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Friend swore by Hostelworld's late cancellation trick, got us stuck in Munich
My buddy Dave told me to book a hostel on Hostelworld, then call them direct to cancel and rebook for half price at the last minute. Tried it in Munich last October and the hostel manager laughed at us, said they flagged the address and blacklisted us from future stays. Wound up paying 90 euros for a hotel room that night because everything else was full. Has anyone else gotten burned trying to game those booking sites like that?
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alicecraig15d ago
Yeah that "call the hostel direct" trick is a gamble at best. I manage a small property and we've had people try that exact move, we just note the booking source in our system. If we see a Hostelworld reservation followed by a call to cancel, we flag it and honor the original terms. The sites like Hostelworld have agreements with properties where we can't undercut their rates, so rebooking direct for less is a breach of contract for the hostel. Your best bet is to check cancellation policies carefully upfront and maybe call ahead to ask about last minute availability without mentioning any existing booking.
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claire_davis3115d ago
Tried that trick once in Barcelona and ended up sleeping in a hostel lobby chair because the manager recognized my name from the booking app. Felt like I was in a bad spy movie where the safe house rejects you for being too obvious about your sneaky plan. These hostel people have seen every scam in the book, so better to just pay the cancellation fee and call it a learning experience.
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Why is everyone acting like these booking sites are saints? They already charge hostels like 15-20% commission and still find ways to screw over the customer. @claire_davis31 maybe if the manager actually cared about your situation instead of playing detective, you wouldn't have ended up in that lobby chair. Look, I know there's a contract angle but honestly, booking sites have gotten greedy and cheap. Hostels should be able to offer their own discounts without some middleman getting all bent out of shape. The real scam is these platforms taking a cut of every single transaction while providing next to nothing except a search engine. If you can save $20 by calling direct and the hostel is cool with it, I say go for it every time.
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