Hotel cancellation refund

wilfie29

I booked a hotel room and 2 lodges at Christmas. A deposit was paid on the lodges by credit card. My mum paid the deposit for the hotel room on her debit card. We found out by chance that the hotel & lodges have been bought out and us closed for refurbishment until further notice. Noone has contacted us about it. I am unable to get hold of the hotel, as the website went down, noone answering phones or emails. I was able to speak to someone from the sister hotel who said they would refund us. This was a week ago and still nothing. We have no idea who the new owners are.
Who should be responsible for the refund - new or old owners?
I will try and claim on my credit card if no luck. Can my mum make any sort of claim having paid on a debit card? I'd love any advice please 🙏 

Aylesbury_Duck

Speak to both card providers.  There may be a route for chargeback on both if there's evidence the company can't fulfil the contract.

DullGreyGuy

wilfie29 said:

Who should be responsible for the refund - new or old owners?
I will try and claim on my credit card if no luck. Can my mum make any sort of claim having paid on a debit card? I'd love any advice please 🙏 

It depends how it was bought and potentially their contract. 

In most cases it will be the company you paid that is responsible so it comes down to if the buyer bought the company or if they bought the buildings but not the company. In some cases the bookings and liabilities may change hands in addition to the building despite them not buying the company. 

born_again

wilfie29 said:

I booked a hotel room and 2 lodges at Christmas. A deposit was paid on the lodges by credit card. My mum paid the deposit for the hotel room on her debit card. We found out by chance that the hotel & lodges have been bought out and us closed for refurbishment until further notice. Noone has contacted us about it. I am unable to get hold of the hotel, as the website went down, noone answering phones or emails. I was able to speak to someone from the sister hotel who said they would refund us. This was a week ago and still nothing. We have no idea who the new owners are.
Who should be responsible for the refund - new or old owners?
I will try and claim on my credit card if no luck. Can my mum make any sort of claim having paid on a debit card? I'd love any advice please 🙏 

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Speak to both card providers.  There may be a route for chargeback on both if there's evidence the company can't fulfil the contract.

Best route, but unless OP has something confirming in writing that they will not get the accommodation. Then it can not be actioned till the day after the event should have taken place.

Any chargeback will be against who was paid.

Op only mentions deposit here, so has the balance been paid, or when would it be due?
As a change of ownership, should change payment details.

wilfie29

The balance wasn't paid as was supposed to be due by the end of November. 

Nothing in writing to say we won't get the accomodation - no communication at all! We only found out after doing some investigations when their website closed down! 

Thanks for all the advice. We are currently speaking to card providers! 

Grumpy_chap

wilfie29 said:

The balance wasn't paid as was supposed to be due by the end of November. 

Nothing in writing to say we won't get the accomodation - no communication at all! We only found out after doing some investigations when their website closed down! 

Thanks for all the advice. We are currently speaking to card providers! 

So the balance is not yet due.
It's quite possible that the new owner will have the accommodation open again before you are due to go.  Have you contacted the new owner?

Hoenir

wilfie29 said:

I was able to speak to someone from the sister hotel who said they would refund us. 

Then surely they'll know who the new owners are. What makes you believe that the hotel won't be reopened for Xmas. 

sheramber

Hoenir said:

wilfie29 said:

I was able to speak to someone from the sister hotel who said they would refund us. 

Then surely they'll know who the new owners are. What makes you believe that the hotel won't be reopened for Xmas. 

Maybe thye do . The OP said 'we' donlt know who the new owner is which may not inclyde the sister hotel.

 A receptionist in a hotle may ot be party to business affirs.

Saying they would refund gets the person off the phone.

If the sister hotel is still open then presumably the  old business owner is still in busimess.

Find out who  is  head of the business and contact them.

wilfie29

How can we find out who the new owners are? We've had no contact from them. The website shut down, just an automated message on the phone. Local FB pages suggest it could be changing into flats. The person from the sister hotel who agreed to refund worked in accounts (so she said). It's all a bit of a mystery! 

born_again

wilfie29 said:

How can we find out who the new owners are? We've had no contact from them. The website shut down, just an automated message on the phone. Local FB pages suggest it could be changing into flats. The person from the sister hotel who agreed to refund worked in accounts (so she said). It's all a bit of a mystery! 

Send a letter?

Danger of sister hotel refunding, is that it will cancel the booking.

Grumpy_chap

born_again said:

Danger of sister hotel refunding, is that it will cancel the booking.

Surely, if the OP receives a refund for the deposit already paid - it does not matter who from - then the booking is cancelled in any case.