Refund when booking direct with hotel in croatia

muzzpopmuzz

My sister in law was due to be getting married in Croatia last year, this was moved to this year however has now been cancelled as the flights have been cancelled again and she doesn't want to postpone another year. All 80 guests paid a deposit and they have around 8000 which they are refusing to refund. They offered a voucher, however thag money is for 80 people not just hers so that isn't an option. They told her to book direct as it would be the cheapest and easiest way to get it sorted. Does she have any rights as its getting quite nasty now. They are the only company that have refused to refund. She's not at any point said she has chosen to cancel the holiday however as we are unable to get there, can't use our rooms. As it was booked directly in Croatia, does anyone know her rights? Thanks 

elsien

Is the hotel still open? If so and you can’t use it because you can’t get there that’s not really their problem. 

Travel insurance? 

Upsidedownandaround

Her rights are based on what she agreed at the time of purchase. If she booked refundable rooms then she has the right to a refund.

If she booked non-refundable rooms and the hotel is open then she has no right to a refund and the hotel is offering more than it needs to by offering a 'goodwill' voucher. (which may not be offered much longer if it's turning nasty).

[Deleted User]

Yep unfortunately the fact you can’t get there has no bearing on the hotel.   You won’t be able to make them refund you if you all booked non refundable rooms.  Being able to rebook might be as good as it gets from them. 

Only option may be your insurance but all 80 would need to claim individually assuming appropriate cover has been taken out by all. 

Upsidedownandaround

To be honest even with adequate insurance it works out at £100 a head so with excess nobodies going to get much if anything back. It's not exactly much of a hit to take for each person. Given the £100 deposit is probably only a small part of each rooms total balance it seems more than fair the hotel is (or was) offering to provide a voucher for the deposits when they are already looking at 80 rooms they had booked out where they are now no longer going to see the full balance paid.

It's really not realistic to expect the hotel to return the deposits in cash I'm afraid.

[Deleted User]

Absolutely @Upsidedownandaround.  Totally agree.  I was going to say the loss individually isn’t a huge amount but some people think it is so I chickened out of stating this but agree with you wholeheartedly- insurance excess could be more and  £100 loss is not devastating in the grand scale of things.