Hotel called me unreasonable!

[YorkshirePuddingsGreatestFan]

I’m going to an evening event with my daughter that should finish by 10pm. Looked on booking.com and found a hotel 10 mins walk away. We should be back at the hotel and in bed by 11pm so I’ll get a decent nights sleep before driving home the next morning. Booked and paid for the room on a cheaper non-refundable advance rate.

About 20 minutes later, the hotel messaged me with a generic message saying they often hold functions on Friday and Saturday evenings so there might be loud music playing until 12.30am. I messaged back and asked if they had a function booked on the Friday evening I had booked to stay.

A lady from the hotel rang me and confirmed there is a birthday party booked on the night we were staying. She explained the music curfew is 12.30am so by the time people drink up and leave the party, it’s usually quiet by 1am.

I said that wouldn’t work for me as I want to go to sleep earlier than that and asked to cancel. She refused the cancellation as it’s a non-refundable rate but said they would move the booking to a date when they don’t have a function as a goodwill gesture. I explained that we need a room that night after an event.

She asked what it was and I explained and said we were looking to sleep from 11pm. She pointed out we were going to be out for most of the party and would only be disturbed for two hours. She said I was being unreasonable as it’s reasonable to put up with two hours of disturbance during an overnight stay.
I disagreed and I never would have booked it if I had known there would be loud noise until 1am and asked to cancel again.

I was told it was my fault for booking a non-refundable rate through booking.com. I am being unreasonable as the hotel has been courteous enough to tell me about the party in advance and it’s not their fault that I’m incredibly precious about noise. She refused to refund and said there was nothing further the hotel could do.

I rang booking.com who agreed with me and cancelled it with a full refund.

It’s the hotel that was being unreasonable not me isn’t it?

You booked a non refundable rate. I do t see why they should refund you.

I didn't say it was 🙄

I rang booking.com who agreed with me and cancelled it with a full refund.

So it's sorted @YorkshirePuddingsGreatestFan

FFS. You got your money back. Move on!

I stay in hotels a lot with work. Most hotels have function rooms, and hold functions on a weekend. I have never been disturbed by a function, as usually the function room is in a different part of the hotel to the bedrooms. I always have earplugs in my bag anyway, the most likely things to disturb your sleep in a hotel are road noise, plumbing sounds, other guests in bedrooms not sleeping in a variety of ways, and cleaning staff. If you have been given the option of a refundable or non-refundable rate, and chose the non-refundable rate, I would accept I opted for the no-refund scenario and make sure I have good earplugs with me.

The problem is that your contract was with Booking.com and it was up to them to do any cancellation for you as you booked through a 3rd party travel agent and not directly with the hotel. So you were Booking's customer and Booking.com had your money. The hotel do not usually get your money transferred from Booking until much later.

Why would the hotel refund you money that they never got?

YANBU at all. We had this once, went to DH’s home town in mid-Dec for a family event. We stopped at a hotel the night before. DH went out with friends whilst I had an early night for beauty sleep. Early night was a disaster, there was a party until 2am! Hotel ignored my pleas for sleep. DH got back, got angry with them but no luck.

The next morning we spoke to the manager and he said it’s reasonable for some noise at this time of year.

We called head office and they gave us a free night’s stay in a suite for a day of our choosing.

It's literally in the OP.

You are not unreasonable

My claim to fame around noisy hotels is once I was away with work in the Cheshire area and Paul Weller and his entourage were there. It was a warm night and they started playing records and jamming loudly in the garden, I phoned down to reception at 11.30pm and was told there was nothing they could do because of who it was. Bastards kept going until 2.30am and I had to facilitate a day long session on little sleep.

Paul Weller was an arse as well and looked at us as if we were shit on his shoe, and was very rude when someone politely asked for an autograph- I get they don't have to be on show all the time, but why then abuse your celebrity privilege to keep all the guests awake.

If you book a non refundable room, you are taking the risk that you won’t get a refund.

If a hotel has (a) function room(s) then some noise might be expected on weekend evenings - I think you should have checked if it had a function room to start with, and then if it was being used on that date, before booking what is marketed as an non-refundable room.

Nope, the non refundable bit covers them in the event you change your mind.

You are still entitled to a decent night’s sleep. Non refundable doesn’t mean they can treat you however they want.

Definitely the hotel being unreasonable, especially if it didn’t have a warning that you saw before you booked.

Your point is pointless, then, really. The question isn't 'what might possibly happen to disturb a guest's sleep?', the point is 'what might a hotel reasonably warn guests about in advance?'

If a hotel has such poor sound proofing, or a planned event that's excessively noisy (which it must be as normally hotels don't feel the need to warn their guests), that they have to warn a guest then the warning should come before accepting a non refundable room.

Taking a non-refundable booking and then saying "oh btw, there's excessive noise on that date" is ridiculous.

'because of who it was'?
What a shitty hotel.

I don't need you to police whether my posts are worthy of your attention, thanks.

I stayed in a hotel like this, we were exhausted the next day. If we'd had any indication they held late night events we would have cancelled. I'm sure they deleted any reviews that mentioned the noise.

My nephew booked into a local hotel to get a good night's sleep. He had experienced awful noise from his neighbours all week so decided to get at least 1 decent night.
Turned out there was a wedding party which ended about 1am but the revellers carried on their celebrations throughout the hotel till 3am.
They asked to be moved and the hotel accommodated them but the noise was still audible. Not sure what can be done with inconsiderate guests.

It very much depends on the hotel and the function. I once booked into a hotel where they only told me on arrival, also in a 'please be informed' kind of way, that my room was above the function room. There was very little soundproofing. I felt like I was trying to sleep with boomboxes blasting on either side of me.
A certain amount of noise is normal, but there are plenty of hotels don't make any effort to minimise excessive noise and expect guests to just put up with it. The fact the hotel felt the need to send that after the fact suggests they're one of those and are covering their arses as they've had previous complaints.
YANBU, OP. I can only hope that this will prompt the venue to put that notice somewhere before people book but I suspect they won't as they know it'll put guests off.

It's an old building that has been converted into a hotel. I'm guessing that is why the soundproofing is poor.

There's nothing on booking.com that mentions a function room so I had no idea they held events before booking it. It describes the rooms and says they have a restaurant and a lounge bar.

The booking.com reviews are generally good with the main negative being lack of a lift and too many steps but that didn't bother us.

I've looked on tripadvisor today and there are a number of reviews complaining about loud noise in the rooms from functions. It's not just background noise - you can hear the actual songs and sing along. One reviewer said it's ideal for anyone who likes doing the cha cha slide in bed!

Noise from people coming back late is more of a niggle than a big issue. Last time I stayed in a hotel after a gig, I'd just dropped off to sleep when someone came along the corridor singing the last song from the gig! I just tutted and went back to sleep. Two hours of party music is a lot different from someone singing on the way back to their room.

This.

Or have a separate soundproofed party venue a few minutes walk away in the grounds of the hotel.

The point is that you wouldn't have booked that hotel if you'd had the info before. Of course YANBU, which is why you got your money back.
We once stayed overnight in a lovely small hotel in the centre of Rhodes town. We were the only guests. Around 11pm, music started from a nightclub that was so loud, you couldn't tell what direction it came from (but we could see it opposite). It went in until around 4am. The hotel owner said it had ruined his business. It's no wonder your hotel didn't tell you in advance. This is a warning to all of us to do our research before booking.

I voted YABU because on Friday and Saturday nights hotels often have functions, plus you got a full refund.

Point of thread is merely to get people to tell you the hotel was unreasonable, which is mute point given you got a refund. You now know not to book with them again.