To be fuming at holiday home owner?

[namechange0178]

We booked a week away (in England) for August ages ago. In autumn last year. We're a large family group so limited options. Last week I get a cancellation note, with a big story from the owner that her family member has long covid and they are closing their business so that he and his carers can live there. Lo and behold, as I'm browsing every day in the hope that something else becomes available so that we don't lose our holiday completely, the house has popped up again for our dates at a much inflated rate.

Why lie? If you're going to be a greedy snake, at least give us the option to pay more to keep our holiday. As it is, there is literally nothing else available for us.

I'd take screenshots and complain to the website admin

@Tuckedinbelly

What's the cancellation policy on the place? If it's a couple of days before (as with plenty of Airbnb places) I'd be tempted to book it on DPs credit card in another name and then cancel last minute. Arseholes

Brilliant.

We've had this with Airbnb and VRBO 2 years in a row! ....both happy to take our money when we booked in the September then cancel about 3 months before and relist higher. Both Airbnb and VRBO not interested. To me it's like money laundering.....keep my money over winter to keep them going then refund it when the booking start coming in and relist at a higher price.

Oooohhh OP that's infuriating.

I agree with others, post bad reviews.

www.holidaylettings.co.uk/rentals/nutbourne/13411964?rSid=5a3

The same thing happened to us.

That might constitute a breach of contract as clearly that was a lie.

Suggest you copy all that information and take it to your local trading standards.

Or try and barter with them and point out you've seen it re advertised.

Dreadful.
I agree with approach suggested by Cornish Tiger.

Not all holiday home owners are like this though…don’t tar them all with the same brush.

My parents have a holiday let and the letting agent fixed prices for this year unusually early (last April, because they were being pressed to take early bookings). They fixed the prices much lower than the market would bear - didn’t realise what was going to happen, , but my parents and most of the owners (in fact all that I know of) are honouring the bookings. Income from the property is my parents pension, but their viewpoint is that they don’t want to be exploitative, and they hope it will encourage return guests.

Also theres also a name and shame option.

Or

If they belong to any tourist approval group you could shop them with your findings

I am a holiday home owner and that is disgraceful of them to do that.

[quote prettyvisitor]www.holidaylettings.co.uk/rentals/nutbourne/13411964?rSid=5a3[/quote]
So £112 per night per person then.

It's not that bad value compared with a hotel and anyway up to 16% of the cost is an additional fee added on by Holiday Lettings so probably about £100 per night per person.

One night in the Premier in in Worthing would cost £172 for 2 adults tonight so not much cheaper and if you wanted a better room it would actually be more expensive

I wonder if this kind of outrageous behaviour from holiday let owners is more likely if they are AirBnB or VRBO type letters. If they are letting through an agent, and the agent is halfway reputable (there are some bad ones e.g. Sks) it will be more difficult because they’ll have a contract with the agent they have to honour.

Maybe a reason to book through an established agent rather than Airbnb etc.

Did you pay a deposit? If so effectively you've signed a contract with them and they've broken it - which is illegal. Read all the small print on everything they've done - in particular about cancellations as they're probably in breach. And I suspect yo uwouldn't want to stay there now but you could get a bit heavy with them and see if they will compensate you (which they wont do of course...)

Reviews prob wont help - because you're not saying the property is awful you're just saying they didn't honour the booking. There must be some sort of ombudsman to report them to. And if they're charted B&B owners then there certainly will be. Even if its an AirBNB then there's channels for poor behaviour.

Elphame, 16% sounds very low for the agents premium.

My parents pay over 20% plus £20 per booking towards a damage scheme. (Plus the housekeeping, plus linen). Plus there is an annual fee. It probably works out at more like 25% of the letting fee goes directly to the agent. That’s in Cornwall, maybe the fees are higher there than elsewhere, I don’t know.

This

CornishTiger

I’d call them out on it. Tell them you have seen the revised availability and you’d like then to honour your previous booking.

If they remain not decent on this then I agree review everywhere.

