Wedding cancelled abroad

sophradford

Hello, 
So I booked a package holiday, flights, hotel and car for a wedding due to take place in Italy in August. I paid the deposit and then I had to pay off the holiday by a certain date in July. The wedding has been cancelled due to Coronavirus and moved to next year. Therefore I had to cancel the holiday, I wasn't offered vouchers or to move it to next year, they gave me no option other than to pay off the holiday and go or to cancel and pay the cancellation fee. All in all I have paid just over £400 for a holiday in which I am not going on. I understand I would loose the deposit money, but do not think its right I have to pay a cancellation fee when the event I was going to was cancelled and they didn't give me the option to reschedule the holiday or to have vouchers. Is there anything I can do to get any money back at all? Thanks in advance! 

bradders1983

With all due respect the wedding being cancelled is of no concern to the package holiday company and you are bound by their usual terms.

eskbanker

sophradford said:

I understand I would loose the deposit money, but do not think its right I have to pay a cancellation fee

You agreed to the Ts & Cs when booking, which will have included a definition of cancellation fees - as above, the reason for your cancellation is of no interest or relevance to the provider, so you need to check the Ts & Cs to establish exactly what fee you're due to pay, which is often more than the original deposit, especially closer to departure date.

There is a long shot option open to you, i.e. to take the provider to court, asserting that their contract terms are unfair, on the basis of the fees not representing a genuine pre-estimate of actual losses, but don't hold out a huge amount of hope given the lack of publicity of any such cases beyond this one:

https://yourholidayclaims.co.uk/will-the-recent-small-claims-court-ruling-affect-the-cost-of-cancelling-a-holiday/