to think a double booking is one of the worst things the owner of a holiday property can do?

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Without going into the boring ins and outs, how much response, contact or even compensation would you expect for a double booking at a holiday cottage, both for

Party A - the party that had to be put up in new accommodation, which was not up to the standard of the original property booked (hotel instead of self-catering) and not in quite the same location (next town over)

Party B - the party that stayed in the original accommodation, but spent several hours on their first evening with Party A in the property as new accommodation was sorted out.

If it matters, manager/owner did not live locally and so everything was sorted over the phone.

AIBU to think that a double booking is probably one of the cardinal sins for the manager of a holiday property, and the manager's reaction should at least acknowledge this?

Wow!! I would be beyond angry if that happened to me.

Party A should expect all accommodation and out of pocket expenses, e.g. meals out when they could have eaten in, and then something on top.

Party B a discount and an apology.

out of interest how did the two parties decide who was A and who was B? Was it first come first served?

A should get another stay free.

B should get a partial refund - equivalent to a night or so.

Because it should be a complete one-off error so the owners should go above and beyond to make it right, for the sake of their TripAdvisor if nothing else!

The sign of good management is what they do when things go wrong.

YANBU, a double booking is a big mistake but once made what are they doing to sort it out? What you dont want is them throwing up their hands in despair then hiding behind unanswered calls and texts.

In the first instance they should acknowledge that things have gone wrong and that they are responsible for this.

They should be offering alternative accommodation (which they have done) or an option to cancel with full refund plus refunding travel costs (was this done?).

I hope this is sorted now.

I assume you'd have to honour the first booking made.

This happened to SIL and BIL on a recent trip when they used AirBNB, because the owners used more than one website for bookings. The owners gave up their own house for SIL and BIL in order to honour the booking.

Yes, huge apologies and financial compensation for whoever missed out.

This happened to me once - me and a group of friends drove from London to Wales and when we arrived another family were in the cottage we had booked! They had booked via the agents, we had booked with the owner direct.

We stayed in a B&B that night and the cottage owner eventually paid us for that, plus petrol, plus a lot of fresh food we had bought en route that was spoiled for not going in a fridge.

However, this was pre-internet days and he was away in Greece or somewhere equally remote at the time, so we didn't even manage to contact him until several weeks later.

But, yes, it is massively inconvenient and just about the biggest mistake a holiday let owner could make, I should think.

Something similar happened to us, we had booked an apartment in London, checking in Easter Sunday for a week, booked via a website where they hold you money until you check in.
Had a phone call on Easter Saturday saying they were cancelling our booking for unforeseen circumstances!!
We went mad as obviously most places closed for Easter and most places would be booked anyway, eventually the agent agreed to find us another (more expensive place in a nicer location) for the same price.

What did the contract say?

I would be fuming, it could be your only holiday of the year, it is a huge deal.

Of course, you can't kick out party B. The owner should apologise to them, and offer them an evening meal or some refund as a gesture of good will. They do seem like nice people if they haven't simply closed the door and wish you good luck.

Of course A will have a full refund. I think the idea of a replacement free stay for party A is a good idea, if there are no condition attached. Alternatively, financial compensation for wasting a day holiday, and eating in a restaurant for every meal which is a lot more expensive than self-catering, and can be really inconvenient.

Ultimately, it depends how much your holiday has been changed. You might be in the nearest town, but still on the beach for example. You are in a hotel, but what kind of hotel? If you have a pool there, or access to more facilities, it's not that bad. If you were a group planning to spend time together, it's not the same. YA definitively not BU, the manager should start by apologising deeply before anything else!

YANB at all U, assuming it wasn't a genuine mistake and if deposits had been taken. I'd be rather annoyed.

I would be raging if that happened to me. You go to so much trouble to choose the right property in the right location with all the facilities you need, then get dumped in different accommodation in a different location.

I would want serious grovelling.

Deposits were taken from both parties.

Party B arrived first and had mostly unpacked by the time Party B arrived. Party B were staying for a week, Party A for the weekend.

We were Party B. Party A were as polite as could be but obviously it was a very awkward situation. A were all in the house for an hour or two as this was sorted (we're British, we couldn't just chuck them out) which had a knock-on effect for us - didn't know who would be chucked out at first, we were planning on going out for dinner but couldn't, had hungry and tired young children.

We called the manager to say Party A had arrived; manager then liaised directly with Party A. No more contact from manager at all to us (Party B).

On return I emailed the manager to express disappointment that this situation had occurred and said it was fortunate everyone was quite polite, as the situation could have got quite heated. My reply has not been what I expected - told this double booking had no effect on us, that I had written an offensive email, and quite frankly they were relieved we wouldn't be returning or recommending the place...

Wasn't expecting compensation, but is an acknowledgement that even Party B were affected by the double booking and that the double booking was a monumental cock up too much to ask for?

Wondering now what Party A got in response...

Oh, Party A had specifically booked that town because they were attending an event in that town, and self-catering because they had dietary issues (we had a loooong time to chat that evening). So Party A were quite significantly affected.

After their response...let rip on TripAdvisor!

his double booking had no effect on us, that I had written an offensive email, and quite frankly they were relieved we wouldn't be returning or recommending the place...

I am shocked. At the very very least an apology before you leave would have been reasonable.

I hope there are review websites, tripadvisors etc.. where you can write the whole saga. They are in the wrong business if they are so rude.

Awful. Did you take party a s details as you both might need to back each other up. Certainly party a shouldnt pay and should get all costs back with party b getting something for the in-convince. Terrible response from the owner. When all dealt with leave a truthful factual review.

Jesus Christ! Name and shame OP, the error could have been forgiven but that response cannot!

I think you should post a screenshot of the email chain (with details blurred out) on TripAdvisor.

(And on here.)

Maybe I'm a soft touch but if you were party b then you just had strangers in the house for a couple of hours. Of course not ideal. But compared to party A not so bad.

I'd expect an apology, maybe a bottle of wine or something, but nothing else really.

The owners are probably very stressed with dealing with party A who are definitely worse off!

Like I said, I'm probably a soft touch.

Cross posted! If the owners were really rude then fuck em. Definitely leave a bad trip advisor review!!

Definitely know we didn't have it anywhere near as bad as Party A and feel very sorry for them. And so am definitely not expecting any recompense. But I thought an acknowledgement at least that because of their error our first few hours on our holiday were quite stressful and awkward and not what we'd hoped for would be normal? The same way if you turned up and the cleaner hadn't been and you had to clean for a few hours?

After it was all sorted I did think, blimey, what would we have done if Party A had refused to leave and it had all got a bit heated?

Yep, the way in which they respond when things go wrong is much more important than when things go right. Straight to trip advisor I'm afraid!

do a tripadvisor review and copy and paste the relevant paragraph from the owners e mail. owners only get away with this because they know that most people cant be bothered to complain. they will do it again.

owners do care about their tripadvisor reviews so please do this. also you can leave a facebook review if they have a business facebook page.

errors happen in business but its how you deal with them that matters and this has been appalling imo.

told this double booking had no effect on us, that I had written an offensive email, and quite frankly they were relieved we wouldn't be returning or recommending the place

Holy shit, I'd have gone bonkers if they'd said that to me. Feel free to trash them on Trip Advisor.

Yes it could have been a lot worse! And I agree it was certainly not the way you wanted to begin your holiday. Did they say why it happened?