Buy-a-Gift Experience

BobbleMac

Not sure if I should pursue a refund of additional expenses incurred as Buyagift are unable to refund costs of an alternative stay, as they would be unable to refund any funds that have not been paid to us for this."

Long Story Alert!!!

We received a gift voucher for a 2 night break as a wedding present, so we booked a hotel in Great Yarmouth, so that we could go and see Chris McCausland play on the pier on 12th September.

On 30th July 2025, I received a voice message to stay that "our stay at the Easton at the Majestic Hotel, due to a situation that had happened and damage to the roof the hotel is temporary closed and we contacted Expedia and they will issue a full refund" - so I got in touch with Buyagift and explained the message left, and I was concerned that how was I to get a refund when I haven't booked through Expedia and I received an email back from Buyagift saying that "We have followed up with our booking partner regarding your reservation at The Easton at the Majestic Hotel, and I can confirm that the hotel has advised the booking has not been cancelled and will be going ahead as planned.  We understand the confusion caused by the voicemail and sincerely apologise for any concern this may have caused. At this stage, there is no action required on your part, and your stay is still confirmed.  Should anything further change or if you receive additional communication suggesting otherwise, please don’t hesitate to contact us right away — we’re here to help."

Didn't hear anything more, so assumed everything was OK, 24 hours before our arrival we should have received an email with the entrance code to the hotel, this didn't materialised, so on the day of travel, I was onto customer service at Buyagift, who assured me that the booking was still OK and that I should contact the hotel directly to get the code, which I did, no answer so left a message, whilst we are driving up to Great Yarmouth, we made another call to the Easton hotel just to double check again only to be told by the lady on the other end of the phone that "the Easton hotel had stopped trading on 01st August and that there would be no one at the hotel to let us in."

So now we have pulled into the next available services, trying to get hold of Buyagift to see what they can do as we now can't turn back and go back home to SE London and just travel up to Great Yarmouth the next day just to see Chris McCausland.  So I get told to email the Buyagift bookings team and my OH is on his phone searching for alternative arrangement as we can't run the risk of having to kip in the car for at least a night as Buyagift aren't going to find us alternative accommodation at this point.

So, there is some back and forth since this day and I get a response from Buyagift to say that "they have checked and can see we raised this previously to the company the hotel works with for listing their bookings online. They then in turn spoke to the hotel and confirmed with two hotel staff members on different dates - Manish on the 1st of August and Solomon on the 3rd - that this booking was still in place and would be honoured. Therefore we had no reason to believe anything otherwise. I'm not reaching out to our hotel booking partners again to ask for options on this and will be updating you ASAP."

Whilst in Great Yarmouth we go and check out the Easton at the Majestic hotel, and it appears that the Majestic is one hotel and then there is another entrance for the Easton, so I emailed back with photos and the number we had called and I can only surmise that Buyagift were talking to people who represented the Majestic who may be trading but the Easton is not and as an aside it was not the greatest of accommodations either from the outside.

So I responded back and asked for the voucher to be reinstated and also be reimbursed for the additional hotel that we had to book which was about £94 for two nights.  I have heard back from Buyagift today and they say "that they have spoken to our booking partner and they have confirmed that we can go ahead and have the booking removed from the voucher so that we can reinstate this back so that it can be used once again towards a new booking.  I have gone ahead and extended the voucher for a further 12 months to allow enough time to find a new booking and book that in.  We would be unable to refund costs of an alternative stay, as we would be unable to refund any funds that have not been paid to us for this."

After this war and peace story - My query is am I within my rights to continue to request that they reimburse us the £94 that we paid for the hotel, as Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, services must be provided with reasonable care and skill, and where this does not happen, consumers may be entitled to compensation for consequential losses. In this case, the breakdown in communication between the hotel and booking partners led to a failed service, and we were left to bear the financial impact.

Your advice and experience gratefully received

Aylesbury_Duck

If they pay you the £94 you will have had betterment.  It means you would have stayed two nights free of charge and you still have a voucher for another two nights.  

Only the person who bought the voucher has any consumer rights, in any case.

saajan_12

BobbleMac said:

So I responded back and asked for the voucher to be reinstated and also be reimbursed for the additional hotel that we had to book which was about £94 for two nights.  I have heard back from Buyagift today and they say "that they have spoken to our booking partner and they have confirmed that we can go ahead and have the booking removed from the voucher so that we can reinstate this back so that it can be used once again towards a new booking.  I have gone ahead and extended the voucher for a further 12 months to allow enough time to find a new booking and book that in.  We would be unable to refund costs of an alternative stay, as we would be unable to refund any funds that have not been paid to us for this."

After this war and peace story - My query is am I within my rights to continue to request that they reimburse us the £94 that we paid for the hotel, as Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, services must be provided with reasonable care and skill, and where this does not happen, consumers may be entitled to compensation for consequential losses. In this case, the breakdown in communication between the hotel and booking partners led to a failed service, and we were left to bear the financial impact.

Your advice and experience gratefully received

Well it would be one or the other.. you were due one stay that's 2 nights long, so either
a. get the voucher reinstated, effectively putting you back to the original position except with you using the voucher on another occasion OR
b. get this stay reimbursed, effectively getting the free stay for this concert, and no further voucher to use. 

They're offering (a) but if you're not sure you'll be able to use it and would rather (b), I think you have a good argument. Potentially may have to be the gifter claiming, but whether through consumer rights or just complaint, LBA and money claim for damages due to their mistake.