I definatly agree with Sandrat on this one. You asked for the room, it was obviously kept for you, and the onus was on you to cancel.
I still think you should have to pay though because they kept a room for you as you requested
IM sorry but i dont agree .if i had a pound /€ for every one who told me they wanted me to do a kitchen for them id be a very rich man.IF you dont get the deposit you dont have the job.Likewise if they did'nt take or inform you of a deposit or the need to take one then THEY DONT have your booking.
I have to agree with WIFELIST here, maybe it is a different story with hotels but in my business I expect deposit before I'll mark it in my book.
Until money passes hands there is no deal.
Anyway surely the hotel would get in touch with the OP first to remind her of the booking.
If you booked a room and a year later you turned up to have no room kept, I'd be pretty annoyed.
The norm in the business is to ask the customer for a credit card to secure the booking. This gives a clear indication to the customer that there is a financial impact of making the booking. The hotel failed to ask for this, and therefore had no right to charge the card in question. Indeed, they probably broke Data Protection legislation by retaining the credit card information for longer than necesary.I just about never pay a deposit on a hotel room: that's the norm in the business. When I make a booking, there is a deal. A contract exists.
If they secured a booking with a credit card without telling me, and then debited a cancellation fee to that card, I'd be pretty annoyed to.
The norm in the business is to ask the customer for a credit card to secure the booking. This gives a clear indication to the customer that there is a financial impact of making the booking. The hotel failed to ask for this, and therefore had no right to charge the card in question. Indeed, they probably broke Data Protection legislation by retaining the credit card information for longer than necesary.
Somebody checks out; a credit card is used to pay the bill; at the same time, a booking is made for the same event next year. It seems reasonable for the hotelier to link the credit card with the booking.
SORRY my point was that when i started in business for myself many years ago, i nieavly believed that when i sat down in front of someone and they told me i had the job(kitchen) that i did have it, only to be dissapointed later when of course they would'nt ring or answer you back.Therefore i learned the hard way that if you dont get the deposit or signature then (as any salesman wil tell you) you have no saleI don't understand wifeslist's point - are you saying that because people have entered into a contract with you and then gone back on their word then it's O.K. to do likewise to others ? - that without a payment then there's no deal/contract/booking ?
I imagine that legally and morally you're wrong.
( mind you, in this case the hotel could argue that they did have a pre-payment in the form of the cc details, though I don't know about the legalities of owners permission )
Somehow, I doubt if the Data Protection Commissioner will think it all that reasonable for hotelier to do this without so much as a 'what credit card should I use to secure this booking'?Somebody checks out; a credit card is used to pay the bill; at the same time, a booking is made for the same event next year. It seems reasonable for the hotelier to link the credit card with the booking.
What deal? That's exactly my point. There was no deal that the hotelier could charge for no-shows. Any deal needs to be up front and on the table. There was no such deal in this case.Perhaps I am a bit old-fashioned: I operate the basis that a deal should be honoured; if I want to cancel or re-arrange, I think it is incumbent on me to take the appropriate steps.
I've got a question along the same lines, can anyone help?
My partner and i recently went to Barcelona and decided to book a hotel. We tried to do this on line and went through the process including entering our card details, however when clicking proceed an error message came up saying the system was down. We tried this over a week before we went and ended up booking another hotel instead.
On returning home i had 2 e-mail's from the hotel we tried to book, one confirming the booking we didn't actually make (this was e-mailed a day before we left) and one telling us that they were charging us for the no show as we didn't cancel within 48 hours. We e-mailed the hotel explaining the situation but they were unwilling to do anything.
Is there anything we can do? I'd really appreciate some advice?
Thanks
I am amazed at some of the replies here, I have been in the hotel business for a long time in Spain, when I first purchased my hotel here we used to get Spanish pre book a room with us and then book a room with 2 other hotels for the same night, they would do this because they did not know which hotel would suit them better....needless to say I and other hotels had many no-shows, we all got together and now take full payment at the time of booking but for the Spanish only, other nationalities we either take a deposit at the time of booking or ask for card details, if someone refuses then we refuse to hold a room for them and they can then turn up and just hope a room is available, however, nobody now ever refuses or questions this, my terms and conditions are clear on my websites.
IM sorry but i dont agree .if i had a pound /€ for every one who told me they wanted me to do a kitchen for them id be a very rich man.IF you dont get the deposit you dont have the job.Likewise if they did'nt take or inform you of a deposit or the need to take one then THEY DONT have your booking.
You probably broke two sets of legislation with your action here. You probably broke equality legislation by discriminating against somebody based on their nationality, and you probably broke competition law by collaborating with your supposed competitors in this way.needless to say I and other hotels had many no-shows, we all got together and now take full payment at the time of booking but for the Spanish only, other nationalities we either take a deposit at the time of booking or ask for card details,
, and you probably broke competition law by collaborating with your supposed competitors in this way.
I'm not an expert, but have a look at [broken link removed]Really? Competition law forbids price-fixing, it hardly forbids competitors from pooling management expertise or sharing business strategy ideas for any other mutually-beneficial objective?
From what I can see, putting a particular restriction on bookings from Spanish customers, but not other customers is applying 'dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions'. This isn't a case of pooling management expertise or sharing business strategy. It is about applying a particular restriction on one set of customers by arrangement with other service providers.The Competition Act 2002
The Competition Act 2002 contains two main prohibitions:
- Section 4(1) prohibits and renders void "all agreements between undertakings, decisions by associations of undertakings and concerted practices which have as their object or effect the prevention, restriction or distortion of competition in trade in any goods or services in the State or in any part of the State". The Act lists some specific types of behaviour which are expressly prohibited. These include agreements which:
- fix prices;
- limit or control production or markets;
- share markets or sources of supply;
- apply dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions with other trading parties; or
- attach supplementary obligations to a commercial contract which have nothing to do with the subject of the contract (e.g. tying).