Sykes Cottages owner problem re retrospective booking cancellation by Sykes

selinkyble

Sykes took a booking for our holiday cottage in Scotland for 4th July this year for 7 days from a customer in Northern Ireland. Over three months after the booking was due to take place, on 29th October, Sykes cancelled the reservation, claiming that it could not take place, as the customer was unable to travel. As I had previously checked this and thought there were no restrictions, I queried it with Sykes, who further clarified that as the customer would have to self-isolate here in Scotland for 14 days and that wasnt an option, they had refunded them. Puzzled, I asked them for some government legislation to back this up. Eventually after about four more emails asking for some evidence of their claim, they sent a link. I have tried, but can't post the link, as I havent posted anything on here before. Its on health-ni.gov.uk and is the covid-travel-regs-2020.pdf. STATUTORY RULES OF NORTHERN IRELAND 2020 No. 90 PUBLIC HEALTH The Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020.
Looking at that it seems to be Northern Ireland regulations for people travelling outside of the Common Travel Area. I cant see how this is relevant to their claim that the customer would have to self-isolate here in Scotland, or anywhere during the course of this holiday, unless I'm missing something? So I emailed them back to say that the information they had sent was irrelevant, that they had made a mistake and to reinstate the payment for the booking to me. They refused to do this and just kept insisting that they had told me why the booking had to be refunded, finally refusing to enter into any further communication with me on the matter.
The customer did not turn up for the booking, which occasionally people dont and when we contacted him, he told us that Sykes had cancelled the booking with him in June. Sykes never cancelled this booking with us at the time, or opened it up for someone else to book, which would have been snapped up, as we had so many private enquiries for bookings at this time. So we lost the booking value and we spent time and money setting up for this booking. I'm wondering if if anyone can help me with this and suggest whether it might be a good idea to take Sykes to court or whether in fact, I'm just getting it all wrong and as Sykes says, the booking was not legal in some way. I would be grateful for any ideas anyone might have to help with this.

[Deleted User]

If Sykes refunded the customer I would let it go.  So much confusion over refunds etc and who could do what it doesn’t seem worth the arguing.  Again unless Sykes have kept the money they would have to reclaim it from the customer which is a non starter.  Taking Sykes to court for this reason seems pointless.  You can decide not to use Sykes in future but for this I would suck it up as many people out of pocket in various ways.  

selinkyble

Tedber said:

If Sykes refunded the customer I would let it go.  So much confusion over refunds etc and who could do what it doesn’t seem worth the arguing.  Again unless Sykes have kept the money they would have to reclaim it from the customer which is a non starter.  Taking Sykes to court for this reason seems pointless.  You can decide not to use Sykes in future but for this I would suck it up as many people out of pocket in various ways.  

Thank you for your reply, but I wouldn't be asking if it were unimportant to me. This is my income and like many others through this time, I now have huge debts and have had no support from the government to make up for losses, so it's actually a question of needing the money, rather than just feeling badly done to by Sykes. I understand that the customer has not been refunded at this point, though maybe Sykes will address this at some point. They seem to have been slow in making refunds. I have had several complaints to this point, but that's a whole other issue.

Thrugelmir

Sounds as if your customer isn't being truthfull and has asked for a refund. Recovering the money from you is only part of the internal process in refunding the customer. 

JGB1955

Having looked at the legislation that Sykes pointed you towards, I agree that there was no restriction on travel for a NI resident visiting the UK.  I don't know, however, what the situation was upon arrival in Scotland.  If there was no requirement for self-isolation at the Scottish end of the journey, then I think you might have a good case against Sykes.

Butts

JGB1955 said:

Having looked at the legislation that Sykes pointed you towards, I agree that there was no restriction on travel for a NI resident visiting the UK.  I don't know, however, what the situation was upon arrival in Scotland.  If there was no requirement for self-isolation at the Scottish end of the journey, then I think you might have a good case against Sykes.

Eh, I thought The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was still in existence 

JGB1955

Butts said:

JGB1955 said:

Having looked at the legislation that Sykes pointed you towards, I agree that there was no restriction on travel for a NI resident visiting the UK.  I don't know, however, what the situation was upon arrival in Scotland.  If there was no requirement for self-isolation at the Scottish end of the journey, then I think you might have a good case against Sykes.

Eh, I thought The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was still in existence 

You're right - I should have said Great Britain.  After 65 years I still struggle with questions about my nationality - when was United Kingdom a nationality?  I'm either British or English.  Oh.. forgot... this isn't the Vents and Praises board!

selinkyble

JGB1955 said:

Having looked at the legislation that Sykes pointed you towards, I agree that there was no restriction on travel for a NI resident visiting the UK.  I don't know, however, what the situation was upon arrival in Scotland.  If there was no requirement for self-isolation at the Scottish end of the journey, then I think you might have a good case against Sykes.

Thank you so much. I was thinking that it was me going mad, as they were so insistent that that piece of legislation was relevant. Looking at the Scottish Regs, they would appear to be the same sort of thing - some restrictions for international, but not within the CTA. I have to wonder why Sykes would do this months after the event. All I can think is that they have made an error, perhaps on the insistence of the customer and they now just want me to pay for it. They won't even discuss it, let alone point to the actual piece of legislation that backs up their claim.

selinkyble

Thrugelmir said:

Sounds as if your customer isn't being truthfull and has asked for a refund. Recovering the money from you is only part of the internal process in refunding the customer. 

That's a very good point!