Urgent Help Needed - Travelodge.

Quentin

pcyuljr wrote: »

You appear to be of the opinion that Travelodge are in the right here.

You first of all need to accept that they are in the right (legally - they make it plain throughout that the type of booking you made cannot be refunded if you cancel it, they also put it in he ts + cs which you agreed to)


So accept you don't have a legal leg to stand on, and try and get them to make you a goodwill gesture - it's your only hope!

Your OP asked for advice, so don't shoot the messengers for giving you advice you don't like!

nickyhutch

pcyuljr wrote: »

As a decent person, I am just struggling to understand why they would actively want to prevent me having the room, when I have fully explained situation.

It was a mistake that can be remedied at no cost or loss to either party. You appear to be of the opinion that Travelodge are in the right here.

Because if they don't let you have it, they can resell it and be £75 in pocket - it's that simple. You'd hope they would see your side and let you have it back, but they don't have to. If they do remedy it by letting you have it, they miss out on the extra £75 they will likely get from someone else (or you, if you choose to rebook).

You made a mistake - a costly one - but you'll have to suck it up.

2010

Instead of wasting time on here why don`t you do as has been suggested in post #2.
Send a grovelling email to the CEO and see what happens.
Just point out the facts and the mistake on your part.

If you get no joy, then, lesson learned.
It was afterall your mistake, not theirs.
Also, let your fellow posters know the outcome.

p00hsticks

pcyuljr wrote: »

We turn up at the hotel on Thursday and play dumb when they say it is cancelled. I am still staying the further 2 nights and have turned up for what they say is a room cancelled. They have no reason to think I would cancel an unrefundable room then turn up, so hopefully will grant our room believing it to be an error on their side

Does the booking still show up on the website, but as cancelled ?
The hotel reception may not be able to see any trace of your booking at all as the cancellation may have effectively obliterated it.

If I were you and you really need to stay that night even if you have to pay again, I'd make another booking now, and try to a refund as a separate issue (although I'm afraid I don't hold out much hope for you).

pcyuljr

Quentin wrote: »

You first of all need to accept that they are in the right (legally - they make it plain throughout that the type of booking you made cannot be refunded if you cancel it, they also put it in he ts + cs which you agreed to)

I don't know how to make it any clearer, I don't want nor have ever expected a refund. I completely understand the T & C's and accept them. No where in the T&Cs does it mention about cancelling a cancellation so we are dealing with a situation out of the norm.

My whole argument is Travelodge CS are just purposely being obstructive in accomodating a customers needs, firstly hiding behind T&Cs which don't technically cover the situation and then just say 'ave it. Don't forget I am still a customer as am staying the two further nights either way (as one is a saver room! haha).

I do appreciate everybodys feedback though, every post is food for thought.

However to play Devils advocate please consider this hypothetical scenario;

Example: Travelodge make a refund to me which I am due for a flexible room. Instead of being the £5 I am due, they send through £5,000 by accident. Do I just say I am due a refund by their T&C's refund policy, you're fault you made the mistake, I'm keeping the money? Could I do this as they made a mistake? Or would I not only morally, but legally be required to repay them, despite me being entitled to a refund and them making the mistake in the amount? Would it not be theft if they refunded me money and I refused to repay despite it being due to their mistake?

Well in this case, I made the mistake, they have got the money and are refusing to provide the service.

Again, this is just to play devils advocate, but as most posters appear to be with travelodge in my situation, I thought I would gauge peoples opinions.

Thanks.

pcyuljr

susancs wrote: »

I personally think the way to go may be to email the CEO asking that as a goodwill gesture on this occassion they re-instate your orginal booking. If the site did not give you warnings that you were about to cancel than I would mention that the safeguards for warnings were not there as you would have expected. I would also point out that you did try to contact TL straight away to deal with the situation. If you feel it appropriate you state that you are willing to pay the £5 admin fee they seem to charge to amend a bookings as the error was on your part.

[EMAIL="guy.parsons@travelodge.co.uk"]guy.parsons@travelodge.co.uk[/EMAIL] seems to be the CEO according to this MSE forum post by hansi.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/42969520#Comment_42969520

Good luck.

