Hen Weekend Booking

ConfusedHen

Good morning, I hope that I have posted in the correct forum.
I am seeking your advice on a Hen Weekend booking with My Big Fat Brighton Weekend.
A booking has been made for a date next year for a hen party and the deposit has been paid. Unfortunately, and infuriatingly a number of participants have since dropped out making the venture very expensive for the remainder and the whole event is under threat of being cancelled. It has been very stressful trying to get folks to commit to start with and now this has happened. The deposit, according to the website Ts&Cs is non-refundable. That we have to accept. However we made an enquiry to see if we could transfer our booking to smaller accommodation but were firmly told no that they would not do this. I cannot find anything in the Ts&Cs that say that this cannot be done. (being a newbie, I am unable to post a link to this) . I have made a separate enquiry, through another email address to the same company as to smaller accommodation within the same dates and I now know that they do have free bookings that suit our smaller party for the dates we want. Therefore they cannot say that they are unable to accommodate us.
Are there any folks out there with experience and advice who could assist me in this concern.
Thank you

Browntoa

http://www.mybigfatbrightonweekend.co.uk/terms-and-conditions/


if someone wants to read them

ConfusedHen

Thank you Browntoa

powerful_Rogue

Have a look at this article on deposits

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/42873192#Comment_42873192

ConfusedHen

Thank you powerful_rogue.
I am less bothered about reclaiming the deposit, as we still want to book some accommodation, I am more concerned as to whether I can insist that I have a right to transfer my deposit to another booking when it is clear that they do not have the excuse of no accommodation availability.

ConfusedHen

Just to clarify, the booking is not until April 2017 and the remainder of payment not due until February.
Thanks

ConfusedHen

I have drafted an email thus:
"Good afternoon,
I am writing to you on behalf of my friend Mrs ***** regarding the booking (copied) below.
Due to unforeseen circumstances two members of our party have cancelled which makes it difficult financially for the remainder to afford the payment between us. Mrs ***** telephoned you to request if it was possible to transfer our deposit to a smaller property but was told that this could not be done.
I am writing to you to ask you to reconsider this request. I have scrutinised the terms and conditions on your website and cannot find anything which states that deposits cannot be transferred to a different booking. I do acknowledge that a small admin fee can be levied to changes.
I am aware, through making a separate booking enquiry that you have several smaller properties available for the period of our current booking, such as ***** Apartment and ***** House and I am retaining the email as evidence.
I do not see it as unreasonable for you to accept this request. I am sure that it would be preferable to losing potential additional income should we decide to cancel our booking altogether. I am sure that you also pride yourselves on providing good customer service and would not want to generate bad publicity which I would not hesitate to engage should we not be able to reach a mutually satisfactory compromise.
With regards to the deposit itself, if you are not prepared to meet our requests then I shall proceed with seeking legal advice in order to recoup this also as it is my understanding that is my right according to the OFT guidance on Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts (1999) to challenge full retention of the deposit paid on the grounds that this can be considered an unfair penalty.
I look forward to your response."

LilElvis

The problem you have is not the availability of smaller accommodation but that you contracted for larger , more costly, accommodation. Your party "downsizing" will see them out of pocket unless they can resell the larger place.

And your unlikely to get what you want by threatening them with bad publicity - most of which they can reasonably ask to be removed as it is your party seeking to breach the contract.

New_Me

Presumably they will have paid some of your deposit to the owner of the accomodation, so it won't be available to be transferred to the smaller accomodation.

ConfusedHen

Thank you.
Well I can but try.

powerful_Rogue

ConfusedHen wrote: »

Thank you.
Well I can but try.

Wait for someone like Unholyangel to have a look before you fire off any letters.

A letter quoting incorrect legislation or incorrect rights will get you no-where and they won't take you seriously after that.