Premier inn cancel and rebooked

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: Hotel cancellation policy.

horusthehorse

I have just cancelled a booking at Premier Inn for late November as I thought I had the wrong date for a meeting with friends, Ironically I had got the date correct so I rebooked the same hotel on the same date but because my original booking was non- cancellable which I hadn’t noticed at the time  I have lost the £109.00 that it cost me.
Is this legal, legitimate and reasonable as they will have almost three months to resell that room?

It’s certainly not moral in my view

eskbanker

horusthehorse said:

I have just cancelled a booking at Premier Inn for late November as I thought I had the wrong date for a meeting with friends, Ironically I had got the date correct so I rebooked the same hotel on the same date but because my original booking was non- cancellable which I hadn’t noticed at the time  I have lost the £109.00 that it cost me.
Is this legal, legitimate and reasonable as they will have almost three months to resell that room?

It’s certainly not moral in my view

Legal - yes, provided consistent with Ts & Cs and the wider law

Legitimate - yes, as above

Reasonable - yes, when they make it clear that the cheaper rates are non-refundable rates and that flexibility is available at a price

Moral - irrelevant

flaneurs_lobster

horusthehorse said:

I have just cancelled a booking at Premier Inn for late November as I thought I had the wrong date for a meeting with friends, Ironically I had got the date correct so I rebooked the same hotel on the same date but because my original booking was non- cancellable which I hadn’t noticed at the time  I have lost the £109.00 that it cost me.
Is this legal, legitimate and reasonable as they will have almost three months to resell that room?

It’s certainly not moral in my view

It's really hard to not realise what kind of booking you are making at a Premier Inn.

Every booking is offered at 3 rates - Flex (the default), Standard or Non-Flex. To get the Non-Flex, no refund, cheapest rate you took you must have explicitly selected it. 

Their policy is what it is. If you don't like it then don't give them your business.

The morality (or otherwise) of the lodgings business I'll leave to others to muse on.

Shimrod

flaneurs_lobster said:

horusthehorse said:

I have just cancelled a booking at Premier Inn for late November as I thought I had the wrong date for a meeting with friends, Ironically I had got the date correct so I rebooked the same hotel on the same date but because my original booking was non- cancellable which I hadn’t noticed at the time  I have lost the £109.00 that it cost me.
Is this legal, legitimate and reasonable as they will have almost three months to resell that room?

It’s certainly not moral in my view

It's really hard to not realise what kind of booking you are making at a Premier Inn.

Every booking is offered at 3 rates - Flex (the default), Standard or Non-Flex. To get the Non-Flex, no refund, cheapest rate you took you must have explicitly selected it. 

Their policy is what it is. If you don't like it then don't give them your business.

The morality (or otherwise) of the lodgings business I'll leave to others to muse on.

It's flexi, semi-flexi and standard. But even the lowest standard rate allows for a date change, just paying the difference in room cost if a more expensive night is picked. This would have been the cheapest option for @horusthehorse once they realised they had the wrong date - no need to cancel.

flaneurs_lobster

Shimrod said:

It's flexi, semi-flexi and standard. 

We are both not quoting the full range (and there are other corporate rates not generally available) but the full list is here

https://www.premierinn.com/gb/en/faq/room-rates.html

Your point about the Standard rate is of course correct.

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: Hotel cancellation policy.

Mark_d

horusthehorse said:

I have just cancelled a booking at Premier Inn for late November as I thought I had the wrong date for a meeting with friends, Ironically I had got the date correct so I rebooked the same hotel on the same date but because my original booking was non- cancellable which I hadn’t noticed at the time  I have lost the £109.00 that it cost me.
Is this legal, legitimate and reasonable as they will have almost three months to resell that room?

It’s certainly not moral in my view

If you book at the cheaper, non-refundable rate and then cancel you should expect to lost money.  It's common practice and it apples to train tickets, airline tickets and a host of other things.

If I were you I would have checked the date of the meeting first and then moved (not cancel & rebook) the hotel reservation.  Since the date is in November, why were you in a rush to cancel the hotel reservation before checking the date of your meeting?

Slinky

I got the wrong date on a Premier Inn booking, turning up a day earlier than I'd booked. The man on the desk was adamant I couldn't change the booking, so I ended up having to book for the night we'd turned up for £148.

It wasn't what we needed after a 2.5 hour drive on a boiling hot day in a car where the aircon had packed up.  OH was not best pleased with me to say the least!

Got to our room, then recalled having a conversation with my OH that if something happened and we'd needed to cancel our holiday (we were staying the night before flying), we could always change the PI date and go on a pre-Christmas shopping trip instead.  I phoned the Premier Inn customer services, who confirmed that yes I was able to rebook to that night for an extra £40 or so. So back to the front desk, armed with the T&Cs that I'd found, and argued the toss with the same man. It turned out he was perfectly able to change the date on the booking (despite being adamant his computer said no), and dragged out their copy of the T&Cs which had pink highlighted parts of the terms, but said that they didn't apply the other parts!!!!!! (the part which said I could change the date. This is a Standard rate booking, which can be amended up to 1pm on the day of arrival on a like for like basis.  Anyway, he put it all through, gave me a refund for the £148.  As it happened, when he made the change, the computer didn't demand the extra £40 they'd said on the phone, so all was well in the end, but they'd quite happily have taken £148 off me.

35har1old

horusthehorse said:

I have just cancelled a booking at Premier Inn for late November as I thought I had the wrong date for a meeting with friends, Ironically I had got the date correct so I rebooked the same hotel on the same date but because my original booking was non- cancellable which I hadn’t noticed at the time  I have lost the £109.00 that it cost me.
Is this legal, legitimate and reasonable as they will have almost three months to resell that room?

It’s certainly not moral in my view

Did you get the free breakfast email?