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Waiting for a refund from March 2020

Hi
My partner and I had to cancel a holiday to Thailand  that we were due to go on in March 2020. We have been refunded by airlines etc, but cannot get any response from the hotel (Avista Hideaway, Patong) since they first responded in may 2020. We booked through booking.com, who don’t want to know. They told us to contact the hotel .The hotel have agreed to refund us , but now no longer respond to emails and the phone is permanently engaged.
I have tried a chargeback with Tesco credit card but they have said it is too late for the chargeback or section75.
I hadn’t taken out holiday insurance !!
Is there anything I can do, or am I out of options?

Comments

  • Alan_Bowen
    Alan_Bowen Posts: 4,898 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Section 75 has a 6-year time limit so if it was a credit card as opposed to a debit card that was used, go back and ask them to review the decision. Hopefully, you have evidence that the hotel agreed to refund because if not and the hotel was still operating at the time you were due to travel, you may have no legal right to a refund. I will make no comment, as I am sure others may, of the sense of travelling without any insurance......
  • eskbanker
    eskbanker Posts: 35,333 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Section 75 is only applicable if there's breach of contract or misrepresentation, which may not have been the case if the hotel was still open, unless it was a refundable rate that you booked, regardless of what they said in a later email.  There is also the issue that booking via an intermediary breaks the debtor-creditor-supplier chain needed to sustain a s75 claim....

    A quick Google shows the hotel to be part of the large French-based Accor group, so it may be possible to escalate a complaint to group level?
  • Westin
    Westin Posts: 6,212 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Hi
    My partner and I had to cancel a holiday to Thailand  that we were due to go on in March 2020. We have been refunded by airlines etc, but cannot get any response from the hotel (Avista Hideaway, Patong) since they first responded in may 2020. We booked through booking.com, who don’t want to know. They told us to contact the hotel .The hotel have agreed to refund us , but now no longer respond to emails and the phone is permanently engaged.
    I have tried a chargeback with Tesco credit card but they have said it is too late for the chargeback or section75.
    I hadn’t taken out holiday insurance !!
    Is there anything I can do, or am I out of options?
    Agree with eskbanker on S75.

    Whilst you have not stated this I suspect you booked a non-refundable rate and it was possibly travel restrictions to reach Thailand rather than the hotel being closed that has given this problem. The offer of a credit/refund may well have been a goodwill gesture.  If however local authorities in Phuket instructed hotels to close to tourists then you might have some comeback, although that's really when travel insurance would come into play given the problems now in getting money back.

    But also "I hadn’t taken out holiday insurance"  = "I decided to self-insurance and therefore have to accept all the risks when things go wrong".  

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