Hotel overcharged - what can I do ?

My wife booked a local hotel for a christening sit down meal - we were quoted €25 a head (for 20 people)

When I came to pay at the end of the night it was €200 more than I expected to pay.
They told me we were being charged €35 per head (not €25 as we were told). I disputed this, but got nowhere.

To not make a scene (family members were around) I paid the amount and said I'd be onto them to discuss further.
I very much regret this now (paying full amount).

We have been in touch with the hotel and they are saying that the girl who originally quoted us is on maternity leave and that we were charged the correct amount on the night.
We have tried to go higher up the manager chain but nobody gets back to us, despite their promises.

What are our options as I dont want to let this go - its starting to eat me up to be honest.

- Can I go via Visa to try and stop the payment saying we were overcharged/duped ?

- Is this the type of situation for small claims court ?

Because I paid the amount and do not have the quote in writing, do i just take the hit and learn (ie to get quote in writing in future), as I have not got a leg to stand on as it is their word versus my wife's ?


€200 is a lot of money extra that we hadn't budgeted for and would have gone elsewhere had we been made aware of the corect rate.

Any advice please ?

Hi Tubbs
Without having anything in writing. it would be difficult to prove either way. You can't try and stop the payment with Visa. I also think going to the small claims court wouldn't be a runner, because you can't prove the price quoted either way.
You could find out who is the overall manager of the hotel, and write a letter to them expressing your concerns,what you were originally quoted, and how you were taken aback by the extra €200 charge, that you had not expected. You can say that you understand that someone can make a mistake (the person who originally quoted you), but explain that you wouldn't have held the event in their hotel, if you had known that the price was going to be nearly 50% extra per head. You could also explain that you were unable to address this issue at the time of payment, due to family being there, and you not wanting to spoil the day.
It might be better to go down the route of appealing to their sense of good customer relations, i.e. down the 'good-will' route, rather than going in all guns blazing (which probably will not be successful).
I'm sure they would rather not have very dissatisfied customers, who will no longer be able to send business their way .
Often times business will prefer to keep your future custom, especially if this is a hotel that does lots of 'events' (and I'm sure you and your family will have further christenings/communions/birthday parties in the future, if you know what I mean...). And you would really hate not being able to put that business their way, which unfortunately would be the case if they are not able to come to a mutually satisfactory resolution of this issue......

Nicola

Get a friend to call hotel to get quote for similar function/menu and see if he/she gets quoted €25 or €35..
May be it was a genuine mistake.

i dont think our wedding cost that much per head and that was less than 2 years ago...

Thanks for the comments.

We have been nothing but nice and courteous to the staff and manager we have been dealing with but they keep promising to go off and talk to so and so and back to us - but dont. Its clear they are trying to fob us off until we give up and go away.

The next step is probably as you say Nicola, letter to general manager (I'll cut and paste some of it from above !)
We'll see what that achieves and if nothing, I will do my very best to sully the name of this hotel by relaying my story to all who will listen in Kilkenny.

I have no doubt it was a genuine mistake by the lady on her way out on maternity leave. The fact is that we were verbally quoted €25 by the hotel and charged €35. It was their mistake and they should take the hit.

The two worst things about this is

- it has tainted the memory of the christening day a little bit for me and wife and that has upset us.

- the meal wasn't worth €25 and definitley not €35. It was actually quite dissapointing (even before I had to pay the bill !).


Thanks again for comments. I'll report back any progress.

The best of luck Tubbs,
Do post back to tell how you get on, hopefully it will be a positive result for you, fingers crossed,

Nicola

Try landing on their premises on a business day, e.g. Monday morning, and tell them you need to speak to the duty manager on the spot, rather than waiting for a call-back.