Booking.com Host demanding undisclosed deposit after booking and refusing to honour booking

brianposter

That link did not produce the act which I was expecting and the legislation appears to be distributed over several acts. You will have to be content with more recent legislation eg https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/notes/division/3/1?view=plain

Where para 31 says "At its most basic level, for a contract to be formed under the law of England and Wales or Northern Ireland there needs to be an offer and acceptance (i.e. one party must express a willingness to contract on certain terms and the other party must agree to those terms); and there must be ‘consideration,’ which is to say that both sides must offer something to the other (e.g. money in return for goods). In Scots law there is no requirement for consideration but the parties’ agreement must show an intention to be legally bound. As well as using words, a contract could be implied by conduct of the parties, for example, by jumping into a black cab and stating your destination, this conduct would be taken as an agreement that the taxi driver will take you to your destination and that you will pay a price for it."

Curiosity2017

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81978266#Comment_81978266

There's a problem with your theory, they don't own any hotels to provide accommodation!

brianposter

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81979514#Comment_81979514

So what. National express dont (AFAIK) own any buses- do you think that invalidates their tickets ?

A_Geordie

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81979917#Comment_81979917

I don't think you're articulating your points very well other than vague and generic responses. If someone makes a booking via booking.com then I would agree that you are creating two contracts.

The first, a contract between the customer and the host to provide accommodation services. The other contract will be between the customer and booking.com who provides a service i.e. the booking platform, access to the platform etc.. There will be a third contract between the host and booking.com which will dictate certain commercial arrangements which, amongst other things, booking.com acting as the payment agent on behalf of the host, where they take their commission first and then distribute the remaining funds to the host.

In your initial post, you said booking.com have failed completely, and another poster invited you to explain why booking.com have failed. So can you explain what exactly booking.com has failed to do for the OP?

brianposter

Provide accomodation for which they have taken payment.

user1977

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81979500#Comment_81979500

Yes, that's how contracts are formed, but I'm not sure what point you're making?

The act defines a Trader as "a person acting for purposes relating to that person's trade, business, craft or profession, whether acting personally or through another person acting in the trader's name or on the trader's behalf."

So obviously envisages the consumer dealing with an intermediary who is acting on behalf of the trader. Why don't you think that's what booking.com is doing? Or to put it another way, what do you think they need to do differently to make it a contract entered into by them as agents for the accommodation provider?

A_Geordie

Just because booking.com takes a payment doesn't make them party to a contract for the provision of hotel accommodation. They are no different to eBay who also operates an online platform that enables sellers to advertise goods or services and for buyers to purchase them. eBay also takes payment before distributing the funds to seller.

If we were to apply your logic, that would mean that whenever a seller advertises goods or services on eBay, the buyer is not entering into a contract, they are in fact entering into a contract with eBay and therefore if anything goes wrong the buyer should only have to sue eBay, not the seller. That's not what the buyer agreed under the terms and conditions when they signed up or agreed to purchase something using eBay or in the OP's case, purchase accommodation using the booking.com platform.

You claim to understand the concept of agency law but I'm not so sure you do, otherwise you would understand why your argument as to why booking.com should be held liable fails at the very first hurdle.

There may be avenues to pursue booking.com but it is definitely not on the basis that they took a payment from the OP.

brianposter

With respect to Ebay the fact that you have a contract with one entity does not prevent you having a contract with another entity. If you have a problem you look at the merits of the case and as a general principle in the UK you look first at whoever has been paid.

A_Geordie

With respect to Ebay the fact that you have a contract with one entity does not prevent you having a contract with another entity.

100% true, which is what I've explained in my first post that there are several contracts in play. However your argument is that because booking.com took the payment for the accommodation, they're liable to the OP if the accommodation provider does not agree to their end of the bargain. i used Ebay as an analogy to the current situation because they operate the same model as booking.com.

If you have a problem you look at the merits of the case and as a general principle in the UK you look first at whoever has been paid.

Respectfully, that is not how contract law works. The starting point is to determine if a contract was formed and if so, what were the terms of that contract. Unless you can prove the terms were illegal, unenforceable or they were not incorporated into the contract, a court will uphold the stated terms of the contract.

Booking.com's terms make it clear that they are the operator of the platform and for accommodation bookings, it is the customer and the host who are entering into the contract. You would need a miracle to convince any judge that booking.com should be liable as a third party for the host's breach of contract that booking.com is not privy to. Like I said, there are some possibilities how that could happen, just not the way you have described it.

brianposter

I cannot comment on what might happen in court because in my experience the internet platform has always folded rather than risk a court appearance.

"Unless you can prove the terms were illegal, unenforceable or they were not incorporated into the contract, a court will uphold the stated terms of the contract. "

There are far more restrictions on enforceable consumer contract terms than those you have mentioned, eg unfair, and the law also adds a set of implied terms into any contract.