Refund for meal paid upfront

steampowered

Can't you ask the hotel to switch to a different date when more of you can make it?

stuartJo1989

steampowered wrote: »

Can't you ask the hotel to switch to a different date when more of you can make it?

Good idea in principle, but I imagine that they would be fully booked up now during the Christmas period.

Ganga

If you have to pay for 30 people and say only 15 people can attend and you cannot twist anybody,s arm into turning up demand two meals each,that way you get what you have paid for and the hotel is not pocketing the difference.

PasturesNew

Rule 1: Never get sucked into organising anything involving other people having to make decisions and make payments. It ALWAYS progresses with arguments and ends in tears.

If you ever hear anybody discussing organising anything, keep your head down/disappear until somebody else has got the monkey on their back.

pinkshoes

Give everyone a free Christmas meal to keep your staff happy!

SouthUKMan

Proving this is anything other than a business booking is going to be tough. Therefore unless the hotel is willing to compromise (which by the sound of it they're not), I think that you will need to find a creative way to mitigate your loss. The starting point is accepting that at the moment you are £600 down.

1) It strikes me that £43 per person is quite steep for some. Could it be that it's the price that is putting some people off? So instead of 15 people paying £43 (£645 in total), why don't you say to staff "if we can get a minimum of 25 people, then the cost will be only £35 per head" (£875 in total). It would mean the company is subsidising the meal - but you'll instead lose £400 and not £600. Or if you manage to get 30 people paying £35, then that means the workers will be paying a total of £1,050 - and you'll be losing closer to £200. Dress it up so that you make it sound like it's a gift to the workforce.

2) Or why not bribe the workforce by offering a prize competition / random draw. For example, a £200 spa weekend for two. Again, make it clear that the prize will only apply if you manage to fill all 30 places at £43 per head. By investing in a £200 incentive, you will actually be saving £400 of your original £600 loss. Or maybe have three prizes valued at £125, £50 & £25. If people think there are decent odds (which there are with 30 people!) then you might find those dinner places go quick.

Adjust all of my suggested figures to suit. But I really do think you can mitigate your losses to a large extent and be seen to be giving something back to the workforce. A final thought, I work in a very middle class office / creative environment where most people are on okay money... but I know for a fact that if someone in my workplace suggested charging £43 per head, then most colleagues would say "forget it" and "how about a couple of drinks and a curry instead".

MobileSaver

SouthUKMan wrote: »

instead of 15 people paying £43 (£645 in total), why don't you say to staff "if we can get a minimum of 25 people, then the cost will be only £35 per head" (

Huh?!? Do some companies make the staff pay for the company Christmas party? Surely the company pays for the meals and table drinks even if staff are expected to buy their own extra drinks at the bar?

DoaM

MobileSaver wrote: »

Huh?!? Do some companies make the staff pay for the company Christmas party? Surely the company pays for the meals and table drinks even if staff are expected to buy their own extra drinks at the bar?

Are you living in The Matrix?

Here in the Real World companies vary wildly in how they treat Christmas parties. Where I work we all pay a deposit (e.g. £10) and then the company pays the balance for the table booking (food only). Drinks we have to cover ourselves (although we have an unofficial agreement in place where drinks with the meal get added to the total bill and then a few of us cover it on expenses).

Our scenario is probably reasonably common ... I'd guess having a company cover the cost of the whole thing won't be at all common (except perhaps in financial services, stock brokering etc. "industries").

MobileSaver

templehead wrote: »

deposits are non refundable but we did not pay a deposit it was the full amount! Do we have any rights at all in obtaining a refund?

Sorry OP but you did pay a deposit, albeit a 100% deposit, so no mileage there whatsoever.

As Bris stated, you should be able to obtain a partial refund for the food and drink not needed but that is all the hotel is legally obliged to do. However morally I would expect an ethical and honest hotel to come to some sort of compromise such as £400 worth of free bar tab/drinks rather than them just pocketing the £600 cash for nothing.

If they point blank refuse then there is nothing to stop you posting a completely factual summary of the situation on Facebook, writing to the local paper's Consumer Advice column etc. and possibly the poor publicity may bring them round to reviewing their decision?

DoaM wrote: »

Here in the Real World companies vary wildly in how they treat Christmas parties. Where I work we all pay a deposit (e.g. £10) and then the company pays the balance for the table booking (food only).

Wow, clearly I was far too generous with my retail business employees! We used to take them and their partners into London or one of the other EU capitals, pay for travel and overnight accommodation and then pay for everything eaten and drunk at the table... the only thing they paid for was if they wanted to get wrecked at a bar afterwards!

Manxman_in_exile

MobileSaver wrote: »

Wow, clearly I was far too generous with my retail business employees! We used to take them (and their partners, so 60+ people) into London or one of the other EU capitals, pay for travel and overnight accommodation and then pay for everything eaten and drunk at the table... the only thing they paid for was if they wanted to get wrecked at a bar afterwards!

In the NHS trusts I worked for, the Christmas meals (which I never attended) were funded 100% by the staff themselves. Ditto with my wife's local authority employer.


In fact I've misunderstood the OP all along as I don't think it ever crossed my mind that the employer would be paying for anything without recovering it from staff! I even think I assumed the "organiser"(?) had paid in advance from their own card.