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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask for a refund of this accommodation

141 replies

areyoureadytobestrong · 27/08/2019 19:50

I booked two rooms (one double, one twin) via Booking.com. We’ve now arrived and the two rooms are in two unstaffed houses 8 doors apart. We have two boys aged 14 and 16 so it will be fine unless it isn’t .....unless there is a dodgy person in their unsupervised accommodation .....or a fire.
I called the owner who says he is fully booked/ nothing he can do and that Book8ng.com “won’t let him show it as separate addresses”.

I think this is unacceptable and have asked booking.com for a refund. Would appreciate any comments/advice.

OP posts:
Original poster
areyoureadytobestrong · 27/08/2019 23:33

Indeed Bran.....teenagers are not good bedmates!

OP posts:
Quartz2208 · 27/08/2019 23:33

I would be surprised the terms and conditions set out very clearly their role and what they are with everything being on the trip provider (as they call it). They are too big to check everything.

it's the owner you made a contract with and paid

callmeadoctor · 28/08/2019 00:30

Mmmmm its not the end of the world though. I think I would relax tbh, kids are old enough to be in camp somewhere.

adaline · 28/08/2019 06:29

But if it was so important to be in rooms next to each other, you should have specified that when you booked.

I would imagine Booking.com's argument will be that you got what you paid for which is two rooms.

What do you imagine will happen to a 14 and a 16yo in this situation that couldn't happen if they were in the same building?

NerrSnerr · 28/08/2019 07:42

I don't understand why the OP didn't check that they'd get rooms next to each other or even check the b&b's website to see how big it is? What is she going to complain about? That she got the 2 rooms she booked? They don't know how you're going to organise who sleeps in what room and they don't care. They got a booking for 2 rooms and that's what they gave.

Booking.com have a box for requests on their booking form. We use it when we ask for travel cots in the room. You could have asked in there.

SofiaAmes · 28/08/2019 07:50

It's so irritating when posters don't actually read the thread. OP has said that what they were given is one room at the address they booked at and another room at a completely different address. That's not the same as down the hall or on a different floor.

OtraCosaMariposa · 28/08/2019 07:53

Would people actually think to check whether rooms were in the same building? It wouldn't even occur to that a hotel/guesthouse would be in two separate buildings.

It's not one of those big Caribbean resorts with small low rise buildings spread across a "campus" area. It's definitely something which should be flagged up at booking. Are you expected to schlepp from one hotel to the other for breakfast?

Northernlurker · 28/08/2019 07:54

I think it's quite clear the owner is lying. They have overbooked RiverView and put the overflow in the other property.

This happened to friends of mine, they'd booked one hotel, arrived and were told they were in another five miles away. Unluckily for the hotel it was their wedding night and my friend was still in her wedding dress. They went to the other hotel but insisted on a full refund as I recall.

NerrSnerr · 28/08/2019 07:55

I have read the thread but I would check. As others say, some guest houses are on complexes so if you want rooms near each other you need to check first!!

ShatnersWig · 28/08/2019 08:05

Starting to think MN needs to have IQ tests or introduce some way where it's impossible to comment without reading the whole thread or at very least everything the OP posts.

This is NOT a complex. This is NOT a hotel where some bedrooms are in the main house and others in an annexe. It's not solely about the teenagers sleeping separately, it's also the fact that the advertisement is NOT accurately describing the property she believed she was booking into.

OP booked two rooms in a guest house. Except it isn't actually a guest house at all. It's some bloke who lies on his booking.com profile to give the impression it's one property when in actual fact it's not. Not two properties in the same grounds, but several houses apart and separated by other properties that don't belong to him.

It's becoming more common on booking.com I'm afraid. There have been several instances in our local paper over the summer of people who have booked rooms in "Central Hotel" and on arrival found that one room is indeed in the Central Hotel (which has on site staff, a room where they serve breakfast, on site parking) but the other is a room in a house the other side of town in a grotty part of town with no staff, you have to travel back to the main property for breakfast (15 minutes by car), no parking.

The company concerned has form for it, as well, and booking.com is well aware of it. It gets kicked off and starts up again. I won't book anything via booking.com now unless I have done some additional research and the property also has its own website. I'm hearing far too many stories like this concerning "guest houses" and "self catering apartments" (which turn out to be one bedroom in an HMO) on booking.com

ShatnersWig · 28/08/2019 08:06

Bollocks. Sorry for all the links.

