Can the hotel keep my money?

[FerryCrossTheMersey]

I booked a weekend away last year, but due to lockdown we were unable to attend. The hotel booking wasn’t flexible, but due to the circumstances we were allowed to move the dates. A year later, and we are still in lockdown, but this time, the hotel has said that because it wasn’t a flexible booking, we cannot reschedule the holiday, and can only cancel it- losing all our money. Are they able to do this, when it isn’t our fault we are unable to attend?

It depends on what the original terms were and what they offered you. Given you made a non flexible booking mid covid and they offered you an alternative, which was probably a courtesy, I would imagine they could have kept your money the first time!

They probably can - they moved a non-flexible booking once to be accommodating. We lost over £500 when Ryanair didn't cancel our flights at the end of December even though the Gov said we weren't allowed to travel (insurance didn't help us either). I'm sorry they won't refund you but I can't see they're at fault.

We booked it before COVID was an issue, around December 2019

Then can you claim on your travel insurance?

Good news! After reminding them that we booked it pre-covid, they were willing to move the date. Just as well really, as we didn’t pay for insurance

@FerryCrossTheMersey

Good news! After reminding them that we booked it pre-covid, they were willing to move the date. Just as well really, as we didn’t pay for insurance

Sounds good!

Fingers crossed you are 3rd time lucky!

Anyone else in this situation, I work for a credit card company. If you've been able to use a hotel stay because the hotel was closed, and they will not refund or move the dates, log a dispute with the credit or debit card you paid from. If the hotel IS open (say, you've booked a hotel in another country for this week, for example) and the issue is you're not allowed to travel there, that's not the hotels fault and as long as the room is available to you, you're unlikely to win that one. (worth having a polite conversation to see if they would let you move dates of course)