why to book your hotel early | reason # 4

Mount Juliet, Ireland — a Virtuoso hotel in Ireland

You've already read the top 3 reasons to make that hotel booking as soon as you know you want to travel. But there's more! Here's reason #4 (of my top five reasons).

Reason # 4: the cancel deadline is your friend when you book early

There are two specific issues to consider with late bookings inside the cancel deadline.

1. Correcting mistakes. We're all human. All of us occasionally make typographical mistakes. A finger hits a wrong key, and you end up with a reservation for the wrong set of dates, the wrong room, or the wrong promotion.

Outside the cancel deadline, mistakes can be corrected quickly and easily ... with just a few keystrokes in my system.

Inside the cancel deadline, I am unable revise your reservation in my system. I have to phone the hotel, and that can take 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or longer. The correction may require a favor, and sometimes a hotel will not give me the favor I'm trying to get you.

If it's after hours, and sales managers have gone home for the day, the fix may need to wait until the next day... a frustrating and time-consuming situation for you and for me.


2. Acknowledging cancel deadlines

Late bookings require an extra measure of caution. I will not spend your money without your explicit approval. When you make a last-minute request, I'll respond with cautionary language:

I want to make sure you know that this reservation is within the cancel deadline. I need you to let me know you're OK with this before I make your booking.

If you've stepped away from your computer and don't get right back to me, I'll wait to hear from you. If it's the end of my work day, your reservation may not get made that day.

If, by the time I do hear from you, availability has changed or rates have gone up, yet another round of emails is required, further delaying your reservation.

With a last-minute booking, a normally simple reservation can become an extremely time-consuming transaction.


These are among the reasons your travel consultant may charge a late booking fee. Now you understand why. This fee compensates your travel advisor when your last-minute request becomes needlessly time-consuming. Plus, realize you are assuming a measure of risk when mistakes are made due to the last-minute nature of your request.

copyright (c) 2016 by David Ourisman LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell Travel. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.