Guest House trying to charge for change of locks

Fluxy

Hi all!

Friday before last I was running a gig in Dublin and booked a five-star suite in a guesthouse style building for the act I was bringing over from the UK. When booking i supplied a 3v credit card number to the website but they said they needed a full credit card number in case anything went wrong. I asked a friend could i use their card and give them the money for the room. They said I could and so i rang the guesthouse and called out the details over the phone, to which they charged immediately.

Now, I expected there to be a reception, but as there wasnt, guests were asked to drop their bunch of three keys into a safety box on the way out the door. The act in question forgot to do so when leaving for the airport. I received an email from the hotel owner the following monday (at this stage i had left for a 2 week holiday) saying that my guest had forgotted to leave the keys and there would be a 60euro replacment charge (which could be refunded if the keys were returned) and also a 60euro soilage charge for some drops of red wine on the carpet that needed cleaning. As i was on holidays I forwarded the email to the uk manager of this act asking for the keys to be returned and left it at that. I expect when I return to dublin at the weekend the keys will have been posted back to my office.

Then this morning I get a second email from the same guy saying "Several weeks have now passed since he stayed with us and the keys have not been returned. There is however a security issue here that must be addressed. One key cannot be cut but it is necessary for us to change the locks at this stage. I have tried contacting you by telephone to discuss this issue but cannot contact you on your cell phone. There will now be a lock replacement charge of which we cannot forgo. Our locksmith will be dealing with this immediately. We will be in touch after that."

Several week have not passes, it has only been 10 days! Can they charge me to replace the locks? Also, if they were going to charge me to replace the locks, why would they charge me to replace the key last week, if it wasnt going to usable? Can they charge me to replace a key, and then charge me to replace locks afterwards?

Also, my friend only agreed to the inital payment of 139euro, and I gave the details over the phone. Can they charge all this to her card without her signing a cardholder-not-present form, or agreeing herself over the phone?

I dont mind paying the soilage charge, or even the key replacement if the key isnt returned, but this seems like they are just taking advantage?

Any help would be appreciated,

Thanks in advance

Fluxy

Fluxy

I dont now if it is relevant or not but there is no mention of any penalties such as this is keys are lost. I have taken the disclaimer from the booking agents website, but that is all there is:

Disclaimer
Subject to the limitations set out in these terms and conditions, we shall only be liable for direct damages actually suffered, paid or incurred by you due to an attributable shortcoming of our obligations in respect of our services, up to an aggregate amount of the aggregate cost of your reservation as set out in the confirmation email (whether for one event or series of connected events).

However, neither we nor any of our officers, directors, employees, representatives, subsidiaries, affiliated companies, distributors, affiliate (distribution) partners, licensees, agents or others involved in creating, sponsoring, promoting, or otherwise making available the site and its contents shall be liable for (i) any punitive, special, indirect or consequential loss or damages, any loss of production, loss of profit, loss of revenue, loss of contract, loss of or damage to goodwill or reputation, loss of claim, (ii) any inaccuracy relating to the (descriptive) information (including rates, availability and ratings) of the hotel as made available on our website, (iii) the services rendered or the products offered by the hotel, (iv) any (direct, indirect, consequential or punitive) damages, losses or costs suffered, incurred or paid by you, pursuant to, arising out of or in connection with the use, inability to use or delay of our website, or (v) for any (personal) injury, death, property damage, or other (direct, indirect, special, consequential or punitive) damages, losses or costs suffered, incurred or paid by you, whether due to (legal) acts, errors, breaches, (gross) negligence, willful misconduct, omissions, non-performance, misrepresentations, tort or strict liability by or (wholly or partly) attributable to the hotel (its employees, directors, officers, agents, representatives or affiliated companies), including any (partial) cancellation, overbooking, strike, force majeure or any other event beyond our control.

Paulw

Fluxy wrote: »

I dont mind paying the soilage charge, or even the key replacement if the key isnt returned, but this seems like they are just taking advantage?

But, they never got their keys back? I wouldn't blame them for changing the locks and charging you for it.

Would you rent a place when someone else had keys? It's a security issue for them.

They probably charged you for keys since they expected the original keys to follow soon. When the keys didn't follow, they went with the next step, replace the locks.

In fairness, I think they're in the right here. But, I'm somewhat surprised that such terms aren't made clear.

Fluxy

Well, to be be honest, its advertised on booking.com as a hotel/guest house suite. I know anytime i've ever heard of a key being lost in a hotel there was a small charge, certainly not replacing of locks. Also, the main front door key cannot be cut as he has stated in his mail. Its a security key and to cut it you need to codes. So it cant be copied anyway, its only the hall key and room that could be cut.

Cabaal

Paulw wrote: »

But, they never got their keys back? I wouldn't blame them for changing the locks and charging you for it.

Would you rent a place when someone else had keys? It's a security issue for them.

They probably charged you for keys since they expected the original keys to follow soon. When the keys didn't follow, they went with the next step, replace the locks.

In fairness, I think they're in the right here. But, I'm somewhat surprised that such terms aren't made clear.

In one respect they are right to charge for locks as they've not got their key back and as you said its a security issue, however as they are claiming "several weeks" have passed this is clearly an inaccurate claim.

By right the keys should have been returned ASAP via registered mail, OP has this even happened yet? If not why not?

Whilst I know you said you passed on the request to another party the whole thing is your responsibility as you booked and paid,

Cabaal

Fluxy wrote: »

its only the hall key and room that could be cut.

Its still a security issue, somebody could easily tailgate somebody else to get into the residents and then use their cut key to steal from the room.

They are entitled to ensure that guests will have secure bedrooms when they book in the residents, if somebody did steal from the room then this would reflect very badly on the guest house.

the_syco

They're charging for:
new locks, new keys
new front door lock and security key
locksmith

The 3rd item, the locksmith themselves may charge a nice fee for doing these call out jobs. As the owner isn't paying, they will probably use the same people they used to get the door fitted. They may have had to do this before, and thus know the cost. The ONLY way that you can get around it is to get the keys back ASAP. Otherwise, you'll have to write it off as a lesson learnt.

And as it's coming into summer season, they'll be doing this soon rather than later. Looking at it from their point of view: keys go missing, they can't contact you. They still can't contact you, and they have the place booked for the weekend coming (which was a very nice sunny weekend). They still couldn't get in contact with you. So they have either a) had to cancel a booking, or b) have a booking coming up, and need to get this sorted ASAP.