Hilton, Marriott, Accor and Hyatt change their coronavirus hotel refund and rebooking policies

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• Josh says:

  9 Jun9 June 05:18

  Are you sure about Hyatt award extensions? My TSUs are still showing 2/21 expiry.

  • Rhys says:

    9 Jun9 June 10:05

    It’s all there on their advisory page! Check the link if you don’t believe us 🙂

    • Josh says:

      9 Jun9 June 14:15

      Your article says “Unused awards such as Free Night, Suite Upgrade or Club Lounge Access awards have been extended until the end of 2021.” That’s not what the advisory says: “All unused Free Night, Suite Upgrade or Club Lounge Access awards with expiration dates between March 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020 will be extended to December 31, 2021.”

• Oliver says:

  9 Jun9 June 06:24

  Any news on whether BA is planning to further extend status and/or reduce Miles needed for status renewal?

  • BJ says:

    9 Jun9 June 07:08

    Many of us think that BA are going the other way and using the situation to reduce their number of elites.

    • Andrew says:

      9 Jun9 June 07:39

      The days of chasing tier points are over I think as even those with status are likely to be denied access to lounges due to social distancing with priority given to ticketed passengers in that cabin. I still think it’s odd that BA offered a lower threshold for a quarter of members but not the other three-quarters, when all of us have been equally impacted. Either offer to all or no one.

  • Rob says:

    9 Jun9 June 10:25

    No news

• BJ says:

  9 Jun9 June 07:05

  IHG: Prepaid rates were showing when I searched last night but I didn’t follow any through to see if they were bookable. I had been under the impression that the book now pay later rates were a temporary measure to replace prepaid rates in current situation. These were shown too but but these were much higher than the prepaid rates, at least for the hotels I looked at. In some cases the differences were up to 40% more which is substantially greater than difference I would have expected between prepaid and BFR in normal times.

  Hilto: some surprises for me here too. Advance rates on hotels I am very familiar with pricing for were often 20-40% higher than I would expect to pay. I hope we will see the usual summer sale from Hilton soon and I hope that it will have genuine deals.

  Not sure what is going on in these two cases or if it is typical. I was searching late October so I am not sure if that will be half term in England. Searched London a week or two ago and saw some good, but not amazing, pricing there from both Hilton and IHG. With lots of good deals around in Europe and Asia it is a bit disappointing that we are not seeing more here too. We need more like Park Plaza.

  • Spursdebs says:

    9 Jun9 June 07:26

    Hilton pricing all over the place, well in the one hotel I’ve been tracking in Ras al Khaimah I booked fully flex rate at AED 14,153
    I’ve seen it go as high AED 25,000 for same week same room. I’m also waiting for a sale. Currently at AED 19,000 approx.

    • BJ says:

      9 Jun9 June 07:34

      They had some great sales last year which was unusual for Hilton IME. Hopefully they will be back soon, just seems odd to me that they are not aggressively trying to encourage future bookings at this time. Perhaps they are just being sensitive to the situation and waiting until it settles further.

      • Spursdebs says:

        9 Jun9 June 07:40

        I found my receipt for last year yesterday in the 30% off sale …. I’m crossing fingers for that again!

        • meta says:

          9 Jun9 June 08:56

          Check Amex Travel FHR rate too. They had some great fully refundable rates for Ras in March.

  • ChrisC says:

    9 Jun9 June 10:13

    With IHG it depends on the destination and the dates of stay if they are offering prepaid / unrefundable rates or not.

    Toss in some variation between the brands and it’s best to double check what you are booking and not just assume you’ll be covered by any sort of goodwill going forward.

    • Steve says:

      9 Jun9 June 13:44

      Agree wholeheartedly with ChrisC’s comment. Their main page says they’ve removed all non flexible booking options. Muggins here took them at their word and booked a prepaid rate presuming it’d be cancellable. Turns out hotel (in Florida) are holding me to the non flexible nature. I’m about to escalate the issue to get my refund, or hope ING extend their policy like Hilton have.

