Q
I am more than a little miffed as I recently needed to cancel a three-night B&B booking at the last minute due to my daughter going into labour a month early. I was told I wouldn’t get my first night’s deposit back.
I was surprised at the attitude of the accommodation owners, who told me that they had made it clear that they would need at least two weeks’ notice of change or cancellation when I made the booking. They took the first night’s “non-refundable” charge by credit card at that time. I do feel that in the circumstances it was unrealistic of them to expect me to leave my daughter’s side during a labour that was going to be stressful and worrying. I would have thought that customer service should be their prime concern, as they have upset me very much with their intransigence on this, and I certainly wouldn’t consider staying there again and might even put a bad review on Trip Advisor.
A
I am sorry that you are so upset, as anything that involves the health of our nearest and dearest is going to be traumatic to say the least. I do hope that your daughter’s premature birth went well and that all that stress is now well behind you.
Putting aside your understandable anxiety and upset at the time, I would like to ask you to imagine if the tables were turned. Imagine you turned up at the B&B you had booked well in advance only to be turned away and told they couldn’t accommodate you because of personal family reasons which had changed the situation.
This simply wouldn’t do, and the B&B would be in breach of contract, regardless of how understandable their reasons. They are duty bound to find you alternative accommodation of the same standard and at the same price or lower.
Likewise, if you make a firm booking you are also in breach if you refuse to honour the agreement (verbal is just as binding as written). It works both ways.
This is why we always strongly recommend good travel insurance so that you are covered in the event of a change of plan that is beyond your control.
This particular B&B went above and beyond the call of duty with you. They held onto the non-refundable first night’s deposit, but while they could have asked for the second and third nights’ charges according to their terms (that stipulate a minimum of two weeks’ notice) they didn’t.
It is totally understandable that you were unable to honour the booking. Unfortunately under civil law you entered into a binding contract that obliged you to pay.
By the way, only guests who have actually stayed at a guest accommodation can place reviews on Trip Advisor . . . more about Trip Advisor in subsequent problem pages!
Tags: cancellation, Trip Advisor
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These blogs are very good – hope they are read by a wide sector of the public, as they answer questions most people would not know to ask.
However, I think the reference to Tripadvisor only allowing guests who have stayed somewhere to post a review about that place, is wrong – anyone can post a review about anyone/anywhere on Tripadvisor.
In fact there are 2 good threads (and maybe more, but I have not come across them) on Tripadvisor’s own forums which illustrate this wonderfully:
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g187068-i2109-k1509242-Cotswold_Reviews_Is_it_just_me-Chipping_Campden_Cotswolds_Gloucestershire_England.html
and
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g186281-i1114-k2619861-l16480603-Note_to_B_B_Owners_You_Know_Who_You_Are-Cotswolds_Gloucestershire_England.html#16480603
I beleive there are some websites eg Laterooms, which do only allow reviews from people who have stayed, but those websites obviously have to control how the reviews are sourced and posted – they can only do that if the booking is through them.
With Eviivo it has to be a booking via BookDirectRooms.com – apparently Eviivo emails to the guest for a review after they leave, but not if the booking originated through the BandB’s own website. I suppose this stops a BandB booking in a friend who doesn’t stay but writes a 5 star review (ouch!).
One interesting and possibly contentious point about Eviivo’s reviews, against say Tripadvisor’s, is that the person who writes it is clearly identified to the BandB. This means the BandB knows who to contact if they want to discuss the review. It is all very well self-appointed-expert-reviewers enjoying themselves writing defamatory or scathing reviews when they are anonymous, as on TA, but they might feel differently when they receive a direct reply from a very upset BandB.
You are absolutely right in that TripAdvisor does accept reviews from anyone who has anything at all to say about a guest accommodation. We learned this the hard way, as someone who cancelled shortly before their booking was due to start with us posted a very critical review about our cancellation/refund policy. I wrongly assumed this wouldn’t be possible but it is entirely possible for anyone anywhere to post a negative review about any guest accommodation, restaurant, resort, etc, without having to show they were actually there.
It is a ‘nasty people’s griping charter’ as far as I am concerned. However, it works both ways. As you have pointed out there are a couple of threads on TA about five star reviews that look as if they have been posted by lackeys of certain establishments.
This is a really interesting issue.
Clearly, it would be possible for hotels to find different computers to post positive comments and boost their TripAdvisor ranking. And yes, when you see lots of excellent reviews from a guest who has only ever posted once on TA, that looks suspicious.
However, I feel this whole thing discriminates against the truely awful and truely excellent accommodations. Many of us are apathetic and are not moved to go to the effort of writing a review unless exceptionally good (or bad). So where you have an accommodation that is genuinely exceptionally good, do you ignore the excellent reviews?
Gilly