Paid €40 deposit to Hotel -Cannot go now

the_pen_turner

Melendez wrote: »

In fairness, the hotel should tell him what the cancellation terms were on booking, at a minimum by email receipt. The opening poster did not leave a specific deposit amount (if I am correctly reading the thread) he left a credit card number as security. That could have been for damage to the room, leaving without paying, running up mini bar bills without mentioning etc. The hotel should have explicitly told him the nature of the potential to charge the credit card.

It's probably in the To and C s .
That's not the point.
It is blatantly obvious what a deposit is for and how it works

ShaShaBear

Op you do realise I could ring my local hotel, book every room in it and then just cancel them all last minute due to a funeral if it were that easy to get a deposit back? You may have lost €40, but unless they can get the room filled at a day's notice, they have lost way more than you. And then to threaten them with negative feedback because they treated you like every other customer who cancels last minute? :rolleyes:

2forjoy

2forjoy wrote: »

I told them would leave them negative feedback and they said that was okay .

That was an assholish thing to do. I really hope you have not left negative feedback.

People like you are why I never read one or two star reviews of places, because the majority are written by people like you.

theteal

I'm sorry but are there really people out there who expect to get back their booking deposit on a hotel room with only 24hr notice?

If it was prepaid the OP would get nothing back and rightly so - that room will be empty now and the hotel will be out of pocket through no fault of its own.

Sorry about the funeral OP but if they cancelled for every sob story they heard they'd long be out of business. Your call should have to request a refund and hope for the best not to demand a refund and throw the dummy out.

Im so glad my retail years are behind me....

Melendez

This post has been deleted.

clogher71

It's changing the issue here, there is a lot of mentions of deposit here and I don't fully understand what a 'deposit' is. My understanding is I can buy a house,place a deposit on it, house 'sale agreed' them after a couple of weeks back out of the deal and by law my deposit is refunded. The same goes for if I walk into a showroom today, order a new car for next year, place a deposit on it, walk back in next month,and say I changed my mind and by law the dealership has to return my deposit...is this the case or have I it totally wrong?
Surely all this underminds the principle of a 'deposit' to reserve an item for you so no one else can buy it and it's a promise you will return to collect it?

elastico

clogher71 wrote: »

It's changing the issue here, there is a lot of mentions of deposit here and I don't fully understand what a 'deposit' is. My understanding is I can buy a house,place a deposit on it, house 'sale agreed' them after a couple of weeks back out of the deal and by law my deposit is refunded. The same goes for if I walk into a showroom today, order a new car for next year, place a deposit on it, walk back in next month,and say I changed my mind and by law the dealership has to return my deposit...is this the case or have I it totally wrong?
Surely all this underminds the principle of a 'deposit' to reserve an item for you so no one else can buy it and it's a promise you will return to collect it?

I doubt that's the case. If 10 people did that then the dealership would be stuck with 10 cars in January that are depreciating rapidly.

Riesen_Meal

2forjoy wrote: »

If i am outnumbered 10/1 then I must be wrong and all you are right . As a consumer I am entitled to be aggrieved for paying for a service I never received .

I will move on ,but not in this hotel .

The entitlement culture in this country is shocking, has the OP ever stayed in a hotel before?

This is the norm, usually a penalty (in some cases a week to 48 hours in) cancelling, definitely standard practice, what makes you exempt?

Dj Stiggie

clogher71 wrote: »

It's changing the issue here, there is a lot of mentions of deposit here and I don't fully understand what a 'deposit' is. My understanding is I can buy a house,place a deposit on it, house 'sale agreed' them after a couple of weeks back out of the deal and by law my deposit is refunded. The same goes for if I walk into a showroom today, order a new car for next year, place a deposit on it, walk back in next month,and say I changed my mind and by law the dealership has to return my deposit...is this the case or have I it totally wrong?
Surely all this underminds the principle of a 'deposit' to reserve an item for you so no one else can buy it and it's a promise you will return to collect it?

Yes, you have a period in which you can change your mind, which would be stated in the contract. With hotels this is usually up to 24 or 48 hours before your stay.

