Hotel closed for refurb - cancellation rights?

[15degreesandrain]

We have a big group holiday booked to Barbados in April. By chance, today I found out that the hotel might be closing for refurbishment at that time.

We booked the holiday through BA. I phoned them today and was told that the resort group had informed them two weeks ago that there would be disruption, and they will make plans to transfer bookings to other hotels in their group. That was all BA could say, and I was told we'd have to wait for further information, whenever that might be.

I have since phoned the hotel directly, and they confirmed that they'll be closed when we're due to go there.

What are our rights? BA says if we cancel now, we'll lose our deposits, so we must wait for further details from them. We know that we don't want to change to a different hotel in the group.

We could be waiting for a long time and that seems unreasonable to me. Very frustrating as finding somewhere else for 14 people will only get harder the longer we wait. BA was so unbelievably unhelpful and unsympathetic!

Check the Ts &Cs - they may allow for a reasonable alternative to be offered. If so I think you'd need to demonstrate that the alternative offered wasnt suitable for your group for whatever reason.

A better chance of moving to a different location on a different date than a cash refund in the first instance, I imagine

I suspect that ba can't act until the hotel themselves officially offers the transfer at which point you can accept or reject the change. 2 weeks based on the fact it's months away doesn't seem a long time. I would email them and state (attaching confirmation if possible) of the closure and state you are anxious about your booking and if it isn't being honoured you need your options now. Be polite it isn't the agents fault, it's the hotel