NoSquirrels · 28/08/2019 08:15

I won't book anything via booking.com now unless I have done some additional research and the property also has its own website.

This! Hope you get some money back, OP.

applerock · 28/08/2019 08:38

How do your children think about the situation?

I understand your anxiety and frustration. I'm surprised they allowed you to book the children in a room without an adult staying in there to. Tell them it's a safeguarding issue.

WaterSheep · 28/08/2019 08:54

Tell them it's a safeguarding issue.

But it's not a safeguarding issue. The guest house would expect an adult to be in each room.

Original poster
areyoureadytobestrong · 28/08/2019 08:59

Thank you Shatners and Squirrels.

OP posts:
adaline · 28/08/2019 09:01

Nobody here knows what the advertisement says, so saying "OP booked rooms in the same building" is just an assumption. You don't know that anymore than anyone else does.

I would never book accommodation via a third party site without looking at the accomodations' own website first. I imagine the website itself makes it clear that there are several buildings and that you're not guaranteed to be in the same one unless you ask at the time of booking.

If I wanted to be in a room next to my teenagers I would specify it when I booked - you can't assume you'll get two rooms together upon check in. Plenty of hotels are fully booked so you can't always switch rooms when you arrive - you need to make sure beforehand.

Original poster
areyoureadytobestrong · 28/08/2019 09:02

Thank you Sofia, Otra and Northern.

It also didn’t say that the property is unstaffed......

OP posts:
adaline · 28/08/2019 09:03

Tell them it's a safeguarding issue.

How is it a safeguarding issue? They would expect an adult in each room. Lots of hotels won't allow a 16yo and a 14yo to share a room unless it was adjoining to the parents' room anyway.

OtraCosaMariposa · 28/08/2019 09:03

The whole safeguarding thing is irrelevant.

It obviously didn't cross OP's mind that there was even a possibility that a "hotel" could comprise in fact of two separate buildings, separated by other properties in a street. It wouldn't cross my mind either. It is not the norm. When you book a hotel, you expect that hotel to be one building, or one complex, without other random properties in between.

There's nothing WRONG with having that set-up, and if you're just booking one room you might shrug, think it's a bit odd and crack on. But there should at least be something on the website warning guests that they may be accommodated in one of several properties on the same street with separate entrances and which aren't connected.

Brefugee · 28/08/2019 09:18

When I've used booking.com in he past when my DC were younger I always used the comment box to mention to the hotel/whatever that I wanted adjacent rooms and if that wasn't possible that they should contact me.

Ideally you do this before completing a non-refundable booking.

I was in a hotel in London (Bloomsbury) recently that was basically a load of houses in a terrace, some next to each other, some separated by a house totally unrelated to the hotel. It wasn't clear that this was the case for the booking and I'd only booked one room so it wasn't an issue, but with 2 teenagers in a separate building I'd probably not have been too happy about it. On the other hand my DC were pretty ok at 14/16

Lulualla · 28/08/2019 09:19

I stayed in a hotel in Hyde park last week. Half the hotel was on one side of the road. The other half was on the other side of the road. You checked into the main reception and they told you which side of the street your room was. I had rewuates adjoining rooms so didn't have a problem. But if I'd just booked 2 rooms, they could have been separated.

It doesn't matter if they own the properties in the middle or not. Guest houses and hotels can be and often are split over more than one building. When you make a booking, and you want rooms close to each other then you need to specify that.

Lulualla · 28/08/2019 09:21

*requested

Missingstreetlife · 28/08/2019 09:26

Can they behave themselves? Can you get a key to their house so you can check them, can they phone you? If not it's not workable
If yes and they feel ok tell them lock their room at night and take out the key, so you and no one else can get in. Go thru fire drill with them, usually on back of door.
Try to make arrangements that you have breakfast together. Perhaps someone else will swap or extra chairs at your table.
Yes complain, manager should make more effort to sort it out, move another guest perhaps.

PrincessHoneysuckle · 28/08/2019 09:27

As pp said I'd have one adult with one child in each house

regmover · 28/08/2019 09:35

Bloody hell! I used to run a guest house and we would not have expected that an adult would be in a room with each child at that age. However, we would have expected to book them into the same building, not two different addresses.
I can't believe the number of people who can't read and understand the simple facts of Op's posts. Maybe the heat is causing some hard of thinking problems?

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