You can't just ring the estate agent the day before you're meant to pick up the keys and say, 'No actually you're grand thanks.'

endofrainbow

2forjoy wrote: »

For all the reasons I stated above

bully boy tactics.

dudara

@elastico - please post with more consideration in future!

dudara

dudara

clogher71 wrote: »

It's changing the issue here, there is a lot of mentions of deposit here and I don't fully understand what a 'deposit' is. My understanding is I can buy a house,place a deposit on it, house 'sale agreed' them after a couple of weeks back out of the deal and by law my deposit is refunded. The same goes for if I walk into a showroom today, order a new car for next year, place a deposit on it, walk back in next month,and say I changed my mind and by law the dealership has to return my deposit...is this the case or have I it totally wrong?
Surely all this underminds the principle of a 'deposit' to reserve an item for you so no one else can buy it and it's a promise you will return to collect it?

Deposits paid on houses are a unique case and have to be refunded.

However all other deposits are governed differently, according to the T&Cs of the contract. In general, you should assume that a deposit is non-refundable, or refundable only if certain criteria are met.

Sleeper12

Read the t&cs
Most hotels let you cancel up to 24 hours before. After that they can charge anything from a few euro to the full amount of the stay. You are lucky it's only 40 euro

Yourself isit

clogher71 wrote: »

It's changing the issue here, there is a lot of mentions of deposit here and I don't fully understand what a 'deposit' is. My understanding is I can buy a house,place a deposit on it, house 'sale agreed' them after a couple of weeks back out of the deal and by law my deposit is refunded. The same goes for if I walk into a showroom today, order a new car for next year, place a deposit on it, walk back in next month,and say I changed my mind and by law the dealership has to return my deposit...is this the case or have I it totally wrong?
Surely all this underminds the principle of a 'deposit' to reserve an item for you so no one else can buy it and it's a promise you will return to collect it?

I don't think your deposit is guaranteed to be refunded in either case.

SteM

Melendez wrote: »

Unlikely to be the case. This is the end of November. Not many hotels will have the opportunity to turn down bookings due to being full at this time of year. Some will but not many.

The hotel is still reliant on someone calling them for a twin room within 24 hours notice. If it's down the country then there's a very good chance they won't fill the room. Its not about them turning down a booking, it's whether they'll get a booking in 24 hours or not.

Sleeper12

2forjoy wrote:

If i am outnumbered 10/1 then I must be wrong and all you are right . As a consumer I am entitled to be aggrieved for paying for a service I never received .

You did get the service. They booked the room for you & held it as promised. You canceled the room, not them.
I've been seeing quite a few threads like this. I'm beginning to think that paying a deposit should be taught in school. I'm generally gobsmacked at the amount of people that don't understand these things

dev100

rockatansky wrote:

In other words threatened them in the hope you would scare them into returning your deposit. Rightly enough they didn't play ball.]You need to understand what a deposit is.

While you are right about a deposit, for me if I was the Op and had explained the circumstances and asked to rebook another time it would be a sore point for the future if they refused . If the OP had booked 20 rooms then it's a different matter

A business person can look at it in a few ways . Get the 40 Euro for nowt or accommodate the op and leave with a satisfied customer who has rebooked and will spend more money and could lead to repeat business because of what good will was done to accommodate the op. He/she will tell family/friends about her experiences with the hotel.

average_runner

2forjoy wrote: »

If i am outnumbered 10/1 then I must be wrong and all you are right . As a consumer I am entitled to be aggrieved for paying for a service I never received .

I will move on ,but not in this hotel .

You got a service, they held a room for you.

Hotels can be flexible sometimes, we booked two nights with kids in a hotel last may, kids got stomach bug on first night, hotel brought toast to the room for free and hotel let us off with second night. In fairness we did go back the following month.

bucketybuck

Since the OP has no problem with frivolous negative feedback, I would like <SNIP>

dudara

@bucketybuck - no personal attacks here please

dudara

anewme

clogher71 wrote: »

It's changing the issue here, there is a lot of mentions of deposit here and I don't fully understand what a 'deposit' is. My understanding is I can buy a house,place a deposit on it, house 'sale agreed' them after a couple of weeks back out of the deal and by law my deposit is refunded. The same goes for if I walk into a showroom today, order a new car for next year, place a deposit on it, walk back in next month,and say I changed my mind and by law the dealership has to return my deposit...is this the case or have I it totally wrong?
Surely all this underminds the principle of a 'deposit' to reserve an item for you so no one else can buy it and it's a promise you will return to collect it?

