I got dates wrong, but still had to pay for villa
T.M. writes: I booked a villa in Tenerife for my family of seven, paying €3,700 (about £3,100) via Booking.com. To my horror, I quickly realised I had got the dates wrong. I decided to cancel and rebook as Booking. com allows. The mistake was mine and I fully expected a cancellation fee, but the villa owner said he would not refund anything except for €100 for cleaning charges. He said the €3,700 rental was a ‘special offer’, though there was no mention of this on the website. I offered to accept a date later in the year, but he refused. I complained to Booking.com, but was told cancellation fees are applied at the owner’s discretion. This is true, but it was only made clear after I had paid. I am 73 and the holiday was to celebrate our Golden Wedding.
BOOKING.COM told me that when you made your reservation for the Villa de Fanabe, it would have ‘been clear at every stage of the booking process’ that the payment was nonrefundable.
Well, up to a point. I waded through about a dozen pages of photographs, information and small print about the villa. There is a section headed ‘fine print’ where you might expect to find cancellation details there, but you would be wrong. Instead, there are the usual frequently asked questions, mainly about parking spaces and air conditioning. There is a sub-heading ‘policies’ and if you click on this then some way down the page it does clearly say ‘you will be charged the total price if you cancel your booking’.
You almost have to know it is there to find it.
To give Booking. com its due, it did do its best to help. I was told: ‘Booking. com has tried to persuade the property [owner] to modify dates or offer free cancellation, but unfortunately they are unwilling.’
As a gesture of goodwill, Booking. com itself has now refunded you €1,040 (about £920).
The villa owner has done well out of this though. The villa has been booked again for the same dates so he is getting paid twice.