What are your rights for cancelling accommodation where no refund policy was stated when you booked?

[Deleted User]

My son gave a months notice to cancel a residential one week summer training camp he'd booked and paid for, but the provider is refusing a refund.  Looking at the original booking information there was no refund policy stated.  Anyone know what your rights are with this?  Is 'no refunds unless stated otherwise' always assumed for services?

[Deleted User]

sorry, meant to put this in UK travel, not overseas.  Can't see how to move this to that forum.

Sandtree

You have to message a moderator to move it.

You have no statutory rights to cancel things like travel and therefore it does come down to T&Cs. You could try claiming it is an unfair contract term in court but based on the number of non-refundable hotel rooms and flights sold every day there aren't a lot of people successfully arguing that. Even if you were successful in arguing it you'd still need to cover their actual losses and that could be the full amount if they fail to resell the slot. 

Obviously the key is to decide before booking a non-refundable piece of travel, pay extra to get refundable options or buy travel insurance though that will only cover sickness etc preventing travel not just change of mind.