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

OP said she had looked at the place so obviously it wasn't easily obvious on the website when she looked before they went

Plenty of reasons why there would be an all-adult group other then hen and stag parties.

She should because she chanced it knowing they wouldn’t let your party stay. She won’t though; and she may not have it. Entirely her fault though.

ohh! I thought it was Mother of Hen

If there were two married couples, that wouldn’t have suggested a hen or stag though would it ?

I would have offered to pay some kind of security deposit upfront when the owners said they had a problem with it. And then if you don't trash it you get your money back, and if you do trash it they haven't got to chase.

Look she's a dopey cow and she messed up massively BUT completely unreasonable to make the MoH pay out £3k. Were you provided with the link to the accommodation beforehand? If so it's your responsibility to also check. Bet MoH felt absolutely awful and she should certainly have got the first round of drinks in no question, but not £3k. Reimbursement for the budget hotel at a push - but you were going to spend the £300 either way.

A lesson for you all to read the T&C's!

MoH organised the whole weekend and I bet she spent a lot of time (and money!) on planning and all the other stuff that goes with it.

I think if anyone is particularly hard up and will now struggle financially because of it then they should definitely try and get some of the money back. After all owners have been paid for people to stay and just got the money for free. At least a bit of money back for what would have been used in terms of water, electricity, cleaning etc and give it to whoever would need it the most or to reimburse you all equally for the budget hotel.

She screwed up for sure, and I bet it stings, but I don't think it's reasonable to expect her to take 3 grand on the chin on behalf of everyone else.

I'd be pissed off, but I'd suck it up.

I don't think she did, if there's evidence other hens/stags used the property then there's no real reason MoH would think you would be refused the accomodation on arrival. The property owner should have checked the booking, number of attendees, whether it was a family booking ( mix of adult and kids) or just adults.
Anytime I've ever booked anywhere I've had to state on the booking number of adults, number of kids, and quite often names of adults when clicking next to head to the payment page

I agree - was only saying what I have experienced.
How did the owner know it was a hen do? Did it explicitly state no same sex groups? Reading more messages on here I don’t know how owners police it - all I know is every booking I have made state no stag/hens and have asked for age of guests. Clearly the moh was chancing it. What to do from here I have no clue but I would be very pissed off with her - and the bride - and myself - because all of this should have been checked

Not sure what your point is. We weren't asked our ages or marital status when booking, but just asking ages would have proved nothing.

I've never been asked, just for number of Adults etc. But many of them say 'no parties'.

So if there were 5 male and 5 females, the owner would've welcomed you all in? Sounds a tad discriminatory to me

Where do you expect her to get that money from?
Spending that much on a hen weekend is ridiculous anyway.

How did the owner know it was a hen do?

Probably from the general demeanor when they turned up.

It’s not a crap rule at all. Hen parties can be a real pain ,cause damage etc

If there was a recent incident which has sparked the change then it sounds like it was booked BEFORE the change so the owners had a duty to update the booker or honour it.

Absolutely fair to be furious but she doesn't deserve to pay £3k. She's seen it all over socials used as a hen do, which means the owners are advertising it as such so it's false advertising.

It depends on the T&C when booking. If the issue only arose a couple of weeks ago and led to the change in rules, then that is up to the owner to reimburse-though they should be contacting those booked if they are making changes to the T&C to give people a chance to book elsewhere

I'd ask for my money back. She can either pay you back herself or pursue a refund from the house owner. FWIW, it's sounds to me like they changed the policy after booking and didn't inform those that had already booked, but it's suspicious that she hasn't even shared the booking email

Double post

The veil and sash will have been a giveaway 🤣

Op have you found out any more on what happened?

The MoH needs to get legal advice on how to get that money back.

I won’t know any more until tomorrow, aside from people sharing photos from the weekend, the group chat is quiet.

Sorry it turned into a shit show for you. I hope you get it sorted and managed to have a good time anyway.

I’d be more angry at the owner of the house for not refunding you, rather than the MoH. Where is your annoyance for the greedy owner?

If you didn’t notice any restrictions when you checked out the property details it clearly wasn’t obvious.

It sounds like they did take this type of booking but changed their policy two weeks ago following a bad experience.

As an ex airbnb superhost I would always message a group prior to arrival if I had any concerns which clearly he did as he met you at the door.

He could also have offered the property to a reduced number of you.

Get in touch with airbnb and ask them to investigate, they may well side with you.

At the very least you should get the booking and cleaning fees back.