Accommodation Refund

ZacharyJohn

Hi all,

Myself and a friend got tickets for Twenty One Pilots at The O2, so I booked a one-night stay (13-May to 14-May) at an apartment in London for us, months in advance, via hotels.com. The itinerary for this stay stated, 'Guests will receive an email with special check-in instructions.'

Cut to 12-May (the day before arrival), and I receive an email from a company called travelnest (who I had no idea were involved in this at all), with contact details for the host of the apartment. I message the host on that day, no reply after a couple of hours so I call the host, no answer. Getting slightly concerned, I call hotels.com (the company I booked the apartment through) to say I haven't received check-in instructions from the host. They try to call either the host or travelnest (I'm not sure which) with no success either.

On the morning of our stay I still haven't received check-in instructions. I try to call the host again with no answer, I try to call travelnest who aren't open until 9.30am, so I call hotels.com again and the guy tells me he'll forward my concern and I can expect a call back in 24 to 72 hours. Obviously no help.

At this point, I see no alternative but to book a different place to stay, which I do and the trip goes very well. 

Now, I call hotels.com the next day to request a refund for my trip, and after they tell me they'll look into the situation, I get this email:

"Hello Zachary,

We wanted to follow up after our last conversation, where you asked us to cancel your booking and reach out to your property to see if refunding your cancellation fee was possible.

We've cancelled your reservation, and have contacted London Riverside Apartment-2 Bed-freep-balcony, London to see if they could make an exception and grant a refund.

Unfortunately, after multiple tries, we weren't able to obtain an approval from the property manager to waive the cancellation fee. This means the current rules and restrictions for your booking apply and a refund can't be granted.

We're really sorry about this; we always try to contact suppliers and advocate for our travelers in these situations. Properties often have strict policies around refunds, and there's nothing more we can do in this case.

Again, we're sorry that a refund wasn't possible. If you have any other questions, please feel free to reach out to us."

I am perplexed and pretty furious. I've booked a stay via their website, the accommodation hasn't been made available to me so I've had to stay elsewhere, and now because they can't get approval from the property manager, I'm not entitled to a refund? I didn't even know I was dealing with travelnest when I made the booking and now somehow hotels.com can duck out of their obligations and leave it to me to hash out with travelnest?

Talking to these guys via email or over the phone is like banging your head against a wall and I honestly don't believe I'll get anywhere with them; does anyone know what my next steps should be to get this refund?

I honestly can't believe it's come to this because it looks like a very simple situation but here we are. Any and all advice is much appreciated!

powerful_Rogue

If you paid by debit card/credit card contact your bank and ask for a chargeback. If the stay was over £100 and you paid via credit card, ask for a s75 claim to be started. The basis of the claim is you received no check in instructions and when you chased it up on the morning of the stay they said it would take 24-72 hours to get back to you, which is no good for a stay that day. Bascially, services not received.

Alderbank

I'm not sure it is a very simple situation.

Firstly you have to unpick who your contract is actually with, then you have to examine the T&Cs of the contract to determine whether there was a breach of contract and if so, exactly when and how and which party breached it.

The website Hotels.com is part of Expedia.inc. Like Microsoft, Starbucks and Amazon, Expedia is a US company headquartered in Seattle.

Their T&Cs say
Expedia, Inc. operates the website https://uk.hotels.com which acts as an interface between you and the various Travel Providers...When you make a booking for a Travel Service...you will be entering into a contract with the relevant...accommodation provider.

That is quite a common arrangement for travel aggregator companies. It looks as though the accommodation provider has told Expedia that you were a 'no show'; the accommodation was available for you but you never cancelled and just never showed up.

Did you cancel?

Have you checked your spam folder for any check-in instructions?

Grumpy_chap

ZacharyJohn said:

the accommodation hasn't been made available to me 

I think this might be where any claim you have falls down.

You don't know that the accommodation was not made available to you.
The communication in advance of arrival was not as great as you would have liked.  It is possible you missed a communication, or it went to spam folder or such like.
You did have the confirmation the day before.  

