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AIBU?

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Original poster

Overpaid for holiday

109 replies

doreman · 21/04/2025 21:50

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?

OP posts:
Heidi2018 · 22/04/2025 11:19

LazyArsedMagician · 22/04/2025 10:36

Has this approach of going back and saying you didn't realise how much you paid and would like a refund worked for you before?!

After you've used the service..... "sorry thought my hair cut was only £15 not £150, can I get a refund?"

mondaytosunday · 22/04/2025 11:28

I know airlines and cruises base their prices on availability and popularity and prices can change if you keep searching, but Airbnb and booking.com the price is set, though can change from one day to the next (I don’t mean for the same
date, but a Friday night stay may be more expensive than the Monday). I have a listing on both. What platform did you buy through? Seems that you misunderstood the price somehow. Anyway, you were informed at POS and probably received an email receipt, plus you have already done the trip. There are no grounds for a partial refund.

SpryUmberZebra · 22/04/2025 13:18

Happyinarcon · 22/04/2025 09:30

I would be annoyed. Once i decide to put something in the online basket it’s because I have agreed with the amount. I don’t think the firm should be able to adjust the price after this point because it’s pretty obvious the price negotiation part of the deal is over.

It’s not really clear what happened and unfortunately she should have picked this up earlier before the trip not after. Most people are not booking a group trip a few days before the trip so that means this must have happened a few weeks if not months before the trip right?

OP has confirmed that she had a lot going on this and that so she didn’t check the email or notice extra payment on credit card etc so how then can we be sure she was paying attention when she booked the trip?

Next time she should make sure she checks the total amount which is usually right above the pay now button before she clicks pay. She should check the email confirmation and also share that email confirmation with the group so everyone has it and can also act as second eyes and call out any discrepancies or any potential issues with payment etc.

She should also keep an eye on her credit card, I can understand for small payments but you should notice substantial payments such as for a group trip.

And frankly it makes more sense for people to pay their share of things like accommodation after it’s booked instead of wait until after the trip. For food etc yeah makes sense to wait and share after but if you book accommodation weeks or month in advance they should pay their share then if not OP is bearing the cost of the interest payments until after the trip.

Sorry this is all on OP. If she’s too busy to pay attention then she should not volunteer to book group trips in the future.

Bumblebeestiltskin · 22/04/2025 13:25

Yikes, I think you've been incredibly unlucky, but as others have said - nothing you can do about it now apart from suck up the extra cost.

If I was told after we'd been on a holiday that I actually owe the organiser double, I'd be saying tough luck.

DaisyChain505 · 22/04/2025 13:28

This is your mess up and you just have to suck it up.

You’ve been on the trip you can’t now ask for a refund partial or not!

You should have noticed during the booking process or immediately after. Who doesn’t double check the confirmation emails etc after booking a trip?

PrimalLass · 22/04/2025 13:35

1415isgreat · 22/04/2025 07:47

Is it possible the price you saw advertised in big writing was for one room and when you paid it it calculated it for the total of all your rooms?

Have you checked the invoice what you have been billed for exactly?

She says that she's checked several other dates.

MoominMai · 22/04/2025 14:10

WoahThreeAces · 22/04/2025 07:40

Everyone saying it's the OPs fault, surely the company aren't allowed to double the price at the final stage of booking? So everything is in the basket at one price then doubles just before you click pay? That can't be legal!
I do agree it should have been queried before you went on the trip though

That’s not quite what would have happened though. It’s called dynamic pricing. It’s happened to me also. So basically you have the booking parked in your account as it were until you’re ready to pay so all the details including price are static because it’s been there for a while. It’s on you to check the latest quote. Which is why I always refresh before making the final payment. To me that’s just common sense given pricing varies depending on a number of factors including date of booking. It’s not like the vendor deliberately waits and doubles lol right before payment as that would be illegal. Surprised OP even questioning whether this can be queried given she’s been off and had the holiday now. She just needs to take it on the chin and put it down as a lesson learned.

bigknitblanket · 22/04/2025 14:43

Hold on…how long did you go away for? Is it possible you thought the price was for a two night stay and it turns out it was the nightly rate? As I’ve had this happen with booking.com before now - thought it was the price for the weekend when it was actually per night.

Summerlovin24 · 22/04/2025 19:07

That is so outrageous. I'd be fuming too. Happened to me once on air b n b. Luckily I noticed and didn't pay but reported the host and complained to Air B n B that the system should not allow that. It's a piss take.

MickyTwig · 22/04/2025 19:08

With having done mock bookings and it seems you were charged double/twice, maybe contact Trading Standards / your card issuer to dispute. Get screen shots of it showing now as half the price you paid.

miraxxx · 22/04/2025 19:48

WoahThreeAces · 22/04/2025 07:40

Everyone saying it's the OPs fault, surely the company aren't allowed to double the price at the final stage of booking? So everything is in the basket at one price then doubles just before you click pay? That can't be legal!
I do agree it should have been queried before you went on the trip though

It is Op's fault for choosing such a dodgy site. I cannot believe that such sites exist and that Op was so careless in not only choosing this site but not checking the final amount deducted immediately and still going through with the trip.

Riaanna · 22/04/2025 20:01

Hold on.

You got a quote. Discussed it. Confirmed. Price doubled. You didn’t notice on the confirmation. Went on the trip. And now you want a refund?!

ha. No chance.

FishfingerFlinger · 22/04/2025 20:02

I feel for you OP as this the kind of stupid thing I would do as I’m notoriously useless with finances.

