Hotel booking refund claim

pandaman888

Back in January this year I booked a stay with a hotel chain (Holiday Inn), the booking type was a non-cancellable but modifications allowed and payment was taken via credit card (mastercard). However due to change to circumstances and the fact that other dates were cheaper, I looked at changing to other dates and contacted the hotels reservation team on phone which is operated by IHG (under which the Holiday Inn is brand of). The phone operator informed me that the dates I was looking to change to was cheaper and thus a refund will be provided for the difference, so I requested the change and was told a refund (£120) will be issued within 4-5 working days. I received an email confirming the modified booking with the updated pricing.

However, two weeks later no refund appeared in my account so I contacted the reservation team who then said I best speak to the hotel directly. The hotel are saying that the booking is non-refundable so I shouldn't get a refund in difference. They also said the reservation team shouldn't have been able to modify the booking as this can only be done by the hotel itself for this type of booking, yet my booking has been shown to be updated with the new booking details so they are accepting this change as a form of 'goodwill' for me.

I complained this originally to IHG direct (through the web service) who only forwarded my complaint to the hotel and the hotel is rejecting my claim for a refund. I escalated this to the hotel management who said they will investigate this with IHG and over the course of 6 weeks, I was told that the investigation was pending and no outcome was ever received. Eventually the date of my stay came and went and I even requested an update in person and was told they had no news of the investigation.

When I got home, I escalated this with my credit card company, who initiated a chargeback for the difference in cost. I forwarded all my booking confirmation emails to them as evidence. The CC co has now come back and rejected my claim, citing that the hotel has responded and that the hotel booking is complete and insufficient evidence that a refund was to be provided for the change in dates.

So I'm now wondering if I have any grounds of pursuing this further? Is a further complaint under section 75 or to the financial ombudsman worth it?

user1977

Have you checked whether their terms actually say you're entitled to the difference in cost? Or are you just trying to enforce something (possibly erroneously) told to you by the call centre?

MyRealNameToo

Read the terms of your agreement.

Call centre agents make mistakes, they are after all human. Generally contrary to popular myth what they state doesnt automatically become binding on the company, were that not the case you could come to an agreement for them to say something silly (eg they will refund you £1m) and you go halves on the unwarranted gain.

Potentially there is a claim if you act on their advice and sustain a loss due to their erroneous advices but there would be a number of factors to consider… how obvious was the error, how reasonable were your actions; if you went out and put a £75k deposit on a rolls in anticipation of your soon to arrive £500k refund its unlikely any court would uphold your claim.

Some companies have more positive policies and will stick by most of what their advisors say when they make a mistake but they are doing so as a gesture of goodwill not because they are legally obliged to.

born_again

So I'm now wondering if I have any grounds of pursuing this further? Is a further complaint under section 75 or to the financial ombudsman worth it?

FOS won't entertain a chargeback complaint unless bank has failed in the process, which sounds like has not happened.

S75 is going to depend on per person per night cost of the stay. less than £100 PPPN then no S75. Even then it's going to be down to T/C of the agreement.

Worried_fool

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81979974#Comment_81979974

Your claim has no merit: you booked a non-refundable room, and then the room was provided. A call-centre agent was confused and gave you wrong information, but there is no suggestion that you suffered any loss because of this mistake.

Aylesbury_Duck

Surely it comes down to the precise terms of the "modifications allowed" part of the booking. I'm going to guess that this, coupled with the non-cancellation condition, means that you can extend the booking, or perhaps swap to a more expensive date but you can't "trade down" to a cheaper date and be refunded the difference.

If that's the case, then it's the terms of the original booking that apply, and they can't be superseded by an operator's error. You haven't suffered a loss in that case.

visidigi

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6666012/hotel-booking-refund-claim

No. Taking this to any ombudsman would be a waste of their and your time (and would impact others with genuine claims having to wait in the queue for this spurious claim).

You paid what you paid, you got what you paid for, the fact they let you change it without charge was a bonus.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

It really doesn’t matter if the call centre made a mistake, terms of a contract can be changed if both parties agree.

An agreement was made, tough luck if it was a mistake (how would OP ought to know).

Problem for OP is proving what was said, maybe the call was recorded.

Jumblebumble

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6666012/hotel-booking-refund-claim

2 Questions

Did the original booking terms allow a change of date?

Did you book direct or via an OTA

born_again

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81980571#Comment_81980571

Even if call was recorded, there is no guarantee that it is still on system.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81980571#Comment_81980571

What was the consideration for the change? If there is no consideration then it needs a deed with witnesses. Else it's an informal agreement to change which isnt binding and therefore cannot be enforced