Petition Refunds on cancelled internet hotel bookings

Currently if you cancel any hotel accommodation you are not entitled to a refund at all if you book by internet at any time. This is unlike the majority of goods and services that are bought by internet which have a seven day cooling off period.

So if your circumstances change weeks before you booked a hotel – the hotel gets all the money for providing no service.

This legislation should be changed so that if you book by internet more than seven days then you have an automatic right to cancel and have a full refund.

There should be exemptions :
• single night accommodation providers who have less than a ten room business. This will exclude most “Bed and Breakfast” providers.
• Cost of transaction to refund which should be the same as the original cost of merchant services.
• Refunds are only to the same card that took the original transaction.
• Applies only to England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.