Massive holiday cock up !

[TheDogsMother]

We’re on a ferry on our way to a small Greek Island and I was checking the accommodation arrangements. I have just noticed I booked from 23-30 October not September 😮. The booking is for a week and not refundable. This is so unlike me but what a bloody idiot !

Hopefully the accommodation will refund/part refund as they may be able to re-sell because it'll likely be half term then.
Or see if you can find someone wants to go in half term?

We did. They were very lovely and let us sit in the shade while I found another place. They didn’t have any space but said they would talk about some refund. The funny thing was while we were there a woman came rushing out and hopped on a scooter as she had work to do we walked into the new place and there she was. She was the sister of the new host. We both pointed and said you !

My DH once booked two rooms instead of one for a long weekend in Paris. The doofus. We found out on check-in.

The hotel managed to sell the second and third nights again, so we only had to pay for two rooms for one night.

These things happen. I hope you have a fabulous holiday.

So glad you got it sorted!
I am going to Spain for work and the Spanish organisation booked my flights - for some reason despite being a major destination and us living near a hub there were no flights on one of the days and so my return flight is to a different airport and with a different carrier so it's with two airlines.
The Spanish admin booked me with a shortening of my name (e.g. Liz instead of Elizabeth) but they have now managed to change it. Good thing they did as I had visions of turning up to the airport only to be denied boarding. I assume they paid but it's not my money...

They might give you s partial credit for s future stay. If they refunded non-refundanle no-one would ever pay the full price.

You and your DH sound like really nice people.

No recriminations and you've decided to just put it behind you and enjoy yourselves anyway. Lovely.

That's a bit of a weird "deduction".

The OP presumably booked non-refundable because she had no intention of cancelling and therefore wouldn't have needed a refund.

Sometimes it is not 100% the error maker's fault! One time I was booking flights for a work trip through the British Airways website. You know the deal with those things, it's about a dozen clicks from search all the way to pay, through picking your dates, to selecting a flight, chosing seat options, entering your details and whatnot. So I do all that, very carefully, and enter my payment details, then right before the confirm page, biiiig delay, then up pops "This order could not be completed at this time. Please try again later.", sent back to the front page.

Fuming, I try again with a different card. Same result. Annoyed becuase I want to be done with it. So I do it yet again, this time it goes through!

Except I'd got the dates wrong. Not on the first or second attempts, but by the third I was so bored and frustrated with the process I rushed it. The airline would probably think 'oh they messed up their order what a dummy' but it wouldn't have happened if their website had worked properly in the first place!

It’s highly likely that you’re gonna love Paxoi (wich is plural for Paxos and the actual name of the island!) and you might want to return some time in the near future. You can ask the owners if you could use the amount already paid as credit for a future booking. The fact that your booking is pretty much at the end of the season (and thus less likely for the hotel to cover that with other guests) makes your chances slightly slimmer, but you never know! Best of luck, and have a lovely holiday!

I've read all your post and am so glad you've managed to get sorted.

Last night after many discussions with DH, I was all ready to press the "book" button on a particular coach tip, one night weekend in December, to go to Blackpool to go see the illuminations. I had assumed (make an ass out of u and me ) that it was for a Saturday night but something made me check again before I pressed. It was a Sunday night! Phew, would have lost the money on that booking as can't get the time off.

These things happen.

We ended up with a night or two of nowhere to stay on a Scottish island because my BIL thought a week was Fri-Fri when it was Sat-Sat. But we survived, the sun still came up in the morning.

Don't give up on booking.com and getting some money back. Their automated system is time-consuming and you go round the houses but it can pay off.
(They cancelled a recent booking - thinking we hadn't paid - we had. We paid early.

Hope you A have a good break and B get some money back.

Last year they announced some original cast members would be in the Broadway tour of Hamilton for their 10th anniversary and after speaking to my husband about a one off trip, saving etc, I booked the tickets for this year knowing the cast member I wanted to see would be there.

However either im more silly than I realised or the dates jumped and I accidently booked for the following week for the regular tour. I didn't realise till I got an email a few days later saying, we cannot wait to see you on X date. I didnt even have an in date passport!

I was able to resell the tix at a loss but it was a tough lesson for me. You are not alone!

I do hope that little bit of nastiness gave you the dopamine hit you were craving.

I'd not join the police just yet Sherlock!

We arrived at a ski resort complete with all our kit to find our accommodation had cancelled our booking because apparently they sent an email to dh to confirm and he missed it.

He will never live it down. Fortunately I was able to find us a nice (if expensive) apartment at the last minute.

I too have booked accommodation for the wrong dates 🤦‍♀️ Not as bad as your situation but I felt a complete pillock standing at a hotel desk insisting I had a room booked for 3 nights only to be told it was next month.....
Luckily they had room but had to pay again (and a higher room rate) and the original booking was non refundable too 🤦‍♀️

I don’t know if it’s any consolation but even refundable is usually only if you cancel 24 hours in advance, not when you’re nearly on the doorstep. Poor you 😩

This.

None of us know the OP’s financial situation, and why bash a person when they are down purely because she made a mistake?

Hi OP, I am in Greece and have a lot of experience with Booking.com.

Whilst you booked non-refundable, a refund (minus booking fees etc) can sometimes be issued at the discretion of the accomodation/owner/hosts.

As you originally booked for October, you are in with a chance as it is out of season - as opposed to no chance if it was peak season.

Speak to them again and contact booking as soon as you can.

My sleeping on Greek beaches days are many, many years behind me.

Mine too OP, was in the 1970's. Good times.

Glad to hear it's all sorted out, the Greeks will always find a solution.

Yea, I'd go back in October too if it works out with time off etc.

I once went to Ireland with a girlfriend for a weekend of walking and horse riding. My friend did the hotel bookings and I did the hire car and excursions.

She ended up booking us into the Two Ferrets B&B in Cork instead of the Two Ferrets B&B in Galway. 😂 We turned up at the Galway one. The owners’ 14 year old son checked us into our room. We showered, had a nap, ate through some of the hamper left for us, and then 2 hours later, Bob and Gemma who actually booked our room also turned up to check it. 😆 It was very confusing, but apparently, not the first time it’s happened. They didn’t have another room for us so we were politely hoisted out, but they didn’t find us a room at another B&B nearby.

That is what they call a 'sunk cost fallacy' - I think...

I am glad to read that something has been sorted out and hope you have a lovely holiday.

I assume you would never want to be a politician, as you have accepted and owned up to a mistake, instead of blaming someone else.

Good advice thank you. I will message them again keeping it polite.

Yes, but she's booked for NEXT month.

I'm glad you got sorted OP. A good friend of mine took his then gf to New York in December 2023, intending to propose during the trip. They turned up at the hotel - no booking on their system, so he got out his phone to show them the booking details - he'd booked for those dates, in 2024 😂 The hotel was fully booked but helped them find another one, he lost the money and had to pay for the new hotel so it was an eye wateringly expensive screw up, but she said yes and they're now married so at least it had a happy ending!