To not refund this £2k

Sorry, there is one lady, famous on Instagram, who is also running a non-for-profit horse-riding holidays to Asia. It is a one-woman effort. Not a massive turnover, does not officially make a profit. Just paying a huge salary to herself, huge (compared to locals) salaries to her Asian staff in Asia, everybody loves her, they are all rolling in it, thanks for this non-profit wellbeing organisation. Occasionally she runs women-only holidays too. All I was saying is that 'not for profit' means nothing.

I have had to cancel a few things this summer due to a flare in a fluctuating illness. On one of them I lost all my money, which was around £1000. Yes it hurts, but as long as the Ts&Cs were made clear at the time of booking I don’t begrudge the organisations at all for following them.

YANBU for holding firm.

If she cancelled before the deadline then you need to refund it. If she hasn’t then you don’t. It’s really simple. She should be given the opportunity to change the name in the reservation to someone else though if within your policy.

Yes, good point. But OP says that SHE organises them - not that she works for a big company that does this - so I inferred from that that it was a one-woman effort and not a huge concern that has a massive turnover but just doesn't actually officially make a profit. I may have got that wrong, of course.

Did the contract say which month? Maybe she wanted to give a February in a leap year’s notice ;)

how could it be interpreted as 28 days?

are you the letting agent of my first home who said monthly rent would be "4 times what we said the weekly rent would be"?

I'd tell her she's missed deadline for full refund but you can offer her the cost of her food £100. Tell her if she can sell her place on you will accept a new person. In future you need to build in a small margin and be specific x number of days.

@RefundOrNot : month will be understood as calendar month, not lunar month (litigation solicitor here). The alternative would be to say 28 days. She is out of time. I agree with PPs that you may want to taper your cancellation repayments.

Non-for-profit orgs can pay multi-million compensation packages to their employees, all 'non-for-profit' means is that they don't have to make a profit, that is all.

And a randy Vicar if you have a kitchen sofa!

Agree with this. People think you can fill the place or that they can get a refund from you. Unless she has had a family disaster/broken a limb etc (in which case travel insurance or her credit card might actually cover it anyway), then she will have to suck this up… or come.

Exactly. One couple told me they couldn’t take their holiday as they were getting divorced. When they discovered they were outside the cancellation window, suddenly the marriage was back on and so was the holiday!

Contractually she isn’t entitled to a refund. I’d reply to confirm this, but say you are trying to come up with ways to mitigate her loss so any help she can give would be appreciated? The free upgrade - perhaps to anyone already coming who can get someone to take their cheaper room/package? - is a great idea as posted above.

Yes, this. She's painting herself as the poor victim, but in reality, she may have just booked it on a whim all that time ago, as a vague possibility if she still fancied it at the time, and set herself a reminder to cancel it if not, but then got her dates a bit out.

If she hadn't booked it for herself, other people who were serious could have had 10 months to come forward for it, and save up for it.

I think because it's unclear and could be interpreted as 28 days you'll need to give her the refund. I suspect she would be able to challenge it legally if not.

Nah - it's a calendar month. Forget common law, it's the Interpretation Act 1978 where it's all at (one of my favourite pieces of legislation, saddo geek that I am)

To be even more pedantic, we're not in February 😀

If the law of the country in which the contract applies state a month = a calendar month, then that applies.

But cancellations can be contentious, so it’s best to have the number of days absolutely clear to the client, so at least there’s no arguing about that.

Just to note - ime when people cancel last minute for not very strong reasons - when they find out they won’t get a refund they often decide to go after all or offer it to a friend.

Except that it’s not.

I work at a non-profit. Remember that you can’t continue your mission and serve the people you want to serve if you don’t have the money.

This!

Re-advertise that a place has become available but not at what price point. Match a room to the budget that the new person enquiries at. Everyone above that gets an upgrade, releasing the space for the new person.

Cancelee gets a refund of the difference minus admin costs (because of all the faff, and as a gesture of goodwill)

Which is open to interpretation by the guest which is why leisure contracts generally state the number of days as it’s clearer.

I’d explain that she missed the month deadline and so it’s dependent on selling the room and explain no one wants it at £2k. Explain it will be a loss for the charity. Ask she’s like to find someone or you can ask the waiting list people if they will pay for a smaller room and she can have a partial refund. Can also also existing participants if they would like to upgrade for a fee.