Ebookers.com voucher only offer

mrrm1st

I had a hotel booked in Shrewsbury via Ebookers who emailed me to say the booking cannot go ahead as the hotel is closed. They gave me the option of cancelling my booking in exchange for a voucher to stay at the same hotel (which they heavily steered toward) or retain the booking. I did the latter as I didn’t want to be the one to cancel it, and screenshot the confirmation of my decision. They have now emailed me a voucher regardless which can only be used at that hotel which is of no use as I will not be going to Shrewsbury now. I called them this morning and they said their properties are not offering refunds, only vouchers and I made no further progress. They said that the government lockdown forced the hotel to close and my booking was non refundable so I should be grateful. 

I did previously email the hotel directly to advise I would like a refund and the general manager replied to say their finance team are furloughed and would come back to me when they are back. 

I’m not sure of the best way forward. I booked by debit card unfortunately but am bloodyminded enough to pursue it through a small claims court if necessary. I’m not clear from everything I have read what my legal rights are in the circumstances. Ebooking are not ABTA registered. 

Aylesbury_Duck

mrrm1st said:

I had a hotel booked in Shrewsbury via Ebookers who emailed me to say the booking cannot go ahead as the hotel is closed. They gave me the option of cancelling my booking in exchange for a voucher to stay at the same hotel (which they heavily steered toward) or retain the booking. I did the latter as I didn’t want to be the one to cancel it, and screenshot the confirmation of my decision. They have now emailed me a voucher regardless which can only be used at that hotel which is of no use as I will not be going to Shrewsbury now. I called them this morning and they said their properties are not offering refunds, only vouchers and I made no further progress. They said that the government lockdown forced the hotel to close and my booking was non refundable so I should be grateful. 

I did previously email the hotel directly to advise I would like a refund and the general manager replied to say their finance team are furloughed and would come back to me when they are back. 

I’m not sure of the best way forward. I booked by debit card unfortunately but am bloodyminded enough to pursue it through a small claims court if necessary. I’m not clear from everything I have read what my legal rights are in the circumstances. Ebooking are not ABTA registered. 

There's your answer.  You are entitled to a refund but will have to wait for it.  Small claims action will take many months from the point courts are open again, which could be months from now.

discodancing

Hello, I have received an offer of a voucher for the hotel to use within the next 12 months. It is in San Francisco, I live in UK. Original booking date was 24/5-27/5. It was a non refundable rate that I booked. I booked on Ebookers using Klarna split payment over 3 months. Do I have any other option than to accept the voucher? I would've preferred a refund. I am not sure if Klarna would offer any protection?

clivep

discodancing said:

Hello, I have received an offer of a voucher for the hotel to use within the next 12 months. It is in San Francisco, I live in UK. Original booking date was 24/5-27/5. It was a non refundable rate that I booked. I booked on Ebookers using Klarna split payment over 3 months. Do I have any other option than to accept the voucher? I would've preferred a refund. I am not sure if Klarna would offer any protection?

I received a text from ebookers earlier today with a link to cancel my non-refunable rate room for 2nd May.

I'd already received an email from the hotel advising that it was closed and I could have a full refund but that it had to be done through ebookers.

The link in the ebookers text message only gave an option for a voucher so I did not proceed with that.

I've not had any email from ebookers about the booking but looking on their site they have now updated their Covid-19 FAQ to cover hotel reservations up to 31st May... https://www.ebookers.com/service/#/myTrips/25710

"If your hotel stay begins more than 24 hours from now, you can cancel your upcoming hotel stay at no penalty if it is scheduled to begin on or before 31 May 2020, and was booked on or prior to 19 March 2020. You will be eligible for a full refund or, in some cases, a voucher allowing you to rebook the original property at later dates".

It didn't allow cancelling in My Trips so I filled in the Cancel Request Form. There's no option to select refund or voucher but as the hotel has said I can have a refund then that's what I'll be insisting on.