Hotel cancellation - what are my rights here?

greg242424

Hi Everyone,

Sorry in advance if I have bypassed any protocol by posting directly here.

on the 16th May at 11:49, I booked a hotel in London for Tuesday thru Thursday in June.  I realised that I had actually meant to intend the booking to include the Thursday night, not checkout on the Thursday (checking out Friday).  The booking cost me £388.

I realised the mistake I made immediately, but I hadn’t seen that the hotel was subject to non-cancellation, most of the time Hotels are free cancellation, so I didn’t think anything of it (my bad, I know).  I figured I would just cancel and rerun the hotels.com search and rebook. I cancelled the hotel booking at 11:51, 2 minutes later.

I then realised that the money had been taken and that the hotel room had been cancelled, with no recourse to a refund.  The hotel was an Ibis.

I have spoken to Hotels.com twice and both times they are contacting Ibis and being told that Ibis will not refund me, reinstate the booking, or offer the £388 against a new booking with them.  I was told by Hotels.com that I would need to contact Ibis directly to take the matter up with them as Hotels.com is only the agent.

I contacted Ibis (Accor) and asked them whether they would be prepared to reinstate the booking, or extend the stay using the £388.  I received an email telling me that there was nothing they could do for me since I used an agent (Hotels.com), so I’m now in a loop.

a couple of questions outside of the issue above:

1) As a consumer, am I entitled to a “cooling off period”, allowing me to cancel and get my money back

2) the booking was made with a Barclaycard, if I cannot seek a recourse with (1), can I contact them and have them take care of it?  My understanding is that Barclaycard offers quite a good insurance on purchases.

Any help would be greatly appreciated since losing £400 seems incredibly excessive for a booking that existed for 2 minutes.

many thanks to all!

Greg

[Deleted User]

1)  No.
2)  No. Any chargeback would be reversed and s75 wouldn't work as there is no breach by the hotel. Unless the insurance you say you have with them provides cover, but it sounds unlikely.

Undervalued

greg242424 said:

Hi Everyone,

Sorry in advance if I have bypassed any protocol by posting directly here.

on the 16th May at 11:49, I booked a hotel in London for Tuesday thru Thursday in June.  I realised that I had actually meant to intend the booking to include the Thursday night, not checkout on the Thursday (checking out Friday).  The booking cost me £388.

I realised the mistake I made immediately, but I hadn’t seen that the hotel was subject to non-cancellation, most of the time Hotels are free cancellation, so I didn’t think anything of it (my bad, I know).  I figured I would just cancel and rerun the hotels.com search and rebook. I cancelled the hotel booking at 11:51, 2 minutes later.

I then realised that the money had been taken and that the hotel room had been cancelled, with no recourse to a refund.  The hotel was an Ibis.

I have spoken to Hotels.com twice and both times they are contacting Ibis and being told that Ibis will not refund me, reinstate the booking, or offer the £388 against a new booking with them.  I was told by Hotels.com that I would need to contact Ibis directly to take the matter up with them as Hotels.com is only the agent.

I contacted Ibis (Accor) and asked them whether they would be prepared to reinstate the booking, or extend the stay using the £388.  I received an email telling me that there was nothing they could do for me since I used an agent (Hotels.com), so I’m now in a loop.

a couple of questions outside of the issue above:

1) As a consumer, am I entitled to a “cooling off period”, allowing me to cancel and get my money back

2) the booking was made with a Barclaycard, if I cannot seek a recourse with (1), can I contact them and have them take care of it?  My understanding is that Barclaycard offers quite a good insurance on purchases.

Any help would be greatly appreciated since losing £400 seems incredibly excessive for a booking that existed for 2 minutes.

many thanks to all!

Greg

I am confused as to why you cancelled and didn't just add another night?

Fully refundable bookings / deposits aren't really deposits or bookings at all from the supplier's point of view. 

Aylesbury_Duck

I'm afraid zx81 is correct.  Going via an agent has possibly snookered you because booking directly may have permitted free cancellation or date changes.  That's the flip side of getting a cheap deal, I'm afraid.

greg242424

Undervalued said:

greg242424 said:

Hi Everyone,

Sorry in advance if I have bypassed any protocol by posting directly here.

on the 16th May at 11:49, I booked a hotel in London for Tuesday thru Thursday in June.  I realised that I had actually meant to intend the booking to include the Thursday night, not checkout on the Thursday (checking out Friday).  The booking cost me £388.

I realised the mistake I made immediately, but I hadn’t seen that the hotel was subject to non-cancellation, most of the time Hotels are free cancellation, so I didn’t think anything of it (my bad, I know).  I figured I would just cancel and rerun the hotels.com search and rebook. I cancelled the hotel booking at 11:51, 2 minutes later.

I then realised that the money had been taken and that the hotel room had been cancelled, with no recourse to a refund.  The hotel was an Ibis.

I have spoken to Hotels.com twice and both times they are contacting Ibis and being told that Ibis will not refund me, reinstate the booking, or offer the £388 against a new booking with them.  I was told by Hotels.com that I would need to contact Ibis directly to take the matter up with them as Hotels.com is only the agent.

