This one's a bit long, but please bear with me. I am fuming and desperately need help with this! I booked a self catering apartment for six people for the end of July, however after several of my party dropped out I decided to cancel the booking. My boyfriend and I both sent emails to cancel the booking. We knew we would still be liable for 75% of the accommodation fee as per their (rather unreasonable) cancellation policy, as it was only two weeks until we were due to have arrived (unless they manage to re-let the apartment, in which case we would get the full balance back). Still, we thought getting 25% back was better than nothing. We still have email records of our cancellation emails. My boyfriends in particular was very clear and impossible to dispute, and as we'd both had had previous email correspondence with them using the same email addresses, we know they will have received the emails. However, both emails went unanswered. The woman we dealt with is incredibly difficult to get hold of and doesn't seem to like answering emails, so we weren't surprised by this. We continually tried to get her on the phone, and after several days she phoned me back in response to a rather irate voicemail. I explained very clearly that I would like to cancel the booking. She gave me a vague offer of coming over with just my boyfriend and using the money I'd already paid against a one bedroom apartment, so I could get my 25% back and still have a bit of a holiday. I said I would think about it but that my boyfriend had now made other plans and I was unlikely to find someone else to go with. I said that ideally I wanted to re-let and get my money back. She said she would do her best to re-let the place. This conversation took place entirely by phone and there is no written record of this offer or my response to it. After several days (and several unanswered phone calls) I finally got an email with five days to go saying that they hadn't found anyone to replace us, but that they were still trying. By Friday - the day before we would've arrived - I had still heard no definitive final answer. So I phoned her on Friday, Saturday and Sunday to find out if they'd re-let it, all to no avail. Finally on Monday morning I emailed her saying I could only assume they hadn't found anyone to replace us and please could we just have our 25% back. Yesterday she replied, saying that as she had not been able to re-let the apartment she had expected my arrival on Saturday, and that "cancelling 2 days after expected arrival time is considered a no-show and therefore you are liable for 100% of costs", so I wouldn't get my 25% back. She continued: "I offered you a one bedroom apartment as a replacement but you rejected this idea. You did however say that you would still come if we could not find a replacement, which we could not." Firstly, both of those statements are false, and she knows it. Secondly, I should not be the one to have to chase her to find out whether they had successfully re-let it or not. I am not a mind reader. If they couldn't re-let and knew that it was too late to do so they should have contacted me saying 'this is the situation, what would you like to do?' and certainly should not have ignored my phone calls for three days and then claimed that it was ME being unreliable. Either way, the conversation to which she refers as evidence took place by phone, there is no written record of it. There is however a very clear written record of my boyfriend and I emailing to cancel two weeks ago. If anyone can refer me to any legal points which I may be able to send her way I would greatly appreciate it. I would also like to report them to a tourist board as their conduct has been entirely unprofessional and incompetent right from the beginning. Thank you in advance G

Hi there, As I couldnt find a specific forum with this kind of topic,hopefully this will be in the right general area! My girlfriend and I are due to be married in a little over 12 weeks, and have had everything booked and deposits paid for some time. We are using an exclusive country house venue where you hire the house for the weekend, and supply everything yourself. When it comes to the catering, the house asks that you use one of their recommended caterers, as if you do not, you incur additional charges for the use of their catering kitchen. We did this, and have signed contracts with both the house and one of the caterers on the list they supplied. About a week ago, my girlfriend received a call from the owner of the house stating that they would no longer allow the caterer we chose in their premises due to unpaid invoices, so we would have to find another one, and gave us 2 other suggestions!!!! A bit shocked to say the least, we contacted our first choice to find out what was going on, and he says he has no idea what is going on and still wants to do our wedding! To cut a long story short, my wife to be and I are now piggy in the middle of a dispute between our venue and our caterer, where nobody is claiming responsibility, each one is telling tales on the other, neither one is backing down, and they both accuse each other of ingnoring numerous attempts of communication!!! We feel that we should be no part of this at all. As we have signed contracts with both offering a service, one way or another it should be supplied, and it should not be down to us to mediate their argument so close to our wedding. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks, Si