Why not cancel your accommodation reservation if the hotel owner asks for it

Those who travel independently, probably faced with such a situation when the owner of the accommodation asks to cancel the reservation made through booking systems such as Booking, Agoda, AirBnB and others, and come and pay for everything on the spot directly. Want to know why you shouldn't do this, read on:

First you need to understand how these systems work. Booking and other sites search and book hotels and accommodation work as intermediaries between the owners of accommodation and travelers. At the same time, the systems take a commission for their services, but not from tourists, but from hotels or apartment owners.

We (the authors of the site) have repeatedly heard from the owners of the objects complaints that they withhold a large Commission, and allegedly for nothing. On their part, this is true to some extent, but on the part of travelers it is not a payment for anything at all. After all, most of this commission is taken for supporting users (i.e. us), processing payments, and solving problems. If you have ever encountered unscrupulous hoteliers and solve the problem with them through booking systems, then you probably know that through support you can achieve accommodation in a more expensive object; get compensation for the difference in price if you had to look for a new accommodation yourself; get compensation for inconvenience and communication costs. Moreover, all this is done without any appeals to the courts and written claims, but simply by electronic correspondence or telephone conversations with the support service. The most important thing in this question is to act correctly, and how, Read Here - How not to spoil your vacation when booking a hotel in advance.

How is it good for the owner

Of course, the owner of the object is good, because he increases his profit at the expense of you, and also removes all obligations to you.

How is it bad for you

• If you agree to cancel your reservation before arrival, you will voluntarily and completely refuse any support, and even get a minus in "karma" in the booking systems.
• We met a situation where the reservation was made and paid by card without the possibility of cancellation, but the owner asked to cancel the reservation and assured that everything would be in order and he would return the money. Can this be trusted? We did not check.
• And a very tough case was when the owner called a few hours before our arrival and asked to cancel the reservation allegedly because of the commission, but was refused. And what was our surprise when a couple of hours later he himself canceled the reservation with a refund of all funds. And he did it, most likely, because there was simply no free room. If we had canceled the reservation on our part, we would have lost the fee for the first day of accommodation, and could well have arrived behind closed doors.

How to delicately refuse such a request

If you want to delicately refuse a request to cancel a reservation, you can refer to the impossibility of cancellation due to lack of access to the Internet or personal account, loss of bonuses (and this really happens because of cancellation), or, in the end, unwillingness to risk losing accommodation. In our experience, all refusals were accepted quite adequately, and no problems or complaints arose.

In the end, it is up to you to decide whether or not to agree to a cancellation, of course, but if you are asked to cancel a reservation, then you are asking for a discount. After all, hoteliers want to put your money in your pocket so as not to pay their systems for support.