Reasonable Hotel Refund Request?

IAmWales

Did you book a refundable rate? If not then anything from the hotel will be a goodwill gesture. They had an unsold room as a result of you not turning up.

Given the weather conditions you were pretty irresponsible to leave the journey so late. You did check them before setting out didn't you? Travelling to the USA without insurance was even more reckless. Hopefully lessons learned for the future.

Fosterdog

You are highly unlikely to get anything back from hotel or booking agent. This is the exact type of scenario travel insurance exists as you were all innocent parties. It is not your fault that the road was closed but is also not the hotel or booking agents fault. They didn't make you travel 8 hours to get there nor did they make you choose a particular route that happened to be closed. They had the room there ready an waiting for you and you failed to turn up.

LilElvis

Neither the hotel or booking agent are responsible for the weather and your inability to reach the hotel or contact them - that would definitely be what insurance is for.

There's still frequently snow in Northern California in May - I've been skiing at Tahoe and Mammouth in May, even into June once - lived just outside San Jose at the time. The Tioga Pass is usually closed for 5-6 months minimum due to snow.

kingfisherblue

Nope, as others have said, the hotel is not responsible for the fact that you didn't turn up, whatever the reason. However, the thing that stands out the most for me is the lack of travel insurance, especially since you went to the USA. My goodness, you are extremely lucky. Even with good weather conditions, accidents happen, and that would have been disasterous if you had needed medical care.

TBH, you sound quite young and naive. I think you should put it down to a lesson learned, and before travelling abroad again, read up on travel insurance. It might seem an unnecessary expense, but if you had needed medical care, you wouldn't be worried about the cost of a room that you didn't use, as you would be facing a much higher bill, possibly running in to thousands of pounds.

JReacher1

Do you really mean May last year? Pressing for a refund for one night over a year ago for something that was not the hotels fault seems odd. Are you suddenly short of money?

LadyDee

kingfisherblue wrote: »

Nope, as others have said, the hotel is not responsible for the fact that you didn't turn up, whatever the reason. However, the thing that stands out the most for me is the lack of travel insurance, especially since you went to the USA. My goodness, you are extremely lucky. Even with good weather conditions, accidents happen, and that would have been disasterous if you had needed medical care.

TBH, you sound quite young and naive. I think you should put it down to a lesson learned, and before travelling abroad again, read up on travel insurance. It might seem an unnecessary expense, but if you had needed medical care, you wouldn't be worried about the cost of a room that you didn't use, as you would be facing a much higher bill, possibly running in to thousands of pounds.

And make sure you get appropriate insurance as soon as you book so that you are covered in the event of having to cancel through an insurable event such as illness.

Alfrescodave

Sounds to me like Bank Holiday boredom has set in and OP just wants to have a bit of "fun". It all sounds just a bit unbelievable

SuperHan

I also suspect troll, but just in case... Tioga Pass is often closed as late as May - yes, snow was particularly bad in CA this year, but if you were driving anywhere near Yosemite in May, you should have known that snow would potentially reek havoc on your travel plans. I'm travelling in September, and I'm already watching for snow as I know roads close October - May almost definitely, but can close early and open later than that depending on snow fall for the year. Minimal research has told me that.


You also didn't book a hotel in Yosemite. You booked one in Mammoth Lakes. This would still have been readily accessible from other routes and would have been mostly unaffected by the snow in the Yosemite region. Some hotels in that region have very lenient cancellation policies in the case of inclement weather, but given that it doesn't appear that you rang ahead, and that Mammoth Lakes is probably less likely to have policies like that as opposed to somewhere on Tioga Pass, for example, the hotel doesn't owe you anything. Neither does the booking agent. You should have planned your route better when you left San Jose - from what I saw in May on various CA forums was that the closed and impassable roads would have been known about in advance - or taken travel insurance.

SuperHan

In fact, the more I look at it, the more it looks as though you were planning to drive over Tioga Road (it's the only real route from San Jose to Mammoth Lakes via Yosemite).


If this is the case, I'm surprised if even insurance would pay it. That road would always have been closed in May. It was a bad plan. You should have done some research before booking those hotels and setting out on your journey.

CoolHotCold

https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/may.htm


Sorry to pile on, but even the most cursory of google searches for Yosomite weather May brings up that first page.


The lack of preparation, and insurance ultimately mean you are responsible for the costs associated for it.