As I have mentioned before, we are traveling for the Solar Eclipse of 2024. While the path of totality does go within an hour or so of our house in Cincinnati, we decided instead to travel to Cleveland to combine the eclipse trip with a visit to my parents. After a disappointing experience at the 2017 Solar Eclipse, where we did not go to the path of totality, I decided that the next time, I would make it to totality
(SEE ALSO: How The NFL’s Joe Burrow Is Like A Total Solar Eclipse)
Hotels Canceling Eclipse Reservations
We did end up getting a hotel room because my parents have downsized and it would not be super comfortable for us all of us to stay with them. We used 19,500 Marriott points per night in a reservation a few months ago, which is great, because rooms are going for over $500 / night now!
Still, even though I have a valid reservation, I was a bit nervous that somehow it would “not work”.
How To Not Have Your Hotel Reservations Canceled
So I was a bit terrified to read reports that the Aloft Buffalo Airport was cancelling eclipse reservations.
Terence Brady describes his experience booking with the hotel as “surprised, outraged, and disgusted.” He and his siblings, all living in various parts of the U.S. including Maryland and Maine, booked several rooms at the hotel in May 2023 for the solar eclipse.
He received an email from hotel manager Emar Fernandez saying in part, “Due to high online traffic, our reservations systems ended up overbooking some of our properties, affecting upcoming reservations that had been booked recently up to four weeks prior… if you are getting this email, it is because your reservation has been canceled at Aloft.”
He’s not the only one – Chris Donnelly from Sugar Travel reports that he had booked rates of $119 per night or lower for 110 rooms between the Aloft Cheektowaga and the nearby Hampton Inn. He feels the rooms were canceled because the hotels realized they could sell them at a much higher price
In some ways, there is nothing you can do to absolutely guarantee that your reservation won’t be canceled. But there are a few things that you can do to minimize the chances
- Book directly with the hotel – if they do end up needing to cancel reservations, they are likely to start with ones that aren’t booked directly (though in the news article, I did read that in at least some of the cases they did book directly)
- Be a member of the hotel’s loyalty program – If you have status, even better, since again, if they have to cancel, they’re unlikely to cancel reservations of elite members
- Regularly review your reservation – periodically check your reservation (ideally on the hotel’s website) to make sure it is still showing up. The sooner you know about problems, the more options you’ll have.
The Bottom Line
Several hotels are cancelling reservations people made months ago to travel to the path of totality for the 2024 Solar Eclipse. I’ve read of it happening in a few places in Buffalo but there may be others. It’s unclear to me at this point what happened – if it was just a reservation / overbooking mixup as the hotels claim, or if the hotel is doing something underhanded to try and sell rooms at a much higher price.
When I first saw these reports, I was not sure why the “walk” guarantee wasn’t invoked. Most hotel chains (including Marriott and Hilton) have “walk” guarantees that gives you certain rights if you arrive at a hotel and they don’t have a room for you. But then I realized that it probably doesn’t apply in these situations because the reservation was cancelled rather than showing up at the hotel with a confirmed reservation. I’m not sure if they have any recourse other than trying to sue the hotel (which seems expensive and a long shot). It was disappointing to see Marriott and Hilton not doing more to help these travelers.
What are your plans for the eclipse? If you’re staying in a hotel, how crowded is it?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Astronomy and related sciences have advanced to the point they can basically predict eclipses centuries in advance. Plus ,this eclipse has been in the news for years. You would think hotels would have just set the prices super high or put restrictions in when they opened the reservations a year or two ago.
I mean yes, that’s true. But do you think any hotels (or anyone) are making plans for the next eclipses yet?
What an incredible moment for media over retraction. It’s going to get dark on earth!!
Definitely about Greed. When they realize that they can make more money from a newer reservation especially after seeing all the excitement over this, then they make sure to follow the money.
Some hotel websites give lower rates if you PAY in advance. I wonder if they also could cancel those simply by refunding the money. I rarely, if ever, have paid upfront for a hotel — the savings isn’t significant.
And I’m not traveling for this eclipse. Live about 40 miles north of Houston, and we’re close enough to the path of totality, even though it’s likely to be cloudy on 4/18. It’s now about “t-minus 30 hours,” so I’ll be interested to see if our cat starts behaving weirdly as we get closer to the event.
I was reading an article about that and it did look like if you have a prepaid reservation then you would be more protected. When you haven’t paid, then (perhaps? IANAL) the hotel can cancel just like you can cancel before the cancellation date
Marriotts customers are the property owners.
Once Marriott transformed from managing properties to crowd sourcing reservations, hotel guest (and in particular Bonvoy members) stopped being the customee and became ‘the product”.
That should explain most of the ‘I’ve been Bonvoyed” situations and why Marriott increasingly (solely?) focuses on keeping property owners happy and casts a blind eye toward a lot of guest-abusing practices.