ASQ Cancellation Policies

[HeijoshinCool]

I have been going through the list of ASQs, and so far they all require full payment in advance. This concerns me as you-know-happens when Murphy shows up.

 

The flight could be delayed/rescheduled for whether or mechanical issues, or the covid test could come back with a false positive, among other things.

 

Emails were not returned when I asked about cancellation policy. 

 

Feedback, please, from those who have already negotiated this process. Did your ASQ allow for cancellation? How long before arrival?

[farang51]

These are from the replies I got; you better ask them yourself if you want to be sure that they haven't changed policies.

 

FuramaXclusive Sukhumvit:
3 Days prior arrival free cancel full refund.

 

Royal Rattanakosin Hotel:
Amendment & Cancellation Policy                       
For amendment, at least 3 days before arrival date will be free of charge 2 times, next will be 1,000 baht each time     
For amendment, less than 3 days before arrival date will be charge 10% of total room charge.           
 If room is unavailable on your revised date, you can request for refund.                 
For cancellation, at least 15 days before arrival date will be no charges                 
For cancellation, between 7-14 days before arrival date will be charged 50%                 
For cancellation, between 3-6 days before arrival date will be charged 70%                 
For cancellation, less than 3 days before arrival date will be charged 100%                 
Cancellation Fee can be waived, if you got the denied letter from the embassy or flight cancellation (must be present)
REFUND PROCESS WILL TAKE 5-7 WORKING DAYS

 

Silver Palm
Cancellation or No-Show:
The cancellation or no-show
With 7 - 14 days priority to arrival date, no cancellation fee will be a charge
3 - 7 days 50 % of the total amount will be applying for the cancellation fee
1 - 3 days 100% of the total amount will be applying for the cancellation fee
No – show, 100% of the total amount will be applying for a no-show fee

Free of charges and full refund if you’ve got caused by the below issues.
1) COE issues (e.g. not approved or delay approval)
2) 72 hrs Pre-COVID test result is positive
3) Flight canceled
(All the above reasons need some support documents or email from the Royal Thai embassy.)

Edited November 10, 2020 by farang51

[HeijoshinCool]

.

Cool. That's very informative. Thanks!

 

I just scratched the Royal Rat off my list.

 

The Silver Palm goes the extra step with the COE and flight cancellation issues. I like that.

 

Anybody stayed at the Ozone Hotel?

[farang51]

39 minutes ago, HeijoshinCool said:

The Silver Palm goes the extra step with the COE and flight cancellation issues. I like that.

 

I went for Silver Palm. It seems that they are even better than their cancellation policy. I had to cancel at the last minute, and according to their cancellation policy, they could have kept the money. However, as far as I can understand from their reply to my email telling them that I didn't come as planned, they accept to postpone the stay.

[HeijoshinCool]

Thanks!

[jaizan]

Cancellation terms for ASQ do seem to be unreasonable.    

 

Even if we consider the Silver Palm, there are reasons for cancellation other than the 3 listed by them.   

For instance, about 3% of PCR tests don't process correctly, so a retest is needed. 

So we're relying on a hotel that has a rather unreasonable 100% charge for cancellation in the last 3 days to accept this as a reason for free cancellation/re-scheduling.  

Other reasons for an enforced change to plans include a change of government policy at either end, requirement to isolate in your home country etc.

 

As far as I can tell, vacancies in ASQ hotels are plentiful.   Therefore customers ought to be able to negotiate better cancellation terms, with for instance, an upper limit on the payment in case of cancellation.  I've e-mailed numerous hotels asking about cancellation and re-scheduling policies and didn't get a favourable answer from any of them (all were in the under 40,000 price band). 

Where I replied to one of them and queried this, they replied saying someone mistakenly sent me their old terms and they offered better terms. 

 

So I shall haggle, rather than accept something that leaves me liable for 100% of the bill, in case I have to cancel for anything outside a narrow range of reasons.

 

 

Edited November 17, 2020 by jaizan

[HeijoshinCool]

I suspect you are right, Jaizan, lots of rooms. I do not know if being an ASQ means the entire hotel is for quarantine, or only, for example, one floor. But...

 

The link on the D.C. Embassy website offers a list of 108 hotels.

 

Either way, that seems like an awful lot of rooms for the amount of flights and foreigners coming in, especially if most Thais returning are going to free government quarantine sites.

 

I emailed a simple request a few days ago to 6 hotels: 1) my arrival date, asking availability, and 2) to provide me their cancellation policy....

 

One hotel responded, and they did so in minutes. Typical. 

[treetops]

7 hours ago, HeijoshinCool said:

The link on the D.C. Embassy website offers a list of 108 hotels.

Now 110 or 111 with well over 14,000 rooms available.  I think I read recently there were around 1,500 (or was it 2,500) entries last month so they won't be rushed off their feet.

[ChomDo]

Anyone actually stayed in Silver Palm ASQ? It looks great in the pictures and clearly has a spacious balcony. It says Superior Studio (55 sqm) for 45,000b. That's a huge room if it's true. Sounds too good to be true. 

[jaizan]

After an ASQ hotel e-mails me their details, if the ASQ cancellation policy is not quite fair, I e-mail them back with a question such as:

 

" According to your policy, if I am forced to cancel within 72 hours of arrival, I cannot get a refund.   Is this correct ?      Reasons for cancelling, might include flight cancelled, RT-PCR test problem, change of government policy etc.  

 

They usually respond with something much more favourable.    So haggling works.   When booking ASQ, in some hotels we sign a form authorizing them to charge the money to my credit card.     My intention is to add the final agreed cancellation terms to this when I book.

 

My intention is to secure an agreement to a 95% refund, in case of late cancellation, or where I need to change dates and they cannot offer a suitable revised date.

 

 

Edited November 21, 2020 by jaizan

[canthai55]

pay with your credit card

if cancellation not your fault, receive refund from the bank / card company

As it has always been

[Don Chance]

The whole thing seem scammy. 12,000 baht for a visa. 50,000 for a room.

Why would have to pay in advance for everything, it not like they are full!

Pay for one night through agoda should be sufficient, the rest when you leave.

 

You know in Nepal and India, i have check in and paid NOTHING for weeks until the day i left. No paranoia.

One guesthouse in Krabi i came year after year they still demand payment every single day. Another place i stay demanded that i keep on booking through agonda!  Thai's are seriously xenophobic.