Turned up and hotel was overbooked

Claire2989

I was hoping some of you may be able to offer me so advice/ words of wisdom.

Me and my partner booked a hotel in February for April, however due to the COVID rules, it was illegal to travel so we changed the booking to June. It was booked through a popular 3rd party website but the contract remained with the property. We had a few correspondences with the property one was a message regarding the COVID restrictions and another a messaging asking what kind of dog we had and us replying. They also asked us to cancel our booking (as they wanted to re-book somebody who wanted to stay a week) and we refused stating that we wished to keep the original booking (2 nights/weekend).

We turned up for check-in at 3pm and the manager of the hotel informs us he doesn't have our booking and cannot accommodate us. He was quite rude but that's neither here nor there. He informed us that it was not his responsibility to help us find alternative accommodation but we should contact the 3rd party we booked with as this company was our 'agent'. I queried this as the T&Cs stated that the contract was with the accommodation and not the third-party website. He got a bit angry with us and said he wouldn't help us seek an alternative and that was that. 

Long story short we ended up in the pouring rain for 5 hours while the third party website tried (and failed) to find us an alternative. It was a Friday night in a popular tourist area that was rammed as everybody is UK holidaying. There was one alternative accommodation (23 miles away) that could accommodate us (and the dog) for one night only. We ended up paying an eyewatering amount for this last minute and having an awful one-night holiday before returning home with our tails between our legs. 

What recourse do we have to recoup financial losses (which are fairly considerable) from the original accommodation given we had a confirmed booking (which the hotel then canceled via the 3rd party website one hour after we had turned up for check-in). 

Sorry if I have left any info out I've tried to put in all the key details.

Thanks in advance! 

Upsidedownandaround

The key information would be the unnamed 3rd party you refer to and the hotel.

It’s not clear to me if you are saying you have received a refund or not and whether you are asking merely about the additional costs or not.

If you have received a refund I can’t see any other avenue at the moment than making a complaint to the hotel. Whether or not this would be worthwhile would likely depend on the hotel i.e a big chain or an independent hotel.

Unfortunately it is a risk in booking through 3rd parties as if someone is going to get bumped it will be easier for the hotel to bump 3rd party bookers and then blame the 3rd party.

Ultimately you could potentially seek damages at court for breach of contract but I think you would at least have to go through the complaints process before doing so.

It’s not clear if you have contacted them to make a complaint since speaking with the manager.