Do I dispute the hotel or the OTA for a hotel booking?

Whichever party took your payment — check your statement descriptor. If the OTA charged you, the OTA is the target; if the hotel charged you, the hotel is, even when you booked through an OTA.

What is the deadline to dispute a hotel charge?

For credit cards, the Fair Credit Billing Act requires a written billing-error notice within 60 days of the first bill showing the charge; for debit, Regulation E sets a 60-day statement notice. The card-network window for services-not-provided and not-as-described claims generally runs about 120 days from the expected stay date, with a 540-day outer cap from the transaction processing date in Visa's rules — confirm your date with your issuer.

Does travel insurance cover a non-refundable hotel charge?

Only for events your policy names, such as illness, emergencies, or transport disruption. It does not cover changing your mind or a room you merely disliked.

Dispute Non-Refundable Hotel Charge

How the router works

Step one is always: who took your payment?

A hotel-collected deposit and an OTA-collected room charge have different payment owners, and the dispute must name the owner. That is the single most common routing error in hotel disputes: guests dispute the hotel when the OTA charged them, or dispute the OTA when the hotel charged them, and the claim goes to a merchant that never held the money. Check the name on your statement — that is your target. The full evidence reasoning is in the non-refundable hotel chargeback guide.

Booking route	Who took the payment	Dispute targets
Booked direct with the hotel	The hotel	The hotel
Booked via an OTA, OTA charged you	The OTA	The OTA — the hotel cannot refund money it never received
Booked via an OTA, hotel charged you	The hotel	The hotel — use the OTA as a go-between, not the target

The order that protects your claim

Ask the payment-taker first, in writing, and get its answer in writing. Then check travel insurance — it is the route designed for force-majeure cancellations, and it runs independently of the hotel or OTA. Only then file the chargeback, under the family that fits the facts. The OTA and hotel processes do not pause your bank clocks: the federal 60-day notice clock and the network window keep running while you negotiate, so do not let a slow reply eat them. Get your exact dates in the deadline calculator.

Which chargeback family fits which hotel fact pattern?

Fact pattern	Family	Visa / Mastercard
Hotel cancelled or closed; stay never provided	Services not provided	Visa 13.1 / Mastercard 4853
Stay materially not as described	Not as described or defective services	Visa 13.3 / Mastercard 4853
You cancelled in time per the accepted terms but were still charged	Cancelled services	Visa 13.7 / Mastercard 4853
Changed your mind on a genuine non-refundable rate	No valid family	—
Did not show up within the accepted terms	No valid family (except an excess over the agreed fee)	—

Your bank assigns the final code — this page names the family your facts belong to. A cancelled-services claim (13.7) is the one family the router does not generate on its own: if you cancelled inside the terms you accepted and were charged anyway, file under 13.7 with your dated cancellation proof, using the same ask-first-then-file order above.

Flights are a different claim — do not mix them

If a flight was also cancelled, that claim belongs to a different regime: the US DOT automatic-refund rule covers cancelled flights, not hotel stays. Read airline cancelled your flight? Refund first, chargeback second for the flight side, and keep the two claims — and their evidence — separate.

Want the full hotel playbook?

The ask-first scripts, the OTA trap, the force-majeure insurance order, the evidence list, and the weak cases stated honestly — with the checker above the fold.

Read the non-refundable hotel chargeback guide

Sources (verified October 31, 2026): bankio.io — “How can I dispute a non-refundable hotel charge successfully?” (published 2026-10-30) for the non-refundable-rate bargain, force-majeure waivers, third-party-booking differences, date-change negotiation, and travel-insurance role; Smart Order — “Hotel Chargeback Evidence Checklist for Teams” (smartorder.ai) for the payment-owner rule and the as-accepted-terms evidence standard; Visa Consumer Disputes family 13.1 / 13.3 / 13.7 and Mastercard 4853 from published reason-code references; Fair Credit Billing Act (15 USC 1666; 12 CFR 1026.13) for the credit-card 60-day written notice; Regulation E (12 CFR 1005.11) for the debit-card 60-day statement notice; Verifi summary of the Visa Core Rules update (17 April 2021) for the 120-days-from-expected-service-date window and 540-day outer cap (network norm — your issuer's date governs). Deliberately not claimed: no OTA-specific refund window or fee figure (none verified); no success-rate percentage; no outcome promise. Your booking terms as accepted and your card agreement are the final word.

General information only — not legal advice. Booking terms change and your agreement as accepted governs your dispute. Verify deadlines with your bank and, for federal rights, the FCBA and Regulation E texts themselves.

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Dispute a Non-Refundable Hotel Charge

Check your hotel dispute route

Step one is always: who took your payment?

The order that protects your claim

Which chargeback family fits which hotel fact pattern?

Flights are a different claim — do not mix them

Want the full hotel playbook?