Brex partners with TravelBank to provide customers with great deals on accommodation. You will find information below on the different types of bookings that are possible.
Refundable vs non-refundable hotels:
Refundable:
- More flexibility to change and cancel
- May be more expensive (may be outside of company policy)
- If your plans change, you can cancel your hotel room reservation per the penalty period of the property
- If you prepaid for the room, you will get a full refund
- If you only reserved the room and plan to pay at checkout, the reservation is simply cancelled
- Users typically earn their loyalty points
Non-refundable:
- Rates are often lower than refundable hotel rates
- If you decide to book a non-refundable rate, make sure your dates are set and there is no/very little chance you will need to cancel your reservation
- Limited/no flexibility and financial penalties if plans change and you need to cancel
- Even when cancelled ahead of time, you usually cannot cancel without penalty (in rare situations, the hotel may offer a waived but it is solely at the hotel's discretion)
Post-pay vs pre-pay hotels:
Pre-pay:
- You pay at the time of booking the hotel
- You must still provide a credit card for incidentals at the time of check-in
- This is a good option for booking with a company card as you can run into issues if you select a post-pay rate with a company card
- Often have lower rates
- If it is a pre-pay non-refundable, you most likely will not get a refund or will pay penalties if you cancel beforehand
Post-pay:
- A credit card is used to reserve a room, but not charged up front
- You put down a credit card at check-in which can be a different card than the one used to reserve the room - this card is used to pay for the full room bill plus incidentals, taxes, and any other fees at check-out
- Post-pay reservation may be risky for business travellers because if you use a company credit card that you don't physically have, you won't be able to use it on site because they need to physically re-swipe it upon check-in
Resort fees & Incidentals:
Increasing trend for urban hotels (especially in NYC, SF, and Chicago) to charge resort fees to boost revenue without raising nightly hotel rates:
- Resort fees are for basic Wifi, phone service, fitness center, business center, etc.
- Resort fees cannot be waived even if you do not use the amenities - they are usually assessed per day
- You must present a credit card at check-in which is used for:
- Incidentals (food/snacks, room service, etc)
- Refundable deposit for incidentals/damages
- Resort fees
For more information, feel free to take a look at the following TravelBank blog articles: