This blog relates to a review on Tripadvisor which praises my properties but warns prospective guests to be wary of the rules about bringing additional persons into the Cottages. We do have rules about Visitors to the Cottages to do with Child Protection, Insurance, Health and Safety etc., but this guest was challenged because she was seen to be bringing additional persons, carrying duvets, into the property and without the intention to pay.
Please read through the dialogue between myself and the guest from the initial booking phase to the correspondence following departure and at the end to the ‘Scan’ of our guest book where the number of occupants is put as “LOTS”, and then make your own judgement on the rights and wrongs of the matter. ( I have tried to redact the identity of the guest, however if in any way the guest can be identified from the correspondence below I apologise in advance.)
By the way we do permit visitors to the cottages within certain parameters and when arranged in advance.
On the 10th of December 2009 this Guest initially booked two six person houses for the 12-14th of March 2010 i.e. accommodation for a total of twelve people. The deposit was paid on the 15th of January for both houses.
| Subject: | Booking reference 650435 |
| Attachments: | |
| Mrs Karen Haughey Belfast Ni Dear Mrs Thank you for booking House 1 & House 2 for 12th March 2010 to 14th March 2010. I am pleased to confirm the details of your booking with you and attach a reciept of £96.00 for your deposit. Entry is from 4p.m. onwards at Tory Bush and we ask that you depart by 11 a.m. on your date of departure. I have attached all of the details you require for your visit however please do not hesitate to contact me if you require further information. Your remaining balance of £384.00 is due on the 12th February 2010 and I will send you a further receipt on receiving this from you. Kind Regards | |
On the 5th of February 2010 the guest emailed to say that their numbers hand reduced and could they cancel the two 6 person houses (numbers 1 and 2) and could they book instead the 7 person house (number 3) as no more than 7 persons would be staying.
Name:
Email address: **** .***@yahoo.co.uk
Email address: **** .***@yahoo.co.uk
I have booked houses 1 and 2 for the 23/13 March - can I chage this to one house only, No. 3. Please advise, and if we lose any deposit.
And I replied that they would not lose a deposit
Just a quick reply, that should be no problem, I will get a look at the booking system tomorrow.
I am charged a percentage on transactions but as I am not making any refund and you still have a balance to pay I won't actually incur any loss so there will be no charge for making the change and I will carry the part payment forward to the new house.
I will make the change and sent you a new booking summary so you can see the deposit carried forward and a much reduced balance to pay.
If your numbers do creep up again, let me know and I could organise one of the apartments at a lower occupancy rate.
David.
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I agreed to this and the balance was processed on the 16th of February.
The 7 guests duly arrived on the Friday 12th of March and all seemed fine until the next day Saturday the 13th of March and I looked out and saw two girls carrying sleeping bags or duvets into the cottage. I went over to the cottage and spoke to the lady who had made the booking about these additional persons. She told me that there was only one additional person, and that whilst I had seen two persons enter the cottage with what I took to be sleeping bags, one of those persons was her daughter who was already on site as part of the party of 7 and she was just helping the additional new arrival bring her sleeping equipment into the house. I had to accept the ladies word on this.
The lady did concede that she did know from at least the night before that this extra person was arriving, she also felt aggrieved that I had spoilt their weekend, which was supposed to be a birthday celebration, by challenging them on this issue.
I agreed that the person could stay, this despite the fact that they were now in breach of Contract and in our opinion had tried to obtain ‘Goods and Services’ without the intent to pay, a criminal offence. Had the lady intended to pay and she knew before the arrival of the additional person(s) then she should have informed me. I refer to the last line of my email above where I suggested I would offer a small apartment at a reduced rate if their numbers increased. On agreeing to let the additional person stay I said I would charge an additional one seventh of the cost of the weekend to reflect the extra person and this was cheaper than charging for two houses of 4 persons each which should have been the new contract cost.
