HolidayCottages.co.uk

plunkettg

We booked our holiday back in January before the pandemic started. It is for a group booking for 11 with 4 different households going to Scotland. Although some restrictions have been relaxed and the cottage is available we cannot go because of government restrictions. Holiday Cottages are refusing to give us our deposit back unless they can rebook the cottage back out to someone else. I have asked if they could refuse the cost so some of the party could go or move us to a smaller property. They have refused on both counts. We have cancelled the holiday not because we wanted to but because of government restrictions not allowing us. This is hopefully to give Holiday Cottages time to rebook it out. I have checked on there website daily and it’s still showing fully booked for August. Our holiday was for a week starting August 14 
Help

plunkettg

Reduce the cost not refuse the cost lol

sgun

You might be better off going down the unfair terms in the contract route - Holiday Cottages terms and conditions state that the deposit of 1/3rd the cost of the booking is non-refundable. There are two issues here. One is that 1/3rd of the cost of the holiday is unreasonably high and the other being that they make no allowance in the written terms for issuing a refund if the property is re-let. These both constitute unfair terms under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. You could try pointing this out to them. They have a legal responsibility to mitigate their losses too so they need to show that the property isd available for bookings if it actually is. (I think that's what you mean - or has it been re-let, in which case you are due your deposit back minus admin fees?)