Beware of low cost deposits!

allensoflongcot

We recently booked a holiday with Cottages 4 You. They had a deal on that let you book with a deposit of only £25. As we weren't sure if we'd be able to go or not we thought this would be great for us as all we would lose would be the £25. As it turns out we have had to cancel (with 88 days notice). When we informed the company that we were cancelling they landed us with a bill for £390 which is apparently the normal deposit price. On the site that we used to book the holiday there was no mention of this, nothing to flag it up. You had to click on a separate link hidden amongst all the other details to find out this rather important information. If we had any idea at all that this was the case we would never have booked the holiday as we knew it was questionable whether we could go or not. They must be making a fortune out of people on this basis. Has anyone else had this experience and if so, what was the outcome? Thanks.:(

Caz3121

Probably best on the Praise and Vents board as this is the overseas holidays board for reporting bargains
Your paperwork should have detailed what the "normal" deposit was. Same with all low deposit bookings...cancel and the rest of the of the deposit is due

Section 4 of the T&Cs
https://www.cottages4you.co.uk/legal/booking-conditions

If you book a property with either no deposit or one which is lower than usual, you also agree to pay the difference between the amount paid and the usual deposit, plus any booking fee, ferry or Eurotunnel charges and any travel insurance premiums due, either at the time the balance of your booking is due or, if you cancel, at the time you cancel the booking.

Voyager2002

Many people have had that experience with a "low deposit" when booking a holiday in a travel agent. Your only hope is that the conditions were not explained to you at the time of booking. It is probable that if it came to court you would win, but up to you whether it is worth that much hassle. Having said that, the fact that you have posted in the wrong section of the forum (and it is clearly signposted) does suggest that you might not be good at noticing things that are in fact made clear to you.

The sensible solution would be to negotiate with the company and see if they would allow a date change for a reasonable fee.

pogofish

allensoflongcot wrote: »

We recently booked a holiday with Cottages 4 You. They had a deal on that let you book with a deposit of only £25. As we weren't sure if we'd be able to go or not we thought this would be great for us as all we would lose would be the £25. As it turns out we have had to cancel (with 88 days notice). When we informed the company that we were cancelling they landed us with a bill for £390 which is apparently the normal deposit price. On the site that we used to book the holiday there was no mention of this, nothing to flag it up. You had to click on a separate link hidden amongst all the other details to find out this rather important information. If we had any idea at all that this was the case we would never have booked the holiday as we knew it was questionable whether we could go or not. They must be making a fortune out of people on this basis. Has anyone else had this experience and if so, what was the outcome? Thanks.:(

So why are you trying to tell us that this is some kind of bargain?

allensoflongcot

Apologies if I've posted this in the wrong section but I did want to make people aware of this who might be looking for bargain holidays. I will redirect it now to the right section. New to the site so apologies once again.