# Irony is alive and well.



## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

Being as we are unable to go to Portugal again I have cancelled all the bookings made last July for hotels and accommodations.
Our first hotel en route near Bordeaux was made via Booking.Com and paid for at the time of booking, €56.
In doing the responsible thing and notifying the hotel I needed to cancel 5 days before the due date to give them time to make the room available to another client. I eventually get an e-mail advising me that 'just this once' and as a gesture of good will the hotel is willing to waive the CANCELATION fee of €56..?
I had already paid for the room and was prepared to lose the payment. But to suggest there might even be a cancelation fee is laughable. I assume it would have been less expensive to just NOT turn up. Not cancelled but not used.

Ray.


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## erneboy (Feb 8, 2007)

Good that you got it back Ray.


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## barryd (May 9, 2008)

Usually here with premier, travel lodge etc you get an option to pay a bit more for cancellation refund up to 24 hrs before. Might be worth looking into for the future.


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

Yes Baz, I did have that option. I think an extra €10 but chose not to as at the time there was absolutely no reason we would cancel. Swings n roundabouts but I would just so amazed there would be a charge for cancelling but nothing for not turning up?

Ray.


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## jiwawa (Jun 22, 2007)

Wouldn't they just have kept your entire payment if you didn't turn up?


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

Yes Jean. The 56e was already paid. But to add another 56e to cancel is the irony when a no show costs nothing?

Ray.


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## powerplus (Oct 6, 2014)

Hi ray

Sorry to hear you wont be making it this christmas maybe you can make it a little later

We still dont know wether we will make it or not 
Hopefully after seeing a specialist this friday i will know better
Thats assuming my blood tests come back by then

Barry


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## Glandwr (Jun 12, 2006)

Shame you can't make it Ray, just to tell you that I won't be involving you in the VAT scam we talked of . All sorted! 

Was it the hotel or Booking.com that was trying to trouser your euros? Presumably the hotel would have had to pay a commission to booking.com maybe even at the time you booked. Wouldn't be surprised if that commission was 56 euros


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

Yes sad but necessary Barry. Our other friends who you saw down there can't go either due to hospital treatments. But always next year  🛌

OK Dick. I fully expected to forfeit the original €56 but if they expected me to fork out another €56 they were much mistaken. It's daft to even suggest it when I could just not turn up and pay no extra.

Ray.


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## barryd (May 9, 2008)

When I was out on the road a lot back in the day I used to leave booking hotels until I was maybe an hour away from where I wanted to stop. I knew loads all over the country where I knew if I winged it and called last minute I would get a hefty discount by haggling. There was one on Princess Street in Edinburgh (Royal British I think) where the room rate was north of £100 but I would almost always get it for about fifty quid. As I often visited clients in the Print and design trade I would ask them to sort me something out as most of them had clients in the trade. Midland hotel in Birmingham and Manchester I would get at staff rates for like twenty quid or something.


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## erneboy (Feb 8, 2007)

Back when you were young and upthrusting Baz?


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

Agreed Baz. We always managed to get the corporate' rate or weekend rate in the states all week.
Bordeaux airport is 56e booked ahead or 90e the next day.

Ray.


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## barryd (May 9, 2008)

erneboy said:


> Back when you were young and upthrusting Baz?


Are you insinuating I am lacking "upthrust" now Alan? 

I lived in hotels for years. Loved it, especially in London.


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## erneboy (Feb 8, 2007)

Luckily, or possibly by design, I am completely unaware of your thrusting activities, but I do wish you every success with them.


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## H1-GBV (Feb 28, 2006)

I had to cancel an apartment in Spain in 2009, made via booking.com, for the grand total of €34 for two nights. We took the first night but it was so cold and miserable that I asked for the money back for the second night. The local agent said booking.com took 50% so he couldn't refund me anything, as I'd used €17-worth for the first night and €17 had gone to booking.com. Clearly he wasn't experienced in dealing with a northern tightwad and eventually gave me the money back.

I booked a hotel in rural Italy for one night via booking.com but decided to stay an extra night. We wanted to use the same room and tried to persuade the hotelier to let us have it cheaper as she didn't need to change sheets etc AND booking.com were not going to take any commission. By a mixture of schoolboy German, drawing diagrams and a bit of Charades we managed to get €20 off two rooms. Was it worth it? To my mind, yes.

I suspect the cancellation fee was a case of "we will refund you for unused nights but charge one day's fees". In other words, if you booked 10 nights they would refund you 9 nights; because you only booked one night they would expect you to pay for that night by the circuitous route of giving you €56 refund but charge you €56 cancellation fee. I'm pretty sure that they would not try to get you to give them extra money 

Gordon


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## GMJ (Jun 24, 2014)

raynipper said:


> Yes sad but necessary Barry. Our other friends who you saw down there can't go either due to hospital treatments. But always next year  🛌
> 
> OK Dick. I fully expected to forfeit the original €56 but if they expected me to fork out another €56 they were much mistaken. It's daft to even suggest it when I could just not turn up and pay no extra.
> 
> Ray.


I read it that they were just going to keep the original €56. I didn't realise they wanted another €56 off you!


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

Thats the irony G.

Ray.


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## jiwawa (Jun 22, 2007)

So they kept your €56 but waived the cancellation fee?!


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

Yes Jean. But now I keep getting reminders of my booking which apparently is still current??

Ray.


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## jiwawa (Jun 22, 2007)

😂


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## erneboy (Feb 8, 2007)

GMJ said:


> I read it that they were just going to keep the original €56. I didn't realise they wanted another €56 off you!



Menall.


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## GMJ (Jun 24, 2014)

You've got me there Alan. What does menall mean?

A search throws up this  ...





__





Menall Name Meaning | Variant of Manal | Islamic Baby Name Meanings, Answers and Advice


QuranicNames.com is the largest, most detailed and most authentic Islamic baby name site on the Internet.




quranicnames.com


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

Me an all G.

Ray.


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