The trigger point is the signing gif the contract in these cases .


after goung sale agreed, the solicitors draft up the contracts and once signed, you won't get your money back. That's why they normally push for contracts asap

When you pay over a deposit for a car, you sign your contract there and then.

knoe a case where a woman would not be told the colour of a car she wanted to order was so horrible. Looked ok on a paint sample but sales told her a whole car would not be nice- no - customer insisted. So the garage asked for an additional deposit. Car came, woman burst into tears and refused to take it. (Scuttery brown) Deposit not refunded.......offset against loss of selling horrible colour car.....man came in and loved the colour- but they had the storage costs of it sitting there ages

Melendez

This post has been deleted.

TheDriver

If they caved in their T&C because of the funeral, then everyone would use that excuse. You changed your booking and hence lost the deposit with 24 hours, that is annoying but not their fault. Posting a bad review could possibly reflect badly on you and not them

foxatron

2forjoy wrote:

If i am outnumbered 10/1 then I must be wrong and all you are right . As a consumer I am entitled to be aggrieved for paying for a service I never received .

2forjoy wrote:

I will move on ,but not in this hotel .

You didn't receive the service because you couldn't make it. The hotel wasn't stopping you staying there.

Do you live in the real world, what did you think was going to happen when you cancelled a short notice.

average_runner

foxatron wrote: »

You didn't receive the service because you couldn't make it. The hotel wasn't stopping you staying there.

Do you live in the real world, what did you think was going to happen when you cancelled a short notice.

In fairness, if they allowed the poster to book another date they could of gained more business over the years.

A top hotel will always look after you, crap ones dont

dev100

average_runner wrote:

Hotels can be flexible sometimes, we booked two nights with kids in a hotel last may, kids got stomach bug on first night, hotel brought toast to the room for free and hotel let us off with second night. In fairness we did go back the following month.

You will always remember that gesture

average_runner wrote:

A top hotel will always look after you, crap ones dont

Well put

alexonhisown

Did you ask if you could book an alternative date op? Some hotels would allow that if you phone and ask them, but not their fault as regards the deposit, it was more than likely in t&c's

Walter2016

2forjoy wrote: »

Its a business , but must be a struggling one of they need to take €40 and offer nothing in return , without any compromise .

Ryanair must be struggling too then if you use that ridiculous logic

Walter2016

clogher71 wrote: »

It's changing the issue here, there is a lot of mentions of deposit here and I don't fully understand what a 'deposit' is. My understanding is I can buy a house,place a deposit on it, house 'sale agreed' them after a couple of weeks back out of the deal and by law my deposit is refunded. The same goes for if I walk into a showroom today, order a new car for next year, place a deposit on it, walk back in next month,and say I changed my mind and by law the dealership has to return my deposit...is this the case or have I it totally wrong?
Surely all this underminds the principle of a 'deposit' to reserve an item for you so no one else can buy it and it's a promise you will return to collect it?

House "Booking Deposit" is called a "Refundable Booking Deposit" - the important word is refundable. Its purely a goodwqill deposit. Both parties can walk away at anytime until the contract deposit is paid. There's no walking away from a contract deposit.

On cars - it would be a goodwill gesture by the garage, not a legal requirement.

Basically unless specifically stated, take it that a deposit is not refundable.

GerardKeating

clogher71 wrote: »

It's changing the issue here, there is a lot of mentions of deposit here and I don't fully understand what a 'deposit' is. My understanding is I can buy a house,place a deposit on it, house 'sale agreed' them after a couple of weeks back out of the deal and by law my deposit is refunded. The same goes for if I walk into a showroom today, order a new car for next year, place a deposit on it, walk back in next month,and say I changed my mind and by law the dealership has to return my deposit...is this the case or have I it totally wrong?
Surely all this underminds the principle of a 'deposit' to reserve an item for you so no one else can buy it and it's a promise you will return to collect it?

Some deposits are refundable, others are not, it should be make clear when the deposit it placed.

As other have mention, the deposit is for a service, and that service is for the merchant to hold the items until you are ready to purchase it, if at a later time, you decide not to compete the purchase, the merchant (depending on the terms of the contract at the time of the deposit) might have the right to seek the full payment for the item, it all depends on the terms and conditions of the original contract.