a clearer memory on is that with one or two of the brands you can run into time zone problems. Either because of your computer's time zone or the brand's "home" time zone, for one or two of the websites, if the website thinks it is after midnight it wont let you book that (prior) day online, even if the day hasn't yet changed in local time for the hotel. Really would only come up on west coast / Hawaii situations.

 

[pstravels]

I've done this a 2 times on hilton. And was not penalized either time.

 

[Matt]

I've done this a 2 times on hilton. And was not penalized either time.

What do you mean by 'not penalized' ? I was asking if you could book the same day?

 

[pstravels]

Got cheap award room day of...but ended up canceling with no penalty at hilton.

Supposedly, there is a fee if you cancel too late...but they didn't care.

 

[Matt]

Got cheap award room day of...but ended up canceling with no penalty at hilton.

Supposedly, there is a fee if you cancel too late...but they didn't care.

Interesting. That is a different thing, but certainly very good to hear!

 

[taildragger]

I booked on the spot with Marriott points at PBI when I didn't get on a flight I was supposed to be on. I took the shuttle over and asked for a room on points. The clerk asked if it was allowed to book awards like that and her supervisor said yes.