Hotel charged for a no show.. took cc from a previous stay??

Regarding a point made above: hotels do not always take deposits: they just hold your CC details so that in case of no show or damages, they can cover themselves.

While I agree that the hotel should have sent you a written confirmation, (which they may/might have done and you have forgotten about),how did you expect them to hold the room for you? It may not have been your CC, but this must be the card you used when checking out that time.

As it was mentioned above, if it had been the opposite, you showing up at the hotel with no resa on their side, you will be here, giving out abt that hotel!

You knew you had it booked. at your own request,(as every year), you were supposed to attend that event but did not in the end...I think you simply forgot to cancel it.

You have asked them, they did what you asked them to do. While you may feel "cheated", I think the hotel was aboslutely correct in taking the first night's price as compensation for a no show!

Complainer said:

I'm not an expert, but have a look at [broken link removed]

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.

One might ask why this change was done by arrangement with the other hoteliers? The answer is of course to avoid the possibility that one hotel would NOT apply the restriction and would get more business as a result. That is anti-competitive.

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If you read Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (the EU legislation from which the Irish Competition Act is derived) you will note that the provision you have cited relates to only cases involving abuse by operators of a dominant position within a market.

Its hard to see how a uniform bookings policy adopted in common amongst a network of hoteliers could amount to 'an abuse of a dominant position', not least due to the fragmented nature of the hotel sector.

Anyway, Irish Competition legislation hardly applies to Spanish hotels?

Any abuse by one or more undertakings of a dominant position within the internal market or in a substantial part of it shall be prohibited as incompatible with the internal market in so far as it may affect trade between Member States.
Such abuse may, in particular, consist in:
(a) directly or indirectly imposing unfair purchase or selling prices or other unfair trading conditions;
(b) limiting production, markets or technical development to the prejudice of consumers;
(c) applying dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions with other trading parties, thereby placing them at a competitive disadvantage;
(d) making the conclusion of contracts subject to acceptance by the other parties of supplementary obligations which, by their nature or according to commercial usage, have no connection with the subject of such contracts.

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Again, I'm not an expert, but the 'dissimilar conditions' limitation also applies under Article 101, which is not limited to abuse of dominant positions. But you're right, Irish legislation wouldn't apply - who knows if the Spanish have implemented the articles to the same extent.

I visit Spain at least five times per year and I rent a car each time. I have never had an accident. Some of the Spanish car rental companies have it as policy to charge a deposit to Irish renters (I kid you not). There is no point in arguing with them, it's in their terms and conditions that they can charge deposits against anybody they wish.

Of course, it's racist, but that doesn't bother them.

Where do you draw the line between price-fixing and prices finding a level - is it just that in one case you at looking across the street to see what prices your competitor is charging and in the other you ring him up and have a conversation about what price you should both be charging? It seems like a gray area.

onq said:

Where do you draw the line between price-fixing and prices finding a level - is it just that in one case you at looking across the street to see what prices your competitor is charging and in the other you ring him up and have a conversation about what price you should both be charging? It seems like a gray area.

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Like I said, I'm not an expert, but as I understand it, any conversation with a competitor about what price you should be charging or what other terms of business should apply is in breach of competition law.

Like many other corporate laws, it is probably quite difficult to prove breaches of law, and I presume the CA prioritise their activities on the cases where the impacts are high and the evidence is good. They've had recent cases on the car industry and the cement industry.

I agree that the tarring of an entire nationality with the one brush is poor form. Spain, like anywhere else, has the full spectrum of people - there is certainly no predominance of sharp practice from there that I'm aware of.

onq said:

I agree that the tarring of an entire nationality with the one brush is poor form. Spain, like anywhere else, has the full spectrum of people - there is certainly no predominance of sharp practice from there that I'm aware of.

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I think you might be missing the point of what was being discussed here, ie a Spanish hotel operating a 'full payment' booking policy for Spanish residents. This sort of policy is quite common in France also (for French residents).