Owner keeping the £500 damage deposit - where do we stand?

ravenrose2003

Please help!

Last weekend 30 of us went to a beautiful lodge where we had a wonderful weekend. Yesterday one of our party received work that he was keeping the deposit as we have broken the pool cover and  there was damage to the hot tub. On our arrival we were not shown the pool but as soon as we went to the pool the cover looked like it had been cut in two, we assumed this was to make it fit. The hot tub jet from day one kept popping out and you just needed to screw it back in. 

I did not book the weekend so have not seen all the fine print but when we have asked for photographic evidence of before and after the manager has just shouted and said we are accusing him of lying. He is now saying he will ask his pool boy (who he sees as independent) to say if we have damaged the pool cover. 

We took genuinely real good care of the place and this has put a real downer on our great time away. 

Where do we stand and what can we do?

Please help.

walwyn1978

Did you report the popping out jet to anyone either whilst you were there or when you left?

ravenrose2003

To be fair I didn’t as it screwed back in. But now it was mentioned it popped out another time and someone else did the same. I just assumed mine was a one off. 

canaldumidi

Option 1) Just pay. £500 / 30 people is £16.66 each

2) Negotiate. eg offer half as a 'goodwill gesture'. £8.33 each

3) Sue. Small Claims Court here. Won't cost much and claim back court costs if/when you win - but will be very slow as courts are backed-up. Need to get your evidence, photos? witness statements from each of you, close look at the T&Cs of the deposit etc

4) point out that 30 negative trustpilot and other reviews won't help their business much......

5) how did you book? Via a booking site? Do they have an arbitration service? Is the company part of a travel body or similar with an arbitration service?

But I have to ask- are you sure your group was not responsible? 30 people can get pretty rowdy especially if alcohol was involved......??

tacpot12

Are you sure that the pool cover being cut in half is the damage that the manager is referring to? If so, the pool boy should be able to confirm whether the damage was pre-existing, but may not do so as they are not independent. You can cenrtainly tell the manager that you don't regard one of their employees as independent, but I would wait to see what the pool boy says before doing so. 

Again, are you sure that the  jet that pops out is the damage that is being referred to. Ask the manager to provide photos of the evidence. (They will need to do this if the matter goes to court).

It does sound like the jet is damaged, but it really falls to the manager to show that your party damaged it. If it turns out that you did damage the pool cover, I would be tempted to look at the cost of buying a cover (including the shipping cost to the lodge) as it may be a lot cheaper to replace it direct from the manufacturer rather than going via the manager. Similarly with the jet; if installation is as simply as pulling off the existing hose and pusing it onto the new jet and pushing the jet into the housing, the cost of the jet and pool cover may be much less than £500.  

You might want to confirm which country's laws apply to the booking as this might change the options open to you. 

TELLIT01

Asking for evidence is not accusing anybody of lying.  An insurer would request evidence after a car accident but that doesn't indicate that they believe the claimant to be lying.

[Deleted User]

Another option (and probably the easiest) is to do a chargeback against your card (depending on how you paid but most cards offer some kind of buyer protection). You might get banned by the booking company if you do this however.