Hi Everyone - this is my first post! We booked a cottage with Welcome Cottages in February 2015 with their £25 special offer deposit deal. However, we decided not to go ahead with the booking for financial reasons when the balance was due late July because I'm on a temporary contract at work which could end any day. Welcome Cottages are now chasing us for £145 which is the balance of the deposit. I sent them an email asking them the following questions: "On the Welcome Cottages website, the cottage appears to have been re-let again from 4 to 11 September 2015, which covers the period of our cancelled booking. Therefore, if the cottage has been re-let again, please can you explain why we are being asked to pay Welcome Cottages an amount of £145, when the owner of the cottage and Welcome Cottages appear to have not suffered or incurred any financial loss from our cancelled booking. Please can you explain how the amount of £145 you are claiming was calculated. Can you also provide a breakdown of actual costs and losses suffered or have been incurred by the owner and Welcome Cottages, resulting from the cancelled booking." and they replied with: "Thank you for your email. Unfortunately, as you know, the reason for cancellation does not meet the qualifying criteria for a refund of some of the monies paid. We understand your concerns and are grateful for the opportunity to explain our position in more detail. You may wish to show this letter to anyone you seek further advice from. It is unlikely that the CMA is the appropriate forum. At the time you made your booking, the low deposit offer was running which afforded you the choice to pay in full, pay the standard deposit or the low deposit. You were advised at the time of booking, if the booking is cancelled for a non-qualifying reason, the difference between the low deposit and the standard deposit is payable - (£170.00) in your case The amount of deposit is commensurate with the cost of the booking. The cancellation terms provide many qualifying reasons for cancellations ; including redundancy, illness, death and even when extreme weather prevents travel. Many other companies do not provide this benefit at all. Of course, there is no obligation to continue with a booking if our terms are not agreed to. We feel that if you had read the low deposit terms, and the booking conditions, you would have understood that the low deposit offer does indeed allow a booking to be secured for £25.00 with nothing more to pay until 8 weeks before departure, but that if it is cancelled for a non-qualifying reason, the difference between the low deposit of £25.00 and the standard deposit becomes payable. This is an industry standard and not an unfair contract term. Our booking conditions carry a Plain English Campaign Crystal Mark and we believe that Section 4 is clear about the low deposit offer and that the cancellation terms are also clearly presented. We hope we have satisfactorily responded to your concerns and look forward to receiving the outstanding amount of £145.00 by return. Welcome Cottages have ignored questions I put to them in my first email but have confirmed that cottage has been re-let over period of our booking from 4 to 11 September in another email. We have not said that we will not pay the £145 balance and Welcome Cottages have hinted that remaining balance could be paid by monthly instalments. However, if Welcome Cottages had not re-let the the cottage again and they and the owner had made a loss, then we consider that we would be liable to pay the balance. Therefore, do we have a case to challenge having to pay the remaining amount of £145 because Welcome Cottages and also the owner have not suffered a financial loss on our original booking as they have successfully re-let the cottage? I also consider that they will be making an additional profit because they have also made a profit on the new booking. Or are we still liable under contact law to pay the remaining balance of the deposit? Any comments or advise will be gratefully received. Many thanks in advance.