However I don’t think you can demand the money from others.

If you hadn’t said anything to the others yet I would be inclined to fess up to what happened and say you’ll cover the cost, and hope that the others might feel sorry for you and chip in something towards the extra.

i would also be asking the company for a clear explanation of how their pricing works, but as it’s after your trip the likelihood of getting a refund seem very low.

VWT5 · 22/04/2025 20:09

This won’t help you OP, but for anyone else…
Please always take multiple screenshots through the booking process, including room upgrades and any other changes, plus the advertised price.
I have to do this every month.
when the final amount actually taken on the credit card is higher than I “contracted for” - I can then go back to the company with evidence.
It happens often.

scotstars · 22/04/2025 20:11

How much did you pay surely even in an expensive month you would notice?? In theses circumstances you won't get a refund and I can't see your friends agreeing to pay double based on your mistake!
Demand pricing surely wouldn't be affected by a few people clicking is it not higher due to being peak season or a bank holiday etc? I'm staying at a hotel next week prices on their website range from £50 to over £200 a night depending which night is booked- rooms are worth whatever providers want to sell them at

sandyhappypeople · 22/04/2025 21:08

As far as everyone else is concerned I think you've got to swallow it as a mistake on your part, BUT I wouldn't accept a last minute sneaky price doubling from the vendor and would look to fight it, if you paid on credit card you may have a legal channel through there for a partial refund.

Saying that though, the only thing to think about is if it was a school holiday? If you were looking at alternative dates before settling on final dates, you may find prices easily double for school holidays and you've not noticed at the time of booking?

bridgetreilly · 22/04/2025 21:26

The time to sort this out was immediately after booking, not now that you’ve been on the trip! This is a lesson in paying attention and being on top of things, OP.

XiCi · 22/04/2025 21:26

Hankunamatata · 21/04/2025 22:09

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

Edited

Ea1a4ea60pp

Whynotaxthisyear · 22/04/2025 21:27

OP, have you checked on Trustpilot whether there are reviews saying something similar? It sounds very fishy.
of course you should have checked more carefully but it’s easy to say with hindsight.

supercatlady · 22/04/2025 21:28

Have you checked for other reviews of the companyy/platform? I ask because this happened to us with a dodgy third party ticket platform - it turned out it was standard for them and just one of their many dodgy practices.

CosyLemur · 22/04/2025 21:34

doreman · 21/04/2025 22:23

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.

This is how all holiday booking sites work!

Trallers · 22/04/2025 21:55

Sounds like a terrible website, even if it is ultimately your fault. To be able to price up a holiday and have it in your basket at x price, then when you click to confirm payment it doubles feels sneaky, even if you should have seen.

thevassal · 22/04/2025 22:04

WoahThreeAces · 22/04/2025 07:40

Everyone saying it's the OPs fault, surely the company aren't allowed to double the price at the final stage of booking? So everything is in the basket at one price then doubles just before you click pay? That can't be legal!
I do agree it should have been queried before you went on the trip though

I think it's because OP's post is very confusing

She says "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."

This sounds like a contradiction because if she didn't notice the price changing then how can she agree she did see the (higher) price before paying, "technically" or not. If I added something into a basket for £1000 and at the point I clicked pay it still said £1000 then I wouldn't agree that I had "technically" seen the new price of £2000 before paying, I would be arguing "nope it never said £2000 at any point."

If what OP means by "notice" is she saw the price change to £2000 but assumed it was just a mistake and pressed pay anyway then it's on her. If it showed £1000 all the way through and then only showed up as £2000 on her credit card bill or whatever then I don't see how the booking platform can prove she definitely saw the change of price before confirming payment.

tbh if a holiday for multiple families was double the original amount, it must have been pretty high! It's not one room in a travelodge we're talking about!
It seems like a crazy amount to never have a quick look at any point between booking and holiday. It's hardly going through your cc bill line by line querying the cost of a pint of milk, I can't fathom not realising such a big cost was double what I had expected, particularly when it would also have been sent in an email, etc. If OP had queried it at any earlier point she would have had more of a chance of getting it back.

tachetastic · 22/04/2025 22:07

doreman · 21/04/2025 21:55

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.

How long was it between you booking/paying for the holiday and going on the holiday?

And why on earth didn't you all pay each other before the actual holiday?

You can't eat a meal and then say it was too expensive and expect a discount. You can't wear a dress and then say it was too expensive and expect a discount. I'm afraid you can't enjoy the holiday and then say it was too expensive and expect a discount.

Icantsleep3am · 22/04/2025 22:15

I find it very unfair to pin the all blame on OP. It happened to me more than once. I am usually diligent about money and double check everything. On 2 occasions, I checked the final total and made the booking based on the total provided on the confirmation page. Yet, when we came to check out from the hotel to pay the bill, the total amount was considerably higher. I queried the amount both times but was told that by clicking on terms and conditions when making a booking, I agreed to price increases. I mean, most of us are diligent about checking the amounts, but who reads terms and conditions? I went back to the booking confirmation, and lo and behold, I found that even though I saw the total amount with my own eyes on the screen when booking, the actual confirmation email did not show the actual amount. I started questioning my sanity, and only on checking the screenshots taken during the booking I knew that I was not imagining things! But screenshots were no good, as I “agreed” with price increases in fine print. Anyway, friends paid the difference without any issues, as they could also see the unfair tactics deployed by the booking platforms.