Hotel Booking and Section 75

lstevo13

Hi. Recently had problems with a hotel I booked on booking.com and was wondering if someone could advise if its worth doing a Section 75.

The room was in Spain booked via booking.com in euros using my UK credit card, the total booking was 233 euros. I understand that the payment was processed by the hotel. It was advertised as a private single room with a private bathroom.

I arrived and checked in and was taken to my room, and found that A. it had two beds in it and B. there was no private bathroom.

I immediately queried this with the hotel and was advised that while the other bed wasn't booked, if someone did in the few days i was there i would be sharing and that this hotel has no private bathrooms. I showed the advertising on booking.com and they said that it was a mistake and there was nothing they could do, but did say they would not book out the other bed in the room so it was in effect private.

I debated leaving, but decided to stay on the basis that it was late and I didn't really have the money to spend on another hotel seeing as they weren't prepared to refund or partial refund. So I made do with the shared bathroom and they did honour there promise on not booking the other bed.

I have tried talking to booking.com but have basically been put back in touch with the hotel directly, and they are not responding. I would be happy with a partial refund to bring the price inline with other hotels with shared bathrooms but it seems this isn't going to happen.

I have got photos showing the room and lack of a private bathroom. Is it worth submitting a section 75 claim, or is it likely to be refused?

DCFC79

Why not submit 1, it wont cost you anything except your time.

born_again

If the debt on your card is from the Hotel. Then Yes. If it's from Booking.com then as a 3rd party taken the payment then it not going to be taken on. Card provider might look at chargeback rights 1st for not as described.
If it was taken via booking.com. I would still contact card provider as there could be a possible chargeback right.

2e0arr

so your supplier on the statement is the hotel ? if so they are jointly liable with your credit card company i think so make your complaint to the credit card company f they don't cough up take them to the financial ombudsman win or lose an ajudication at the FO will cost them approx £550 case fee.

Terry_Towelling

It's normally the case that the T&Cs that accompany a booking through booking.com state that you are contracting with the service provider and not with booking.com.  They also usually state that the service providers are responsible for the information on the website.  So, check the T&Cs first, and, if what I've said applies, you might just have the right sort of debtor-creditor-supplier contract to have S75 coverage (in principle).  You then just need to demonstrate a breach of contract and to quantify your losses.

None of this means you will get a sympathetic hearing from your card company, and the amount of any loss you believe you have suffered may be small and therefore not really worth expending the energy fighting.

PS This is all just my personal opinion and does not constitute legal advice.

2e0arr

dont forget claiming for consequential loss.

lstevo13

Sorry for the delay in response. Thank for for all your replies, thought i'd answer a couple of questions and advise where i am with this.

2e0arr said:

so your supplier on the statement is the hotel ?

Yes, No payment was taken by booking.com at the time of booking. The payment was taken on the day i arrived and shows on my credit card statement as the company which runs the hotel.

2e0arr said:

dont forget claiming for consequential loss.

I've now looked this up, unfortunately I was unaware this was covered at the time so I ultimately decided to stay in the room as they weren't offering me a refund, the available alternative hotels at short notice were expensive and I couldn't afford to pay for another hotel and risk not getting the money back from this booking.  So seeing as I didn't actually incur any extra cost, i don't think i can take advantage of this.

I have decided to make a claim with through my credit card, as was pointed out i don't really have anything to loose. But I have decided to wait a little as I realised that when i checked in, they also took a 100 euro refundable deposit. I have had an automatic looking email from the hotel saying that everything was in order when I left and it'll be refunded in the next 2 weeks. I'm going to wait for that deposit to be refunded first, so that they can't get funny about giving it back and cause more problems when they realise that I'm trying to claim the money back.

I'll post back with the outcome in case it can help others in the future.

lstevo13

Hi All, I thought I would post back now that I have finally reached a resolution with the Credit Card company. Yes, it has taken 6 months to get sorted out (partially due to a number of letters going missing in the post due to covid, not sure if that was an excuse or not but still too long in my opinion).  This is fairly long, but i think it will be useful for anybody in a similar situation.