There was nothing to stop you from simply arriving at the accommodation at the scheduled check-in time and then the host might well have been there and / or expecting the call to provide access.  Or the host might have sent details of access, perhaps a key-box.  Or the website might have been more responsive to a customer calling to say they are at the property and awaiting access (immediate issue to resolve) rather than a customer calling to say they won't be able to get access later in the day.

Instead, you panicked and choose to book alternative accommodation and never arrived at the pre-booked accommodation.

I can totally see, from the accommodation provider and agent point of view, this is a no-show or a late cancellation, neither of which would usually entitle you to a refund.

You seem to have anticipated the failure to make the accommodation available and therefore decided not to attempt to receive the accommodation.  "Anticipatory breach of contract" is not something that really usually has any route in consumer contracts.

born_again

Chargeback for non receipt of services.
S75 to many links in the chain. (makes no difference on a chargeback) Guessing you paid Hotels.com, rather than actual host.

Host would have to provide proof that it was available & instructions given.

ZacharyJohn

Alderbank said:

I'm not sure it is a very simple situation.

Firstly you have to unpick who your contract is actually with, then you have to examine the T&Cs of the contract to determine whether there was a breach of contract and if so, exactly when and how and which party breached it.

The website Hotels.com is part of Expedia.inc. Like Microsoft, Starbucks and Amazon, Expedia is a US company headquartered in Seattle.

Their T&Cs say
Expedia, Inc. operates the website https://uk.hotels.com which acts as an interface between you and the various Travel Providers...When you make a booking for a Travel Service...you will be entering into a contract with the relevant...accommodation provider.

That is quite a common arrangement for travel aggregator companies. It looks as though the accommodation provider has told Expedia that you were a 'no show'; the accommodation was available for you but you never cancelled and just never showed up.

Did you cancel?

Have you checked your spam folder for any check-in instructions?

Hi Alderbank,

Thanks for your reply!

I didn't cancel - I didn't see the point as the policy did state that any cancellations made after 08-May (five days before the stay) would be subject to a 100% cancellation fee anyway.

I did check my spam folder and no sign of any correspondence at all.

Based on your snippet of the T&Cs, are you suggesting I should be liaising with travelnest instead of hotels.com for the refund? I've got no problem fighting my case with either, I just thought it should be hotels.com as when I made payment for the accommodation, it went to them as opposed to travelnest / the host.

ZacharyJohn

Grumpy_chap said:

ZacharyJohn said:

the accommodation hasn't been made available to me 

I think this might be where any claim you have falls down.

You don't know that the accommodation was not made available to you.
The communication in advance of arrival was not as great as you would have liked.  It is possible you missed a communication, or it went to spam folder or such like.
You did have the confirmation the day before.  

There was nothing to stop you from simply arriving at the accommodation at the scheduled check-in time and then the host might well have been there and / or expecting the call to provide access.  Or the host might have sent details of access, perhaps a key-box.  Or the website might have been more responsive to a customer calling to say they are at the property and awaiting access (immediate issue to resolve) rather than a customer calling to say they won't be able to get access later in the day.

Instead, you panicked and choose to book alternative accommodation and never arrived at the pre-booked accommodation.

I can totally see, from the accommodation provider and agent point of view, this is a no-show or a late cancellation, neither of which would usually entitle you to a refund.

You seem to have anticipated the failure to make the accommodation available and therefore decided not to attempt to receive the accommodation.  "Anticipatory breach of contract" is not something that really usually has any route in consumer contracts.

Hi Grumpy_chap,

I understand what you're saying, but surely the fact that I didn't receive any check-in instructions during the rest of the day (even after I booked the subsequent hotel) means the failure on their side was not just anticipated by myself, it was realised.

I would've been happy to go to the accommodation and receive check-in instructions in person if that was what was stated on the itinerary, but the itinerary wording (quote: 'There is no front desk at this property. Guests will receive an email with special check-in instructions'), coupled with the fact that I had tried to get in touch with the host by text, phone call and via the hotels.com messaging area both before and on the day with no reply, made me concerned I'd be stuck in London with no place to stay if I took a chance and went to the apartment on the day.

