Sorry if I was unclear. I had trip interruption/cancellation insurance but I had not included the cost of the hotel cancellation fee because I had not booked the hotel at the time I got the insurance. The cancellation fee was 60% if given something like 30 - 55 days' notice and previously, the owner had emailed me about being flexible for extraordinary circumstances "such as" bad weather delaying my flight. The insurance company hasn't rejected my claim for cancelling the trip due to my father's illness (well, not yet, I haven't heard back from them one way or the other). If I had already booked the hotel, I would have taken out enough insurance to cover the cancellation fee in addition to the airfare and thus wouldn't have worried about how much the hotel was going to charge me.

Updating that, I rang the inn and spoke to the owner. In her email she had used the terms "such as" and I pointed out that my father's impending death was equally as uncontrollable as the weather. She tried to say that she meant to be more specific and would only have been flexible for bad weather but since that wasn't what she put in writing, and given that I was rather stressed and upset on the phone, she has since offered to charge me the minimal 10% fee which I accepted. I know they have a business to run and lost money on both my booking and one they had had to turn away and I do sympathise with them but I still feel giving 6 weeks' notice is more than adequate and a 60% fee at that time frame is excessive.

Anyway it's all been settled. Still, I will be more careful when I get insurance to make sure all potential costs are covered or I will book hotels that only need a day or two notice for cancellation without penalty.

Diane Johnston Halifax, NS