Holiday accommodation nightmare

RubyRed1605

Good morning

I have an ongoing situation regarding a holiday which was planned in January and am hoping someone can advise me of my rights and options. We are due to travel in 6 days.

I booked flights abroad with Ryanair and holiday accommodation with Booking.com at the beginning of January.

Each of these were paid in full using my credit card.

The accommodation was confirmed with the owner and all seemed well.

Yesterday (28/02/2026) I received an email from the accommodation owner through the Booking.com portal advising that as of 1st February the accommodation was unavailable.

The booking still shows as confirmed and I am aware that I should not cancel myself as that could leave me open to a total financial loss for the payment made.

I called Booking.com who were unaware of this update and advised me they will contact the owner, allow them two hours to reply then begin the process of finding us alternative accommodation.

I see that there are few options available on Booking.com for the dates we need and impressed upon them that there are now no like for like options and certainly not in the same price bracket because we are now less than a week until departure and accommodation available is 2-3 times the price I paid.

Having looked online at other reviews I now fear Booking.com will offer a poor replacement or fail to pay the additional costs for a decent alternative.

I do have travel insurance through my employer but they are closed until tomorrow.

Can anyone with knowledge please advise if I am likely to be entitled to additional funding to cover alternative accommodation through my insurance or cover to cancel the flights and rebook through a reliable company?

I understand this issue is no fault of the flight provider whose T&Cs state no refund but we are now in the position where we either lose the cost of the flight and battle for a refund through Booking.com or accept an alternative accommodation offer from them.

From my experience in talking to staff at Booking.com yesterday I have little faith in their customer service or understanding of my concerns.

Thank you in advance for any input.

-Update-

Booking.com have advised that we can cancel the original booking,rebook another apartment (at more than double the cost) then they would 'try' to arrange a credit for the difference.

I do not feel this is a viable option.

Grumpy_chap

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6657488/holiday-accommodation-nightmare

For now you need to let Booking com follow their process.

Do not let your concern of a poor outcome be self-fulfilling.

You could look at the currently available accommodation in the same area and have some preferred options should you be asked.

Taking a positive attitude is likely to achieve the best outcome.

Which area are you traveling to?

eskbanker

I do have travel insurance through my employer but they are closed until tomorrow.

Can anyone with knowledge please advise if I am likely to be entitled to additional funding to cover alternative accommodation through my insurance or cover to cancel the flights and rebook through a reliable company?

Obviously nobody can tell what the terms of your insurance policy are from that, but I imagine it'll be unlikely that there'd be any commitment to funding more expensive accommodation (or refunding flights) in the event of an accommodation supplier cancelling, and believe that booking.com will be the same.

It ought not to be problematic to obtain a refund for the accommodation, although I can see why that wouldn't resolve your issue, and you'd still be left with flights that are unlikely to be refundable by any party - this is the main disadvantage of making separate bookings rather than buying a package.

Your credit card provider might cover additional accommodation costs but you wouldn't find out until much later on and would probably have to fight for it - you'd need to establish that section 75 applies (it often doesn't when there's an intermediary agent involved but depends on the small print of the arrangement), and then make a case that they should cover the losses arising directly from the supplier's breach of contract.

RubyRed1605

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81904715#Comment_81904715

Thanks for your reply. It's Lanzarote so obviously less options due to the size of the island. I've added an update above. Looks like we will have to forfeit the flights and try to arrange a charge back for the accommodation through my bank :(

RubyRed1605

Thank you for your reply. Yes, package holidays in future, an expensive lesson indeed.

Worried_fool

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81904898#Comment_81904898

An alternative: book accommodation separately, but book directly or at least do not use Booking. Your experience with them is not particularly unusual.

elsien

Booking directly would still not prevent the accommodation owner from cancelling the booking last-minute.

Worried_fool

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81904946#Comment_81904946

True, but Booking has form for double-booking accommodation, meaning that one of the bookings has to be cancelled once the owner finds out what has happened.