A Cheshire-based agency is seeking damages from a bed bank, claiming it was left thousands of pounds out of pocket when a client’s booking was cancelled at short notice.
Reserve a Hotel booked a client, his wife and two-year-old daughter into Dubai’s Jumeirah Al Naseem Hotel through Portuguese bed bank Abreu. But a day before the holiday was due to start, the agency discovered it had been cancelled two weeks earlier.
Joint managing director Samuel Mond, who happened to be in Dubai with his family, took a taxi to Al Naseem to try to rebook his client, who spends about £60,000 a year with the agency and was already flying to the emirate at the time.
In a legal letter seen by Travel Weekly, Mond claims staff at the Jumeirah Al Naseem told him the booking had been cancelled by Abreu.
Mond booked his client into the One&Only The Palm for one night for a non-commissionable £1,500.
His client paid for the remaining nine nights at the One&Only The Palm after Abreu offered the Jumeirah Mina A’Salam hotel next door to Al Naseem.
Mond was refunded for the original booking by Abreu, but he is seeking compensation of £3,000
for the night at One&Only The Palm and additional costs incurred for
the half-board package he negotiated, and loss of profit.
“This was booked in October and paid for in January and confirmation of funds came from Abreu,” said Mond.
“I couldn’t believe it. That we were in Dubai was a bit of good fortune, otherwise I don’t know how we would have dealt with it. We deal with more than 30 bed banks and have never had something like this.”
Abreu did not explain why the booking was cancelled. A spokesman acknowledged the legal action and said the company had “presented alternative solutions to solve a problem that happened without our wrongdoing”.
