Overpaid for holiday

[doreman]

I booked a group holiday and the price unexpectedly doubled in the last two minutes between the final check and the payment going through. It might have been because everyone was clicking on the link and the algorithm sent the demand pricing higher - I don’t know. I didn’t realise this at time of paying and only noticed when it came to totting up how much each family owed. The booking platform and the vendor have both said I saw the price before I paid and they will not reduce it or partially refund. This is technically true but I would never have purchased it if I’d noticed. Others on the trip don’t want to pay double what we’d agreed, but I also can’t afford to pay double my own family’s share and the rest of theirs. What’s the fairest way of paying me back or do I have to suck up this very expensive mistake?

Is it not cheaper to cancel? There should be something in the cooling off period that says about whether there is any free cancellation period. Other than this I'm I can see both sides.

Sorry, I should have made it clearer. We have now been on the trip and are working out who owes what. I booked the accommodation, another family did activities, another sorted food.

You can't get a refund after you've been off there was no issue with the actual trip/accommodation!!

I think that’s on you unfortunately.

You are going to get nowhere with the vendor as you’ve been on the holiday, and although I can understand not noticing it right at the last minute before buying, how did you not notice that a much larger sum of money had come out of your bank before you went, which would have given you time to sort something out.

How much money are you talking? What an awful situation! I think people should pay their share of the accomodation, they went on the trip and that's what it cost. They can't expect you to cover your extra share and theirs too, not if they are true friends.

The reason we enquired about a partial refund was because the rate we paid for the accommodation was so wildly off compared to the normal rate I was sure initially that it had been a mistake because it was precisely double. We did mock bookings for other times and it was exactly half what we’d paid.

I had a work trip and one DC birthday in the month it was booked so didn’t really raise an eyebrow at the huge credit card bill. It comes out by DD and I never go through it line by line.

It’s frustrating but this is something you should have seen/checked when you were booking. If you paid for everyone and you paid double surely you would have noticed a huge amount of money going out?

I would own up to the mistake and hope they’d take pity on me - it’s hard being the organiser. If I were your friend I’d pay up. But you will also have to accept it if they don’t - you had agreed a price and then you didn’t notice it had changed.

No, it’s your fault (unfortunately). You should have checked when you paid, and you certainly should have checked your CC statement.

This one is on you. You knew the price - or had the opportunity and didn’t read it properly to check. You can’t eat the steak and get money off after. You might have been able to negotiate beforehand.

Sorry op but you booked it and dropped the ball by not checking the price after you had booked. This would have been in your confirmation email which you could have then cancelled the booking.
What's fair is you pay the difference unfortunately. You said they don't want to pay the double price so there isn't much you can do

Yikes this is very unfortunate. I think this one is on you to be honest. Assuming it's all already paid for, can you afford to take the hit of not getting paid back?

Are you sure they didn’t put the payment through twice?

Can you give more detail on the trip to see if doubling of price makes sense? Was it over a bank holiday? Around a popular event in the area like a concert or sports game? Prices don’t randomly double unless there’s a reason. If there genuinely doesn’t seem to be one, it might be worth exploring whether there was some sort of glitch.

It wasn’t a big platform like VRBO or AirBnB and the price was precisely double which was why I was sure we’d paid twice somehow. But I have gone back and check the invoice and it says the daily rate is twice what we’d discussed in the group chat just minutes before I clicked confirm. It’s so bizarre. Both the platform and the accommodation owner say there’s no mistake. I have tried to do mock bookings for other stays and they all have the same (reasonable) daily rate. I wonder if they have some sort of primitive demand pricing thing on the booking platform which we fell foul of and it doubled because everyone was looking at the listing in the few minutes before booking. I don’t know how these things work really.

Sorry this is your mistake, you didn’t check before you clicked confirm or before you went on holiday. You won’t get a refund or partial refund, if your friends are able it would be nice for them to offer to pay some of the extra cost but they don’t have to.

TBF I'd probably mention it in a review. It's very shitty to double the day rate like that at the last minute.

I think you should raise a complaint with the company. Totally not normal for it to double like that.

Can you check all invoices and all confirmations. Are the prices correct?
I would google the company and see if anyone else has had issues with them. Do you have screenshots of the bookings prices that you sent to the group at all?
I think go to citizens advice aswell.
I would think that as youve actually been on the trip that you might not have a leg to stand on but its worth a dig around and some advice.

Unfortunately it’s still on you, you should have raised it when you noticed before the trip not after the trip.

You had the opportunity to see the price when you paid and ok let’s say you didn’t notice the change (weird because I always look at the final amount before I click pay so this is hard to understand), you also got an email confirmation and had the opportunity to see the expense on your credit card account/statement so you can’t now ask for a refund after the trip claiming you didn’t realized they charged a different rate.

Next time you should also share the confirmation email for the booking with the travel group so they all have a record and to avoid confusion. That way someone could have noticed and brought it up to your attention and you can all be on the same page about who is paying what.

Waiting until after the trip to bring this up, I don’t see any vendor taking you seriously. Your focus should be figuring out how to get your travel group to agree to split the expenses.

This is completely on you unfortunately. You would have seen the price when you booked it and you'd have to query or cancel ahead of time, not after.

You've been on the holiday, it's a bit late to decide you want it cheaper now.
Prices do go up when you look at holidays/flights so having everyone clicking it at the same time you're booking probably wasn't the best idea.
This is 100% on you for not looking at what you paid. Do you never check your bank statement? You say it was significantly higher.

This is on you. I don’t know how you can justify with the company after you’ve used the service that you now want it at half the price you paid when there was no issue with the accommodation. You really should have checked.

Oh no 😱 I do think the accommodation provider is being unfair about this. I think you should push back again and ask them to explain why tr day rate is so different. But if they won’t give you a refund then it’s for you to suck up, not your friends

I usually don’t agree with this approach, but I’m these circumstances I think it’s fair to go back to the provider and get them to confirm that this is the case, and point out that if it is then each member of the group will leave a review thy reflects this pricing policy and their disappointment in it. If it was a system quirk and they don’t intend to double the price when groups look at bookings then they’ll maybe refund a portion and such reviews wouldn’t be appropriate.