• Vin says:

  9 Jun9 June 07:07

  Our flights to Japan in the end of June have been cancelled by BA. We had a non-refundable night booked at the Tokyo Mercure Ginza using a combination of points and cash. The Accor website states –
  ‘Guest who planned to stay in one of our hotels prior to and inclusive of June 30th, 2020 may modify their reservation for a later date without any modification fees subject to availability and applicable rates and conditions) or request a credit voucher for the full amount of the booking value for use at a future date at the same hotel.’
  Neither of the 2 options were suitable so I ‘did nothing’. Got an email directly from the hotel stating they had cancelled my booking on account of Covid-19 and they would refund the cash element directly. When I queried ‘what of the points used?’ I received a confirmation back that they would be credited back into my account (still waiting).
  Perhaps individual hotels are responding differently or depends on whether the hotel cancels or the client ?

  • BJ says:

    9 Jun9 June 07:27

    This is a good result given the official Accor policy. Since you are only asking about the points I assume you already got the cash. I would keep contacting both the hotel and Accor every week until your points come back. Try to get a date off them by which point you can expect them and if they are not there by then start contacting them more frequently. I hope the hotel comes through on this for you as according CS can be soul destroying.

• Andrew says:

  9 Jun9 June 07:42

  The IHG Spire Choice Benefit backtracking is a bit irritating – it was over a month ago they announced it, with accounts being extended straight away but as you say, no sign of the choice benefit and IHG staff are denying knowledge of it. Do you have friends at IHG you can ask about it Rob?

  • ChrisC says:

    9 Jun9 June 10:20

    It took my Spire a good couple of weeks to be extended.

    It didn’t happen overnight – see numerous comments on here asking when it would happen and if other people had been extended.

    Same with Ambassador status.

  • Rob says:

    9 Jun9 June 10:24

    Not who haven’t been furloughed.

  • Rachel R says:

    9 Jun9 June 15:07

    I called them and insisted that they award the points. They did it after a bit of arguing.

• Andrew says:

  9 Jun9 June 07:45

  Is the rule for Hilton points that they don’t expire if the account stays active? So if I need to cancel an award booking I will get the points back and then they are valid until end of next year?

  • BJ says:

    9 Jun9 June 08:08

    Honors points expire in 12 months but it is so easy to keep them alive. If you’re really stuck at any time just buy 1000.

  • Rob says:

    9 Jun9 June 10:23

    Yes, and the act of refunding should count as activity.

• E says:

  9 Jun9 June 08:15

  Marriott isn’t quite as straightforward according to reports on Flyertalk (becoming a Marriott speciality not to be straightforward…).

  Their policy includes an asterisk and then the following ‘important information’ which says “Some exclusions may apply. May exclude periods with special event restrictions or peak demand weeks. Please refer to the property’s Rate Details for applicable terms or exceptions, if any, when booking or changing reservations.”

  It’s hard to determine what the ‘peak demand’ weeks might be and reports of difficulties in getting reservations cancelled include hotels in Greece and Berlin.

  I’m sticking with Hilton for now as the Marriott policy is too unclear for me to risk arguing about their policy in place at the time of booking if I have to cancel later on.

  • Rhys says:

    9 Jun9 June 10:06

    Absolutely, which is why we added the line “Hotels are allowed to refuse to honour this policy if your stay is “with special event restrictions or peak demand weeks”!

    • E says:

      9 Jun9 June 11:22

      I know, but just think it’s not even that clear which hotels will refuse to honour it due to peak demand when a booking is made. Most of the hotels I’ve looked at don’t say anything different regarding cancellations from their usual policy. So it looks as though ‘peak demand weeks’ could be very arbitrary.

• Aaron Wells says:

  9 Jun9 June 09:16

  Trying to keep up with all the loyalty clubs for hotels and airlines is becoming a full-time job! Hopefully, we will begin to see some semblance of normality and with that some decent prices.

  I have a trip to Japan in October booked (Avios) and I don’t want to waste Hilton points if I can get a great deal.

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    9 Jun9 June 16:42

    It is a full time job – it is literally Rob’s (and Rhys’s) full time job!

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