Check the policy. What they have done is greedy and dishonest

I'm an Airbnb host. I'm not allowed to cancel bookings. If I cancel a booking I get charged, I get my superhost status taken away and the dates are blocked on my calendar so I can't let it to anyone else. It's the same for all Airbnb hosts so they will only be cancelling your bookings in extreme circumstances. Other platforms I'm not sure about. It must be really annoying for would be guests and personally I would never do that.

As immoral as it is, you can understand if there’s a load more money. Would you have paid more if you had been asked?

I would take a snap shot then send it to him with just one word. “Karma”

@Bunpea

Elphame, 16% sounds very low for the agents premium.

My parents pay over 20% plus £20 per booking towards a damage scheme. (Plus the housekeeping, plus linen). Plus there is an annual fee. It probably works out at more like 25% of the letting fee goes directly to the agent. That’s in Cornwall, maybe the fees are higher there than elsewhere, I don’t know.

Holiday lettings is Tripadvisor (TA/HL) - they are just an advertising platform which takes commission on any booking. The guest pays up to 16% whilst the owner pays 3% so they get about 20%.

In addition TA/HL holds all the guest money until the start of the holiday which could be months in advance and then it takes at least 3 working days to be received.

They are not an agent like Sykes. Owners just list dates as and when they have space and set the price they want to achieve and then watch with awe as TA/HL loads on their charges. I've had guests pay nearly £1000 in fees to TA/HL!

It's a closer business model to AirBnB than Sykes and other traditional agents.

I'd review them and also send them a very strongly worded email

@Crazycatlady83

Very few people seem to have failed to understand that there would be consequences to closing the economy for 1+ year. Domestic holiday prices will rise this year, foreign holiday next year. Restaurant prices and taxes. I feel sorry for business owners - people screaming for their businesses to close (and in some cases they still remain closed), not making a penny for a year and then people calling them "disgusting" and "greedy" for trying to claw back some of their losses.

It's a inconvenience for you, but we don't know the holiday owners circumstances. They might be on the edge financially and need to make more money to keep their heads above water.

We should have a little sympathy for other people's circumstances

But loads of people are suffering, not just holiday home owners, it is a dirty underhand trick, it’s unethical, I hope it comes back to bite them.
You have every reason to be mad, but not sure what else you can do.

But we have just come back from an Airbnb in Cornwall, we booked ages ago and they didn’t put the price up, loads of really good owners still out there, just a shame a few ruin it for the many.

@MintyMabel

And holiday accommodation owners would be wise to remember that the foreign holiday restrictions that has create this boom won’t last forever.

And when it stops, they go back to the prices they had before and reset their business model again. Supply and demand is the most basic economic premise. I'm surprised people are constantly shocked at how business works.

Leave your reviews and do your worst, come next holiday season when holiday cottages are in demand, most people won't be bothered by an iffy business transaction a year ago.

This is why we have contracts and consumer protection laws. To mitigate the worst excess of the market & prevent price gouging.

Next year when all the pent up demand for foreign holidays goes abroad people will be picky about where they go. One bad review may not register but if the owner has done this across the 6-8 weeks of summer & they all review that is likely to be enough to put people off when they have a lot of choice.

@namechange0178

We had paid a 30% deposit which has been refunded to us. To be honest, it's not so much the revisiting of the price which has annoyed me - I get it, it's been a tough 18 months and they want to get as much as they can. It's the lying about having a very poorly relative which I find inexcusable. Had they messaged and said prices everywhere have gone up a lot and would we consider splitting the difference, I would have been annoyed at the cheek, but we would at least have the choice of still having our holiday.

So, if anyone knows of a 6 bedroom place suitable for young children somewhere around the south downs for the second week of August, please let me know!

Ooh, I live next to the South Downs... I want to know where the holiday cottage that screwed you over is 🙈

We have a holiday house, we haven’t raised our prices and have never done something as underhand as this. I’m shocked. Sadly we have had quite a few cancellations from guests for bizarre reasons. There are two large houses, sleeping 10-12, in our village for rent with some availability availability in July and August. Stunning part of the world - Monzie, Perthshire.

Lot of greedy disreputable holiday home owners out there at the moment. Such a shame. I hope you find something, OP. In the meantime, name and shame and leave a poor review saying what they've done.