How to get a refund from a hotel in Portugal

Julesbda

We booked our summer holiday to Cascais Portugal this year and paid for a 3 week stay in advance . We live in Bermuda and all flights are cancelled off the island so we are unable to travel . We have informed the hotel of this and have asked for our money back ( cancellation policy said we could cancel up to 30 days before ) . They politely keep telling us they will give a voucher , but we would like our money back . I checked with Mastercard and they don't seem to want to help and the hotel keep refusing to give us our money back . Is there any course of action anyone can think of to help us ?   thanks so much ...

Alan_Bowen

If the hotel is open, and Portugal appears ready to open to tourists next week, and your rooms are available then the fact that you cannot travel is not their responsibility and they are not under any obligation to offer a refund, particularly if your booking was on a non-refundable basis. Do you have an insurance policy that covers the inability to travel? Credit cards will only offer a chargeback if the company is in breach of contract and unless you can establish the hotel is closed and not accepting guests, there doesn't seem to be grounds for a chargeback at all

Life__Goes__On

Julesbda said:

We booked our summer holiday to Cascais Portugal this year and paid for a 3 week stay in advance . We live in Bermuda and all flights are cancelled off the island so we are unable to travel . We have informed the hotel of this and have asked for our money back ( cancellation policy said we could cancel up to 30 days before ) . They politely keep telling us they will give a voucher , but we would like our money back . I checked with Mastercard and they don't seem to want to help and the hotel keep refusing to give us our money back . Is there any course of action anyone can think of to help us ?   thanks so much ...

Have you proof of the cancellation policy? Was it cancel for free,  or any fee?

43722

Alan_Bowen said:

If the hotel is open, and Portugal appears ready to open to tourists next week, and your rooms are available then the fact that you cannot travel is not their responsibility and they are not under any obligation to offer a refund, particularly if your booking was on a non-refundable basis. Do you have an insurance policy that covers the inability to travel? Credit cards will only offer a chargeback if the company is in breach of contract and unless you can establish the hotel is closed and not accepting guests, there doesn't seem to be grounds for a chargeback at all

Not so, according to the Opening Post.(Cancellation Policy said we could cancel up to 30 days before). I am assuming that when a cancellation request was made, this regulation was in place.

macman

But the OP hasn't defined the cancellation policy to us. It could say, 'if you cancel up to 30 days before then you pay 50%, after that, 100%'. Also, the OP hasn't given us the dates of travel, or the date cancellation was requested. So more info needed.
But it sounds as if the hotel are able to refund under their cancellation policy, but are playing the usual game of ignoring refund requests and offering vouchers in the hope that the refund request will go away.

Julesbda

Alan_Bowen said:

If the hotel is open, and Portugal appears ready to open to tourists next week, and your rooms are available then the fact that you cannot travel is not their responsibility and they are not under any obligation to offer a refund, particularly if your booking was on a non-refundable basis. Do you have an insurance policy that covers the inability to travel? Credit cards will only offer a chargeback if the company is in breach of contract and unless you can establish the hotel is closed and not accepting guests, there doesn't seem to be grounds for a chargeback at all

They have a cancellation policy of up to 30 days - 100% refund - it still isn't 30 days yet , but they are saying times are tough etc and offer us a voucher . Legally we are within the time period to get our money back but they are brushing us off … They have 7,000 dollars of my money and won't give it back . 

Julesbda

macman said:

But the OP hasn't defined the cancellation policy to us. It could say, 'if you cancel up to 30 days before then you pay 50%, after that, 100%'. Also, the OP hasn't given us the dates of travel, or the date cancellation was requested. So more info needed.
But it sounds as if the hotel are able to refund under their cancellation policy, but are playing the usual game of ignoring refund requests and offering vouchers in the hope that the refund request will go away.

Thanks - 100% refund up to 30 days before . We are due to arrive on July 19th (but have been trying for 2 months to get our money back ) ..They only want to give us a voucher . 

Julesbda

Life__Goes__On said:

Julesbda said:

We booked our summer holiday to Cascais Portugal this year and paid for a 3 week stay in advance . We live in Bermuda and all flights are cancelled off the island so we are unable to travel . We have informed the hotel of this and have asked for our money back ( cancellation policy said we could cancel up to 30 days before ) . They politely keep telling us they will give a voucher , but we would like our money back . I checked with Mastercard and they don't seem to want to help and the hotel keep refusing to give us our money back . Is there any course of action anyone can think of to help us ?   thanks so much ...

Have you proof of the cancellation policy? Was it cancel for free,  or any fee?  

Yes we have proof of cancellation policy and it was 100% refundable . They just keep pushing us off offering a voucher which we don't want . 

Life__Goes__On

What method of payment did you use?

Alan_Bowen

Now we have some facts, if you used a UK based credit or debit card, ask for a chargeback, if the card is a US or Bermuda card then that law would apply which none of us I suspect are experts. I know there is the Fair Credit Act in the US which allows for refunds within 120 days of making payment for services that are not delivered, you would have to argue that the promise of a free cancellation was the service not delivered in this case. But you suggest Mastercard has already refused, see if there is an appeal procedure as I do not see any other way out for you. 

dgp1000

In Italy special legislation has been passed and you are only entitled to a voucher. It’s possible the Portuguese Government has done the same in order to protect their hospitality industry. After all the hotels are open and it’s not their fault you can’t get there. You may find a ‘force majeure’ clause in the booking conditions you could try.