HELP! Can a company really change the price of a holiday after a deposit is paid

morganb

I was hoping someone could help.

We booked a holiday online in January with http://www.suncampholidays.co.uk/

It was for a week long caravan holiday on a site in Italy.

For this kind of holiday some sites charge for the caravan and the number of occupants separately whilst others have a flat rate per caravan including occupants.

The holiday we booked states on the booking confirmation :

"Price incl. 4 pers and 1 car. Accommodation suitable for max. 5 pers."

We paid a deposit and received a confirmation email plus invoice confirming the booking details and outstanding balance

About 10 days ago we got a phone call from "Suncamp UK" to say that their HQ in the Netherlands had spotted an error in the pricing on the web site and for the campsite we have booked at the details should have read :

"Price excl. 4 pers and 1 car. Accommodation suitable for max. 5 pers."

And because of this error on their part we now owe them another £56 (this figure actually includes a 35% discount on the actual amount owed as a good will gesture!) for the occupants charges.

I have re-read all the paperwork provided to us and all the details on their web site and have been unable to see where it says that they can make price changes due to errors on their web site.

The pages on the site referring to Terms and Conditions I have found are :

http://www.suncampholidays.co.uk/faqs-%28frequently-asked-questions%29/campers/

http://www.suncampholidays.co.uk/general-conditions/347/

http://www.suncampholidays.co.uk/disclaimer/364/

The UK office apparently disagrees with the ruling of their HQ but can not really do much more. The Netherlands office claim that all their Dutch customers were happy to pay the outstanding balance without quibbling.

Can Suncamp really change the price of the holiday after we have made a deposit and been invoiced for the outstanding balance?

Any helpful comments appreciated...

Mobeer

Most travel companies reserve the right to change the price, though they generally set out what would happen if the price changes. This typically allows the company to put the price up and the customer to cancel without loss of deposit if the price goes up.

This sort of thing has appeared for every holiday I've taken, in either booking or confirmation forms. From the Sun Camp Holidays form, the only apparent items are disclaimers that what appears on the web site may not be correct.