I booked Andaz Delhi hotel for a conference from 21-25 Oct 2024, which I changed to 22-25 Oct 2024 on 20 Oct 2024 (before the free cancellation deadline) as I was waiting for my visa. However, I still didn't get my visa to India approved in time so I had to cancel my trip to India and on 22 Oct 2024, I informed Andaz Delhi and Hotels.com (which I used to book my trip) to cancel my whole booking. However, Andaz Delhi still charged me for the full 22-25 Oct 2024 booking. Hotels.com stated Andaz Delhi's cancellation charges as such: Cancellations or changes made after 23:59 (property local time) on 20 Oct, 2024 or no-shows are subject to a property fee equal to the first night's rate plus taxes and fees. See my attached photo of the rules and regulations stated.
However now Andaz Hotel is refusing to refund me for my booking and charged me for 3 nights instead of just 1 night penalty.
If I had been informed (but I wasn't, or was wrongly informed) that I could have penalty up to 100%, I would have cancelled my booking altogether and booked it again if I could get my visa.
Besides, I informed both Andaz hotel and hotels.com on 22 Oct 2024 that I wanted to cancel my whole booking. I did not inform after 25 Oct 2024. So Andaz Hotel could have released the hotel room for others to book for 23-25 Oct, or even 22 Oct itself. So on what basis should they be charging me up to 25 Oct 2024??