Travel Company refusing to provide refund of deposit

FrannyP2707

Hello. I am looking to see if anyone has had a similar experience or any advice. We booked a large property in France for my 50th birthday in July/early August for 26 people, including children. For obvious reasons the trip could not happen: BA cancelled all our flights, at the time France was in lockdown and the government advice was to not travel unless absolutely necessary. The company we booked it through is an independent 'broker' who works on behalf of private owners, they said if the property could be rebooked we would get our deposit back, otherwise we would lose it. No offer of a credit or voucher. We noticed in July that the property was booked (on their website and on Air BnB) but they are claiming that it was not booked 100% so they would not give a refund. They are now saying that it is nothing to do with them and that the contract is with the owner - who we have never spoken to or have any way of contacting. We have taken them to the small claims court because they are refusing to even negotiate and we are £2,500 out of pocket. So my question is, has anyone else had a similar experience and is there any guidance on how to deal with these types of travel companies, i.e. ones that are not ABTA or ATOL protected? Many thanks.

Alan_Bowen

I suspect you have taken the wrong course of action, most villa type businesses claim in the small print that your contract is not with them but the owner. However, if they never identified who the owner was, it would be impossible to take action against them anyway, so at this stage, you would need to claim that their failure to disclose any other party, must mean they are the principal to the contract, not just an agent. It would make sense to check their booking conditions and see if there are other terms which suggest they are the contracting party, but many terms are carefully worded to ensure they are not.
You may have to wait some time for a hearing date, the small claims procedure basically stopped for 5 months in most courts and the average delay in 2019, before COVID 19 was 39 weeks, some small courts were much better, some large ones, much much worse. My advice on the assumption you used a card to pay for the booking, would have been to initiate a chargeback, most banks refund almost immediately but allow the other side 45 days to challenge it if they don't the job is done

sheramber

Your post reads as if you cancelled or did not pay the balance due.
 If the accommodation was available -  you say it was relet- then they have no obligation to refund you.
The fact  that your flight was cancelled is of no   concern to the villa owner. 
Any claim for not being able to travel due to FCO advice is an insurance claim if your policy covered you for that.

mattyprice4004

You've taken them to the small claims court - that's how you deal with them.
If they can prove in court that the contract is indeed with the owner and not them, they could well have costs awarded against you as you've sued the wrong legal entity (even more so if they told you this before you started proceedings, as you've then needlessly cost them money).