Booked a hotel in Munich, and the hotel canceled it. Any recourse?
I booked 2 hotel rooms in Munich a while back for a couple of day during Oktoberfest. The rate I received was 77 € a night. Yesterday, 3 days before I'm supposed be there, they canceled the rooms. I contacted them and they told me sorry for the inconvenience but they canceled the rooms. I looked online and they are now selling the rooms for 250 € per night, but told me they are full.
Are there any laws in Germany preventing this type of sketchy behavior?
Best Answer
I did some recherche in German concerning your problem.
It depends on the AGB (allgemeine Geschäftsbedingungen) i.e. TOS you got with your booking. Generally spoken, if you got a booking confirmation you have signed a contract with the hotel and both parties have to fulfill the resulting duties. Look thoroughly if the AGB or the booking confirmation contain a section about cancelling (Stornierung in German) of bookings. You may post that section here, I guess there are enough Germans here to translate it.
So, if there are no agreements on cancellation, you have a claim on the booked room. If the hotel refuses to let you in, you have a claim for damages. In this case you should call them and let them know that you know about your rights, because they will assume that you won't sue them in a German court.
If that doesn't help, you can enter your complaint on de.reclabox.com. This is a well known complaint management site. Often companies react quickly on complaints written there.
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Can a hotel just cancel your reservation?
Cancellations can occur when the booking is for a hotel that is new or undergoing renovations. If there has been a delay, the hotel can end up in a situation where they cannot accommodate guests on their travel dates and needs to cancel the booking. Hotels also cancel if there has been a change of circumstances.Does a hotel have to honor a reservation?
Legally speaking, you aren't entitled to much if a hotel fails to honor your reservation. Hotels can and do cancel \u201cconfirmed\u201d reservations whenever they want.Eurostars Book Hotel, Munich, Germany
More answers regarding booked a hotel in Munich, and the hotel canceled it. Any recourse?
Answer 2
Are there any laws in Germany preventing this type of sketchy behavior?
Yes, very much so. A booking is a contract between the hotel and you. Unless the contract or terms of service explicitly state a right to cancellation for any of the parties, both are bound to uphold their end or are liable to pay damages to the opposing party.
Even if it is stated in the terms of service, it might still not give them the right to back out of the contract. Certain points of the terms of service can be null and void if they penalize one party unilaterally. I'm no lawyer but I think cancelling 3 days before the trip without reason falls in this category.
Also, the only reason that the hotel can claim otherwise is if they could not forsee the unavailability of those rooms, like the hotel burnt down or something like that.
In all other cases, dissovling the contract can only be done in agreement of both parties - which is what they might have tried to do here. If they try this with enough people, some might just say okay, and they have dissolved the contract.
Considering the comments, I'd guess they were trying to pull one on you and got caught pants down...
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