Unreasonable

We booked a room at this Shalamanzi Lodge yesterday and found out today that we need to travel to Cape town weekend for work this weekend. I know they have a strict policy of not paying back any money if you change or cancel. But life happens and i would at least think that they would be reasonable and pay half the money back. But they dont even care.. told me to find someone else to stay there for the Friday night and let them pay us back. There reviews on the internet is not good .. makes me wonder if this is why they dont pay back any money.. and have a strict no payback policy.