Hotel reservation is irrevocable. Is it legal?

Hotel reservation is irrevocable and illegal.

The Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) on the Protection of Consumers' Rights and Interests stipulates that operators shall not make unfair and unreasonable provisions to consumers, such as excluding or restricting consumers' rights, lightening or exempting operators' responsibilities, and aggravating consumers' responsibilities, by means of standard clauses, notices, statements, shop notices, etc.

Some tourism e-commerce platforms do not sign agreements directly with hotels, but have third-party agents and distributors, so there are opaque intermediate links, resulting in opaque and asymmetric information.

Most hotels, agents and travel e-commerce platforms make their own unsubscribe rules. Tourism e-commerce platforms and agents tend to minimize losses and have stricter unsubscribe conditions. Hotels should consider maintaining customer resources, and the conditions for unsubscribing are relatively relaxed.

After booking a hotel, "irrevocable" belongs to this unfair format clause. Hotels, agents, and tourism e-commerce platforms should legally regulate and restrict their behaviors, and should not set "irrevocable" clauses.

Hotel cancellation policies can be divided into the following categories:

1. Free cancellation policy: This policy is usually applicable to orders with no specific check-in date specified at the time of booking, and guests can cancel at any time after booking.

2. Non-cancellable policy: This policy usually applies to orders with a specific check-in date at the time of booking. Once the order is confirmed, the guest can't cancel it. If the guest does not check in, the hotel may deduct the first night or all the room charges.

3. Time-limited cancellation policy: this policy usually stipulates that guests need to cancel their orders within a certain time after booking, otherwise they will be deducted from the first night or all room rates. This time may be different according to the reservation date and hotel.

4. Step-by-step cancellation policy: This policy is usually applicable to orders that do not specify a specific check-in date when booking, and guests will charge different amounts of fees according to the time step when canceling orders. As the check-in date approaches, the deducted fees usually increase.

5.30-minute free cancellation policy: this policy is usually applicable to orders that do not specify a specific check-in date when booking, and guests can cancel the order within 30 minutes after submitting the order. This policy is usually used in promotional activities to attract customers to place orders.

Baidu Encyclopedia-People's Republic of China (PRC) Consumer Rights Protection Law