Overpaid for holiday

I wouldn’t pay you if I was the friend - sorry but this is your fault. Expensive lesson learned!

I feel for you OP - a very human mistake, I can see how it happened. That said I think it should be a lesson in keeping a better eye on your finances, because the time to resolve this was before the holiday, not after.

If I were your friend I would pay the double share but I think I would be privately irritable about it. Offering to meet in the middle seems a fair suggestion. I would still pay the full share for my family but I would appreciate the gesture.

Thats not fair to your friends though...you are just going to suddenly tell them and guilt trip them that the holiday cost a lot more than they agreed

The company was wrong/sneaky to suddenly alter the price but you had time before going to question and argue this.

You cant go and enjoy something, that you actually paid for before going (therefore in the company's eyes agreed with the cost) and then say you think it was too expensive as you didn't check and want your friends to pay the difference

I'm actually with the company on this as well-not the initial sudden price chance but the fact you have been on and enjoyed the holiday before raising the pricing issue .

To late after the trip to be talking about the cost of it. Surely once the confirmation came through you’ll have seen how much it was? If you’ve not been diligent in your booking, payment, and cod elation of the details to you fellow travellers then you’ll have to pick up the cost

OP, I'm really sorry this happened to you, but can't help wondering if you're always this slap dash about details? The fact that you didn't notice the final figure had doubled before you clicked send, is bad enough, but did you actually even check the confirmation details to ensure that it showed the right place, the correct number of people, flights, etc? As for not checking every line of your credit card bill, then you're simply a mug, as I always check mine, and have now found on more than 3 separate occasions that Amazon have charged me for Prime when I haven't agreed to it. So I really hope that you will learn from this VERY expensive lesson.

Surely you notice when you book it. You had the holiday so too late. Divide it between the families and work out costs. Getting money back after you had the holiday is impossible. If you just booked it I'd advise you cancel and rebook

But the rate was still fully apparent before you clicked the accept button.
You could have cancelled if it was that far outside your budget.
To go on the holiday and still think you are due a payback is quite incredible, really.

I think you should have checked BUT it’s really shitty that they did this. Once you’re locked into a booking it should keep the prices the same, and have a timeout if you don’t check out in 10 mins or whatever

This is entirely on you.

I think its on you.

You booked it, you did have a chance to see the price. You didn't tell your relatives until after they'd been, when had you said prior cancelling would have been an option

Have you only just realised this? You really can not ask people to pay more. It’s over

It’s your mistake though.

I really feel for you and can sort of see how it happened, but if I was one of the other families I might pay you some of it, but if I did I would never, ever go on holiday with you again or be in any sort of situation where finances were involved. So I guess you need to decide if it’s more important to get some money back or keep your friends.

NB I would keep pursuing it though through your CC and any other means you can, because it does sound like a system error.

What? You don't check your credit card bill? No wonder you get into a mess like this.

This! except at least you had multiple chances to query the cost before going away, which are opportunities you aren't giving your friends!

If I was your friend and you messaged in a panic immediately after making the booking saying "help! It all went through at the price we agreed but I've just looked at my account/the confirmation email and it says twice the price, I don't know what happened!" then (after obviously trying to help get the money back) I probably would have felt bad and contributed if there was nothing else we could do.

However if you messaged me now with the, frankly, incoherent account you've given on here, saying 'yes, "technically" I did see the higher amount before clicking pay, and, yes, the higher amount (not just the overall total but the daily amount) was listed on the "invoice" (and would have been on all confirmation emails), and, yes, the higher amount was also listed on my credit card statements, issued before the holiday....but I somehow didn't realise any of this and it's only now we've been on the holiday and there's no plausible way of claiming the money back I want you to pay twice (or even 1.5x) what we agreed and you budgeted for....'
then haha, no chance, sorry!

Always check any confirmation emails that come through and get people’s money in advance.

What booking platform did you use ?

Example

I booked a holiday about 6 weeks ago.
I checked the price of the holiday, 1 o 2 days before departure & it was exactly the same price.
No last minute booking discount

Just a suggestion as I nearly got caught out like this on a group holiday - the room price quoted was "per person, assuming 2 sharing" which was not at all clear and in very very small print, and it was only by chance I realised - you saying it was exactly double does make me wonder if the hotel is pulling the same trick....

Everyone saying she has no redress have clearly never worked in credit card fraud and disputes. She absolutely has a pretty strong case

This
Having worked in this area you definitely have grounds for a dispute with the merchant. Not saying you would win but it is worth a try

You have done the same thing to your friends though. You've paid double and then didn't tell them until it was too late, they couldn't cancel the holiday. You didn't communicate the price change. I cannot understand how you didnt notice. It's a very expensive lesson to learn.

I agree. It's like ticketmaster and their dynamic pricing. Where's the consumer protection? Imagine going into a shop and getting to the till and they've suddenly doubled the price. OP, can you write a letter of complaint to the platform and to the owner as well. You may just write this off and never use the platform again.

I’d go through the company’s complaints procedure (to the end) if the price is so unreasonable. Then complain on their social media feed to say you want to warn others and take it to ABTA.

If the price doubled during the booking process it sounds like a scam and it may have happened to others.

You’ve nothing to lose by taking it as far as you can. You may receive a goodwill payment if you’re persistent.

I really think it’s too late to ask them now, that you’ve all been away. They joined you based on the knowledge it was £x,not £xx. It’s not their fault you were too scatter brained to double check when booking and too scatter brained to check your credit card statement till after the trip was done. I understand this is a lot of money but it IS your fault. I would be fuming if my friend booked a holiday at double the cost we agreed and never mentioned it till after the trip. That means she hadn’t given me a chance to decide if I’m ok with paying xx instead of x, or see if I can cancel it or get it reimbursed somehow. I would never trust her to book anything for me again. I would also be suspicious the friend knew all along and on purpose didn’t tell me until it was too late.