Charged for accommodation we had cancelled-Prague

virgo65

Hi all,

hoping somebody can give me a bit of advice. I recently travelled to Prague wt a group of 5 friends. One of the ladies booked an apt for us but whilst doing that she wrote her email in wrong (a wrong digit) . As she didn't receive a confirmation email back she went to check.and realised her mistake so she rebooked the same apt 20 mins later wt her correct email. All wt the same information but now with the correct email.

This booking was done in Dec. In Jan 2017 she cancelled this apt as it was unsuitable for us. She was notified of this cancellation. We travelled to Prague on April 20th and stayed in another apt. But the management of the first apartment took 752euro and are now refusing to refund us our money.

Please can anybody give advice on how we can get our money back. She has evidence of what happened from booking.com

Thx

meeeeh

Contact booking.com. However some of the bookings there are non refundable or only part refundable so first check that yours isn't one of them.

miezekatze

Am I understanding this correctly, there were two bookings in total- one with the incorrect email and one with the correct email? If so, what did you do with the incorrect booking, did you cancel that? If not then I'd say that's what you paid for.

lawred2

miezekatze wrote: »

Am I understanding this correctly, there were two bookings in total- one with the incorrect email and one with the correct email? If so, what did you do with the incorrect booking, did you cancel that? If not then I'd say that's what you paid for.

That's how I read it.

virgo65

Thx for all your advice so far. Yes two bookings were made within 20 mins of each other, the first had the incorrect email address and the second day had the correct email. The rest of the information was the exact same. Booking.com are aware of all this. They have been trying to get the Czech people to cooperate but nothing forthcoming to date.

killbillvol2

It sounds like the first booking was never cancelled?

So the management had a booking and then nobody turned up?

You'd need to check the terms of the booking - they're at least entitled to the first night's payment and possibly the whole amount depending on those terms.

virgo65

Correct first booking was never cancelled as she wasn't sure it had gone thru. Hence why she rebooked....we'll keep trying tho. Thx a mil

killbillvol2

virgo65 wrote: »

Correct first booking was never cancelled as she wasn't sure it had gone thru. Hence why she rebooked....we'll keep trying tho. Thx a mil

Good luck!

lawred2

virgo65 wrote: »

Correct first booking was never cancelled as she wasn't sure it had gone thru. Hence why she rebooked....we'll keep trying tho. Thx a mil

I'd say you're on a loser with that one I'm afraid.

dev100

Could you pursue it thru the your credit card company if it was visa credit or the bank if it was visa debit ?

munchkin_utd

in this case I'd tend to have sympathy with the apartment owner
There was a firm booking made, they then removed that apartment from being available to anyone else, and because of your mistake they were denied the chance to get a paying customer to replace you (for the booking which BTW you didnt cancel, so as far as they knew you were coming and they would have been waiting for you to contact them to pick up the key on the day)

When making the booking, there would have been a booking number provided which your friend could have noted, rather than waiting for an email which did not arrive. If there was a cleaning fee then maybe you could justifiably ask for it back, but for the cost of an apartment which was lieing empty due to your negligence , I think they are in the right to keep the cash.

And yes, in case you might wonder would I do the same, I normally make a screenshot image with the booking number and booking details from the browser or app, and check the email regularly to see if the confirmation arrives and only then discard the backup of the booking number.
Thankfully it didnt cost me €752 to learn that this is a sensible thing to do.

schemingbohemia

But if i'm reading this right, the first booking with incorrect email did not stop the person booking the exact same apartment 20 minutes later? Or was it a case of booking an apartment with the same people, not one single apartment twice.

lawred2

schemingbohemia wrote: »

But if i'm reading this right, the first booking with incorrect email did not stop the person booking the exact same apartment 20 minutes later? Or was it a case of booking an apartment with the same people, not one single apartment twice.

I presumed a second booking on a separate apartment but this a good query to raise..

infogiver

An apartment was booked and not cancelled and no one turned up.
How can you get a refund for that?

meeeeh

I would assume it's not uncommon for people to book two apartments in the same building especially in stag/hen popular places. So two bookings in space of 20 minutes from same person wouldn't necessarily raise red flags if place has more than one apartment available.

Who ever was doing the booking was fairly naive not picking the phone first and finding out if the booking went through.

munchkin_utd

lawred2 wrote: »

I presumed a second booking on a separate apartment but this a good query to raise..

in the original post it is said that it was "another apartment" , in hindsight obvious as they already were booked into the first one and it was taken off the market

Jellytots82

If you got notification of the cancellation and it was a booking with free cancellation then you should not have been charged. I use booking.com all the time and ice never had this problem. I'm thinking the first booking was non refundable that'd why you were charged

SteM

Jellytots82 wrote: »

If you got notification of the cancellation and it was a booking with free cancellation then you should not have been charged. I use booking.com all the time and ice never had this problem. I'm thinking the first booking was non refundable that'd why you were charged

It's not that the first booking was non refundable, it's that the first booking was not cancelled. They only canceled the second booking.

lawred2

munchkin_utd wrote: »

in the original post it is said that it was "another apartment" , in hindsight obvious as they already were booked into the first one and it was taken off the market

no the OP confusingly said

As she didn't receive a confirmation email back she went to check.and realised her mistake so she rebooked the same apt 20 mins later wt her correct email

but that would seem unlikely to me - the same type of apartment maybe but hardly the same exact one.

Then presumably they cancelled that second booking.

But the original booking stood.

Seriously clumsy.

Yamanoto

virgo65 wrote: »

Correct first booking was never cancelled as she wasn't sure it had gone thru. Hence why she rebooked....we'll keep trying tho. Thx a mil

Common sense should have told her to contact the property owner & have the email address amended. Booking for a second time 20 minutes later was an odd way to go about sorting the initial error.

jonny_b

You said the booking was never cancelled as she wasn't sure it went through properly. However if your friend had to have checking her booking.com account she would have clearly seen the booking went through and was active with an active booking number both for that apartment and the other one she booked. A simple phone call to booking.com could have changed the wrong email address to the correct one. I'm afraid she is going to lose this battle if it was non refundable as the booking was clear to see on her account.

Miaireland

This is your friend's mistake. Not the apartment owner.

JCX BXC

She wasn't sure it went through properly, so it'll all be grand? That's a blatantly ignorant stance to take tbh. Booking with the wrong email, of course it went through, infact you would have definitely seen the booking confirmation page!

jonny_b

Sorry OP but she hasn't a leg to stand on if the apartment was non refundable at time of booking. I'm surprised booking.com are even entertaining the complaint tbh. No offense to you or your friend but she should have checked her active bookings tab on booking.com before she booked a second apartment knowing full well she had entered the wrong email address.