My e-mail has been sent so fingers crossed. Many thanks for this advice. I'll let you know how it goes. Here's hoping Mr Parsons has had a happy weekend and is in a good mood on Monday am!

susancs

In regard to your devils advocate example TL would legally be able to reclaim any overpayment as looking at TL terms and conditions for a flexible room cancellation, clause 12 states "We will refund you the money you have paid (including for any Extras except WIFI or SMS confirmation texts)". If TL accidently refunded you as per your example more than the money you paid, they would legally under the contract you accepted when making the booking, be able to reclaim anything over the amount you paid, as it states "we will refund the money you have paid".

I don't know how the TL online system works, but just to play devils advocate, it may be that when you cancelled your booking, the reserved room was released back for booking straight away, especially as London hotel budget rooms will be popular for the days each side of the bank holiday, so it may not be a case of simply re-instating your orginal booking. They may well have to refund your money (as the T&C does not allow saver room refunds there may be inbuilt safeguards in place to prevent anyone but the most senior staff authorising/doing this) and then rebook a new room for you. Whilst I do not know if this is the way their system works, if this was the case you would obviously appreciate that this involves extra staff time and work for a high demand London hotel room that could possibly be sold at a higher price now, plus would technically involve a refund. With respect, to your statment that your situation is "out of the norm", we do not know that to be the case. For all we know they could have had a number of people cancelling non refundable saver rooms, changing their minds quickly or even days later and ringing up to get it re-instated for the orginal booking date/rate or another date. They offer flexible higher rate rooms that allow you to cancel bookings, get a refund and rebook rooms if the customer wants to, so they may point to the fact that their site offered this option.

I really do appreciate that you made a simple mistake but I think your best option is to ask for a goodwill gesture on their part via the CEO or customer services . It is not a question in my case of being with the TL in this situation, it is just as you rightly state, your contract with them does not include a clause allowing you to cancel and then reinstate the booking, so I feel you would be wasting your time arguing with TL that this should have been included.

susancs

pcyuljr wrote: »

My e-mail has been sent so fingers crossed. Many thanks for this advice. I'll let you know how it goes. Here's hoping Mr Parsons has had a happy weekend and is in a good mood on Monday am!

Good luck. I hope you get that goodwill gesture.

pcyuljr

susancs wrote: »

In regard to your devils advocate example TL would legally be able to reclaim any overpayment as looking at TL terms and conditions for a flexible room cancellation, clause 12 states "We will refund you the money you have paid (including for any Extras except WIFI or SMS confirmation texts)". If TL accidently refunded you as per your example more than the money you paid, they would legally under the contract you accepted when making the booking, be able to reclaim anything over the amount you paid, as it states "we will refund the money you have paid".

Technically the statement "We will refund you the money you have paid" does not limit them to that amount, it merely sets a minimum they have to refund. In my scenario above, by refunding £5000, they have "refunded the money I have paid" just with an extra £4995 on top as a mistake. The implication may be they would only pay back £5, but the whole point of a contract and contract law is to cross every 't' and dot every 'i' to prevent the necessity of assumptions and implications.

And you are right, they may have this situation daily and thus it may not be 'out of the norm', but as we are discussing T&C's I can see no mention of cancelling a cancellation (from my admittedly skim reading) and thus it is out of the realm of the T&C's so 'out of the norm' in this sense.

Please note, to anyone joining the topic at this point, I HAVE MADE THE ERROR. I ACCEPT THIS. I have made no mention of this topic in my goodwill letter to the CEO, nor do I plan to as realise it will be a futile argument. It is not meant as a defence to getting my room back, I am merely working through the scenario with Susan for general discussion, conversation and info.

I might start adding notes to items I pay for with my own T&C's stating if they take payment, they agree to them and are bound to them as much as I am to theirs. Wonder how I would get on....

Quentin

pcyuljr wrote: »

I don't know how to make it any clearer, I don't want nor have ever expected a refund. I completely understand the T & C's and accept them. No where in the T&Cs does it mention about cancelling a cancellation so we are dealing with a situation out of the norm.

You cannot expect anything under the ts + cs as already has been posted.

You cancelled the room. Now you want to "uncancel" it, but there is no right for you to get this!

As previously advised, concentrate on asking for their goodwill, not trying to make out they need to rewrite their ts + cs to accomodate a situation like this.

(And how did you cancel the room "in error"? As pointed out, you have to go through a number of clicks to actually cancel a room, the last one being a click on the button marked "cancel booking"?)