Money Moral Dilemma: Who should pay to change the holiday our neighbours encouraged us to book?

2702

It is not your neighbours fault, how would they know how others would react? I think they were being friendly and wanted you to go but in the end it is your decision. The organiser is at fault & who are the other people in the group that do not know you? If they are so adamant you do not go why do they not cancel their holiday?I agree it could be uncomfortable on the trip so I would be prepared to cancel but only if the organiser/complainers recompense you.Not your neighbours.

Rocketdogroya

I think this has nothing financially to do with your neighbours, they made a recommendation but you booked it. That being said why would you change your plans and lose out because you booked in good faith? if the tour operator wants you to change these plans surely they should foot the bill not you? Sounds like a very badly run event.

Southendormargate

I would go and make sure these snobs have the worst holiday ever

Geenniebabes

If you fancy the cruise, go anyway and tell them you respect they are all going as a group and will be keeping yourselves to yourselves and looking forward to enjoying time with new friends you will be meeting and making on the cruise.

Peter_Vince

If the organisers accepted your booking, but are now recinding that acceptance, they should refund you with no charge, and possibly also a compensatory payment for your inconvenience.

Katecooks

"Strangers are just friends you've yet to meet" 
Clearly they don't believe in that saying. I'm guessing if there are people in the group who are frankly so unkind and unwelcoming that others in the group don't like them and that there will be plenty of fall-outs on the trip: demand they club together to refund you (they probably won't but the least you can do is shame them). Would be useful if you could post the name of the cruise and dates here so that others can be forewarned not to book the same cruise. I hate large groups on holidays and in restaurants; sometimes they tend to act as if they are the only guests that matter. 

gocurlygirl

It sounds as if some of the others in the group have said that, but not all.
The tour organiser is the one who should help the situation,not make you feel uncomfortable.,
No one can know everyone in the world and I am sure someone must be better than the ones who "don't know you." The neighbour sounds like a nice person and probably has not expected this attitude at all.
The tour organiser obviously was happy to be paid.Therefore I feel he should compensate you for the loss of money,why should you pay for this-not your fault.If I went I would be prepared to be friendly to those who were,and keep a distance between the obviously snobbish/cliquey people.
If you don't go I hope you find nicer people elsewhere.
If you recognise yourself as one of the group who complained about not knowing Kelvin
-SHAME ON YOU.

bikaga

Some info missing here... it could be that your neighbour thought you were a great fit and hadn't talked to the others. In which case it's really on them to sort out. But I'm assuming that this is an exclusive trip, i.e. no other people on the boat. In which case yeah it might be weird for them not to know you and for you to only know your neighbours.

You say "up to £200" - is that if you change from lower season to high season? Which would be a you problem, and you could just change to a similar off-season date for £50. Or maybe it's a cut throat company like Ryanair who just milk customers, and the "up to £200" is more like £180-£200. Hard to tell from the short description.

An alternative would be to ask them to split the cost for rebooking or a cancellation fee between them all since it's one of the group who invited you and the group who then rejected you. Even with £200, that shouldn't be much more than £10-£20 per person, and if it's so important to not have new people there then they should be happy to arrange that somehow.

Or maybe if you're good mates with your neighbours, you can rebook together and have a great time without the rest of the group.

Either way, if that was me, I'd probably not want to go on that trip anymore just to save £200, they don't sound like a very welcoming lot.

Groom

Usually these things are booked through the organiser and he shouldn't have accepted your booking. Unless they have booked the whole boat, there is no reason why you can't still go, as there will be others on it who aren't members of the group.  Having said that, the group doesn't sound like one I'd want to be involved with - what's the saying,  "Friends are just strangers you don't yet know"? Very starnge to say they don't want you as they don't know you. 
I don't think you can ask your neighbours to pay - they probably already feel awful about the situation. 

ripongrammargirl

I don’t understand this snobbish attitude. Your neighbours asked you to go and you know them!
It’s a great loss to the others if they are so unfriendly that they don’t even want to share a boat with two people that have paid already. Just go and have a great time and ignore these horrible unfriendly individuals. 

It’s such a weird thing to say “you can’t come because we don’t know you”: sounds very fishy to me…. Swingers cruise??!!!
You were invited, you accepted and you paid so go and have a wonderful time. You don’t need to have anything to do with these horrible, rude people. Don’t lose out on money or an experience just because of some selfish, arrogant clique. 

What is wrong with people these days?