Forfeiting my cash for hotel purchase

I bought hotel accommodation on Kulula.com website using my vitality discount. The reservation is for the 15th of September which is 2 weeks away from when I wrote this review. My conference in Cape Town was cancelled and thus I need to cancel my accomodation as well. When I called the call center they said that they have a policy which says you forfeit your entire hotel payment should you cancel. I don't believe this policy is equitable and given that I have given 2 weeks notice before I was due to arrive, I think I should be afforded some sort of refund, considering the reason for cancelling is not even my own.