Holiday Cottage cancelled. No refund or alternative datea given

RichardTwigger

We booked for a large family gathering this coming weekend. This was booked in Oct 2019 for 22 of us and hasnt happened before in last 10 years. However we are not able to travel due to it being non essential, social distancing etc. The large cottage is refusing to close although I'm sure guidelines say they should. They will not allow a refund (over £1,700 paid). They also wont allow us to rebook at a later stage. They are therefore keeping all of the £1.700 and not providing anything. I'm guessing the £1,700 includes cleaning costs and facilities so they are actually making money. During there is something in the Consumer Act to assist with this on top of all the Goverment advice. In addition we contacted our insurers to look to claim. There first question was how many people were going and therefore would only pay so much per person. Surely this is wrong too. We paid the whole amount through one transaction.  The numbers include children.  Each family cant claim for their individual amount as they didnt make any booking themselves. Any advice on this too would be appreciated 

Westin

I would browse this thread as there are already lots of similar situations being described and comments added.

Aylesbury_Duck

With regard to your insurer, what sort of policy did you take out?  When I take out travel insurance, I state the family members who are covered.  Did you take out insurance to cover the whole party of 22 or just your immediate family?  

japitts

Just thinking out loud, but in the same vein as a Foreign Office "do not travel" advisory tends to trigger travel insurance, is there anything similar for domestic travel? I'm not sure...

spiro

If you go to the link below at look under Accomodation you will see they should have closed. What their T&Cs say in the event the can't honour your booking you will have to check. If you paid by CC you could potentially claim back via that route. If they are still operating you could also report them to the local council.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/further-businesses-and-premises-to-close/further-businesses-and-premises-to-close-guidance