So myself and 2 friends booked two nights away at kirra beach (Gold Coast) we spent last night there and woke up to news we were going into lockdown this afternoon at 4 -we are all from the Gold Coast- and that we were told via the press conference we had to go home basically. And be there no later than 4pm.
So we rang the manager to see if we could possibly get tonight’s booking moved to another time, even to a quiet period when they didn’t have many bookings. The manager was extremely rude and honestly just a smart ass (told us to ring Anastasia-the premier-and see if she’d give us a refund, to which my friend politely told him we weren’t asking for a refund.and that he didn’t need to be rude or a smart ass. ) Anyway my point is that we are wondering if we are actually entitled to a credit because ,contrary to what Peter the manager said, it was beyond our control that we had to leave (he told us it was our choice to leave , but because Kirra is more than 10kms from any of our houses the government wants us HOME! And one of us is an essential worker who has to work Monday)
if anyone can give us any advice as to what we are entitled to that would be much appreciated. Although after the rudeness of this man none of us would want a credit to go back there at this point but a refund would be nice even a partial partial refund. Thanks in advance.
Welcome to the Community @Leef,
Your situation seems a new twist on the related topics regarding cancellations. It has usually been before the fact not mid-way.
Your rights are enumerated here and the ACCC references the T&C at the time of booking. What are the T&C for the booking?
If the accommodation provider remains intransigent it would be interesting for readers to know the property name, noting any future booking with them would be a punt should forced cancellations recur in future.
Please let us know if they reconsider.
Hi @Leef, welcome to the community.
This isn’t good customer service and I would also be thinking twice about staying there again. Notwithstanding this, many accommodation/tourism providers do get frustrated by the never ending changes to travel conditions within Australia. This frustration should however never be shown to or taken out on their customers.
A question, do you have domestic travel insurance and if you do, what does it say?
Another question: Did the Queensland Government direct all persons to return home…or was returning home your choosing?
This is a difficult one as you have partially fulfilled your booking and possibly met your booking conditions even though you needed to leave early.
Using another example, if say that you decided to return home because of extremely bad weather (say flooding which is also outside your control), should the accommodation provider provide you with a refund or partial refund.
Or, if say a family was in a serious accident and you needed to return home to be with them, should the accommodation provider provide you with a refund or partial refund.
As you have stayed there for part of the booking, the answer to the above questions may assist you in thinking whether a refund or partial refund is reasonable. I would tend on that the request may be unreasonable.
If a partial refund was given, what would it be? As a significant portion of the accommodation costs results after checkout (cleaning, washing and sterilising the room), it would be very difficult to work out what partial refund would be reasonable. They may have already put on additional staff for the day of checkout to service your room.
If say the Gold Coast wasn’t included in the lockdown and you decided to leave early, it could be possible in this situation that the provider is unable to rebook the room for night your were unable to occupy it.
The above means they they had an expectation you would stay the extra night…and the saving they might have from you not being there may not eventuate (which could be used to justify a partial refund).
If you hadn’t commenced your stay, this would be an easier scenario to be definitive about. But when you chose to leave a day early (through no fault of your own), this is quite a different scenario and difficult to determine what would be reasonable.
If you had travel insurance, it may be a claimable event especially if you had no choice but to return home through a government direction.
Hi thanks for your insight.
This isn’t good customer service and I would also be thinking twice about staying there again. Notwithstanding this, many accommodation/tourism providers do get frustrated by the never ending changes to travel conditions within Australia. This frustration should however now be shown to or taken out on their customers.
Yes totally agree there was absolutely no need to be rude or a sarcastic, especially since we weren’t asking for a refund just if we could maybe get a credit. We weren’t demanding anything just asking the question. And I fully understand how frustrating it is for businesses in these times as I own my own business too.
A question, do you have domestic travel insurance and if you do, what does it say?
No as we weren’t going far we didn’t even think to get it. Might be something for future staycations!!!
Another question: Did the Queensland Government direct all persons to return home…or was returning home your choosing?
As far as we heard the government was telling everyone in the effected areas to go home or else you will be in trouble! Which we took to understand that as fines etc if we were caught more than 10kms from our home for “no good reason”. None of us could afford to be fined, nor did we want to be fined, and as I said one of us is an essential worker who couldn’t stay incase they said we had to stay where we were. It’s VERY confusing as to what to do in the situation we found ourselves in, and as we haven’t had many lockdowns and didn’t know of anyone who had been in our situation before there wasn’t anyone to ask the question of what we should do really.
And yes I get what you’re saying in all the other sections of your response, of course we wouldn’t want to be compensated, so I guess what you’re saying is this situation is the same.
And no none of us will be returning there (especially me because my friend told Peter the manager it was me on the phone! And it did get slightly heated after he made the comment about ringing the premier, and to finish the conversation she said we definitely wouldn’t be recommending the place or returning which he replied with another smart ass comment. Completely unprofessional.
Anyway thanks again for your insight, appreciated.
Hi thank you for your response.
Your situation seems a new twist on the related topics regarding cancellations. It has usually been before the fact not mid-way.
Yes that’s why we had no idea what to do really let alone what we were entitled to. And as I said to someone else all we were doing was making an enquiy to Peter the manager, not demanding anything, just wondering if we could move the 2nd night. There was NO need to be so rude and sarcastic. I get he’s probably very stressed and frustrated at the constant changes but no need to speak like he did or say the things he did.
If the accommodation provider remains intransigent it would be interesting for readers to know the property name, noting any future booking with them would be a punt should forced cancellations recur in future.
Please let us know if they reconsider.
I will let you know if they reconsider, but I’m not going to be holding my breath!!! And none of us is keen on going back there after being treated like that! And it did end with my friend being abit angry at being spoken to that way, and told him we wouldn’t be recommending his place or coming back , which I think he replied with another smart ass comment.
Thanks for the link too I’ll definitely have a look and see what is said there, not sure there will be any specific advise tho I guess because it’s a very different situation
This is something to be clear on. If the government has indicated that anyone in the restriction area is to return home, then this is outside your control. But…it appears that the controls does not clearly state this…
as it states:
During the lockdown period, you can only leave your residence (which includes temporary accommodation such as a holiday rental) for limited permitted purposes such as:…
and also says…
People should stay within 10km of their home if possible but can go further if it is not possible to achieve a permitted purpose within 10km. Exercise is strictly within 10km of a person’s home.
It covers temporary accommodation, but not what to do if check-out is within the lockdown period…and when the accommodation is outside the 10km area. Such scenarios are not covered by the direction.
It is possible returning home is not a directive of the government (possibly ring the Health Hotline on 134 COVID (13 42 68) to confirm), in which case, returning home was a decision that you made under the prevailing circumstances. If this is the case, then this would then be treated as a change of mind under the Australian Consumer Law and a refund/partial refund/resolution etc would not apply.
I saw the press conferences announcing the lockdown on TV and my recollection was that the wording uses was something like ‘residents SHOULD return to their homes before the lock-down begins if they can’.
While it was not an explicit MUST, it was still an imperative on Queensland residents to return home if possible.
You should name the hotel as the Gold Coast is all about tourism, and you are completely correct that this sort of behaviour is more remeniscent of Fawlty Towers than what one should from a tourism operator.
A nice summary of many posts from members as well as Choice, by the ABC.
edit: A problem a UK family had w/France, but evidential of how it is going.
An addena focusing on the airlines. Reading through it seems a lot of customers expect airlines to prioritise them rather than managing their P/L. Capitalism is what it is and airlines are having it tough. Very tough. Yet it seems it should be simpler to understand and easier to do what is available at the most basic level.