First off, I would advise if anyone is in a similar situation to mine when they check into a hotel, there are problems and they wont play ball either with getting you another room or a refund, I would just leave the hotel and find another one, don't stay. Write them an email/ text message so you have evidence that they didn't offer you a resolution and they knew you were leaving. As mentioned by 2e0arr above, you should be able to claim for consequential loss meaning you shouldn't end up out of pocket booking the other hotel. Based on this experience i think a claim would have been much easier under these circumstances. I didn't do this as I couldn't find another hotel at short notice for a similar price, I was on a budget and couldn't really afford to pay out for another hotel without a guarantee that I would get my money back.

So here's what happened, I contacted my credit card who were very good to start with, they temporarily credited it back to my card immediately and sent me some paperwork to fill in to get the claim rolling. I sent that back with all my evidence (photos, screen shots of messages etc). A couple of months later, i get a letter saying that the merchant had successfully challenged the claim and i would be charged the full amount. I got on the phone to find out what was going on, they hadn't sent any details of a challenge and i reminded them that they are jointly responsible under Section 75. They said that they had only done a chargeback and not a section 75 claim and that letter regarding the challenge had gone missing in the post and they would resend it and i would get a further week to respond if i wish to, i advised them that i want and expect the Section 75 rules to be followed by them. Basically the hotel had responded saying they wouldn't refund as i stayed for the whole booking, they acknowledged that they had made a mistake and it indeed wasn't as described, but they quoted a single sentence out of my complaint email to them which out of context made it sound like i was happy with my room.

I responded setting the record straight about quoting me out of context and pointing out they admitted in their reply that their mistake meant they couldn't provide me with the service i had booked. Several months past, i heard nothing and nothing was charged to my card so i assumed it was all sorted. Then a month or so ago (about 3 months after my last communication with them), i noticed it had been charged on my card again. I phoned and yet again they advised that they had sent me a letter but had got lost in the post, and that the hotel had refused to refund so i had to pay. I said this wasn't good enough and I again informed them i was aware of their responsibility under section 75 and that i told them about this the last time we spoke. After a talking to a few different agents on the phone who kept advising it wasn't worth pursuing as i wouldn't win as they had provided a service, and me reminding them the difference between 'a service' and 'the service that was advertised and i booked', they finally agreed to forward the claim to their section 75 specialist.

A week or so later the sent me a settlement letter offering 50% reimbursement, I thought this was fair (I would have accepted that as a resolution from the hotel at the time) so i signed the acceptance form and sent it back. A month on and the settlement still hadn't been applied to my card. You guessed it, they claimed that my reply to them has got lost in the post. They've now asked me to refill the form and send it back by email, and it should be resolved this week. Fingers crossed that does happen.

Still not convinced all that all those letters went missing, seems too much of a coincidence. Anyway, its took a long time to get here but at least it looks like i will be getting some compensation for my efforts.

[Deleted User]

I'm just curious what hotel (not hostel) offers hotel rooms where you might be staying with a stranger?

lstevo13

camelot1971 said:

I'm just curious what hotel (not hostel) offers hotel rooms where you might be staying with a stranger?

Fair question. I would describe it as a student residence, which was fine for me as I was actually there doing a Spanish course. Most of the people staying there were there for several months, but i gather that they sell out the rooms by the day on booking.com to fill the gaps between their longer term bookings. I wouldn't really describe it as hostel or a hotel, there were only rooms for 1 person or 2 sharing. If I remember correctly they marketed themselves on booking,com as a bed and breakfast and they had a full board option if you wanted it, but that's not really my thing. But in truth, it wasn't really like a place i'd stayed before, i had to collect the keys from a separate office away from the actual accommodation which was unmanned apart from a cleaner during the day and cook at meal times. Non of this was mentioned in the listing, but i would have been OK with it if I got a room with the facilities I booked.