Group Vouchers for Hotels -- expiry date advice

witless1

Apologies if this has been asked or brought up, if you could point me to the thread and lock this one it would be great, if not read on

Just looking for a bit of advice for anyone who has dealt with hotels using group vouchers and how they are with expiry dates.

I have bought a good few over the last year and always found them handy to use and have had no bother with availability when booking. One in particular I bought last December (4 star hotel, decent reputation, stayed there before a few times) and I went to use it in February, no restriction on the day you could use it. Was told that rooms were available but the availability for promotional rooms, of which group vouchers fall under, was full. I tried again at the start of April this time giving 3 weeks notice to be again told the room wasn't available. I tried again to book for the end of this month, so 2 weeks notice, to be told a room is not available. The voucher is due to expire at month end and I asked them could they extend it. I have a definite date where I will be in that town at the end of June and thought they might let me use it and save me having to stay up there anyway.

Getting completely stone walled by them at the moment. They keep apologising that I have tried 3 times to stay with them but they keep quoting that it is in the terms and conditions about promotional availability and that they are not in a position to extend the voucher. They keep offering me a midweek stay but I can't between work and having to travel there it wouldn't be feasible.

I didn't think in this day and age and hotels struggling for business that they would be this strict on an expiry date. The whole point of these cheap deals is to get you there and have you spend money within the hotel. When I stayed there in the past I generally got dinner and had a few pints. The missus generally went to the spa. So it's worth up to 200 euro to them for the night we will stay there.

jor el

witless1 wrote: »

Just looking for a bit of advice for anyone who has dealt with hotels using group vouchers and how they are with expiry dates.

With any voucher, it all comes down to the T&Cs that it was sold with. Nothing else matters. There is no consumer law or protection surrounding vouchers, the only thing you do have is that the company that sold the voucher must abide by their own T&Cs.

So, if it's in the T&Cs that all bookings are subject to availability, then you are out of luck. Similarly, the expiry date may also be mentioned, and any chance of extended it would be covered here too.

If the voucher has an express expiry date, and there's no mention of extensions or anything else in the T&Cs, then you're not going to be able to do anything about it. If there's no mention at all of booking restrictions then you have a good argument for a refund, as they are imposing additional terms outside of what you originally agreed to.

witless1

jor el wrote: »

With any voucher, it all comes down to the T&Cs that it was sold with. Nothing else matters. There is no consumer law or protection surrounding vouchers, the only thing you do have is that the company that sold the voucher must abide by their own T&Cs.

So, if it's in the T&Cs that all bookings are subject to availability, then you are out of luck. Similarly, the expiry date may also be mentioned, and any chance of extended it would be covered here too.

If the voucher has an express expiry date, and there's no mention of extensions or anything else in the T&Cs, then you're not going to be able to do anything about it. If there's no mention at all of booking restrictions then you have a good argument for a refund, as they are imposing additional terms outside of what you originally agreed to.

Cheers for the response. On the voucher which I have printed it has a section called Fine Print (not a specific T&C page) which says the voucher is valid until the 31st of May and valid 7 days a week. Subject to promotional availability is a one liner on it. That's not very clear to anyone not up on the terminology and I will admit that I never gave it a second thought. Like I have stayed in 6 maybe 7 hotels in the last 12 months using such schemes and never once encountered a denial of a booking with that phrase. In fact I have another voucher for a hotel I have stayed in previously and that one liner is also on it, yet I know I won't have any issue booking it.

In terms of the T&C on the purchasing website they tell me that my contract is between me and the supplier and any communication should go through them. The only comeback I have with the purchasing website is if I want to complain the company / service so they can exclude them from future promotions. Still a frustrating experience when you would expect it to be a bit more open and transparent. It is up to abuse from the supplier end if they can just keep quoting promotional availability.

Melendez

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3DataModem

The whole point of these vouchers is it is a "breakage" business. They count on a certain % of people not using them. That's how they give the deep discounts.

Limerick Flying Club does these flying lesson vouchers for gifts. In 2008 they sold 30,000 euro worth and about 9,000 worth were used. That's the point. So they don't extend, don't change, don't encash. That's the business model.

ted1

If you tried to use them and were unable to on three different occasions then they should return the Money or extend it. I imagine a small claims court would agree.

JimsAlterEgo

ted1 wrote: »

If you tried to use them and were unable to on three different occasions then they should return the Money or extend it. I imagine a small claims court would agree.

exactly, terms and conditions have to be fair.

witless1

Melendez wrote: »

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I am going to pop them a mail this morning but their T&C is designed to wash their hands of it and revert you directly to the service provider in this case the hotel. Still worth a shot though.

Melendez wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

It is probably down to the hotel being unwilling to, like if they had something busy on that weekend I think its a human decision to refuse a booking. The hotel in question that I am dealing with has a website which includes a field to enter your voucher code. My code wasn't recognised so any booking has to be done face to face. I did ask in one of my emails why the code wasn't coming up on the website and was told it was a special offer and you cannot book online with it. If they designed the site to work with special offer codes / discount codes and their own gift voucher codes its a bit far dubious leaving out group based codes.

3DataModem wrote: »

The whole point of these vouchers is it is a "breakage" business. They count on a certain % of people not using them. That's how they give the deep discounts.

I don't think that is the standard across the industry with respect to hotels participating. The discounts aren't that deep, maybe 20% max in some cases, but they generally throw in a free breakfast / late checkout / bottle of wine or discount for their spa or something like that which makes it attractive particularly if you know you are going to be traveling and using a hotel anyway. Out of curiosity I just checked hotels.com and its 81 with breakfast and booked directly with the hotel its 100, I think my voucher is €70 and I get a free bottle of wine and late checkout with that.

I use pigsback a lot (not for this one unfortunately) and they have a redemption system for when you cannot use your voucher or it expires. Think its within 30 days of the expiry and they give you points to the value of a set % of your purchase use on the site which you can use to pay for other deals. In that instance I couldn't see pigsback being out of pocket so it should be in the hotels interest to make the rooms available. As I said above its worth up to €200 for them to have me there for the night.