Is it fair to leave the customer to take such a chance when it's clearly beyond what was stated on the itinerary?

ZacharyJohn

@powerful_Rogue, @born_again,

Thanks for your comments.

I might try hashing this out with travelnest as opposed to hotels.com to see if I have any more luck. If not, I'll go with your suggestion of Chargeback for non receipt of services.

Grumpy_chap

ZacharyJohn said:

Grumpy_chap said:

ZacharyJohn said:

the accommodation hasn't been made available to me 

I think this might be where any claim you have falls down.

You don't know that the accommodation was not made available to you.
The communication in advance of arrival was not as great as you would have liked.  It is possible you missed a communication, or it went to spam folder or such like.
You did have the confirmation the day before.  

There was nothing to stop you from simply arriving at the accommodation at the scheduled check-in time and then the host might well have been there and / or expecting the call to provide access.  Or the host might have sent details of access, perhaps a key-box.  Or the website might have been more responsive to a customer calling to say they are at the property and awaiting access (immediate issue to resolve) rather than a customer calling to say they won't be able to get access later in the day.

Instead, you panicked and choose to book alternative accommodation and never arrived at the pre-booked accommodation.

I can totally see, from the accommodation provider and agent point of view, this is a no-show or a late cancellation, neither of which would usually entitle you to a refund.

You seem to have anticipated the failure to make the accommodation available and therefore decided not to attempt to receive the accommodation.  "Anticipatory breach of contract" is not something that really usually has any route in consumer contracts.

Hi Grumpy_chap,

I understand what you're saying, but surely the fact that I didn't receive any check-in instructions during the rest of the day (even after I booked the subsequent hotel) means the failure on their side was not just anticipated by myself, it was realised.

I would've been happy to go to the accommodation and receive check-in instructions in person if that was what was stated on the itinerary, but the itinerary wording (quote: 'There is no front desk at this property. Guests will receive an email with special check-in instructions'), coupled with the fact that I had tried to get in touch with the host by text, phone call and via the hotels.com messaging area both before and on the day with no reply, made me concerned I'd be stuck in London with no place to stay if I took a chance and went to the apartment on the day.

Is it fair to leave the customer to take such a chance when it's clearly beyond what was stated on the itinerary?

Your take on things makes sense.
I think mine did too.

In fact, I still think you were anticipating the failure to provide accommodation. 
The messaging from the booking site is possibly very standard / generic in nature. 

I have travelled before where the advance information has been incomplete and trusted that things will work out.  Including one occasion driving to South East France, expecting to get there around 5 pm but delays meant did not arrive until around 10 pm.  I did try to make contact on the way, but without success, but did leave a voice mail to say we'd arrive about 10 pm.  On arrival, there was an envelope taped to the door with my name written on and the room key inside.
That is not how the booking platform said it would be.
It still worked.


The risk of being stuck in London with no place to stay is so remotely slim that I think I would have still simply turned up to the booked accommodation and expected it to work out.
Then, if it did not work out, there is going to be a hotel of some standard that can be booked last minute.  At that point, you are no longer anticipating the failure as the failure has actually materialised.  Your position for any claim is stronger.

The difficulty you actually have is, based on inconsistent or poor pre-arrival e-mails, you reached the conclusion in advance that the booking would fail and you therefore did not turn up to take the booking and check-in.
The property owner simply needs to say they left the key taped to the door (or whatever equivalent), and you have no means to challenge that.

Certainly, if I was the property owner, I would stand my ground that it was a no-show and sorry if the communication was confusing, but everything was available to make use of as expected.  Hence, no refund.

born_again

ZacharyJohn said:

@powerful_Rogue, @born_again,

Thanks for your comments.

I might try hashing this out with travelnest as opposed to hotels.com to see if I have any more luck. If not, I'll go with your suggestion of Chargeback for non receipt of services.

It's who you paid that needs to refund you.👍