To expect MoH to refund hen accommodation after we were refused access?

[Hennightmare]

I attended a hen party at the weekend - Friday to Sunday, staying close to a seaside resort in a private accommodation. I paid my share in advance - nearly £300.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by the owner who refused entry on the basis that hen parties (and same sex groups/stags) are not allowed and this is stated in the booking terms and conditions and elsewhere on the website. Despite reasoning, the owner was not backing down, and said there’d been an incident with a same sex group two weekends ago which required costly repairs.

MoH said she was aware of other hens who had stayed and this is how she found the place on instagram. She was told no refund would be given as there wouldn’t be time to let it again for the weekend.

We managed to find budget hotel rooms in the area but this scuppered the plans which were in place for the house - games etc.

I have looked myself and it is prominent on the website about the rules around hen parties etc. It is clear there has been inconsistent approaches in the past though.

Should the MoH cover us for her mistake? I am out of pocket after the hotel booking.

YABU - suck it up, it happened
YANBU - her mistake, she should offer to cover it

Disability / racial etc discrimination aside, no one has a consumer right to stay in a holiday let. It's up to the owner to decide who they wish to rent to

why should the owner reimburse a booking for a hen party, when they've clearly stated they don't allow hen parties and MOH was chancing that she'd get away with it?

I'd assume a couple of previous groups got away with it eg if the owner was away for the weekend and unaware. That's not a green light for other hen parties to do the same

I'm surprised how many people are suggesting the owner is at fault. OP says herself she thinks MOH was aware of the rule and hoping to get away with it. The blame rests with her

The owner probably didn't query it as either only a lead booker name was required and the payment for the cottage (they didn't require specific numbers). Or they did have to state how many but the OP only had to enter numbers, so put 10 (so the owner would assume that having read the rules this 10 would perhaps be a family group e.g. mum and dad, adult children and partners, extended family).

she Can’t find the booking email ?

I flag anything important till it’s been done /used

if she deleted it , she is silly

so the owner is saying t&c always said no hens /stags - so accepting a booking of 10 single sex people is strange

or literally updated due to the damage from 2w ago?

Did you not know that trashy people don’t frequent the countryside even if they did find influencer style accommodation on instagram 😂

Anyone can be trashy ask any accommodation owners i’m sure they’ve seen it all.

@Hennightmare OK so this is a difficult one. Just because the booking site says it when you looked after your entry had been refused upon arrival, was it there when the MOH booked? By the accommodations own admission they had a problem a few weeks before and maybe they added after the MOH booked in response to events with the previous party, in which case they should have honoured the MOH booking.

However, if upon booking, the website clearly stated no single‑sex groups / no hen or stag parties, then the MoH knew this, she booked anyway because she’d seen other hens on Instagram and assumed she could chance it. That’s not a misunderstanding. That’s a deliberate gamble. The landlord doesn't need to check as its in the t&cs, and just as the MOH, they have every right to turn you away. They do not need to double check your intent.

And when you gamble with other people’s money, you take responsibility if it goes wrong.

I think that if the MOH booked with a credit or debit card she should make a claim via them, providing all paperwork, the advert for the accommodation at the time the booking was made, and the fact it did not say no single sex parties - which automatically by definition rules out Hen/Stag does. And the booking site as it looks now.

The location of the planned event is irrelevant, some hens want a boozy weekend (Blackpool), others want a base for country activities, a spa or just a girly weekend.

For those asking why the owner didn't query a booking for such a large group, I think that is pretty obvious. If you are a family of 4, you look for and book accommodation for a family of 4, if there are 10 of you, you look for accommodation that will accommodate you. Therefore if a landlord has a property that sleeps, say 12, and gets a booking for 10, why would they query it?

Also, for those asking why they didn't let some of them stay, are you mad? Whether there were 4 o 10, the rule was no hen parties, they would be weakening their stance.

If they find in the MOHs favour, you all get your refund and I would consider going to the small claims court to claim for further losses is there were any.

If they do not find in the MOHs favour, then the MOH needs to accept her error and refund you all or those that request refund. Because the owner enforced a rule that was clearly stated, had recent damage from a same‑sex group, refused entry exactly as per their terms and refused a refund because the MoH knowingly booked against the rules. This is not “bad customer service”. This is a business protecting itself from a category of booking that has caused problems. The fact that some hens have slipped through in the past doesn’t magically void the rule. It just means the MoH assumed she’d get lucky.

If she’d booked a venue that didn’t allow children for a child’s birthday party, or a restaurant that didn’t cater for allergies for someone with allergies, everyone would agree she was responsible. This is no difference.

If the latter is the case, then YANBU, she chanced it, she lost, and she should put it right. But that is yet to be confirmed because the venue could have added those requirements post booking but I doubt it.

this is how she found the place on instagram

And you still went ahead with it? Ever heard of a proper booking website?

renowned for trashy groups, Blackpool or one of the popular Northern cities

Oh, love, that doesn't help you at all.