I contacted Ibis (Accor) and asked them whether they would be prepared to reinstate the booking, or extend the stay using the £388.  I received an email telling me that there was nothing they could do for me since I used an agent (Hotels.com), so I’m now in a loop.

a couple of questions outside of the issue above:

1) As a consumer, am I entitled to a “cooling off period”, allowing me to cancel and get my money back

2) the booking was made with a Barclaycard, if I cannot seek a recourse with (1), can I contact them and have them take care of it?  My understanding is that Barclaycard offers quite a good insurance on purchases.

Any help would be greatly appreciated since losing £400 seems incredibly excessive for a booking that existed for 2 minutes.

many thanks to all!

Greg

I am confused as to why you cancelled and didn't just add another night?

Fully refundable bookings / deposits aren't really deposits or bookings at all from the supplier's point of view. 

Because I wasn’t sure how much the third night would be, and wanted to rerun the search on Hotels.com.  In hindsight, it wasn’t the right decision.  Not sure I fully understand why a cooling off period is not valid here, but I’m not an expert on consumer rights.

Ergates

Most hotels are more than happy to extend a stay if you contact them, there was no need to cancel the booking at all.

Aylesbury_Duck

There's an exclusion on a right to cancel covering the following categories:

• the supply of accommodation, transport of goods, vehicle rental services, catering or services related to leisure activities if the contract provides for a specific date or period of performance - for example, hotel bookings, courier services, car hire, restaurant bookings and theatre tickets for specific dates

MalMonroe

greg242424 said:

Undervalued said:

greg242424 said:

Hi Everyone,

Sorry in advance if I have bypassed any protocol by posting directly here.

on the 16th May at 11:49, I booked a hotel in London for Tuesday thru Thursday in June.  I realised that I had actually meant to intend the booking to include the Thursday night, not checkout on the Thursday (checking out Friday).  The booking cost me £388.

I realised the mistake I made immediately, but I hadn’t seen that the hotel was subject to non-cancellation, most of the time Hotels are free cancellation, so I didn’t think anything of it (my bad, I know).  I figured I would just cancel and rerun the hotels.com search and rebook. I cancelled the hotel booking at 11:51, 2 minutes later.

I then realised that the money had been taken and that the hotel room had been cancelled, with no recourse to a refund.  The hotel was an Ibis.

I have spoken to Hotels.com twice and both times they are contacting Ibis and being told that Ibis will not refund me, reinstate the booking, or offer the £388 against a new booking with them.  I was told by Hotels.com that I would need to contact Ibis directly to take the matter up with them as Hotels.com is only the agent.

I contacted Ibis (Accor) and asked them whether they would be prepared to reinstate the booking, or extend the stay using the £388.  I received an email telling me that there was nothing they could do for me since I used an agent (Hotels.com), so I’m now in a loop.

a couple of questions outside of the issue above:

1) As a consumer, am I entitled to a “cooling off period”, allowing me to cancel and get my money back

2) the booking was made with a Barclaycard, if I cannot seek a recourse with (1), can I contact them and have them take care of it?  My understanding is that Barclaycard offers quite a good insurance on purchases.

Any help would be greatly appreciated since losing £400 seems incredibly excessive for a booking that existed for 2 minutes.

many thanks to all!

Greg

I am confused as to why you cancelled and didn't just add another night?

Fully refundable bookings / deposits aren't really deposits or bookings at all from the supplier's point of view. 

Because I wasn’t sure how much the third night would be, and wanted to rerun the search on Hotels.com.  In hindsight, it wasn’t the right decision.  Not sure I fully understand why a cooling off period is not valid here, but I’m not an expert on consumer rights.

Hi, there's some information from Citizens Advice here -

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/changed-your-mind/cancelling-a-service-youve-arranged/

Which says you don't have a cooling off period when you book hotels BUT they do offer alternative actions you can take if you click on the link under 'Getting Your Money Back' and then 'negotiating with the business'.

Here the business appears to be Hotels.com since Ibis have washed their hands of you. I think it's pretty poor service all round when you just want to rebook and add another night. They're losing that business and not doing themselves any favours.

However, it seems that Hotels.com is part of Expedia and you can turn to them for help. At the bottom of their webpage it says " Hotels.com is an Expedia Group company". So appeal to them.

You could also try ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution). It's all in the info from Citizens Advice.

I'd definitely try my very best to get my money back because even though consumer rights may not apply here, the booking company could act reasonably and try to ensure that the customer is satisfied. It's not even as if anybody would lose any money by refunding you. (Well, now they probably would but not originally.)

I hope that's helpful, I do feel that both Ibis and Hotels.com are being very unreasonable.

greg242424

Hotels.com just emailed me with a refund receipt to the full value, citing that the hotel had approved to waive the penalty, so I guess I got lucky on this occasion.

DCFC79

greg242424 said:

Hotels.com just emailed me with a refund receipt to the full value, citing that the hotel had approved to waive the penalty, so I guess I got lucky on this occasion.

You did and use it as a lesson.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

I would assume this is similar to "non-refundable" deposits, if one party is in breach of contract the other can claim costs/losses but must mitigate them so for a hotel that is rebook the room and refund the customer minus costs (such as admin or additional advertising fees) and any reduction in the room rate to secure a booking.   

At the very least the OP could still attend the hotel for their stay if they didn't rebook the room.

As OP has had a refund it seems common sense has prevailed on this occasion.