Hotel wont honour my voucher after husband died...

[shell7t8]

Hi,

 

I wonder if i may be able to get some advice?

 

3 years ago my fiance and i got married at a lovely hotel down in sandbanks. It cost a fair amount of money and all of our family and friends attended and stayed over at the hotel.

 

My family all clubbed together to give us what they thought was a lovely wedding gift...a £250 "voucher" to return to the hotel on a date of our choice.

 

The hotel didnt issue a voucher as they said they didnt do them but told my sisters that when we wanted to book just to call and quote my name and the wedding date so they could match it up with the credit.

 

Sadly, 6 months after our wedding my husband passed away. Needless to say, going back to the hotel was not top of my list and i never really gave it a thought.

 

At the end of last year i was clearing out some things and came accross the wedding card in which my family had written about the £250 to spend at the hotel.

 

I emailed the hotel to ask if i could use the credit against a different location (they are a group) as i felt returning to the original hotel would be too painful.

 

They replied to say that their "vouchers" expire after 12 months but that given the circumstances they were prepared to offer me a complimentary nights stay as long as it wasnt during a peak date ie valentines (not likely and slightly insensitive but hey ho). I told them id be in touch with a date once i had decides now that i had the info. I decided to give it some thought and slowly some more time has passed by before i replied. My daughter and i have some time off planned in july and i thought id contact them to give some dates and check availability.

 

I received an email back to say that as too much time has passed i can no longer use the "voucher". Aside from the circumstances around this and the clearly unethical response, are they able to refuse this given they never issued an actual voucher, gave no expiry date nor on the original payment or on the emal offering the complimentary stay?

 

I feel a tad angry at their reply

 

Any advice appreciated..,

 

Shell

[BankFodder]

Vouchers are often a rip-off – because they are often set to expire after a period of time – very often 12 months. Companies make a huge amount of money from selling vouchers which expire or which get lost.

 

In the 1960s and 70s when green stamps and pink stamps were all the range, the whole business model was predicated on the fact that most stamps would not be redeemed. If they had been redeemed then the scheme would have failed early on – and in fact the companies would have probably gone under.

 

I seem to remember that there was a Hoover offer – possibly from British Airways, I can't remember. So many people take it up that the offer went under and caused huge trouble http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/great-financial-disasters-of-our-time-the-hoover-fiasco-1171711.html

 

Are you saying that this hotel basically accepted £250 by way of an advance credit on a future booking? Are you saying that there were no conditions imposed at the time of the credit and that no voucher has been issued and nothing to say that anything would expire over time?

 

If this is correct then the hotel is completely wrong and frankly I would be thinking about attacking the hotel very quickly and putting it through the courts and claiming an additional 8% interest – just to give them a slap.

 

If you want some help on this, we will be happy to support you

[BankFodder]

By the way, what is the name of the hotel? If it's not Fawlty Towers

[shell7t8]

Thankyou and yes that is correct, no voucher, no expiry date just a "future credit".

 

Should i insist my "complimentary" stay is of the credit value do you think? Is there some sort of rule i can quote to give them a bit of a wake up call?

 

Shell

[BankFodder]

We'd like to know what hotel it is please.

 

Yes, of course you want the full value. There is no reason why these people should shortchange you – or why you should accept this.

 

Is very simply a fact that they have been given money in advance. The money is for a particular purpose. It's essentially a loan. They are now trying to keep it for themselves. It's outrageous.

 

If they let you have the room for whatever number of days, then they will make profit out of the money so in fact giving you your £250 worth of hospitality will probably only cost them £100. This was the deal when they were given the credit – but now they have refused to honour their side of the bargain, I think they have now vitiated the contract and you are free to reclaim the money.

 

I think that it it is time to insist on your money back because clearly they have breached the terms on which the money was given to them. I think you are a very good position to do this and if it causes you pain to go there because of the circumstances and I think that they have given you a good let out clause.

 

I would write to them immediately and tell them that you want your money back and that if you don't get it back within 14 days then you will see them in Court for the money and that you will add 8% statutory interest to the claim as well as your costs.

 

I reckon your chances of success on this are better than 95%. We will help you all the way.

 

Which is the hotel