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?

If there's no issue why email to tell you at all? 11pm OK, but not nearly 1am.

On that basis there should have been a cooling off period at least. Leave an honest Google review of your encounter with them, any one would think people use hotels to sleep!

They do have a phone number but you have to have a booking, and they will ring you if you request on the chat service, and they do get involved in disputes like this, I've dealt with them from the hotel side before when people want to cancel bookings that are non refundable or are past the point of free cancellation and if they feel the hotel has acted unreasonably they can suspend the listing or remove it from their site completely.

sorry but I think you are being unreasonable. You booked a non refundable room and then we’re upset when they refused a refund.

Lots of hotels can be noisy.

Just take it as a learning experience and call the hotel next time before booking a non refundable room.

You got ti out refund, why do you care?

This reminds me of when I called to complain about hotel outside noise at 9.30 once 😂 I was only about 25 but had jet lag. They turned it off and sent me a fruit basket.

yanbu.

I think you are being unreasonable.

You wouldn't have known if the hotel hadn't warned you and you'd have to stayed there anyway.
I think its good the hotel mentioned the possible noise.. They don't know if you are out late yourself or heavy sleepers. Presumably they warned you you so you could use ear plugs rather than cancel.

I don't think it pays to book a non refundable rate because you never know what will happen. Still as Op has their money back does it even matter?

YANBU and the law is on your side. As you say, had they communicated to you about the noise before you booked (e.g. by providing info in the hotel description on booking.com), you would have booked somewhere else. Their behaviour is almost certainly an unfair commercial practice by law.

She “said they would move the booking to a date when they don’t have a function as a goodwill gesture”.

That is the most ridiculous, unhelpful, not how hotels or reality work gesture of goodwill I’ve ever heard. What a seismic moron.

If you book a hotel with a function room/a then you know this is a risk. This is absolutely basic knowledge.
Yes, you’re being unreasonable asking for a refund and chances are you wouldn’t even hear it

The OP’s second post clarified that there was zero mention of a function room on the hotel blurb.

Do people genuinely think a hotel would have called a future guest to mention the function and it’s finish time if they weren’t expecting it to disturb guests to an unacceptable extent?

Why would they do that?

Most hotels are happy with their soundproofing that they just assume it’ll be fine. I’ve never once been called by a hotel to say “btw we have this event on…” as a warning.

You're being unreasonable for booking through one of those horrible OTA's (Online Travel Agencies). If you want flexibility (the ability to cancel, change dates or room types), you need to book directly through the hotel. The hotel cannot refund money you paid to booking.com.

And let me just add: if you had called the hotel directly to reserve the room, they would have warned you of the event and you could have decided whether you wanted to book or not.

HoteIs have functions. That's to be expected. AduIt functions, Iasting into the smaII hours. THAT is to be expected. No, they were not unresonabIe to refuse the refund, since you booked through a third party. YES, you were reasonabIe to go through that third party, who was the party authorized to issue the refund. And they did.

In my experience OP, you should more or less expect a disturbed night when staying in a hotel these days, and if it's a Friday or Saturday night, you can pretty much guarantee being woken by drunk / inconsiderate guests, slamming doors, calling out loud 'goodnights' etc. You didn't say that you had to have an early wake up call or anything, just that you intended to 'get a decent nights sleep before driving home the next morning'. You also took a risk by booking a non-refundable rate, so I think you were being unreasonable. Most hotels understand that not all of their guests are party animals, and will try and put you in a room as far as possible away from their function rooms, if you tell them that you would appreciate a quiet room. You got your money back anyway, so if I were you, I would learn from this experience, and perhaps in future, steer clear of 'non-refundable' bookings, as it's often worth paying the extra couple of quid, for the peace of mind of knowing you can get your money back should anything go wrong and you need to change the date you're away, or you get ill, or something.

We stayed in a hotel in Ireland where the fire alarm went off during the night. We were given a voucher for another night's stay.