Do you ever get frustrated with hotels’ foolproof cancellation policies?
Well, a life advice influencer now has the solution for you.
Sharif Ceasar, who goes by the Instagram handle @realmelaninkingbroke out his apparent life hack to avoid expensive fees if you ever had to cancel a hotel reservation at the last minute.
“Hotels don’t want you to know this secret,” Sharif began.
Sharif Ceasar took to his social media platforms to reveal his apparent hack to get out of paying cancellation fees
He then revealed his strategy by reenacting an imaginary conversation between a customer hoping to cancel his reservation and a hotel employee.
“Good morning, I would like to cancel my hotel reservations,” said Sharif, playing the role of a fictional traveler.
“Okay, no problem, but we have to charge a $300 cancellation fee since it’s less than 24 hours before you book,” replied Sharif, who was acting as the front desk agent.
“Man, you’re tripping. I’m not paying $300,” the customer replied.
‘That’s hotel policy. There’s nothing I can do about it,” the staffer responded.
“Okay, can I change my arrival date to next week?” the customer asked.
‘Okay no problem. I will change it right away,” the staffer confirmed.
His role play then shows the fictional traveler calling back the next day.
“I want to cancel my hotel reservations for next week,” the customer asked.
‘No problem sir. I’ll get this processed and send you the refund,” the front desk agent replied.
In short, Sharif’s advice is to request that the reservation be pushed far enough into the future, and then cancel that reservation, without any cancellation fees
‘Wait a second. Aren’t you the same man who called yesterday? How did you circumvent our policy?’ they continued.
“Oh, that’s because I follow The Real Melanin King,” Sharif closed the video in a self-plug.
In short, Sharif’s hack is to try to push the booking far enough into the future to avoid any last-minute cancellation fees when one eventually cancels the reservation.
In the comments section, some enthusiastic travelers confirmed that Sharif’s hack works.
“Yes, I’ve done that hotel cancellation a few times just by changing the date,” one person wrote.
A former hotel employee also chimed in, saying, “Can confirm hotel cancellation. Worked as a front desk clerk at a resort in Waikiki.’
Another person added: ‘The hotel also works for AirBnb! My trip has been cancelled [because] of a hurricane, they wouldn’t refund me so I moved the reservation to a later date. Then realized [because] the new travel date was still weeks away, the policy was reset to reflect the new dates and I was able to cancel and get a full refund.”
In the comments section, some enthusiastic travelers confirmed that Sharif’s hack works
Meanwhile, a travel agent pointed out a small catch in Sharif’s plan.
‘If the original reservation is non-refundable, while the date cannot always be changed, the non-refundable policy remains in effect. Believe me. I tried,” they wrote.
On the other hand, former hotel employees were convinced that the hack would not work.
One said: ‘This hack doesn’t work. Hotels have become very aware of this little scheme so they will not allow any changes including a date change to avoid trying to circumvent hotel policy.
‘Third-party reservations are especially difficult to cancel because they are normally non-changeable, non-cancelable and non-refundable, and the process requires them to contact the hotel each time for permission to change or cancel the reservation cancel, which is usually the case. [it is] refused.’
Another added: ‘Our hotel would inform the customer about this as they are moving booking 24 [hours]they cannot cancel it in the future.
‘All the notes were put into the system and if there was a cancellation we would go into the customer history to check all the details before canceling the booking, so it doesn’t always work. But worth a try!’
On the other hand, former hotel employees were convinced that the hack would not work
Last year one person shared the same trick via Redditin which he explains: ‘I always book with one of the cheapest hotel booking options where you charge a night’s stay or whatever if you cancel too late.
“So instead of canceling, at some hotels you can just change [or] change the reservation to a later date or change the rate to a more expensive rate that allows a full refund.
“Make the change and then cancel the reservation without a cancellation fee.”
The Redditor noted that this hack only worked “when booking directly through the hotel and probably won’t work everywhere, but worth a try if you need to cancel.”
Sharif is certainly not the first to use social media to share various tips and tricks to travel more efficiently.
DailyMail.com previously reported on a frequent flyer’s top tips, from avoiding hotel irons to using shower steam to de-wrinkle your clothes.