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Hotel cancellation policies can be frustrating, especially when unexpected emergencies happen.

In this story, a hotel staff member took a call from a woman who had to cancel a hotel reservation because her dog was injured.

But the booking came with a cancellation penalty, so she informed the guest about it.

The guest became upset and demanded a manager to try to change the agreement she signed.

Uhm… I don’t think it works that way, though. Read the full story below to find out more.

Non-refundable deposits mean just that

It’s such a simple concept.

Yet it’s always somehow breaking news to customers when they conveniently need to cancel their stay.

While I certainly understand how it feels to ‘lose’ money, that doesn’t change the reality that I don’t make the rules.

Therefore, I often won’t stick my neck out to bend them. Thankfully, this ended up going ‘above me’ anyways.

This woman took a call from someone who sounded upset.

A lady calls the other day, already sobbing.

She has to cancel her reservation, which would’ve begun in about another week.

“My dog is injured, so I won’t be able to make the trip,” she wailed.

I told her I was sorry to hear about that and then pulled up her details.

She explained to the guest their no-cancellation policy.

See, she had booked with a group under a group block.

The stipulations of that block were that any cancellations after a certain date would result in a one-night penalty.

The deposits for this were taken right after that date had passed, which was of course also true for her situation.

When I informed her of all this, she immediately got into a frenzy.

“No. No. No. You people cannot be taking my money. I didn’t plan for this, it just happened suddenly.

Give me your manager right now. I need to sort this out.”

She transferred the call to her manager.

I immediately wiped my hands clean of her.

But my parting words before doing so were, “I understand your frustration, ma’am.

I can transfer you, but I’m just letting you know what the policy is.”

A little while later, my manager came out to the desk to look at something else.

At the same time, one of the sales agents, the one responsible for this particular group block, also came out.

She came up to me and said, “Wow, thanks so much for that.” She said it in a cheeky voice.

Even the sales agent explained the same thing to the guest.

The sales agent explained how the lady went up, down, and around with her.

But, the agent kept explaining, essentially, “Policy is policy,” as sympathetically as she could.

The guest refused to listen to reason.

Even after being told that it was part of the contract signed between the organization running the event and our hotel.

“But my dog’s operation is going to cost over $7,000. I need my money back now,” she whined.

Again, the sales agent sympathetically said, “I understand that, ma’am. But, unfortunately, my hands are tied.”

The guest heard the same policy from three different people.

As it would turn out, when this guest was speaking to my manager before that, my manager explained it all just as I and the sales agent did.

So, she heard it from three different people.

In the case of my manager, the guest also chimed into the conversation about how this guest dismissed her.

The guest demanded, “Give me someone higher than you.” The sales agent doesn’t outrank my manager.

She just so happens to be the point of contact for this event.

The guest had to pay a $200 penalty fee.

Listen, stuff happens.

But, sometimes, you have to realize that when you agree to part with some funds, you just have to let it go.

On that note, her penalty came up to about $200.

Not a small amount, but definitely wouldn’t put a very big dent in that $7,000 bill.

Clearly, employees couldn’t change a policy just because the guest was unhappy with it.

The dog’s expensive operation was certainly unfortunate, but the cancellation terms remain and OP (or anyone else) couldn’t do anything about it.

I guess, after hearing the exact same explanation from three different people, the guest had finally accepted what she signed up for.

Let’s read the responses of other people on this story.

This person makes a valid point.

This user gives a suggestion.

Here’s an honest opinion.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an American who is confused about why they can’t use their American dollars at a Canadian grocery store.

This one makes sense, too.

And finally, indeed!

Hotel policies can’t magically change just because of an animal emergency.