UK Hotel has closed - can I get a refund?

Fallacy_1

I booked a UK stay via country hotel breaks and was told a couple of days ago directly by the hotel that it has chosen to close its doors for at least a month because of Coronavirus. 

After emailing the booking agent to get a refund, Country hotel breaks have now come back to me today to offer a voucher or postponement of the holiday valid till December 2020. I don’t want to accept this offer as we don’t know how long this is going to last. When I asked for a refund, they advised that they will have to talk to their Directors about this. 

Legally, does anyone know where we stand on this? If the hotel has itself decided to shut its own doors, then I would have expected a full refund to be one of the options available to us. Failing that would I have to do a Section 75 claim if Country Break Hotels decline to refund?

I appreciate that the current situation is a nightmare for the travel industry and whilst I’d love to say yes to postponing our holiday, I’d much rather have the £530 back as it may get to the point where we will need it for food and bills. 

Any advice would be much appreciated. 

Alter_ego

Legally I guess it's breach of contract by them. A full refund should be forthcoming.

ComicGeek

Actually getting the money is difficult though. There's a lot of people in the same boat, as the numerous threads on this forum shows. The companies also want to keep the cash in their pockets as much as you!