cancelling a holiday and associated charges

[mickeymouse]

My sister has just recieved notice that she is going to be made redundant in the near very near future. She was due to go on holidays which she booked with a well known travel agent however she now feels that due to her circumstances she can no longer justify such expenditure. To date she has only paid 100euro deposit of the 1700euro total cost. At the earliest opportunity she informed the travel agency however to her utter amazement she was informed she is obliged to pay 40% of the total holiday cost as she is just within the 6 week cancellation period (3 days earlier and she would have been fine!). This amounts to a substantial amount of money as the holiday included her husband and child also. She had no holiday insurance taken out at this point.

Just wondering if anyone has ever been in a similar situation and what the chances are of the holiday company pursuing her for this money. At the moment I see her options as... 1. explain her situation to the travel agnecy and hope they feel some sympathy, 2. don't pay and wait and see, 3.pay and put this down to more bad luck.

Thanks a lot for any feedback which you may have

 

[samanthajane]

they are allowed to charge these if you cancel within certain times. The closer to the holiday the more you have to pay.

I booked a ski-ing holiday a few years back and 4 weeks before we were due to leave we found out we couldn't go. After a year long court battle to buy our house we finally won and were given a date that we had to close by which happened to be in the middle of our holiday. We tried everything to see if we could get everything done before we went away but it just wasn't possible.

I had paid €300 deposit (€100 for each person ) off a €2000 holiday. They told me i would have to pay "x" amount ( cant remember what it was now ) but i never did and i never heard anything again from them.

 

[mickeymouse]

thanks for that, its good to hear someones experience!

do you think they would bring someone to court if they refused to pay?… afterall, as I said to my sister, the owed deposit is almost equivalent to 2 weeks ‘dole’ pay!!!

 

[samanthajane]

I've never heard of anyone being taken to court.

Logically speaking ( not that it works that way ) if they managed to re-sell the holiday they haven't really lost out on anything. They've actually gained cause there's no way your'll get your deposit back.

I think this has happened loads of times before and the way they have gotten around that is to make you pay in full 10/12 weeks before you go away.

When booking my holiday this year i booked it 7 weeks in advance and they wanted the full amount but i said i wasn't able to pay for it all at once they would have to wait another week till i had the money. They said the normal is 10/12 weeks but i have never had to do that before i think last year i had to pay it all off 4 weeks before i went away. They finally let me pay the balance the following week, during that week i had 3 letters requesting the balance or my holiday would be cancelled! These are automatically issued so i was told. Waste of a stamp but at least not my money.

I'd inform them that you wont be paying because you dont have the money and leave it at that. I really dont think your going to hear anything from them.