Unreasonable changes to check in/out times

epm-84

I think a holiday cottage are probably working on the basis you will arrive by car so your luggage can remain in your car boot until check-in.  It perhaps wouldn't be so reasonable for a city centre holiday to say something similar unless they offered baggage storage.

[Deleted User]

I think this whole thread is getting silly      We are only talking THREE hours delay not missed nights, days.  Not a huge problem in the grand scale of things eh?

jbunduli22

OP has left, but my advice would be to try to get in touch with property owners directly. Explain you have a young baby and ask if they could clean kitchen first and you would only use that room  alone until cleaners were finished.

When we stayed self catering recently I asked politely what wriggle room there was around arrival and departure and managed to reach a decent compromise.

sheramber

I think it was obvious the OP was looking for a reason not to go. Booking in lockdown ran the risk of things not being what they used to be.

Upsidedownandaround

JamoLew said:

Upsidedownandaround said:

That's a terrible argument. Anybody could define night by whatever they want. That is why contracts (including ones for hotels) specify the time. 5 hours could be defined as night. 

Only if it was between sunset and sunrise

I dont know why you are insisting that accommodation is booked based on number of hours occupied - it isn't (not the type I use anyway) -- It's booked on a "per night" basis which is this case is UNCHANGED
OP stated that there is no mention of check in and check out time sin the T&Cs -- so which part of the contract do you think has been broken ?
IF they had booked for 20 hours and were losing 5.5 - then yes, that might be classed as a breach/broken contract - but there is no evidence of this at all -- in fact a loss of 5.5 hours over a 7 night stay would be a ~3% loss which would not be classed as unreasonable.
Take airlines as an example - if your check in time changed by 4 hours, this is NOT classed as unreasonable and that's for a single time booked journey
You make some very valid points/arguments - but sadly imo, you are picking on the certain aspects to create/start an "argument"

You speak as if you think terms and conditions are the only part of a contract and anything not specifically mentioned in them is irrelevant. In the vast majority of contracts the material conditions of a contract i.e price, product, service, duration etc. are not in the terms and conditions. Terms and Conditions seek to clarify and avoid ambiguities. The fact that there were check in times agreed (which given the OP was aware of them suggest there was) but were not in the terms and conditions does not mean it is not part of the contract.

Your airline example is irrelevant.  If you are paying to get from X to Y then getting there a few hours later is obviously not unreasonable. Paying to stay somewhere for a period of time then being told you can't stay there for part of it arguably is. Comparing a contract of carriage to a contract for accomodation to support your post is at best disingenuous at worst very niave.

sazaccount

Upsidedownandaround said:

I agree these are unreasonable changes. Even a hostel wouldn't have check in restrictions as bad as that. It may be they feel that is necessary but its not what you pay for when you are booking for a cottage so in my view you should be entitled to a refund.

No what hostels are doing here (Not sure on others around the world) is having only 50% the number of people in dorms and switching the beds between people which you can't do in a cottage  

JamoLew

Upsidedownandaround said:

JamoLew said:

Upsidedownandaround said:

That's a terrible argument. Anybody could define night by whatever they want. That is why contracts (including ones for hotels) specify the time. 5 hours could be defined as night. 

Only if it was between sunset and sunrise

I dont know why you are insisting that accommodation is booked based on number of hours occupied - it isn't (not the type I use anyway) -- It's booked on a "per night" basis which is this case is UNCHANGED
OP stated that there is no mention of check in and check out time sin the T&Cs -- so which part of the contract do you think has been broken ?
IF they had booked for 20 hours and were losing 5.5 - then yes, that might be classed as a breach/broken contract - but there is no evidence of this at all -- in fact a loss of 5.5 hours over a 7 night stay would be a ~3% loss which would not be classed as unreasonable.
Take airlines as an example - if your check in time changed by 4 hours, this is NOT classed as unreasonable and that's for a single time booked journey
You make some very valid points/arguments - but sadly imo, you are picking on the certain aspects to create/start an "argument"

You speak as if you think terms and conditions are the only part of a contract and anything not specifically mentioned in them is irrelevant. In the vast majority of contracts the material conditions of a contract i.e price, product, service, duration etc. are not in the terms and conditions. Terms and Conditions seek to clarify and avoid ambiguities. The fact that there were check in times agreed (which given the OP was aware of them suggest there was) but were not in the terms and conditions does not mean it is not part of the contract.

Your airline example is irrelevant.  If you are paying to get from X to Y then getting there a few hours later is obviously not unreasonable. Paying to stay somewhere for a period of time then being told you can't stay there for part of it arguably is. Comparing a contract of carriage to a contract for accomodation to support your post is at best disingenuous at worst very niave.

You are still ignoring that most holiday accommodation is booked on a per night basis
OP booked for X nights
OP would still have gotten X nights
On what basis was there a breach of contract
The check in and check out times although they may form part of the contract - a change of only a few hours would not imo constitute a significant enough change to be classed as unreasonable and therefore an actionable breach of said contract
I would be confident to state that any court in the land would agree with me

Thrugelmir

jbunduli22 said:

OP has left, but my advice would be to try to get in touch with property owners directly. Explain you have a young baby and ask if they could clean kitchen first and you would only use that room  alone until cleaners were finished.

When we stayed self catering recently I asked politely what wriggle room there was around arrival and departure and managed to reach a decent compromise.

The owner of the cottage we have booked rung us this week. During the conversation apologised for the late check in time (6 pm).  Saying that a thorough clean was taking far longer than they originally anticipated. They put the health and safety of their guests first. Good to hear that some people actually care. Too easy to cut corners without anyone knowing. 

Tammykitty

I think this depends on how long the OP is staying for.

If 7 nights or so then yes, its just an inconvenience that they can find a way around.

If its a weekend - then I wouldn't be happy, I have a cottage booked for this weekend, check in is 2pm, I would be very annoyed if it changed to 7pm and would want to cancel and book something else.

I am hoping to spend the day on the beach and have the cottage to get changed in, have lunch in etc, not having ot available until evening would effectively take a full afternoon out of a 2 day stay!

bradders1983

With a 3pm check in you arent having lunch in there on the first day anyway so thats a moot point.