Following their departure the lady sent the following email,
As we have now vacated number 3 cottage and hopefully you have completed your inspection I would be grateful if you would return my deposit of £50.00. We did have a conversation regarding the payment for the extra person, however for one night there was only 6 people staying and then 8 people on the second night. On average this is 7 people for the weekend. If you do insist on payment for the extra person then it is for one person for one night eg £256 / 7people / 2 night = £18.28. You may deduct this from my deposit
I appreciate your concern with regards to insurance etc but I have to say that your attitude spoiled our celebration week end
Regards
K *******
I replied with the following email which I think sets out my case fairly and reasonably.
K****,
I am sorry if my approach spoilt your weekend, but can you imagine how I feel when I see people carrying duvets into my cottages, we offer the cottages in good faith and the prices are based on the numbers of persons booked per house and the appropriate size of house or houses been allocated.
If persons then bring down extra persons then they are in breach of contract and technically I can ask them to vacate the property at once and further if they do bring down extra persons and try evade payment then they are committing a criminal offence by availing of a service or product without the intention to tender payment.
However these are just technical issues, the main issue is that it really saddens and hurts me when I see people try to 'get one over on me' I try to offer a good product in a nice area and just ask that my business is treated with respect, you don't see people carrying duvets into the Slieve Donard or any other hotel or B and B.
I hope I was not rude or abusive in anyway, if you do wish to take the matter any further the Tourist Board have a department dealing with such issues, you can contact John Dickson or Niambh Bennett in the Registration Department of NITB on 90231221 or info@nitb.com.
Re; the charge for the extra person I could have a different interpretation and base the cost of the weekend on two four person houses but I am happy with your offer as outlined below so I will be sending you back the £50 minus this £18.28 and the cost of the gas heating used which was £6.50, this a standard deduction as set out in our pricing schedule, and I do acknowledge that the house was left clean and tidy. I will do this by cheque as our system has permanently deleted your Credit Card Details to avoid hackers etc.
Karen I hope we can draw a line under this matter; I am not in business for confrontations like this.
David Maginn
You will notice in the last line, having agreed to the ladies much reduced offer of payment I ask that we can draw a line under this matter and I got the following reply.
Yes David, I too would like to draw a line under this matter, But I do need to tell you that in no way was I trying to ‘get one over on you’. The duvet was brought in to the cottage in full view, in daylight, and I honestly did not try to evade payment. I believed that I had paid for the cottage not the number of people. Obviously I will not be taking this matter any further as you have made it abundantly clear that we were in the wrong.
I wish you success with your business, accommodation of the highest standard, but I’m not sure that we will ever avail of it again.
Thank you K*****
Despite the assurances of the lady that she would not be taking the matter any further then you can imagine my shock and disappointment some weeks later when a friend drew my intention to an unfavourable review on Tripadvisor, I had done nothing wrong accept try to manage my business in an appropriate manner and challenge what I believed was a flagrant breach of my Terms and Conditions.
The lady was clearly not under the allusion that she had booked the house and not the number of people, she had initially booked houses sufficient for 12 people, and when she cancelled a house I did not levy a cancellation fee, and when I gave her a different house I did so with the offer that if her numbers increased that I would provide a small apartment at a discounted price if it was not fully occupied, so she was well aware that the numbers of persons was the basis of my pricing regime.
The only consolation I can take out of her comments was that they were quite complimentary about my accommodation.
Below is a scan from our Guest Register which all guests are required to fill in, I have tried to obliterate the names of the guests and the signature, but I trust you can see the date of arrival is the 12 of March 2010 the date of this booking, if you note the box with the number in the party, you will see the guest has written 'Lots', which I think can be interpreted in a number of ways, and interestingly in the comments box the Guest has written 'Great 50th Party' , which again can be interpreted in a number of ways especially as we have an express condition in our Terms & Conditions that our properties are not to be used as a party venue,- for insurance and health and safety reasons e.g. we do not have emergency lighting or emergency exits in a venue used by the general public.
