To not refund this £2k

It can because in UK contract law a ‘month’ is a calendar month. However, it would be best practice to state a clear specific number of days.

But she hasn’t said any of those things.

she said a month.

But how could you possibly argue that a month is 28 days, unless you're talking about 3 out of every 4 Februarys?

I would also like to know why she cancelled. OP says it wasn't an emergency or anything, so it's seriously cheeky of her to expect a NFP to bear a £2K loss on a ticket that she reserved and held on to for 9 months if she's just changed her mind.

Who has a sofa in the kitchen?

Not-for-profit makes it clear that potentially losing the money is a much bigger deal and far less sustainable for them than it would if it were, say, Tesco or Amazon.

Also, I suppose by saying that it's a women's org, that shows that 49% of the population instantly wouldn't be eligible to buy the ticket on a resale basis, so that makes it twice as hard to find a new buyer as if it were available/suitable for everybody.

Well unless the retreat is in February on a leap year it really doesn’t matter. All other times, 29 days is less than a month.

She can afford a £2k retreat so she can afford to lose her money

Perhaps you can re-sell the place at a discount or offer other people an upgrade for a price to recoup some of it?

I think you need to check the exact wording of the contract. The wording here is very important. Hopefully the contract is says the number of days/weeks rather than a month which can be unclear. For example in the pharmacy I attend give you a 28 day supply for a month.

Refuse the refund explaining why and ask her to claim off her travel insurance. However do not be surprised if she goes to the small claim court.

“The cancellation policy is no refund within a month of the retreat. She cancelled 29 days before the retreat starts.“

Seems fairly clear to me.

Not in September.

Your Ts and Cs were clear. You don’t have to refund the fee. You could authorise her to see if she can sell it on.

You are absolutely correct to not offer her a refund. The terms are crystal clear to anyone apart from the hard of thinking.

If this event is on the 25th September, she needed to be cancelling by the 24th August at the latest.

If she's got a genuinely earth shattering reason for not attending, that's what holiday insurance is for. If it was more a case of "just don't fancy it any more", then tough titties. You might even find that when you go back to her and say "no refund", that she's miraculously able to attend again...

I'm more interested in a charity organising a "retreat", going to a lot of time and effort, but seemingly making no profit... I get, "therapy and all that", but there's no need to go to the Med for it, when you can go to literally anywhere in the UK and do the therapy without the holiday... But I also do appreciate that perhaps I'm not the intended demographic for this.

Added to wrong post

Try contacting the list again offering her place for 1000 or even 750. Charge her for the hours spent on administration and refund her with the amount that you sold her place for.

Most travel companies offer a sliding scale of refund- so close to the retreat she would only get about 25% back- this way you can offer the room at a more reasonable rate and not lose any money.

Have you explained that you’ve already incurred costs on the basis she’s coming and that the organisation will make a loss on the whole event if you refund her.
Could she pay for costs already incurred only so you don’t make a loss?

And if you’re running that lean (not a criticism), and incurring costs that far in advance, perhaps you need to rethink your refund policy.
Finally, do you have insurance to cover this kind of situation? Or does she?

I can absolutely see myself doing this and thinking I was within, just, 28 days so it would be okay. Incidentally, whenever I have done something similar, where I have asked for a refund after 29 days instead of 28 or some such, I've always been politely refused. That's what businesses tend to do.

Rather than offer a free upgrade, and then sell a cheaper room, id offer the person who would have booked the en-suite room an upgrade if the difference is paid. Then offer anyone else the same followed by offering what’s left to the waiting list.

if noone takes the room, I’d be inclined to pay the upgrade fee into general funds. I’d also take a leaf out of the hotel or Airbnb bookings where they spell out the exact date/time for refunds to be available. And as PP suggested refund schedule tied to when you commit to costs.

No but 4 weeks is 28 days.

So OP really needs to tighten up this bit of the contract.

I use 30/60 days as it’s more specific.

if that's the case - you've paid out for suppliers well before your free cancellation period ends, and you arent confident of reselling the room - then you probably need to look again at your supplier payment terms and your cancellation terms.

i would absolutely not refund her at this point. I would keep marketing the room - and consider at what point i would offer an existing guest (maybe a repeat booker?) a free or discounted upgrade especially if it is easier to resell one of the cheaper rooms.

tbh i would be optimistic that you could resell if you get it share widely - promote it to your existing booked guests and mailing list/socials and ask them to share.

in my experience there's always a woman who has decided to make a life change who's up for somethign like this at short notice.

i would consider refund in part after all my costs had been met including time and effort /admin to rebook.

There’s only one month in the year that is 28 days and it’s not this one.

Not-for-profit women’s org - how is this relevant?

As she isn't within the cancellation period, I would offer her a partial refund of maybe £1k as a goodwill gesture. You will have more chance of selling the package at £1k and you wont be out of pocket. The new person will be super impressed with their great deal and hopefully the partial refund will keep the original customer happy!

She’s messed her dates up I imagine and left it to the last point in her mind for a refund. Expensive lesson but I agree no refund if you can’t fill the place.

Given months have different lengths this is a tricky one or does it mean by same date in previous month prior to retreat starting ? ,