Hotel cancellation - what are my rights here?

Sandtree

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

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. 

Who's breached the contract though?

Damages under contract law is not the same as a change of mind 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Sandtree said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

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. 

Who's breached the contract though?

Damages under contract law is not the same as a change of mind 

I don't really know, I can only see that cancelling a hotel booking is pretty much the same as cancelling something that you've paid a deposit for? 

Sandtree

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Sandtree said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

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. 

Who's breached the contract though?

Damages under contract law is not the same as a change of mind 

I don't really know, I can only see that cancelling a hotel booking is pretty much the same as cancelling something that you've paid a deposit for? 

No, because if you have only paid a deposit then you will presumably refuse to pay for the rest of the contract and that creates the breach of contract. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Sandtree said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Sandtree said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

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. 

Who's breached the contract though?

Damages under contract law is not the same as a change of mind 

I don't really know, I can only see that cancelling a hotel booking is pretty much the same as cancelling something that you've paid a deposit for? 

No, because if you have only paid a deposit then you will presumably refuse to pay for the rest of the contract and that creates the breach of contract. 

Thanks Sandtree, that makes sense  

So if you book a hotel room that can't be cancelled presumably the hotel has to offer the room. i.e if you can't cancel, they can't either.

So if you ask to cancel they should say sorry you can't cancel, come and stay for the booking. 

So is the issue here not the OP breaching the contract by requesting to cancel but by the hotel (or the booking agent) breaching the contract by actually cancelling a service that the terms say can't be cancelled? 

Sandtree

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Sandtree said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Sandtree said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

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. 

Who's breached the contract though?

Damages under contract law is not the same as a change of mind 

I don't really know, I can only see that cancelling a hotel booking is pretty much the same as cancelling something that you've paid a deposit for? 

No, because if you have only paid a deposit then you will presumably refuse to pay for the rest of the contract and that creates the breach of contract. 

Thanks Sandtree, that makes sense  

So if you book a hotel room that can't be cancelled presumably the hotel has to offer the room. i.e if you can't cancel, they can't either.

So if you ask to cancel they should say sorry you can't cancel, come and stay for the booking. 

So is the issue here not the OP breaching the contract by requesting to cancel but by the hotel (or the booking agent) breaching the contract by actually cancelling a service that the terms say can't be cancelled? 

For a start its normally non-refundable rather than non-cancelable... ie you can cancel it but you dont get any money back (or like in air flights where you can only get back a small amount in relation to the taxes) and so its questionable why you would bother cancelling it but the options there. Options available under a contract don't always have to be sensible... a friend cancelled a pre-order for an item but he could have seen it through and instantly sold it on eBay for 3-4x the price he paid due to shortages... didn't make sense to cancel but he didn't want the risk of the eBay sale going wrong... others may not have the finances to fund the gap between purchase and resale.

Two parties can always agree to do something different to what the contract says, contracts are just what can be enforced in a court if the two parties disagree. So even if the contract did say it couldn't be cancelled if one party says they want to cancel it the other side can choose to accept or reject that change in terms. Sometimes you want to formalise the change through a deed of amendment other times just leaving it as an agreement is sufficient... I invoice my client monthly despite my contract saying its to be done weekly... There was no value in the faff of executing a deed to change the contract 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Sandtree said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Sandtree said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Sandtree said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

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. 

Who's breached the contract though?

Damages under contract law is not the same as a change of mind 

I don't really know, I can only see that cancelling a hotel booking is pretty much the same as cancelling something that you've paid a deposit for? 

No, because if you have only paid a deposit then you will presumably refuse to pay for the rest of the contract and that creates the breach of contract. 

Thanks Sandtree, that makes sense  

So if you book a hotel room that can't be cancelled presumably the hotel has to offer the room. i.e if you can't cancel, they can't either.

So if you ask to cancel they should say sorry you can't cancel, come and stay for the booking. 

So is the issue here not the OP breaching the contract by requesting to cancel but by the hotel (or the booking agent) breaching the contract by actually cancelling a service that the terms say can't be cancelled? 

For a start its normally non-refundable rather than non-cancelable...

Yes you are correct it does say non-refundable on Hotels.com. We use Booking.com for hotels and they say "no cancellation".

I do agree the two parties can vary the terms but presumably the OP wasn't looking to vary the terms by cancelling with full payment, although of course when they hit the cancellation button they have may have agreed to just that.

So it would seem if you book a hotel you are better off with a place that doesn't take payment up front as refusing to pay means they should attempt to rebook the room (perhaps assuming they aren’t successful in charging your card at any point) but if you do pay the full amount up front you have nowhere to go if you want to cancel. 

Sandtree

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:
So it would seem if you book a hotel you are better off with a place that doesn't take payment up front as refusing to pay means they should attempt to rebook the room (perhaps assuming they aren’t successful in charging your card at any point) but if you do pay the full amount up front you have nowhere to go if you want to cancel. 

Its normally a choice... lowest cost comes with least flexibility and early payment generally and so how confident are you your dates wont change and what is the extra cost for having flexibility?

My last short stay in a hotel was £122/night paid in full up front and non-refundable or £126/night paid on departure with 24 hour cancellation... ie cancel with less than 1 days notice you have to pay the first night only. Going for 4 nights the extra £16 for flexibility made sense to me but sometimes the gap is larger and others are more price sensitive than I am.