Measured, September 2026
We priced 434 hotels in 25 cities on every booking site Google Hotels lists, for a two-night stay 35 days out. Free cancellation usually costs a little more. Quite often, it costs nothing extra if you look on another site.
Check your hotel. See every site's price for your dates and the lowest one that comes with free cancellation.
At 292 of the 434 hotels, some sites listed the stay with free cancellation and others without. The cheapest free-cancellation listing cost a median 10% more than the cheapest non-refundable one; a quarter of hotels were at 1.8% or less and a quarter at 22.4% or more. At 102 of those hotels the extra was 5% or less, and at 56 hotels overall the cheapest listing of all already had free cancellation.
The bigger surprise is how often the site you are already on is the expensive way to get flexibility. On 183 of 434 hotels, one of the big booking sites showed its lowest rate without free cancellation while another site listed the stay with free cancellation for the same price or less (within 2%):
| If you are on | hotels listed | free cancellation elsewhere, same price or less |
|---|---|---|
| Agoda | 328 | 102 (31%) |
| Booking.com | 402 | 129 (32%) |
| Expedia | 320 | 107 (33%) |
| Hotels.com | 354 | 128 (36%) |
"Same price or less" counts another site's free-cancellation listing at up to 2% above your site's lowest rate. 143 of the 466 were at about the same price, the rest were cheaper as well.
"Free cancellation" here is the label Google Hotels shows for a site's listed rate. It usually means free until a deadline, often a day or several days before arrival, and some rates are pay-now with a refund while others are pay-at-the-hotel. "Non-refundable" on this page means a listing without that label: most are, but some may still allow a partial refund or show their terms only on the site. Before you book, read the deadline and terms on the site itself.
Method: one snapshot on September 25, 2026, of the first 20 hotel-type properties Google Hotels returns in each of 25 cities, a two-night stay (2026-10-30 to 2026-11-01), 2 adults, US market, USD, all-in prices where sites publish them. Part of the hotel price dispersion study; per-hotel data: CSV (CC BY 4.0).
In our September 2026 snapshot of 434 hotels, at the 292 hotels that had both kinds of listing, the cheapest listing with free cancellation cost a median 10% more than the cheapest non-refundable one. At 102 of them (35%) the difference was 5% or less.
Often. At 183 of 434 hotels (42%), the lowest listed rate on at least one of Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com or Agoda had no free cancellation while another site listed free cancellation for the same price or less (within 2%).
When it costs little or nothing extra, usually yes: you keep the option to rebook if the price drops, to change plans, or to cancel if the room on the confirmation is not the one you wanted. When the premium is large and your dates are fixed, a non-refundable rate can be the better deal. Always read the cancellation deadline.
Underbook checks the other booking sites while you look at a hotel, and tells you when another site offers free cancellation for the same price or less. Free, and you book where you choose.
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