Please help dont know how to proceed

moomi

Hi everyone- can you please offer me advice? I booked a 5 bed villa for 12 of us for portugal last year & paid 50% deposit (almost £1800). Have been chasing the owner by email on a couple of things & finally got an email last night saying they have moved us into a 4 bed villa that sleeps 9 as the property owner has sold the villa!!!! I could cry! I emailed back straight away saying this is completely unsuitable- we are a group of 3 x couples, 2 girls sharing & a family of 4 sharing so not going to fit us in to 4 bedrooms very easily! I also asked how to get back our deposit. I booked through h*l*day le**ings (just in case I cant mention) and just dont know what to do first. Any suggestions please?

richardw

Have they refused to pay back your deposit?

moomi

not yet- it turns out that the person we have dealt with for all the bookings etc is doing it on behalf of the owner. I have emailed saying that the other proprty is unsuitable so can we have our money back- she then emailed me to say will pass request to owner so I'm just waiting to hear further.

richardw

Well wait for the reply. Did you pay the deposit by card?

isplumm

moomi wrote: »

not yet- it turns out that the person we have dealt with for all the bookings etc is doing it on behalf of the owner. I have emailed saying that the other proprty is unsuitable so can we have our money back- she then emailed me to say will pass request to owner so I'm just waiting to hear further.

My question is - where is this person you booked through? UK / US?

If UK, then I would say you on firmer ground ..... I would wait till they come & see what they say - do you have any t&cs???

Mark

moomi

paid by bank transfer. no terms & conditions. Do you think its possibly recoverable under my annual travel insurance? thats my next step- to ring & see what they say if they cover or not.

melb

that's just unbelievable! they take your money and then when they are unable to fulfil their side of the agreement they decide to just give the business to one of their mates. No matter that the new villa isn't actually big enough to accommodate the party that booked the original one. you should not have any argument about them refunding your deposit - I think it's a damn cheek they held onto it and decided to pass it on to a third party whithout your consent. I thought with holidaylettings you booked direct with individual owners?

moomi

I know- i got an email back saying she understood i was upset (Upset!! thats not how id put it!!) and that she's asked the owner to conisder repaying the deposit. I then emailed her to say i also want the cost of the fee I had to pay (£25) for making the payment in 1st place! They are based in Portugal.

moomi

thank you cityboy- no, they are based in portugal for sure. I will email again in morning to see if getting anywhere then use your suggestions thank you,

littlereddevil

What a shame. That's a terrible thing to happen.