Love Holidays told me I had to pay an extra £1,000 for my hotel

I booked a hotel-only reservation through Love Holidays two weeks ago and agreed a price of £1,080.

Two days later I received the booking confirmation confirming my booking. I then went on to book my flights and paid £2,800 for my travel to Tobago for a family holiday in August. 

I then received a message from Love Holidays two weeks later saying there was a pricing error and the price is now £2,080. 

I cannot afford this extra £1,000 and my flights are non-refundable so I can’t even travel to another destination. Is there anything I can do? This whole situation has made me sick. T.S., via email

Grace Gausden, This is Money, replies: Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time that This is Money has heard of customers having their holiday prices increased after they have already confirmed their booking.

There are a number of reasons as to why this happens – sometimes it is a genuine error or other times the third party website has not been given the right prices by the hotel.

As you had already booked your flights which are non-refundable, it is understandable that you were very frustrated that the hotel prices changed, as you would be unable to alter your holiday.

Budgeting for a holiday is very important and so to have that completely scuppered is no doubt frustrating. 

A price increase of £1,000 is also a very large jump and not something that everyone would be able to afford. In your case it pretty much doubled the cost.

You were also concerned that it had taken the company two weeks before they advised the pricing was wrong. If they had told you sooner, you may not have booked your flights and the issue could have been more easily resolved.  

When you were told the prices had changed, you were offered no explanation other than it was an error, causing you considerable concern.  

One of the reasons this is likely to have happened is because using third party websites, such as price comparison sites, offers less protection against incidents such as this.

Many of these bookings will say in the small print that the agreement is actually made between the user and the respective external contracting booking site – rather than the website itself.

Unfortunately for you, as you booked through a third party site, you will not have been given the same protection as those who booked directly.

You also haven’t stated whether you paid with a credit card, which again would have made a lot of difference. 

When paying by credit card, you will receive protection under the Consumer Credit Act, if the holiday is between £100 and £30,000. If something goes wrong, the credit card provider will be as liable as the retailer for refunding the card holder. 

A Love Holidays spokesperson replies: Love Holidays is aware of the issues with Mr S’s hotel booking and the team has been working to try to resolve this. The pricing discrepancy was due to a loading error made by the hotel supplier.

The supplier has confirmed today that they will honour the booking at the rate initially provided. Mr S has already been updated on this and we are delighted that the price of his holiday to Tobago has not been affected.

An ABTA Spokesperson replies: Customers can on occasion be quoted a price in error. 

Providing the error is spotted fairly quickly there is no obligation for the travel company to honour the incorrect price, though they may choose to do so, but there is also no obligation for the customer to pay the correct price, they can simply accept a full refund. 

If they booked their flights and hotel at the same time through one travel company they have booked a package holiday and so their tour operator could either honour the original price or refund the cost of the package which would include the flight costs.

Grace Gausden, This is Money, adds: Even though you hadn’t booked a package holiday, you were fortunately allowed to pay the original amount quoted by Love Holidays after the issue was addressed with them.

You may not always be so lucky so ensure you have every type of protection to cover your holiday including paying by credit card, travel insurance and, if possible, buying a package deal.  

Even though it will depend on the situation, having any of the above could mean your money will be protected.