Cancellation Policies and serviced apartments

Flexibility, commitment and risk are the three factors behind a cancellation and availability policy for serviced apartments.

Variations from building to building arise from the different weightings applied to these factors, depending upon whether the building is large or small, and upon what characterises the normal (or seasonal) pattern of stays.

Hotel users may be puzzled by the idea of a cancellation policy which goes beyond 4pm on the day of arrival, but please remember that serviced apartments providers are trying to manage their availability in order to make the building viable as a business - this means they need to work at keeping occupancy high whilst allowing an element of flexibility for existing guests, who may need to extend.

For a perspective on this please see my post on granularity in serviced apartments .


If flexibility is required (eg for the option to extend), risk comes into play and commitment has to balance the risk.

If the number of comparable units is small this will increase to risk of getting left with empty apartments, in the event of cancellation. That's why a large serviced apartments building may run a shorter cancellation period.

There is a human element too: If the provider is nervous they will run a strict cancellation policy to protect themselves. This is where trust relationships can sometimes be important in order to negotiate easier cancellation obligations.

The bottom-line is that this is necessary to keep a good business viable, so what you CAN do is adopt a "what goes around, comes around mind-set. Accept that there is going to be a cancellation situation if event become unpredictable, but communicate what you need all in good time and very often a cancellation situation can be improved, even if it cannot be completely avoided.

Hope this helps.

Adrian