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?

The time from booking isn’t important (even 1 minute after booking they wouldn’t have to refund if the OP had changed her mind) - but given the noise issue, they’d have to refund even if the OP waited until the last minute.

12:30am noise curfew is far later than is reasonable.

I think you’re being unreasonable expecting a full refund considering you booked a non refundable rate. Most hotels have weddings etc so you can’t expect total silence just because you want an early night.

I always pay extra so I can cancel whenever I need to and pay on arrival at my hotel

I never pay the cheaper book now and pay in full rate.

You're lucky Booking.com gave you a full refund OP though although I'm surprised they did

Why ? It is non-refundable if you want to cancel for reasons on your side.
In this case the hotel significantly changed their offering after the booking (if it wasn't a significant change, while bother informing about it), so it isn't unreasonable to cancel and expect refund based on that.

Non cancellable is similar to buying an item from a shop that doesn't do refunds. You're still entitled to your money back if the item is not fit for intended purpose.

it’s not their fault that I’m incredibly precious about noise.

I may have gone full Deirdre at that comment.

I'd expect no disturbances at all when I stay somewhere. Especially not at midnight. Shocking service.

But the hotel didn’t change their offering, everything was the exact same as it was when OP booked. It was the same room, same price and the same location. If they had contacted her to say they were changing the type of room then I would have said she wasn’t being unreasonable. You cannot expect full silence at a hotel at 11pm just because you want a good night sleep

I don’t buy that.

Hotels don’t phone people who’ve just booked about normal noise levels. Either their soundproofing is shit, the event will be excessively noisy or they wanted to move the booking to another date (since they offered that).

Something wasn’t normal for them to call the op.

Hotels generally have a quiet hours policy. Typically it starts at 10/11 PM and ends at 6/7/8 AM. It doesn't prevent someone slamming the door, but it absolutely means it is a reasonable expectation to not be disturbed in your room by planned noise like loud music from the party area.

And it is the hotel's, not the guest's responsibility to know whether the noise from the party area will bother the guest.
So yes, if they expect the noise will disturb her in her room for two hours from the night time, it is a significant issue.

I think they have wanted to move OP because of the event to have the room available for people attending to stay imo especially it’s been a wedding or something and the bridal party has asked if there was additional rooms available.

There is a whole spectrum of reasonable noise between full silence and a loud party planned by the hotel to take place until 1am when they are selling bedrooms to people to - yes, fancy! - sleep in.

The OP doesn’t even know how the noise would have affected her. She might not have heard much of it, she might have been able to sleep through it, who knows. She got a refund despite booking a non-refundable rate which is always cheaper because it’s supposed to be non-refundable, that’s the risk you take when you book.

'responding' is a more accurate word than 'policing' but OK.

Nah. There are plenty of hotels that don't have functions.
They sent her an email with this information after she booked. They should have had it clearly in the hotel's description. She wasn't given the correct information before she booked.

OP if you contact Booking.com they will sort this out for you.

The hotel decided to inform her that noisy events might happen. She asked whether it affects the day of her booking. They said yes, and tried to explain that it would disturb "only" two hours of her intended sleep. She knows enough.
If the hotel felt confident it wouldn't affect her, why did they inform her after the booking at all? If it affects only some rooms, they had a chance to explain it.

Non-refundable means they don't have to accomodate your change of plans, which isn't a case here. They informed her that they would be providing sub-standard services on that day .

Did you not reach the end of the post where OP states a full refund was issued?

Given that it’s not remotely normal for a hotel to contact you to inform you of an event it’s a pretty safe assumption that the OP would be disturbed - why else would the hotel take the step of contacting guests?

Yes - the hotel was unreasonable. (What would be the point of telling you about the noise if you couldn't do anything about it?)

Obviously the hotel are the unreasonable ones. People are not likely to know that a hotel out of their locality holds noisy functions and they certainly won't know the layout of the hotel enough to know if it would affect the room they are in. I've had this happen to me before now - then boyfriend and I booked our room, went to bed and shortly after that all hell broke loose (ie a noisy function underneath us) and the hotel hadnt said a word about it! Personally - I guess I avoid the "noisy function" thing now because I always specify I must have a quiet room at the time I make the booking. That is indeed the case - as the bedroom I used in my last house and the one in current house are quiet and I mentally "tune in" to the silence in order to get to sleep and therefore can't sleep if there isn't any silence to tune into. In my case I'm doing that because I loathe and detest traffic noise - and I am being perfectly fair saying that and including "I hate traffic noise - and I don't have a car myself" - ie to show that it wouldnt be fair/I would be angry if I was subjected to other peoples traffic noise. With that the hotel obviously gets the picture that I'm expecting "silent/really really silent" from my room and I've not had to complain about not getting my silence since.

Very happy for you you got a full refund. If and when you book a hotelnight you might expect an undisturbed sleep.

It's a hotel, you made a non refundable booking without checking it fit your own requirements first.

We received exactly the same message from a hotel (AFTER WE BOOKED ). I rang and they explained it was a courtesy and the event would be over by 1am.
I thought " How lovely for them to let me know" and was happy to remain at the hotel.

Never before, have I ever been been contacted about potential noise disruption from a hotel.

BIG MISTAKE. We were right in front of the hotel front doors. It seemed like if I had a hockey stick, I could have touched the people stood by the reception. Screaming, singing, smoking, talking, laughing etc. It sounded like they were all in my bathroom & my window was closed!

This continued until around 03:00 !!!

Take heed. I presume from a generic email they send to ALL, after any bookings, they feel they have covered themselves in the event, somebody complains and wants a refund/reduction AFTER staying the night!

I'm not sure this can have happened TBH. Booking.com will never get involved in a dispute like this and don't issue refunds - they are a shop window for hotels but have no direct influence. Plus they don't have a phone number!