A break put paid to Caroline’s break

CAROLINE CAMERON, of Tain, likes her holidays. She takes regular breaks, many of them in Scotland.

Her trip to The Stirling Court Hotel, intended for December, was to be the latest of these.

However, four days before she was due to travel, she broke her arm.

The next day, she phoned the hotel to say that as she couldn’t drive, she wouldn’t be able to make the trip. Caroline asked if it would be possible to use what was a Black Friday deal at a later date and was told she’d have to contact Hotel Connexions, which acts as a central hub for the sale of rooms and holidays.

She phoned and spoke to one of its operatives she had dealt with in the past. He said no money would be taken from Caroline’s account. He asked that she get back with a date when she’d be able to take the room.

That night, lying awake due to the pain in her arm, Caroline heard her phone chirp to denote an incoming email. It was confirmation of her stay at the Stirling hotel that she thought she’d cancelled. This didn’t help with the pain at all!

The next morning she phoned Hotel Connexions and was again reassured that her stay was cancelled and no money would be taken from her account.

However, no sooner had she put down the phone than it rang again. Another Hotel Connexions operative said that her colleague was mistaken in promising no money would be taken. Caroline explained she was possibly going to require an operation to her arm, so was unable to confirm when she’d be able to travel.

Almost as soon as this somewhat fraught conversation ended, £102 was whisked out of Caroline’s account.

It was a perplexing experience and Caroline got in touch with Raw Deal. We had a wee word with Hotel Connexions. Its customer services department emailed us to say: “Having reviewed all information in relation to Ms Cameron’s reservation and subsequent request to cancel, it appears there has been a breakdown in communication.

“We will be contacting Ms Cameron to discuss this and arrange a full refund.

“We would like to thank you for bringing this to our attention, and apologise that this action was required in order to reach a resolution.”