UK Apartment booking- please help!

ck66

I don't know if this might be something that anyone can help with, we are really stuck and just don't know what to do or what our rights are.

We booked an apartment in Newcastle-upon-Tyne for my best friend's hen do for 18 people. It was advertised on TripAdvisor (https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/VacationRentalReview-g186394-d2106506-Quayside_Penthouse-Newcastle_upon_Tyne_Tyne_and_Wear_England.html) but you aren't able to book through the TripAdvisor platform you have to contact them directly.

We originally had a weekend in June 2020 booked (secured by a large deposit), as it neared the date that the balance was due we were advised by the apartment owners that they would allow us to transfer our deposit to book a new date for 2021 due to Covid-19. Therefore the balance was no longer due. We discussed the new date (July 2021) with the owner and were advised it was pencilled in and secured by our deposit. The owner then said they were no longer free on that date several months later (after we had asked guests to transfer travel arrangements and our other bookings to this new date). We have tried to resolve this with them but they haven't offered us any alternative dates (although we can see on their online booking calender that no summer dates are available) and they are refusing to return our deposit because they say we 'cancelled' our original booking with them by not paying the balance. As we had discussed this with them and acted on their advice we just don't know where we stand and we will have lost well over £400 of our guest's money. 

Any advice would be much appreciated!!

eskbanker

How much of the discussion was actually evidenced in writing?

Thrugelmir

ck66 said:

 We have tried to resolve this with them but they haven't offered us any alternative dates (although we can see on their online booking calender that no summer dates are available)

You can see when the apartment is available though. There's plenty to pick from. 

ck66

We have an email from the beginning of April where they advise "I think the best thing to do would be to put forward the final balance date to 4 weeks before i.e. 8th May. If you decided not to go ahead with the final payment at that stage the booking would be considered cancelled but I would discount the £412.50 from a future booking". Then we have an email confirming the future booking was "pencilled in", followed by a later email advising this date was no longer available and no response to our subsequent emails requesting future dates.

ck66

Yes Thrugelmir we can see on the Tripadvisor online calender that there is availability earlier in the year, we are happy to book one of these weekends if this calender is up-to-date (which is wasn't previously) but we need the owner to confirm the availability/our booking. We haven't had any response to our emails so were wondering do the owners have any obligation to return our deposit if they do not offer us a new date based on our previous correspondance?

eskbanker

ck66 said:

We have an email from the beginning of April where they advise "I think the best thing to do would be to put forward the final balance date to 4 weeks before i.e. 8th May. If you decided not to go ahead with the final payment at that stage the booking would be considered cancelled but I would discount the £412.50 from a future booking". Then we have an email confirming the future booking was "pencilled in", followed by a later email advising this date was no longer available and no response to our subsequent emails requesting future dates.

That doesn't in itself indicate that you had a confirmed new booking (hence 'pencilled in', which I'd understand to mean erasable and not in permanent form) or that it was secured by the deposit you'd previously paid, the quote is just saying that there'd be a (presumably equivalent) discount offered - if you go ahead with a future booking (when available) they'll presumably still give that discount, but if you don't then it's lost, on the basis that you cancelled the first booking?

You'll obviously have more visibility of what was said in other emails but if what you quoted above is the strongest evidence to support your case then I'd have to say that it doesn't look promising....

ck66

Thank you for your response! Yes I agree Eskbanker, and I am not hopeful at all. Looking back we should have followed the formal procedure according to the owner's terms and conditions, where we would have paid the full amount outstanding when it was due. The owners would have then had to cancel our booking due to the government Coivd-19 restrictions and we would have been entitled to a full refund. Instead, we did as they advised and now we are just devastated that we are losing both the money that people have paid (and trusted us to use wisely) and we are also losing the opportunity to host the hen party there. The reason the owner wasn't able to confirm our booking (beyond 'pencilling us in') at that point was due to the government Covid-19 restrictions they still weren't open.