hotal cancellations

kia1985

i need help please.
i recently booked three twin rooms for a hen party....through booking.com, however there's been a discrepancy and i need to cancel the rooms, and as its a whole month untill were ment to stay i figured it should be fine. ive just been to website to do so and its saying the rooms cannot be cancelled or modified and they want to charge the full price per room £162 in total, they have my card details from booking details. I cant afford this!! Do i have to pay??
please help
thanks kay

mije1983

Depends on what the hotels cancellation policy is.

Flugelhorn

sometimes when you book certain hotels through bookings.com you have the choice of being able to cancel if you need to or have a non changeable booking at a lower price. Depends what you booked really.

kia1985

oh dear,i never saw these options. So basically i have to pay?

bris

Whilst legally they are correct in saying they need paid for they are correct.

However they must mitigate their losses (the hotel that is).

To do this you would need to phone up on the day in question and find out if the hotel is fully booked, if so then they must refund the rooms as they can't be paid twice, this is called an unfair penalty.

Booking.com would still be entitled to their fee but you would get most of the money back, you may also need to make them see this by quoting the "mitigating losses" law to them and taking them to a small claims court if they still disagree.

photome

kia1985 wrote: »

oh dear,i never saw these options. So basically i have to pay?

Most likely yes, as others have said there was probably a more expensive cancellable option which is always the wise choice if booking for other people

photome

bris wrote: »

Whilst legally they are correct in saying they need paid for they are correct.

However they must mitigate their losses (the hotel that is).

To do this you would need to phone up on the day in question and find out if the hotel is fully booked, if so then they must refund the rooms as they can't be paid twice, this is called an unfair penalty.

Booking.com would still be entitled to their fee but you would get most of the money back, you may also need to make them see this by quoting the "mitigating losses" law to them and taking them to a small claims court if they still disagree.

Would that apply to a non cancellable airline ticket?

agrinnall

bris wrote: »

To do this you would need to phone up on the day in question and find out if the hotel is fully booked, if so then they must refund the rooms as they can't be paid twice, this is called an unfair penalty.

Do you know of any examples of anyone successfully doing this? Presumably to be successful you would have to advise the hotel in advance that you no longer required the room in order to give them an opportunity to resell it. If you don't do that then ringing to find out if they're full is irrelevant as they would be full because they've counted your booked room even though it won't actually be used.

I've always taken the view that if I've paid the non-cancellable price and I then can't go on that date that's just my hard luck. But if there is a way to get money back that is known to work then I might give it a try some time.

bod1467

The key would be whether it could be proved that the non-cancellable contract terms were unfair, and so breached the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations 1999.

photome

bod1467 wrote: »

The key would be whether it could be proved that the non-cancellable contract terms were unfair, and so breached the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations 1999.

Do they?

I will pay extar for a cancellable room if I think I may have to cancel otherwise I go for the (usually) cheaper option of a non refundable payment up front option.

I did ask if this also applies to a non cancellable airline ticket

yangptangkipperbang

agrinnall wrote: »

Do you know of any examples of anyone successfully doing this?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travel-advice/10662931/Thomson-case-could-spell-end-of-unfair-holiday-cancellation-charges.html

Of course each individual case will stand or fall on its own merits !