Help! My rights when accomodation is cancelled by booking agent

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Hi all,
My scenario is - For the January peak season I have booked accommodation, paid deposit, per their terms (received confirmation etc), bought airline tickets (domestic). The next day I received an email from the booking agent telling me that they just found out the apartment requires repairs and is no longer available. They cancelled my booking.
They have been unable to find alternative accommodation for a similar price, nor have I when looking online.
What I’m hoping to understand from the Australian consumer law is if there are obligations/accountability that the booking has to make alternative arrangements or compensate.
EG under law should they compensate by providing more expensive accommodation at the original price? Are they liable to compensate me for my lost airline tickets if there is nothing else to be found during that time?

I’ve been trying hard to work out options with them and while they have been trying to find alternatives for me, they are not willing to compensate with other accomodation at a different rate or cover my airline cancellation fees.

Thanks again for your help !!!
Cheers

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Hi @sub1, welcome to the community.

Unfortunately no, it is likely they will use exemptions under the ACL…saying the repairs were unforseen or outside their control. Contact your airline, car hire company etc about rescheduling, if resheduling is possible. If you took out domestic travel insurance, make contact to see if the circumstances you are in qualifies as a claimable under their cover.

The other thing to check to see what the accommodation providers terms and conditions of the booking are. It is likely to be silent in relation to them cancelling a booking, but worth checking.

You should however be entitled to a full refund for any monies paid before the accommodation was cancelled. As the accommodation provider cancelled the booking, there should be no cancellation fees due either.

Also if they are offering a more expensive room instead of the original room, and expect you to pay the difference…and you don’t accept this resolution, then it could be seen that you are cancelling the booking. In such case, how cancellation is dealt with is very different. In such case, cancellation policy of the provider may come into play…but the provider should be considering waiving any fees in such case as the cancellation resulted directly from their own actions.

If the booking was cancelled on or after your check-in, this might be a different matter.

Taking booking and then cancelling it for reasons potentially within the control of the accommodation provider is inexcusable and should/will impact on the providers reputation. If it was out of the providers control (e.g. fire, natural disaster, guests damaging room during stay), then one could understand and potentially be sympathetic towards them. It is worth writing reviews on public review sites of your experience.

Usually if it was a bigger accommodation provider (say multi-room hotel or motel), they will stage any renovation works to minimise disruption to guest stays (they will close off room availability so it isn’t booked during works)…and if a room becomes unavailable for some reason (say delay in works due to contractor availability), will move guests into another room at no cost (even if the room is an upgrade). It appears they are unwilling to do this for some reason, which is concerning especially if you had a confirmed booking with them.

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Hi @phb - thanks for the quick response. This has been really helpful.
Yes I’m surprised that they won’t budge - it’s with https://www.whitsundayholidays.com.au so I assume they have the means to help if they had the will.
I was willing to split the additional costs given times are tough.
If the repairs are that bad that they deem it to be unsafe (unforeseen given the notice), it’s my naive view that they did not perform preventative maintenance/inspections on a routine basis.

I’ll reply back with any final outcome (which so far looks like none)

Thanks again!

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Looking at the website it states…

Whitsunday Holidays acts as agent for the Property Owner.

Which indicates that are a booking service and not the owner and potentially operator of the accommodation. This does make it even more challenging to get a resolution. As they are a booking agent, the ACL exemptions would apply as they will say the cancellation is outside their control (was in the control of the property owner).

I would be putting it is writing to them that (if these are all correct)…

  • cancellation was not as a result of your actions, but the owner (?)
  • you booked in good faith and at the time of the booking and its confirmation the property was available
  • they are the manager of the property for owners and therefore responsible for bookings made against the properties.
  • they need to offer reasonable restitution in relation to the property no longer being available.

Reasonable restitution may be rebook you into another property, where you pay the additional cost. If they do this, question what grounds they have to request additional payment since their booking terms and conditions are silent on the matter. These are their booking T&Cs…

https://www.whitsundayholidays.com.au/bookings/accommodation-terms-conditions/

It appears that should you wish to fulfil your booked holiday, you may need to pay the additional cost of a new booking. This is unacceptable in your circumstances, but may be unavoidable. If you decline the offer, it may have impact on ability to claim under travel insurance or get say a payment/credit card chargeback…this is because it may be seen as you being the one which triggered the cancellation by not accepting their rebooking offer.

Edit. Their T&Cs also state…

Whitsunday Holidays is not liable to you for any loss or liability of any kind caused by any delay or failure to (i) provide information or (ii) perform operations requested (including but not limited to payment processing) or (iii) do so correctly, including but not limited to as a result of or in connection with (i) any delay or failure in any transmission or communication facilities; (ii) any failure or delay caused by third parties; or (iii) any other event beyond the reasonable control of Whitsunday Holidays.

They will rely on these T&Cs for not providing any compensation. Whilst they are are potentially challengeable, the cost to do so will far exceed any benefit received if the challenge was successful.

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Your knowledge and insights are amazing.
Thank you so much for the level detail you have provided - it really helped me better understand the situation.

Yes I agree - it looks to be the case, but it was worth exploring the topic.

Thank you again!

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Cheers, that what the community is for, to help others.

BTW, I also own and operate a boutique accommodation business and would never place one of our guests in your situation.

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