cancel booking and paying for it

hulagirl79

Hi
I am looking for some advice.
I booked a b and b for the end of march for 2 nights.
I emailed the owners to book and on their own website it said if cancelling with less than 72 hours deposit will be taken.
At no point in any emails did he state anything different.

So now i have emailed to cancel the booking, giving them 3 weeks notice, they have emailed back to say i have to pay 50% of the booking.

Can they do this and do i have to pay.

any help would be appriciated

tahnks

Blue264

That does not sound like a full cancellation policy.
I suspect that they would take 100% if you cancelled within 72hrs of the arrival date, but without seeing the website for myself, I am relying on what you say.

Could you state the full cancellation terms please?

hulagirl79

Hi
Thank you for your reply.
All the website says is "All reservations must be sucured with a valid credit card number.We require a minimum of 72 hrs for cancellations(in some cases more than 72hrs,you will be notified at time of reservation)

Nothing was mentioned in any of the emails sent from him which i still have.

APV1

I am the GM of an hotel and have some experience in this sort of thing. They CANNOT charge you unless they have pre-warned you in their Terms and Conditions and / or policy documents. You need to check all forms of correspondence from them - when you booked you should have received confirmation from them, stating the Cancellation Policy - what does it say on there?
First things first. Contact you card issuer and stop the charge (I think it's known as a "Chargeback" in the trade). Then contact the hotel and ask them to refund the money. You need to take a "print screen" of the cancellation page (just in case they change it) and then tell them that you will escalate the issue if it not resolved to your satisfaction.
If they are part of a chain - contact head office (usually easy to find on-line). If not, contact the local Trading Standards and ask for advice.

hulagirl79

Hi apv1
Thanks for your reply.
It is not an a chain but a family run b and b.
I have checked all correspondence with them and nowhere does it say anything about a cancellation poilcy other than what i have pposted above.
I have stopped the card anyway and up till then nothing has been taken by him.
So he will not be getting the money.
Thank you again for your help.

photome

hulagirl79 wrote: »

Hi apv1
Thanks for your reply.
It is not an a chain but a family run b and b.
I have checked all correspondence with them and nowhere does it say anything about a cancellation poilcy other than what i have pposted above.
I have stopped the card anyway and up till then nothing has been taken by him.
So he will not be getting the money.
Thank you again for your help.

It would still help if you posted the full t and c from their website, or a link to their website

hulagirl79

Hi
I dont really want to name them on this website.
But what i posted in post 3 is their full terms and conditions, there is nothing else on the website and we only corresponded in e mails.

blued

What you put in post 3 has nothing about paying 50% of the booking?

hulagirl79

What was on the website is what is in post 3, the 50% is from what he told me in the email that i had to pay, sorry if i did not make that clear.
I will edit post one.

APV1

Sounds like you've managed to stop them. It makes me mad (grrr!) that there are some unscrupulous hoteliers out there giving us all a bad name.
We're not all bad!
Hope it works out ok for you.
Just for your info and as an example, our usual cancellation policy is by 16:00 hrs the day before arrival (large group bookings have a seperate contract), although this is always at my discretion. I will almost always charge - I have a business to run - but do make exceptions (for regular guests, or sudden emergencies).
Let us know how you get on.

APV1

Any news..?