Villa booked via Expedia told us to leave but no refund

Firemunchkin

We booked a week in a self-catering villa in Greece via Expedia as a stand alone booking (flights were booked separately). Our first night there wasn't great and we barely slept a wink due to poor mattresses and the solar panel and water tank on the roof banging around all night. We asked for help from the owner to resolve these but after being ignored for an entire day were told we should leave and find somewhere else to stay for the rest of the week. 

We had to find somewhere else to stay at short notice, which we managed to do at hugely inflated cost. Now, the owner is refusing a refund on the remainder of the stay. The terms with Expedia say no refunds but surely that can't be in the circumstances where the villa owner asks you to leave and you do? It doesn't seem right and I can't find detailed terms anywhere. Expedia are being useless in understanding this and are simply asking the owner to do a refund which of course they are refusing repeatedly. 

I'm not sure what else we can do but as we're talking about over £1k I thought it worth posting in this forum in case someone else has had a similar experience or knows another way of getting a refund. 

Flugelhorn

Perhaps it was more "if you don't like it then go and stay somewhere else" 

Westin

Did the owner say that he was happy to refund you or was it more a conversation like @Flugelhorn suggests?

As you booked accommodation only via Expedia they can only ask the owner if he is willing to make a partial refund. If the owner refuses the. Expedia can do no more.

Hoenir

Firemunchkin said:

We asked for help from the owner to resolve these 

What resolution did you ask of the owner? What was the owners response?  Where does the owner reside? 

Firemunchkin

Westin said:

Did the owner say that he was happy to refund you or was it more a conversation like @Flugelhorn suggests?

As you booked accommodation only via Expedia they can only ask the owner if he is willing to make a partial refund. If the owner refuses the. Expedia can do no more.

Thank you for replying. It could have been - perhaps something misunderstood in translation. However, he then gave the time for checking out so even on reflection it would seem it was clear we were going because he'd said to. 

Firemunchkin

Hoenir said:

Firemunchkin said:

We asked for help from the owner to resolve these 

What resolution did you ask of the owner? What was the owners response?  Where does the owner reside? 

We didn't ask for anything specific, just that there was an issue and asking for help with it. We did think there could be something which would resolve it - fixing the stuff on the roof and perhaps they had mattress toppers available (they have several villas all in the same place so additional supplies could be possible). The response after being ignored of total denial, zero assistance and telling us to find somewhere else was quite a surprise. As far as we could tell the owner lived on the island, but also had other people managing it nearby (who never picked up the phone or replied to messages). 

Firemunchkin

Westin said:

As you booked accommodation only via Expedia they can only ask the owner if he is willing to make a partial refund. If the owner refuses the. Expedia can do no more.

I'm interested in this part - why can Expedia do no more? Where are the full terms and conditions with bookings? Has anyone been able to find these or see them? Terms aren't just "no refunds" - there's more to it than that. Where's the consumer protection? Something just doesn't seem right with it.