Will VAT cut be passed on to booked Holiday in UK

bigred23

I booked a holiday 3 weeks ago with to go to the isle of wight and only paid the deposit.

The prices have come down on the website by £40 due to VAT cut. Does that mean they will pass the VAT cut onto me or will it be the existing price as it was the VAT of when I agreed the contract?

mrcow

If there had been a VAT increase, would you expect to pay more?

bigred23

I don't know. People can be asked to pay more (up to 10% I beleive) and have done when the price of fuel went up. I remember reading it here:
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/consumer/travel/article.html?in_article_id=443047&in_page_id=1093

mrcow

When I called Portland on Friday to ask if they were passing on the VAT cut, they told me that the price you pay is set for the holiday. I booked my holiday later that evening as I didn't think they were going to pass on the cut (and sure enough they haven't - the price has actually subsequently increased).

As you've already agreed a price for the holiday then perhaps even more so. I wouldn't expect a holiday company to pass on any subsequent price drops (but neither would I expect them to pass on increases).

I guess the only thing you can do is to contact the travel company and ask the question. Let us know what they say?

Off topic......but did you really pay £1600 to go to the Isle of Wight? :eek: I personally would have just waited until the Sun offer came round for £9.50 per person and £38 ferry or just paid for a ferry and stayed at the Wight Mouse Inn (which is my favourite pub and I can thoroughly recommend it for lunch/dinner if you're on the west coast one day).

bigred23

No we didn't pay £1600 but will be paying £1345 and now it is on £1310 (Sorry not £40 it's £35 cheaper). It is for 5 of us going for a top of the range lodge. We had some gift vouchers to reduce the cost but been a MSE geek I just wondered if i would get a half a tank of petrol to get us there.

mrcow

bigred23 wrote: »

No we didn't pay £1600 but will be paying £1345 and now it is on £1310 (Sorry not £40 it's £35 cheaper). It is for 5 of us going for a top of the range lodge. We had some gift vouchers to reduce the cost but been a MSE geek I just wondered if i would get a half a tank of petrol to get us there.

As a fellow MSE geek I'd call them anyway....you can never be too cheeky when it comes to money

dzug1

Depends on when the invoice was issued (not paid). If it was issued for the full amount at the time of booking, you'll have to pay the rate then. If they issue a settlement invoice just before the balance is due, it should be at the new rate

bclark

mrcow wrote: »

If there had been a VAT increase, would you expect to pay more?

As someone who got a letter the other day asking me to pay £292 for my flight to Australia because of fuel supplements then the answer would be yes I would be expected to pay more so in return I would hope to pay less if things drop.