CET-Cancellation Fee on Comp'd Room?

I cancelled a fully comp'd reservation at the Linq within 3 days of my stay, and got charged $140. Does this seem right? Their billing department said it was correct, even though it was a comp'd stay.

I reached out to my host to see if there is anything he can do.

Thanks.

 

The cancellation policy is clearly indicated on the confirmation. If you cancel withing 72 hours, you'll be charged the first night's room rate + tax.

CANCELLATION POLICY A 72-hour cancellation notice is required prior to your arrival date to receive a refund of your deposit except non-refundable, non-transferable reservations as noted in the package disclaimer. If you cancel within 72-hours, including reservations made within 3 days of your arrival, you will be charged the 1st night's room rate and tax. For Total Rewards customers, this amount will be deducted from your Total Rewards account. Declined or invalid credit card numbers may result in cancellation of booking without prior notice. Personal checks will be accepted for pre-payment of reservation balance only if received at least 30 days prior to arrival date. Checks will not be accepted if received less than 30 days prior to arrival. Cancellations within 3 days of arrival are subject to the forfeit of one nights’ deposit.

 

"If you cancel within 72-hours, including reservations made within 3 days of your arrival, you will be charged the 1st night's room rate and tax."

What in their own cancellation language establishes the rate or tax for any night? The only charge on a $0 "comped" room would be the resort fee, which is charged on ever comped room unless a player is at a certain level.

I've had this happen before (not at CET, though) and have never been charged since there was no established room rate to start with.

 

I am Diamond, so I shouldn't have been paying resort fee's anyways. Since the first night's rate, plus tax and resort fee's would have been $0, I don't see why I am being charged $140.

 

The $140 is what they would have charged any other person if it wasn't comp'd.

 

They assumed you would be there. They assumed you would be playing. Since you were not there, there is no longer a comp, and therefore they charge you.

 

That's ridiculous. Throw the red flag and send it to the booth upstairs.

 

Waiting to hear back from my host, we'll see if he can do anything.

 

I once booked my own spa service and then canceled the trip and forgot to cancel the massage.

they charged my card for the no show even though it would have been comped if I had gone.

I talked to my host and he was able to get the charges reversed.

I learned to let him book stuff like that so that if I cancel, it's not on me.

 

You're being charged for the normal rate of the room you aren't using, that could have been sold to someone else.

Reverse the situation, and pretend that it's your business.

 

I just read on another forum where someone was able to avoid the cancellation fee by booking another date rather than cancelling.

 

This is interesting. I am waiting to see if I get charged at Harrah's Cherokee.

There was a meet and greet and the organizer gave the host my name and TR number. She (the host) sent me an email and said she had the dates for me and she would contact me. She never did and I replied to her email saying that I would get back to her with the dates when I got the flights booked.

In the meantime - we cancelled the event with the organizer and she said she would send a revised list with the host of the ones attending. A couple of days ago - I got in my email from CET - Thanks for visiting Harrah's Cherokee.

So far I haven't had any points deducted but many times they do it at the end of the month and it takes a while to show up on account.

 

From a consumer perspective it is annoying.
After all a comped room is a free room so they should charge you $0.
Granted the free room is based on the expectation of you gambling X number of $$$.
So, if you went and gambled $0 would they then charge you for the room?
No, it would affect future offers.

From a business perspective I bet they should lose a lot of cash due to last minute cancellations.

Definitely ping your host to have them remove the charge.

 

I had an identical situation at Harrahs LV. I got a charge for about 100 bucks which would have been one night at normal rate. I had a comped room. I called and they took the charge off.

 

This is a new policy. It used to be a flat fee taken from your RC's (can't remember if it was $25 or $50). But with CET, a lot of those offers are based on PAST play. You play and they comp you for the future out of what you earned in the past. So with them a bigger percentage of the cost of the room is already paid. It's not unusual for a casino to have in the fine print that they would charge for under playing but I've gotten offers from them that specifically said there was no potential charge. However, if a host booked the trip, that's a different thing.

 

Bottom line... if you are not going to be there, you should call and cancel. Just the right thing to do.

 

He did

 

Last online booking I did made me read & acknowledge the cancellation period before I could proceed with the booking. I fully expected (and so did BFF - as we DID have to cancel a CET trip once) that we would be charged full room rate if we did not cancel in time. In fact we got down to the last hour that we could cancel on that trip hoping we could salvage it. But both of us knew & expected we would be paying thru the nose if we didn't cancel in time.

 

A poster earlier mentioned it but a lot of times you can reschedule for a future date instead of cancel. Then call back and cancel the rescheduled date. Many times this avoids the fee.

 

I just did the same thing. I forgot to cancel a COMP trip on Halloween weekend. I had made the res by phone on an offer code so it wasn't showing in my TR online itinerary. I assumed I had already cancelled. LINQ sent me an email the day after check in with a folio showing cancellation and zero balance. I wasn't charged a dime.