Late no-show at hotel

Question

I booked a hotel via a 3rd party (expedia) for 1 week months ago. Due to weather conditions my flight was delayed by 3 days. I did not check in online or via phone to the hotel, or contact expedia for various reasons.

When I arrived at the hotel I was told I was a no-show and would have to rebook rooms separately, even though I was at this point 3 days late into the 7 days I had already paid for. As far as I am concerned I have 4 days remaining that I have paid money for months ago.

I understand I have lost the first 3 days of the hotel, but i am now paying 4 days for a new room when I my original booking should already cover this period.

The hotel says to contact experia, experia says to contact them again once the trip is over. I feel it will be much harder to resolve this weeks later. Since I am at the hotel right now during my original booking period, I am trying to sort the situation now.

What advice can I get for dealing with paying for these 4 days of rooms I booked months ago?

Answer 1

Often (? - it's what I have heard of the most, but I have no idea if that's just a coincidence) you'll have to pay for the first night when you don't show, while you get the rest of your money back. Perhaps the hotel had already transferred the money back to expedia? Then it is very reasonable that they want you to pay when you show up and want a room.

In any case the hotel probably cancelled your reservation (it's very unrealistic to expect them to keep a reservation for three days), so getting a room now would be a new order in their system and the receptionists probably can't transfer payment from one order to another.

My advice would be:

• Accept that you have to pay for a room for the last 4 days of your trip
• save the receipt
• read the terms of the booking you made through expedia carefully
• contact expedia when you get home and try to get some money back
• learn to read the terms before going
• learn to always contact hotels when you're delayed