Cottage is saying we can come for Christmas anyway but offering part refund

[drspouse]

We booked a cottage for a week through AirBnB. 22nd to 29 th. It's in Tier 3 and we are too.
They are not allowed to be open for all that time (and we are "advised" not to travel)
The owner has said "well the other cottage letters are coming" and won't refund.
She has offered a partial refund if we cancel entirely.
We have travel insurance that covers not being allowed to travel. But we are worried if they don't pay out we will lose it all and if we cancel and she doesn't relet the insurance won't look at our claim because we cancelled.
Any advice?

It's clear in the wording so I've no idea how PASC and many others have managed to get it so confused

This isn't my circus, so I'm not going to get into whether PASC et al. have interpreted the guidance wrongly - but in this scenario, even if it is only the last night that is no longer available to the OP, the contract the OP has with the cottage is frustrated, so the OP is entitled to a full refund surely?

@drspouse yes, seems they would have accepted us.
Just read the air bnb covid cancellation guide and it seems they didn't need to offer a refund as we'd booked after March

It depends.

On a number of things. The contract for one....and whether this was unforeseen n booking and if losing a (refunded) day at the end is "radically different" from the entered into contract. It's not a given which party could successfully argue this.

The OP hasn't said whether she wanted to go in that situation either. Initially she believed that she couldn't travel on 22nd and 28th. Many would want to and are, but when people in the industry are advising wrongly that hotels must close it just exacerbates an already pretty hopeless problem. For the business and for the customer.

@Snailandthewhale as long as they are operating in a covid secure manner with regards to the operation of their premises, then they are allowed to accept your booking. Great that they offered a refund though.

@myhobbyisouting yes, looks like we were lucky

Definitely.

I'm not a big fan of air B&B but I'm surprised to learn certain companies are turning down bookings that can legally go ahead! As a customer I'd be less than impressed.

I think it's worse if they are telling if they can accept a booking that's illegal, or saying "just go ahead, everyone else is" while not actually knowing the regulations.

*telling us

Hmm so no clarity yet on whether the time limit for the cottage to be open has changed.
She is hoping to get another booking though that seems very unlikely. We are going to restate our request to transfer our days to Easter or later - but go for insurance still if she says no again.

@drspouse

Hmm so no clarity yet on whether the time limit for the cottage to be open has changed. She is hoping to get another booking though that seems very unlikely. We are going to restate our request to transfer our days to Easter or later - but go for insurance still if she says no again.

Surely legally now it’s completely banned? Depending on what Tier you are in?

It is still in Tier 3 so it may not have changed re accommodation (but obviously we can't see my DPs except for one day, though we could perhaps have pleaded childcare).

@drspouse

It is still in Tier 3 so it may not have changed re accommodation (but obviously we can't see my DPs except for one day, though we could perhaps have pleaded childcare).

Tier 3 means hospitality can’t be open for leisure bookings I think. And now the tiers apply over Xmas so surely insurance has to refund?

www.gov.uk/government/publications/making-a-christmas-bubble-with-friends-and-family/making-a-christmas-bubble-with-friends-and-family?priority-taxon=774cee22-d896-44c1-a611-e3109cce8eae#travel-and-overnight-stays-with-your-christmas-bubble

Updated tonight:

Outside a Tier 4 area, you can stay in private rented accommodation, a hotel, hostel or B&B in England over Christmas, in line with the social gathering rules in your tier. This includes in a tier 3: Very High alert area between 24 and 26 December, as long as you are staying by yourself, or with other members of your household and it is necessary for the purposes of seeing your Christmas bubble on Christmas Day. If necessary, you can stay in private rented accommodation with members of your household, or your Christmas bubble.

Yes, the guidelines for accommodation has now changed reasonably enough for you to get a full refund. Contact them again first via email and if a refund isn't offered go to your insurance company

This is governed by the Frustrated Contracts Act 1943. This basically means in this case the contract cannot be fulfilled because it would be unlawful or illegal to complete it. If they refuse the refund on Monday just send a letter before action giving them 14 days or you will issue. If it hasn't hit your bank account by 14 days issue using money claim online. The alternative if you paid by credit card is to invoke s75 of the Consumer Credit Act and reclaim against the credit card. If you paid by debit card ask your bank to do a chargeback (although this is dependent upon your bank's policy.

Earlier this year you would have been able to say that the contract was frustrated and would have been entitled to a full refund. The position now is less clear.

A contract is frustrated when an unforeseeable event happens after the contract is formed which means it is impossible or illegal to perform the contract, or performance will be so different from what was intended that it would be unfair to enforce the contract. When the first restrictions hit it could certainly have been regarded as an unforeseeable event. However, for contracts entered into more recently it is harder to argue that they type of government restriction was unforeseeable. Depending on when you made the booking, you may be able to argue that the contract was frustrated and you are entitled to a full refund, or you may only be entitled to a partial refund.

We booked in September, and based our travel on what was allowed then. It was before any local lockdown etc; at the time travel seemed possible. We'd just come back from a UK cottage holiday.

As there had already been lockdowns, the virus hadn't gone away and cases had started to rise again, I suspect the courts will think that the current lockdown is not an unforeseeable event. If that is the case, the cottage owner is allowed to keep enough to cover any loss they suffer if you don't go. I may, of course, be wrong.

From my memory The host won’t cancel because she will get a fine from Airbnb and those dates will be blocked out so she won’t be able to rebook anyone else even if it’s empty and they can lose there perfect hosting score
That’s why they want you to cancel so they don’t loose out

Also you should really check the cancellation policy
The air n b that I use allow a free cancellation up to 3pm the day before check in
Once you have checked in you can still cancel but you lose that day and the device / cleaning fees
I’m amazed that so many people book and don’t read the cancellation fees

Funnily enough we did.
When we booked, we thought we'd know by the cancellation date (two weeks before arrival) whether Christmas travel was possible. We reckoned without Boris and his flip flopping.