Essex hotel booked Sept 2106. No fire alarm. Cancelled but £151.20 taken

[Wedmorewilly]

Hotel in Essex. Booking through Booking.com in September 2016 for 4 nights. £151:20 taken after cancellation.

 

When I arrived at the hotel I realised the photograph on Booking.com website gave a very different picture from the rundown place that I had just parked outside. Not so much an hotel but a building in dire need of renovation.

 

As I entered the entrance I saw it was indeed a building undergoing renovation with not one item of furniture to be seen anywhere in the first three rooms. Another visitor had just gone to say he wasn't staying as the Fire Alarm had been disabled.

 

I am not sure whether the three men that were there were the owners, builders or employees but the standard of English was desperate and they didn't understand the seriousness of their actions. The other visitor was explaining you cannot just disable a Fire Alarm when you have guests and clearly you are trying to get paying guests before the building is fit for occupation. One of the three men said he would be sleeping there so they didn't need a fire alarm. I said that was unacceptable and I too said I wouldn't be staying as there was no working fire detection system.

 

I found great difficulty in finding another hotel in the vicinity with the first two fully booked. I made the cancellation by e mail to Booking .com within two hours of seeing the initial hotel. The amount of £151:20 was taken from my current account the next day.

 

Booking. com said they called the “hotel” several times (no e mail address for hotel) and after a few weeks they sent me an e-mail from the owner when they eventually managed to track him down. The Owners comments didn't address the lack of fire alarm situation. Booking .com said the owners’ terms let them take the full amount on cancellation.

 

Booking.com made no visit to the "hotel" and has ended the correspondence. I have made no attempt to call the "hotel" as on the previous occasions they went as unanswered calls with no answerphone. I have the address of the “hotel” and I was going to write an account of the situation and sent by recorded delivery asking for repayment by 14 days or I will issue Small Claims for £151.20 plus fee plus recorded delivery costs on day 15.

 

Please advise otherwise.

Edited October 27, 2016 by honeybee13
Paras.

[honeybee13]

Hello and congratulations on your first post.

 

I'll move you to the General Retail forum and leave you a link to follow from the Welcome forum.

 

HB

[dx100uk]

phone your bank

do a chargeback.

 

 

dx