Caught a travel vlogger saying he books refundable hotels then cancels to grab cheaper last-minute deals

I was waiting for my coffee the other day and overheard this guy talking about how he never books non-refundable rooms anymore. He said he just holds a refundable booking as insurance, then checks a few days before his trip and rebooks if the price dropped. Said he saved about $40 a night on a recent trip to Austin that way. Has anyone else tried this strategy? It sounds smart but I worry the cheap last-minute rooms might disappear.

3 comments

3 Comments

wendy_jackson1mo ago

I tried this once and the hotel sold out entirely by the time I cancelled the refundable booking. Ended up paying twice as much for a worse place fifteen minutes further from where I needed to be. Plus some hotels are catching on and limiting how many times you can cancel before they flag your account. You might save $40 sometimes but when it backfires you lose way more than that.

lily_singh21mo ago

That cancel limit thing is real, I only do this with chains that have generous policies and never had an issue yet.

barbaraw471mo ago

Yeah but if you stick with the big chains with proper policies it's fine. I do this all the time with Hilton and Marriott and never had any problem. The key is knowing which ones actually honor their own rules.