Our children were unwell during the summer holidays so we had to cancel our hotel booking in France. We booked this hotel through booking.com and it was clear that it was non-refundable. We called the hotel and asked if we could move the booking to another date – not get our money back – but the manager refused. Is there any way to get our money back? TR, Kent.
Consumer advocate Dean Dunham responds: Let's start by debunking a myth. Many people believe that when they make a booking with something like booking.com, they are entering into a contract with that entity and can make a claim against it if something goes wrong.
This is generally not the case as booking.com and other similar entities are merely a platform to facilitate your booking and therefore bring together you and a service provider or seller of goods. Here booking.com has facilitated your booking with the hotel and your contract is therefore between you and that hotel.
A family's holiday to France was ruined when their children became unwell, but the hotel refused to move the booking to another date
Even if a booking is 'non-refundable', there are sometimes limited circumstances in which you can cancel or move the date. The starting point of your inquiry is to review the hotel's terms and conditions, especially the cancellation policy.
If the policy gives you the right to 'change the date', you are entitled to do so and the hotel's refusal will amount to a breach of contract. However, this is unlikely to be the case, meaning you will have no contractual right to cancel or request a date change.
So prima facie you have no rights here. However, in this situation, I always advise consumers to ask the hotel if it will reimburse them if it manages to resell the room booking. If the hotel were based in this country there would be some legal grounds for this as a trader is not required to 'double recover' under English law and the Competition and Markets Authority has previously commented that it agrees with this principle.
The same principle may not apply in France, but of course it's worth asking.
Your only other recourse is to turn to your travel insurance company, if you have taken out a policy. However, you may not be covered if you want to change the date simply because you have changed your mind. On the other hand, if you need to change the date for medical or similar reasons, you may have a better chance of being covered.
I rented a marquee for my daughter's wedding and on the day it rained. Water seeped through and dripped onto the guests. I want to get some money back, but the company says the weather was exceptional. There was no contract – do I have any rights? ES, Gloucestershire.
Consumer advocate Dean Dunham responds: I often hear traders who rent out goods, such as marquees, say that the rental agreement is not covered by the Consumer Rights Act 2015 because they have not 'sold' the goods to the consumer. So let me debunk another myth. This is not true. Article 6 of the Consumer Rights Act makes it clear that rental agreements are indeed covered by this law.
As with the sale of goods, the Consumer Rights Act states that goods 'rented' to consumers must be of 'satisfactory quality' and 'fit for the purpose'. It therefore does not matter that you did not have a written contract as these provisions of the Consumer Rights Act automatically form contractual terms between you and the company that rented the marquee to you.
Unless the rental company has specifically told you, prior to your agreement to rent the marquee, that it may leak in bad weather, they cannot rely on this and are therefore in breach of contract (i.e. the contract that is closed under the Consumer Rights Act) due to the tent leaking.
This will therefore give rise to a legal remedy. The usual action that follows once you have made some use of the goods or services (as is clearly the case here) is a price reduction. This right is granted to consumers under section 24 of the Consumer Rights Act. The amount of the discount is more difficult, because the law does not help with the calculation. But the greater the inconvenience caused by the leaking marquee, the greater the price reduction.
Finally, if the rental company refuses to listen, you may have an alternative remedy if you paid by debit or credit card. If you paid by debit card in the last 120 days, you can make a chargeback claim by contacting your bank and asking for a claim form or a link to an online method to make a claim.
If you paid by credit card, please contact your card provider and indicate that you wish to make a Section 75 claim. In either case you will have to allege the breach of contract I mentioned above, and say you are asking for money back to take into account your right to a 'price reduction'. Do not say you are claiming 'compensation' as none of these claims pay damages.