Snap lockdown leaves shattered family out of pocket $2k bill for lost booking

A TASMANIAN family who had their Queensland holiday cancelled due to a snap lockdown have been left with a $2000 bill for a holiday they’ll never be able to take.

Sam Hind and her family had been planning a holiday to Queensland for over 18 months and were all set for their time in the sun when a snap lockdown by the Queensland government three days before their arrival date threw their plans into chaos.

With their trip up in smoke, Mrs Hind contacted her accommodation booking agency and was shocked to be told her accommodation had been cancelled with a 100 per cent cancellation fee, leaving the family to pay $2240.00 for accommodation they could not use.

“When I booked, I inquired about Covid and we were verbally told if our booking got cancelled due to Covid we didn’t need to worry as they would look after us,” she said.

“We have four kids and run our own business so it was our first family holiday in years and it was a huge deal ... and now we’ve paid for a holiday we will never take.”

Mrs Hind said after having no luck with booking.com, with whom she organised the accommodation, she contacted the hotel.

“I called the property to

work out a solution and I was abused for more than 10 minutes,” she said.

“With a 100 per cent cancellation fee, we had no reason to cancel and would have tried to find any other way to make use of our booking but they wouldn’t give us any other option.

“We did not ask them to cancel, but for options. If we still had our accommodation, then we could have flown there after the scheduled end of the snap lockdown to use

the remaining six nights of our accommodation but they have simply refused to provide a service that has been paid for.”

Mrs Hind said she has since taken the issue to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and written to a Queensland MP to get the dispute resolved.

Consumer advocate Adam Glezer has led a social media campaign for greater rights for consumers hit by Covid cancellations and disruptions

since April after his own poor experience and said it was worrying how many Australians had similar experiences to Mrs Hind and her family.

“Over the past year and a half I have directly assisted hundreds of people in their quest to receive refunds,” Mr Glezer said.

“Telling a customer that they cannot get a refund and even worse, they cannot change their dates of travel or accommodation, is immoral.”