Who should pay this extra holiday charge?

[Hobbyholidaydilemma]

Brief background: some members of a hobby group decided to visit an event abroad. It’s also a holiday destination, and it evolved to a 10 days stay because of a second, vaguely related, event.

The group members are friendly, but no close friendships.

It was planned to book 8 rooms, plus flight, with most people sharing the twin rooms.

One man wanted to bring his teenage son and the son’s friend.

Due to needing an adult on each booking the son’s friend was shown on the booking as sharing with an unrelated man from the group, but the intention was that he would actually share a bed with his friend ( hotel didn’t allow 3 people to book into twin room).

All was booked and paid in full months ago.

Unfortunately the man with whom the teenager is shown to share a room suffered a tragic and life altering event, and it is impossible for him to attend. His finances are also badly affected. It’s very sad.

This means that the teenager will on paper be the only occupant of the twin room, and the holiday company requires an adult in each room.

Cancellation charges are around 75%.

It’s possible to change the name on the booking to one of the other adults attending, but it costs a lot: it’s not much less than the full cost at around £600.

There has been much discussion how this should be funded. Legally as it appears that each of the room bookings have been made separately, it is the sole responsibility of the teenager; but that seems so unfair, he saved and paid for this trip and can’t afford to pay more.

The majority of people had to make sacrifices to be able to pay. There are only maybe 3 people within the whole group who are ‘comfortable’.

If everyone contributed ( including the 2 teenagers) it would work out around £50 each; but several people have already said they can’t manage even that.

This teenager is only known to 2 of the people attending, and isn’t part of the hobby group, so some people are simply saying they can’t help.

Along with a couple of others my position is somewhere in the middle, and I would probably try to pay the £50, but currently that won’t solve the problem.

The holiday company is making NO allowances for the circumstances.

I don’t see an easy solution to this and I suppose am asking for any ideas, or at least to gauge what others feel would be a reasonable course of action.

The man who wanted to bring his teenage son and friend needs to fund it. The rest of the party is unaffected.

So many times are GoFundMe articles up to fund idiots who have no travel insurance. It's just plain stupid, but if he paid by credit card, I'd ask them, though I doubt they'd help...

I was confused about who wasn’t going. I agree it’s the dad of the son who is responsible.

The dad should sort it out with the hotel and pick up any increased costs.. Serves him right for shoehorning teenagers into what was presumably supposed to be an adults-only group.

The man with the son should have been told upfront that if he can’t find another adult then the son’s friend can’t come. He is responsible for the friend being in this situation and needs to either pay the extra cost or tell the friend that they can’t come.

The man who has had the bereavement cancels and gets back whatever money his insurance pays.

The rest of the group are not responsible as they have followed the correct hotel policy.

When my dh died 6w before we were going on holiday the insurance did pay out but not all of it. I think from memory as was 15yrs ago , that they charged a cancellation fee of £100pp - I def didn’t get all the money back

the extra teen was silly not to have insurance and his parents or the other dad should have made sure he had it

sorry for other man’s loss

Sounds like it sorted for the man who needs to cancel and he'll get whatever he's due back from insurance/on cancellation.

As regards who should pay any extras, I think this has to be covered by the parents of the two extras, or the extras themselves depending on age. Nice they can go, but they're not part of the hobby club and some obviously won't want to pay extra for someone else to go even if they know them.

This.

The Dad who arranged for the teen to join should sort it.

Thank you to everyone who has commented.

A group of us who were available met and spoke about this. Some didn’t even know that the teenagers were coming until the request for additional funds.

We decided to tell the Dad that we were not willing to make any contribution to the extra cost. It might make things a bit awkward on the trip, but that can’t be helped.

We sent him a group message, which he appears to have read, but has so far not replied.

Wouldn’t it cover the whole cost if the room?

I hate chancers who change dynamics by inviting randoms in the first place.

This is on nobody but the dad, who should never have included the teens.

Also, the responsible adults for the teens should be teaching them to buy insurance at point of purchase.

I also think it’s on the dad as the whole three in the room set up is dodgy.

I am so confused, surely the whole room charge should be refunded as the room can now not be used? It is not boys fault he is not allowed to stay there so surely they will get all the money back?
Also why did the man pay single supplement when he was sharing with someone?
Sounds like the hotel have so far had a lot of money out of this!

I got confused about who was going and completely missed that the teens would be sharing with the now injured random man. I thought they'd be sharing with dad! Dad should pay. Uninjured dad.

This set up sounds weird anyway 😖

The teen would never have given any money to the chap who's pulled out. The latter had paid extra to get the whole room, the teen was always going to stay for free in his friend & dad's room. The problem is he has paid out for flights etc that he might now not be able to use.

i.e. officially the chap who pulled out has paid for a double room for him and teen. In reality he has paid for himself plus single supplement.

OP I hope the dad sees sense.

Have both the 2 boys payed the same amount?
If random boy has paid for his flight and share if his room to boy1 dad then he should receive that.
Boy1, boy 2 & dad need to find the cash between the three of them. Planning to sleep top to tail while pretending to be in another room was idiotic.....whose idea was it?

Can the man and the two teens get a cheaper air bnb. And get the small refund they can to offset it. It would still be extra but might be less extra.

I think he is cheeky wanting others to split the extra costs and tbh weird the teen is coming anyway

I think that the responsibility lies with the person who arranged for him to be on the trip, ie the man who is a member of the hobby group and was the one to change the dynamics by bringing his own teen and attempting to bring the second teen. He is not stepping up, however, and made the suggestion that we all share the cost.

You are correct, it’s this man who encouraged his
son to bring his friend who is responsible for dealing with this.

Of course the dad is responsible for working out the costs. Outrageous that he's not stepping up, and since he had no compunction in changing the group dynamics without checking with the whole group properly, he's got to take full responsibility. Seems to me he's a bit of a CF.

Now I’ve finally understood the situation agree that the dad should pay. This isn’t really a group situation- more of an informal thing, and he’s managed to make it more complicated than it should be!

From what I understand the father and son who were staying in the room would have each been liable for 50%, although the father might have actually paid it all.
The man who has had to cancel intended to pay a supplement for having single use of a room. When he was asked to let the teenager ‘share’ the room the teenager paid the difference between what was going to be paid and the rate for 2 people, which was less than 50%. All of the money was collected and paid direct to the travel company. The teenager didn’t pay anything to the man he was shown as sharing with.

So those 3 people need to suck it up and between them pay for random boys room.

Is random boy getting back the money he paid for his share of cancelled mans room?...via cancelled man's insurance

Ah my apologies @WimbyAce, it sounds like it could get very complicated with the insurance.

The Dad said ‘random boy’ was not covered by the insurance of man who had to cancel. Had the boy had his own insurance he would have been ok ( probably) as his travelling companion being unable to go would likely have been covered as a reason to cancel.