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

Read the updates. A full refund was offered when the T&Cs changed after the booking was made. MoH refused it.

How did the owner know it was a hen party?

Tacky and popular Northern cities to be precise

I'm assuming York, probably Leeds. Manchester?

Cheeky cow, why single out Northern Towns, there are a fair few tacky southern ones too!

Based on that update MOH needs to set up a payment plan and pay you all back. That was an expensive chance and I'm not letting £300 slide for the sake of someone's wedding. Bride doesn't need to be in the conversations.

Would have been fairly obvious when they rocked up, given that they were expecting key safe entry and got the owner instead !!

No matter her views on 300 quid being a night out, an additional 2400 on top of 1200 she's already paid is going to sting...

She's not going to offer it. I don't think she is the CF people are making her out to be. It's a pain in the ass organising things for people. This simply sounds like a mistake. She probably never read the email until it was too late. Then after being 1200 out of pocket, away with a group of women she didn't know, she felt very uncomfortable at the atmosphere coming towards her.

Would you be happy with half paid in two installments?

All I can tell you is that in my group of friends when we used to have these events regularly we absolutely would have sucked it up no question.

Just checked, "trashy and popular Northern cities" was the quote.

I think trashy is worse than tacky.

The posters’ credibility plummeted at ‘why was the brides mother involved’ !!

@Hennightmare So have you actually paid for the replacement booking yet?

The MOH comment "One of the girls relayed to me a comment she made on the night we were refused entry. It was along the lines of shrugged shoulders, ‘£300 is my Friday night in London these days’ as if it was a insignificant amount to just write off." would have sealed her fate for me.

When is the wedding? Could you not possibly wait until after the wedding when the bride is away on honeymoon to tackle the MoH?

She should have let it be a group decision to chance it. By making the decision herself, she has taken on the liability is the way I see it.

Very easy for the bride to say that everyone should just drop it. She hasn’t paid for anything! The MoH has paid for her and so she’s a bit conflicted really.

Sorry but no, read the thread. The site said hen/stag does with permission only - she did not tell them, they then sent her an email 7 days before saying that they were no longer accepting hen/stag does and they could have a full refund, she declined this and hoped they would sneak in. This wasn't a mistake, it was an active decision.

Apparently over half of voters think you should just suck it up. Fuck me. No way. I’d be raging that this happened. Obvs the MoH should be grovelling with apologies for one thing, and if not reimbursing people then doing something nice, dinner out or something. Jeez, she knew hens weren’t allowed, decided to chance it and got caught out, then expected everyone to pay again for somewhere else. On what planet is that acceptable? No way would I have stood for that.

But that’s what they would expect to make that weekend and this bookingbprevented others from booking it. Why should owners be out of pocket because people didn’t believe they meant what they said about not accepting hen parties?

True, I'd have gone with shithole for Blackpool.

She lied about losing the booking email, she lied by omission to the owner even though she was aware hens were discretionary and she should have declared it. And if she wasn’t keeping up on emails connected to the booking that’s on her. The mishandling of over £2.5k of other people's’ money isn’t a mistake, it’s negligent at best and downright underhanded at worst.

I have read it. OP heard from bride who heard from moh.

I think it's very possible the moh booked, didn't read the emails carefully assuming it was just check in details and replied received thanks or whatever.

I don't think she sat and stewed over how she was going to pull a fast one. She paid for the bride twice! She's probably a generous person and think the brides friends are tight for not offering to chip in on that.

Then at the weekend, she's getting nothing but heat so tells everyone in exasperation to just get on with celebrating the bride. Some pas-ag remark about 300 quid gets her back up and she snaps back she spends that on a night out.

Yes I think she was negligent! But not the CF people are declaring her to be. Why did nobody else offer to chip in for the bride?

If this was the case I think she should refund you... she should have told the group and let you jointly decide whether to chance it or accept the refund and find an alternative

If £300 is MoH's average night out in London then a few weekends in should have you all refunded quick smart. This is on her, the cheeky besom!

you cannot be serious . regardless of how "well off" she is , you cannot expect her to refund 10 people 300£ each. You had the weekend, you were prepared to spend that amount. Yes it was badly organised and that's a shame but it is what it is.

So moh didn’t admit it was a hen to begin with / then ignored the email thinking it won’t be us

assuming the email was sent out before the 7 days so she could have cancelled it and got refund and said to you all - host has cancelled due to previous people’s behaviour. We need to find another place to stay asap

but didn’t

I think I’d have checked out the accommodation myself so I’d have brought it to her attention; it seems really bad luck for you all but I wouldn’t want to land one person with a massive bill.

@PrettyPickle 🤣🤣 Trashy knows no geographic limits.

I think organising accommodation for a hen do is a big task and the MoH decided to ignore the email, offering a refund, because she didn't want the hassle of finding an alternative. Perhaps she looked and realised there was nothing comparable in the area so she was stuck between a rock and a hard place. She made the wrong choice but I feel a bit sorry for her.