There is a family wedding coming up in Orange County California, so you think you will make a vacation of it. Your family of 6, from Texas, will go to the beach, Disneyland, and enjoy some of the other Southern California attractions. Looking to save some money, you find a great deal on Hotels.com on a Cypress hotel--you book it.

Not being very good at paperwork and details, you are not careful about reading all the rules and restrictions. Things do not go as planned and you arrive 2 days late in Cypress. You're not worried about the hotel, because the deal you got on Hotels.com required a prepayment of the entire 7 night stay. Thus, you know you purchased a 7 night stay and the rooms are yours for 7 nights , even if you miss the first two.

You fly into Orange County just in time for the bachelor party, so you drop the wife and 4 kids at the relatives and rush off for a good time with the guys. There is no time to check in at your hotel. You don't bother to call the hotel because you know you paid for 7 nights. Even though you expect to loose the first two nights, you know you still have the remaining 5 and plenty of opportunity for a good time with the family.

The bachelor party was a blast and you arrive to gather up your family and head to your Cypress hotel for some much needed sleep. It's about 3:00 am, the kids are sound asleep, and you are ready for some shut-eye as well. You booked a two room suite, so even though you are two days late, you are really looking forward to the rooms.

When you arrive at the hotel, you find, much to your surprise, that the reservation has been cancelled, you have no rooms, and you cannot get your money back. Even though only 2 nights of your 7 night fully paid stay are gone, the hotel refuses to accommodate you and your family and directs you to contact Hotels.com to see about a refund. By this time, it is approaching 4:00 am on Saturday and you are really tired. The hotel offers to give you rooms, but you must pay for them again, and, at the full rate.

You attempt to explain that you already paid for the remaining 5 nights but the hotel will not accommodate your sleepy family. Thus, you leave and find another hotel. Later Saturday afternoon, you go back to the hotel and try to talk to management. There apparently is no manager on premises, but the front desk person contacts the assistant manager by phone. He will not talk directly to you and he will not come to help resolve the situation. Even though at 4:00 am on the same day they offered you rooms, the assistant manager, has the front desk person tell you the hotel is now full. In addition, they tell you that since you bought your hotel stay on Hotels.com, you must contact them for any refund.

Your Editors became aware of this true story and decided to do a little investigation. We talked to three local hotels to understand their policies related to refunds of fully paid stays. The Cypress Woodfin said they do not booked prepaid stays, so this situation would not happen for a reservation booked through them directly. The Aires Hotel on Seal Beach Blvd, in Seal Beach and the Los Alamitos Inn and Suites on Los Alamitos Blvd., Los Alamitos, both said that under the situation described in this article, the hotels would refund the remaining nights on the stay.

All three hotels indicated that for reservations booked through Hotels.com, or any other third party, the terms and conditions with the third party would govern. In this situation, the traveler must contact the third party to try and work something out.

The bad news--the traveler's vacation was disrupted by an avoidable situation, he did not get the rooms he was expecting, and he ended up paying more for the rooms he did get.
The good news--the traveler was told by Hotels.com that he will receive a refund for everything except the first night.
The lesson--just because you paid for a room, if you don't check in on your arrival date, don't expect the hotel to hold the rooms for the rest of the nights on your reservation.
The other lesson--If you have any changes in your travel plans, call the hotel, or the third party travel service--BEFORE you show up at the hotel at 3:00 am.