How can I sell unused nights at a conference hotel?

May 7, 2018 6:17 PM

I’m going to a conference later this month and have booked a room at the conference hotel for the duration of the event. However, it turns out my stay will be abbreviated, so I will not use the original first and last nights of my hotel booking. The conference block of rooms has been sold out for ages, and ideally, I’d make money on the two unused nights. However, I’m not sure how to go about it.

I could post on social media that these two nights are available, but I don’t know how to proceed from there if someone is interested. Can I get the hotel to switch the reservation to someone else’s name, assuming the person paid me in advance? I don’t want to be on the hook for someone’s incidental charges. I have not yet paid for the hotel, though they have my CC to hold the reservation. I’m in the US, if that matters.

posted by Atrahasis to Travel & Transportation (8 answers total)

Best answer: Somebody may have a crazy hack for this, but having stayed in many hotels in many places I would advise you not to try - the chances of your not getting to stay in the room for the nights you have booked, I suspect, are greater than the chances of your making money on this.
posted by sheldman at 6:20 PM on May 7, 2018 [8 favorites]

Best answer: To expand on that a bit: the hotel has no interest in your making money on this. The hotel would prefer to make that money and has no incentive to cooperate with your desire for profit. I would call promptly and modify the reservation to only the days you want and get a clear email confirming the new reservation.
posted by sheldman at 6:25 PM on May 7, 2018 [18 favorites]

Best answer: Ditto sheldman. My experience with this type of block is that you can almost always modify your reservation and only pay for the nights used, if you aren't trying to make a change within the hotel's stated 'no refund' cancelation window, which is usually a day or two ahead of check-in. The only problem I can imagine you might run into is if the conference organizers have a contract for the block of rooms guaranteeing a minimum occupancy/profit for the hotel (below which they have to pay for unused rooms) but usually that's on organizers, not on you. I would call and not take the risk of trying to get someone else into the room yourself.
posted by a moisturizing whip at 7:48 PM on May 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

Best answer: It is possible that you could get the hotel to switch the reservation to someone else's name - we have a person at work who books all the hotels for all the trade show travel we do, and she is constantly having to make these kinds of little adjustments. But the hotel will require that person to either pay the hotel directly, or for your credit card to be charged for the entire stay including their incidental charges.

Sorry, I don't think there's a way for this to work for you.
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 8:13 PM on May 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Good advice above.
Also, the nights are not “yours“ to sell, and definitely not at a profit. I organise academic conferences and regularly draw up contracts with hotels. These contracts between an organiser and a hotel normally have clauses in them prohibiting or even penalising subselling.at least here in Europe.
Return the nights to the organisers, as Gotanda says they might have a real need, or to the hotel. Selling them on you risk that neither you nor the buyer end up with a room.
posted by 15L06 at 11:19 PM on May 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I'd be incredibly surprised if the hotel didn't have a clause in their agreements that you are not to sublet the room. I would assume that what would actually happen if you attempted this is that, in the best case, whoever you tried to sell the nights to would not actually be able to use the room since it isn't in their name, or in the worst case they would end up taking the reservation off your hands completely for the entire duration of the conference and you'd lose your booking without any recourse. Just modify the reservation with the hotel to exclude the days you're not staying.
posted by Aleyn at 12:09 AM on May 8, 2018 [3 favorites]

Best answer: One person's 'don't do this' is another person's 'market disruption'. You can try Roomer, which is a secondary marketplace for hotel rooms. I have no knowledge of the company/practice – I just remember them being in the news a while back.
posted by homesickness at 12:58 PM on May 8, 2018

Response by poster: Thanks for the unanimous reality check, MeFi. I updated my reservation with the hotel and let the other two nights go.
posted by Atrahasis at 6:26 PM on May 8, 2018