I haven't travel very much, so I was surprised in looking cancelation policies of most of the hotels. They all seem to want to be paid at least 30-45 days before you arrive, and if you should need to cancel anytime two weeks before you are to arrive, they get to keep all of your money. Whenever I have taken rooms in the states you don't actually pay until you leave, so to fully pay for a room that I haven't seen, and might not see at all if an unseen event should happen shortly before I am to arrive seem odd. It seems that I'm taking all the risk.

Is this somehow negotiable, or is there some other solution?