IMH

It's not clear from your post what the terms of your booking were, but typically if you only cancel a few hours before arrival you're liable to be charged. If that isn't the case with your reservation, push for a refund and if necessary dispute the charge with your card issuer.

Many hotels will let you rebook for a later date, either crediting the value of your booking or simply rebooking for the new date. The T5 Sofitel has done this for me, but not at just a few hours' notice. It's still worth asking.

worldiswide

Thanks for the advice. I actually talked to someone today and they gave me an escalation path to consider and indicated they might issue a credit. I've got two mire stays at lhr in the next couple of months not booked at the sofitel. Maybe I can swap for those dates. Not quite willing to give up yet but definitely won't make a booking here anytime soon.

worldiswide

No flexibility or accommodation from the sofitel for my flight delay and for bypassing London in the accommodation from the airline. It's on me..I get it but as a top tier member in another program trying to make my transfer easier on myself in Lhr this was the first and last time I'd consider a stay here. I also read that there are long queues late at night when we would have arrived to check in and as I only had less than 8 hours in the hotel it doesn't seem like it saves or would have saved me much. Lesson learned. I'm guessing that the hotel makes a lot of money from this "flexible" policy of a cancellation required at 6pm the night before which would be before any delays or diversions might be known. This isn't a hotel for a vacation it's a night or probably less than at an airport. All in all the flight reaccomodation was perfect and got me to my ultimate destination in a timely manner so all was not a bad experience. Read the ts and cs but not sure I could or would have been able to do differently.

IMH

In fairness that really is pretty standard and not a special evil condition imposed by this particular property.

I can understand your frustration, but from here it looks as though your loss has been caused by the airline (or the weather or other underlying cause of cancellation), and redress should be sought from them or your insurance, not from the hotel. Allowing "day of" cancellations without penalty would leave a hotel guessing how many guests would turn up until the last minute -- not really a way to run a business.

alex67500

When you're running an airport hotel, allowing to get a voucher for the value of the stay in (for example) the last 48 hours would be good practice because 1) you get to keep the cash, 2) you can resell the room for more money if it's busy, and 3) the customer is likely to book with you and add extra cash on their next stay. That would seem like a cheap way to gain loyalty and customers, but maybe I'm missing something.

worldiswide

Thanks for all your responses. I really appreciate it. It was a US airline so I don't think there is redress like European airlines are required to pay. As I said lesson learned and staying within my preferred hotel chain would have been a better choice. As an aside my partner is trailing me on the same itinerary today and chose hilton over sofitel so I get an 'I told you so' about where to stay.

Markie

Nice stay last night - upgrade (as All Plat), access to the lounge although slightly surprised they are charging for hot food beyond the Full English, although there was no one to order from anyway.
The afternoon Tea has gone down hill since my last stay - just cakes, no sandwiches even to order.

Markie

Not as good a stay this Saturday past:

- Light switches by bed not working
- Desk phone not working
- No coffee in lounge as machine broken
- Woman in lounge piaying iPad without headphones with no staff intervention
- Not asked in lounge if I wanted hot food.

Hotel very full due to flight cancellations but service still good.
Upgraded as Platinum to Superior Room which has free mini-bar and given lounge access.

IMH

We had another one night stay here in late July, with Platinum status.

I had booked the cheapest "Classic Queen" room and we were upgraded to what I always assume to be a "Luxury" room at the lounge end of the hotel. (The hotel's room descriptions aren't entirely transparent, but a second armchair and a capsule espresso machine are what I believe distinguish "Luxury" from "Superior".)

Proper in-room coffee is actually the thing we most appreciate when we get upgraded here, so this was a success.

patty canuck

Just stayed there as well last week. Booked two classic connecting rooms (one queen and one two twins). Got both rooms upgraded to "Luxury" and connecting - told the difference between that and "Superior" are the access to Club Millesime - not an issue for me with Diamond status - average lounge compared to the number of Clubs have been to at other Sofitels only two other families there at breakfast. Rooms 522X and 522X.