Many of our clients at the website are travelers buying travel insurance. This time of year (winter), there is heightened interest in policies that protect against monetary loss if travel providers are unable to deliver the purchased service - especially flights that are delayed or cancelled due to bad weather.

Travel insurance is a good way to protect against the financial costs of such delays and cancellations. But, what about the personal or physical costs. No one wants to spend a night in an airport waiting area. That is definitely not comfortable. I have been in the unfortunate situation of completing one leg of a trip and being unable to continue outbound on the next leg due to bad weather. Regrettably, I was one of the later persons arriving at the affected airport and prior stranded travelers had occupied all the available lodging rooms and rented all the available rental cars. I was stuck. I had no options at any price.

As I was discussing this recently, someone floated the idea of making "preventive reservations guaranteed for late arrival" with car rental companies and hotels/motels at each stopover or connection airport in an itinerary. The idea is that if the onward journey seems to be unchallenged the preventive reservations can easily be cancelled via cell phone at no cost before boarding. But, if the onward leg is shut down for any reason, the reservations will be available to the traveler who can use them to maintain a bit of comfort and sanity in a difficult situation.

It seems like it might be an attractive idea because it amounts to "free insurance" against spending a night in an airport lounge. But, it may put a burden on the lodging and car rental companies if it were widely adopted. They would be making and cancelling additional reservations at potentially additional administrative cost. However, there may be some offsetting no-cost revenue from people who forget to cancel the reservation (thereby incurring the credit card charge) but do not use the room or car. I'm writing this looking for feedback from car rental agencies and lodging providers as well as from travelers.

Good idea or not?