More........! Hotel Booking Cancellation?

[greenMark]

Here is my question in more detail... Any help really appriciated..

I'll be going to france on mid of june and need a hotel reservation letter for my visa. But I'm going to stay with one of my friends in france. But the thing is I can't cancel the hotel bookings after getting the visas. (According to the french Embassy). So my plan is to book one of the cheap hotels (I know I'm going to loose that money) and stay with my friend. But with hotel resrvation letter it says the cancellation policy as below


"Cancellations
If cancelled or modified up to 1 day before the date of arrival, no fee will be charged. If cancelled or modified later or in case of no-show, the first night will be charged."

That means If I didn't go to the hotel and informed that I'm not coming (On the check-in-Date), are they going to charge for first night only?