Hotel called me unreasonable!

We stayed in a hotel in Ireland where the fire alarm went off during the night. We were given a voucher for another night's stay.

In my experience OP, you should more or less expect a disturbed night when staying in a hotel these days, and if it's a Friday or Saturday night, you can pretty much guarantee being woken by drunk / inconsiderate guests, slamming doors, calling out loud 'goodnights' etc. You didn't say that you had to have an early wake up call or anything, just that you intended to 'get a decent nights sleep before driving home the next morning'. You also took a risk by booking a non-refundable rate, so I think you were being unreasonable. Most hotels understand that not all of their guests are party animals, and will try and put you in a room as far as possible away from their function rooms, if you tell them that you would appreciate a quiet room. You got your money back anyway, so if I were you, I would learn from this experience, and perhaps in future, steer clear of 'non-refundable' bookings, as it's often worth paying the extra couple of quid, for the peace of mind of knowing you can get your money back should anything go wrong and you need to change the date you're away, or you get ill, or something.

HoteIs have functions. That's to be expected. AduIt functions, Iasting into the smaII hours. THAT is to be expected. No, they were not unresonabIe to refuse the refund, since you booked through a third party. YES, you were reasonabIe to go through that third party, who was the party authorized to issue the refund. And they did.

And let me just add: if you had called the hotel directly to reserve the room, they would have warned you of the event and you could have decided whether you wanted to book or not.

You're being unreasonable for booking through one of those horrible OTA's (Online Travel Agencies). If you want flexibility (the ability to cancel, change dates or room types), you need to book directly through the hotel. The hotel cannot refund money you paid to booking.com.

Do people genuinely think a hotel would have called a future guest to mention the function and it’s finish time if they weren’t expecting it to disturb guests to an unacceptable extent?

Why would they do that?

Most hotels are happy with their soundproofing that they just assume it’ll be fine. I’ve never once been called by a hotel to say “btw we have this event on…” as a warning.

The OP’s second post clarified that there was zero mention of a function room on the hotel blurb.

If you book a hotel with a function room/a then you know this is a risk. This is absolutely basic knowledge.
Yes, you’re being unreasonable asking for a refund and chances are you wouldn’t even hear it

She “said they would move the booking to a date when they don’t have a function as a goodwill gesture”.

That is the most ridiculous, unhelpful, not how hotels or reality work gesture of goodwill I’ve ever heard. What a seismic moron.

YANBU and the law is on your side. As you say, had they communicated to you about the noise before you booked (e.g. by providing info in the hotel description on booking.com), you would have booked somewhere else. Their behaviour is almost certainly an unfair commercial practice by law.

I think you are being unreasonable.

You wouldn't have known if the hotel hadn't warned you and you'd have to stayed there anyway.
I think its good the hotel mentioned the possible noise.. They don't know if you are out late yourself or heavy sleepers. Presumably they warned you you so you could use ear plugs rather than cancel.

I don't think it pays to book a non refundable rate because you never know what will happen. Still as Op has their money back does it even matter?

This reminds me of when I called to complain about hotel outside noise at 9.30 once 😂 I was only about 25 but had jet lag. They turned it off and sent me a fruit basket.

yanbu.

You got ti out refund, why do you care?

sorry but I think you are being unreasonable. You booked a non refundable room and then we’re upset when they refused a refund.

Lots of hotels can be noisy.

Just take it as a learning experience and call the hotel next time before booking a non refundable room.

They do have a phone number but you have to have a booking, and they will ring you if you request on the chat service, and they do get involved in disputes like this, I've dealt with them from the hotel side before when people want to cancel bookings that are non refundable or are past the point of free cancellation and if they feel the hotel has acted unreasonably they can suspend the listing or remove it from their site completely.

If there's no issue why email to tell you at all? 11pm OK, but not nearly 1am.

On that basis there should have been a cooling off period at least. Leave an honest Google review of your encounter with them, any one would think people use hotels to sleep!

I'm not sure this can have happened TBH. Booking.com will never get involved in a dispute like this and don't issue refunds - they are a shop window for hotels but have no direct influence. Plus they don't have a phone number!

We received exactly the same message from a hotel (AFTER WE BOOKED ). I rang and they explained it was a courtesy and the event would be over by 1am.
I thought " How lovely for them to let me know" and was happy to remain at the hotel.

Never before, have I ever been been contacted about potential noise disruption from a hotel.

BIG MISTAKE. We were right in front of the hotel front doors. It seemed like if I had a hockey stick, I could have touched the people stood by the reception. Screaming, singing, smoking, talking, laughing etc. It sounded like they were all in my bathroom & my window was closed!

This continued until around 03:00 !!!

Take heed. I presume from a generic email they send to ALL, after any bookings, they feel they have covered themselves in the event, somebody complains and wants a refund/reduction AFTER staying the night!

It's a hotel, you made a non refundable booking without checking it fit your own requirements first.

Very happy for you you got a full refund. If and when you book a hotelnight you might expect an undisturbed sleep.

Obviously the hotel are the unreasonable ones. People are not likely to know that a hotel out of their locality holds noisy functions and they certainly won't know the layout of the hotel enough to know if it would affect the room they are in. I've had this happen to me before now - then boyfriend and I booked our room, went to bed and shortly after that all hell broke loose (ie a noisy function underneath us) and the hotel hadnt said a word about it! Personally - I guess I avoid the "noisy function" thing now because I always specify I must have a quiet room at the time I make the booking. That is indeed the case - as the bedroom I used in my last house and the one in current house are quiet and I mentally "tune in" to the silence in order to get to sleep and therefore can't sleep if there isn't any silence to tune into. In my case I'm doing that because I loathe and detest traffic noise - and I am being perfectly fair saying that and including "I hate traffic noise - and I don't have a car myself" - ie to show that it wouldnt be fair/I would be angry if I was subjected to other peoples traffic noise. With that the hotel obviously gets the picture that I'm expecting "silent/really really silent" from my room and I've not had to complain about not getting my silence since.

Yes - the hotel was unreasonable. (What would be the point of telling you about the noise if you couldn't do anything about it?)

Given that it’s not remotely normal for a hotel to contact you to inform you of an event it’s a pretty safe assumption that the OP would be disturbed - why else would the hotel take the step of contacting guests?

Did you not reach the end of the post where OP states a full refund was issued?

The hotel decided to inform her that noisy events might happen. She asked whether it affects the day of her booking. They said yes, and tried to explain that it would disturb "only" two hours of her intended sleep. She knows enough.
If the hotel felt confident it wouldn't affect her, why did they inform her after the booking at all? If it affects only some rooms, they had a chance to explain it.

Non-refundable means they don't have to accomodate your change of plans, which isn't a case here. They informed her that they would be providing sub-standard services on that day .