On Friday, the Ministry of Economic Development published on the legal information portal a draft resolution on amendments to the Rules for the provision of hotel services in the Russian Federation. We are talking about the introduction of non-refundable tariffs in Russian hotels. The new rule should come into force on March 1, 2025.
The news is accompanied by media speculation that hotel services in the domestic market will become more accessible. Is it so?
“Non–refundable booking is a type of booking that provides for the retention by the contractor of the fee paid to him (in full or in part) upon cancellation of the reservation or non–occupancy of the consumer in the accommodation facility,” the document says. Before concluding the contract, the consumer has the right to choose which type of booking he prefers.
The draft was prepared and sent to the Ministry of Justice back in July, but now the document clarified under what circumstances a tourist can be refunded if he booked a hotel at a non-refundable rate. Among them are the illness of the tourist himself or his close relative included in the booking, the death of a family member or a close relative of the tourist, as well as the introduction of an emergency regime either at the location of the hotel or throughout Russia, conscription for military service on mobilization or under contract.
Assumptions that non-refundable tariffs will lead to better conditions for tourists or even lower prices are mainly born from comments on the topic from the hoteliers themselves. For example, the Cosmos Hotel Group told the Interfax agency: hoteliers will be able to provide more affordable accommodation for guests who are confident in their trip. And this is completely true, but there is a nuance: de facto non-refundable rates have long existed in the hotel business, since the time of their appearance in our country Booking.com . According to expert Oksana Tonenkova, at least 70% of the hotels represented on the site Svoy-hotel.ru they work at such rates. As a rule, these are network accommodation facilities, large or small hotels, and sometimes sanatoriums. The cost of accommodation at a non-refundable rate is usually 15-20% cheaper than when booking, which involves canceling the application and refunding the money.
So the new resolution will not fundamentally change anything in the market, but it will legitimize the established practice and improve the economy of hotel companies.
Hoteliers will not have to refund money to tourists who ordered a non-refundable rate at a reduced price, but did not use the service. As Sergey Voitovich, the head of the Svoy TS project, says, there are few such cases in percentage terms, but still they exist, and conflicts arise around them.
Another important point: in most cases, non-refundable rates are paid in advance by the guests. When the decree comes into force, hotels will be able to count on a guaranteed amount of prepayments.
It cannot be excluded that after changing the rules for the provision of hotel services, hotels will more actively explain the benefits of purchasing rooms with the possibility of a refund and thereby raise their average check.
Earlier TourDom.ru I wrote about the proposal of the Alliance of Travel Agencies not to punish tourists for refusing reservations if there are two weeks left before arrival at the hotel. However, the arguments of the public organization are not taken into account in the draft resolution.
English 
Russian 
German 
Polish