UK holiday cancelled 3 times.
Extrafox
Forumite 4 Posts
My wife, two school age kids and I live in central Scotland. Once a year we visit south Wales where I have family. We were booked directly with the owner of a property to go at Easter 2020 and paid by bank transfer. The first lockdown cancelled that holiday. The person we booked with kept our money and we re-booked for October 2020 (and paid a little more for a few more days). When that date came around, travel was not permitted between counties in Wales unless it was for a 'valid reason', such as work, education or medical purposes. I can't remember what the rules were in Scotland at the time, but they would have been no less lax.
We rebooked a third time for Easter 2021, but we were not allowed to leave our local area here in Scotland until after the dates we had booked for. Travel within parts of Wales was allowed, and the owner re-sold part of the time we were to have been there to someone local.
When I enquired about booking for a fourth time, the owner said that he now only takes bookings through a large UK wide site (except for a few dates that they have left him). As we have school age children, none of the dates that have not been ringfenced for the large UK wide site are of any use to us. We cannot transfer the booking to the large UK wide site and so have paid for something that we technically can use (as not every single date is given to that company), but practically speaking, we cannot ever take the holiday.
As I paid using bank transfer, I know that I have no rights such as Section 75 to claim our money back. We have been offered a partial refund of the cost that was recouped from the re-booking he took, but are we really just stuffed here and have to write the rest of the money off? We want to re-book the holiday. All cancellations were due to Covid. The owner is not saying we cannot book the property ever, but the dates he has given us are of no use to us. Is there anything we can do?
We rebooked a third time for Easter 2021, but we were not allowed to leave our local area here in Scotland until after the dates we had booked for. Travel within parts of Wales was allowed, and the owner re-sold part of the time we were to have been there to someone local.
When I enquired about booking for a fourth time, the owner said that he now only takes bookings through a large UK wide site (except for a few dates that they have left him). As we have school age children, none of the dates that have not been ringfenced for the large UK wide site are of any use to us. We cannot transfer the booking to the large UK wide site and so have paid for something that we technically can use (as not every single date is given to that company), but practically speaking, we cannot ever take the holiday.
As I paid using bank transfer, I know that I have no rights such as Section 75 to claim our money back. We have been offered a partial refund of the cost that was recouped from the re-booking he took, but are we really just stuffed here and have to write the rest of the money off? We want to re-book the holiday. All cancellations were due to Covid. The owner is not saying we cannot book the property ever, but the dates he has given us are of no use to us. Is there anything we can do?
0
Latest MSE News and Guides
Replies
he would get payment from the site and then could refund you what you had paid.
If you still want to go then all you can do is ask him if he would please offer some dates more suitable, but otherwise he probably isn't obligated to even offer the refund unless there is something specific in the contract about it.
Any claim would be through travel insurance if you had it and it included local government restrictions.
Getting a refund for the time he could relet it is as good as you will get.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cma-to-investigate-concerns-about-cancellation-policies-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic/the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic-consumer-contracts-cancellation-and-refunds
https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/cancellations-holiday-accommodation