Venue changed at short notice and party space was not private

[Busyybee]

I booked a venue attached to a church early Feb for this weekend gone for a kids party. Friday I got a call to say unfortunately the hall I booked will now no longer be available as the family who booked it for a family wedding on Saturday evening need to clear the hall out.

With less than 48hours left and all vendors booked (bouncy castle, candy floss hire, entertainer, balloon decor & food ordered) & not forgetting all the guests planned to already make it, I had nowhere else I could book so last minute. The host then offered me the actual church however told me they have church service there on a Sunday which will finish at 11:30am and we could proceed from 11:45 to set up as originally planned for the other hall.

I didn’t want the celebrations to be in a religious place & that’s just personal preference hence why I booked the hall. I had no choice but to take this offer as otherwise my child wouldn’t have had a party.

Any how now we get to the venue at 11:50 and there is still members of the public in the church along with the vicor. They were there until approx 12:20, then some of the members of the public moved towards the doors but still in the venue until 2:30pm! My party started at 1-4. I mentioned to the caretaker who was sitting around with these people to say I’m not happy with people being present at our private party & they keep coming in to use the toilet. He went on to say he’s waiting for the hall next door to be emptied and they’re just waiting with him.

I didn’t want to get into an argument so just carried on with the party, we then noticed an Ant infestation in the kitchen and in our food! I bought this to his attention and he said ‘yes we have a ant problem but they just won’t go’

Deep down I’m really upset the way everything went, I booked the original hall through a company called Sharesy. Who do I approach?

What would others do in this case?

sorry for the long essay

I would probably have been a lot more pushy about asking members of the public to leave what was a private booking, The caretaker was clearly not doing his job.

Contact the company and see if you can negotiate a partial refund. Did you book with a credit card? If you get no joy from the company do a charge back as you did not get the venue or the service you paid for. That card provider will probably wish you to try the company complaints procedure first.

I’d request a full refund from the buyer booking company. They may only give half but start requesting full.

I was definitely quiet pushy about ‘it’s a private booking and what are random strangers doing at our party’ to the caretaker, however his reply was ‘I’m waiting for someone in the purple room and these people are my friends so they’re waiting for me’