Oh, love, please RTFT 🙄

Did none of you look up the venue at all? When we organise things like this we would all be having a good look at the options

I'd be pissed off, but weren't details of accommodation shared before everyone paid - in a this is whst were booking, can everyone let me have £300 kind of way? In which case I'd say everyone's responsibility.

Pretty off of house owner not to explicitly check - and could even have asked for names and ages to verify in advance. But I imagine if booked not through booking platform there's not much come back - apart to go through credit card provider.

@PrettyPickle this is a sensible analysis.

I once completely messed up the booking of some expensive train tickets for friends. 🤦🏽‍♀️ It was overseas and there was nothing we could do. It was a stupid mistake. I said it was my fault and I’d take the hit. But my friends said no way and paid their share.

I think the venue really needs to get clear confirmation on this before accepting the booking if they are going to have such a strict rule. Hopefully theres some room to challenge the zero refund….

Yes. I agree if the host is going to have an absolute rule like this then I’d say they should sensibly (for everyone) use a mechanism where they don’t accept the booking until they have details of who is staying to agree…

Good luck running these arguments in court LOL

Your MOH has made a mistake, I made the exact same one myself last year but thankfully it turned out the opposite way. Our 'no stag and hen' hotel was flooded with them and we had the best time.

You are probably entitled to a refund from the MOH, but if you are asking her to fork over £3k I wouldn't be counting on her standing next to you on your big day.

But if it was in the advertisement and T&Cs at the time of booking then they had set expectations and given clear confirmation BEFORE booking. But that depends if it was there before the MOH booked, I suspect it was.

As someone who owns a holiday let, and who has been burned by hen and stag do's in the past (nearly £10K worth of damage in one instant), good on the owner for standing her ground.

If the T&C say no hens/stags, then you and the MoH have no leg to stand on. It doesn't matter what the rule in the past was - and chances are people had been flouting the rule and the owner found out and that's why she was there on arrival as she thought it looked fishy - it's the rule now that matters. People really need to read T&Cs before booking holiday lets and AirBnB.

But the MoH should offer to cover the costs. She took a gamble, it backfired, and she should cough up

The MOH should have the booking form which would state the booking terms and conditions. But she cannot find the booking form ? Surely she would have had it with her when she travelled. I think she does have the booking form and has only just looked at it properly. And I suspect it says clearly ‘NO HENS’.
The website should have made that clear.
If the booking form said other than the website she would have had time to cancel and not lose money. If she was organised and sensible.

It is up to the owner if they want hens or stag do’s. I can understand it if they didn’t. It is their property. The city might actually be getting fed up of them. The neighbours might be less than welcoming of them.

The booking form may just have said the number of people. They could have been a bunch of elderly ladies on a meet up. Fine. But the owner doesn’t want a hen do.

If she is likely going to try to be reimbursed via a section 75 on her credit card she should tell everyone that she is trying to do so. Not get reimbursed and potentially not share it out.

The Bride should take some responsibility here too. If the MOH is not very able or organised the last thing you would do is leave it all up to her.

Talk to her really. Ask her what is going on. And set your own ball rolling for your £300.

The owner's place, the owner's rules.

Bad planning, but shit happens. It was a mistake. It’s a friendship and not a business relationship where you sue ask for reimbursement of losses.

You don’t have to but honestly if I had a holiday let with that sort of rule I would be double confirming with every booking. When I’ve been on some larger lets we have had to provide names and ages of everyone who is staying beforehand so plenty of opportunity for owner to check who is going to be on their property and confirm.

i do know now that in the unlikely event at my age that i’ll be booking a hen party for 10 people to simply not make it a hen party but merely a meet up of 10 mates. I’ll throw in a token man on the booking if needed who happened to be ill on the day!

How much of the £300 was the property booking ? Was some of it to cover other activities which still went ahead ?

Did you all turn up together , hen do t shirts and alcohol in hand ?

£300 was purely for the accommodation- we paid extra for activities etc which largely went ahead still.

What's the difference between a hen party and a group of female friends having a break together?

I'm sure large parties can be problematic if you are letting a large property, but that might apply to any large group, same sex or mixed, and including some families. A lot of large properties say something like No Parties, though a large group are still likely to have drinks and be jolly - is that a party? It's all a bit No 10 Birthday cake!

I can understand why an owner might try to police it but really it's the risk they run. People won't treat the property as if it was their own home.
I stayed at a beautiful converted Church once, lovely wooden floors, there were notices everywhere asking to wear suitable footwear, no high heeled stilettos. There was a large kitchen island, and the wooden floor around it was indented with heel marks all around. One can imagine everyone congregating around it, topping up their drinks and stamping their feet to whatever anthem song is playing. Protecting the floor was a lost cause unfortunately for the owner.

I think it was very unreasonable of the owner not to take a forgiving attitude, ask for extra deposit and make clear there are expectations of respect for the property. Pretty awful to send you all packing to find somewhere else late in the day.
Still, it is what it is. I think you will have to suck it up, there are so many hen party threads on here, being the person organising is a poison chalice fraught with difficulties, and ending up with a £3000 bill would be very mean on the MoH even though she seems to be technically at fault.