The Hotel Re-Booking Glitch

This feels like a loophole, or a glitch, but with a little bit of forward planning you can knock 10-20% off the price of your hotel booking.

Here’s how it works. We nearly always book a refundable rate - life is life and there’s always a chance things will get in the way of a trip. Yes we have travel insurance, but it’s good to have peace of mind and also pay on arrival (often using some sort of banked proceeds from Vinted or TopCashBack).

However, this refund window often shuts 24-48 hours prior to arrival, and the booking effectively becomes non-refundable. Just before this window shuts, when a non-arrival is highly likely to be caused by something travel insurance would cover, check the same hotel - or even different hotels. You will often find the same room and package cheaper - just at a non refundable rate. Your booking is about to become non-refundable in any case, so switch and save.

This works better in larger chains where they are still trying last minute to fill empty rooms - or always have the cheapest non refundable rates on offer. In smaller hotels you may find the room type you are in fully booked so the only ones still on offer will be the suites or larger rooms - which are more expensive even on the non-refundable rate.

Just make sure you book the new rate before cancelling the old one!