Friend has cancelled me for a holiday that's already booked and paid for.

[Snowyxmastree]

I don't know how to handle this situation.

9 friends 4 couples and 1 single have booked to go on a holiday. I have paid for the flights outright and the hotels get paid for on check in. Everyone has paid for the flights bar the single friend.

I have had to rearrange the booking once already as we have booked non refundable rooms and 4 in the party got invited to a family members wedding.

I have just received a message from single friend to say that she is embarrassed to say that she can no longer go due to the cost. She's owes me for the flight and I have been chasing her for a couple of weeks now. Plus the hotel needs to be paid for nearer the time.

Everybody knows this all non refundable but she hasn't mentioned reimbursing me.

How do I go about doing this?

I will not be doing this again despite this being a annual thing for 5 years now with no issues.

I am so pissed off with friend as the hotel was booked mainly as she was unhappy with a lot of hotels as they didn't do single rooms.

Please help me ask her for this money I am owed. It's £550.

[BarbaraofSeville]

I just meant that some people are a bit thick naive when it comes to the realities of what they are signing up to.

[GloGirl]

Did she confirm recent to the airline booking? Or couldn't you get hold of her for a while before?

[KatharinaRosalie]

if there's ever next time, get money from her before booking

[StrictlyMumDancing]

You definitely need to get it in writing that she was aware it was non refundable and you expect the money to be paid regardless of whether she comes.

[CoffeeCoffeeAndLotsOfIt]

I feel for you OP. What a difficult situation.

Agree with the approach you're taking though.

Keep us up to date with developments.

Best of luck!

[rollonthesummer]

Have you replied to her text?

[Hissy]

Be firm. Call her and tell her that she still needs to reimburse you. Whether she comes or not.

Tell the others. They need to know so they tell her to cough up as well.

[queenofthepirates]

For next time, bookings of 10+ people can go through the group booking system for the airline. Just call them and ask to make a group booking. It has the advantages that you can give actual names closer to the time of booking and there is a +/- available for numbers. You just pay a deposit. Even Easyjet do it (not sure about Ryanair though)

[TheBunnyOfDoom]

Yes, next time, make sure you have everyone's money before you book anything! It's way too much of a risk otherwise (as you unfortunately learned).

You didn't answer my earlier question, though. Can you not see if there's anyone else who might want to take her place?

[CurlyhairedAssassin]

" I have paid for the flights outright and the hotels get paid for on check in".

I'm a bit confused about these details. Surely if your flakey friend doesn't actually check in then her room won't get paid for? Or is it just that the minute that YOU check in, everybody's room gets charged to your credit card?

Christ, sounds a well dodgy arrangement if you ask me. I just can't understand why you would pay for her flight if you had heard from others that she was unsure whether to go. "I'll get it to you today" isn't good enough. You should have told her "ah, never mind, if you decide to Come then you can book your own flight separately. Don't forget that if you decide not to come then you'd still have to pay me back what you owe for the hotel room."

[Duckdeamon]

Never sensible to book things on behalf of others and become laible for payments without clarity in writing on what's been agreed about who's paying for what and the terms of bookings.

If she refuses to stump up the cash do you have access legal services as part of your home insurance or through work?

[AyeAmarok]

I think go with:

"Oh no! There's no point not going though as the flights and hotel are non-refundable so it's just the spending money, we can just sort out cheap or free things to do when we're there, there's no point in you losing 550 quid for nothing."

Just assume that she wouldn't even be SUGGESTING that she doesn't reimburse you. Don't make it easy for her.

If she does expect you to pay, she's a selfish cow.

[Littleallovertheshop]

I wouldn't be going back and forth with the hotel etc. on her behalf. It's her problem to solve, not yours.

[AnchorDownDeepBreath]

Ohh dear. This gets worse.

Okay, OP, time for worst case planning. Do you have anything in writing showing that she knows exactly how much she needs to pay and by when? Does she have anything that she could use to suggest it was a gift of she hadn't yet fully committed? Has she paid a deposit or anything at all?

When is the holiday? Can you afford to go if she hasn't paid you by then?

[telesonic]

Had a similar situation with a friend (no longer a friend) although the holiday was in the UK so not as expensive. I couldn't go to small claims as the sum wasn't high enough in my case, but I also didn't have anything in writing to confirm she had agreed, everything was done through conversations in person or over the phone. She even agreed at first to pay me the money but then denied it, and it was just her word against mine in the end. Basically I lost out on the money as it wasn't worth the cost or stress of chasing it. I hope you can manage to get your money back, it sounds like the legal route might be a possibility.

[Jibberjabberjooo]

Oh OP you have to talk to her. 'Thats a shame you can't come, but unfortunately it's non refundable so there's no point you losing £550 is there?' Or something like that.

[gubbygubby]

This is what you need to say

Hi friend, I'm sorry to hear you can't afford holiday, unfortunately this leaves me with a big problem.
As you know , I paid for everyone's flights on my credit card. Everyone else has paid and I've got to pay the bill by January 14th.
Obviously I can't afford to pay yours as well as mine. Please could you pay me by the 9th January in time to pay the bill.
Are you sure you can't find a way to find the spending Money as it seems a real shame that you need to pay for not only the flight?but the hotel too.
We would all be really disappointed if you don't come.
Here are my bank details
@@@@@@@@
Have a great new year
If you could text me to confirm youve paid money into my account that would be really great

[DoreenLethal]

Doreen that's so aggressive! Softly softly to begin with.

Softly softly??? That only results in people taking the piss.

And my post wasn't even aggressive; it was to the point.

[Snowyxmastree]

I don't know if anyone else could take her place as this has only come about today.

I called a few times with no answer so have sent a friendly message stating the bookings were non refundable. She came back with "you never told me that" so I have redirected her to our what's app group chat where I sceen shotted the room conformation to eveyone that lists the rooms who's in them and prices listed with non refundable next to them. And also have said about why we had to change our dates as we had a group discussion on what was to do as the hotel said we would still have to pay or transfer the dates, after much discussion we all had to check out diarys and work out a new date!

Have also mentioned to get in touch with another couple to let them know the score as they were booking the excursion tickets so she doesn't incur any more costs.

[rollonthesummer]

Oh dear, so she's saying she didn't know!

Have you heard back from since then?

[Jibberjabberjooo]

Thank god you've got evidence of telling her it's non refundable.

[StrictlyMumDancing]

She's a cheeky mare isn't she? Good job you've got it all in writing, you may need that.

[rookiemere]

Poor you - how annoying when you take on the responsibility of trying to organise a group activity and someone pulls this stunt on you. Well done for remembering that you had the group chat screen shots - let her try and wriggle out of that.

I'd get back to her and say that she could try getting in touch with the hotel directly to see if she can cancel her room and find out what the flight cancellation tax thing is, but as you have already incurred these costs she needs to pay, so why doesn't she look at her finances again as she may as well go.

[SuckingEggs]

She has to pay, what a cow. Didn't know, my arse.

Send her another with your bank details abs say you need it by date x.

[SuckingEggs]

*and