I’m too ill to travel – why won’t the hotel refund me?

Q Is it legal or reasonable for a hotel not to offer any sort of refund? I was booked to stay at a well-known hotel chain this coming Saturday night. Unfortunately, I am ill and can’t go. The hotel has refused to refund me. It seems quite harsh that it's a flat “no” like this!

Russ Williams

A The hotel responded to your polite request for a refund by saying: “Unfortunately due to the cancellation policy, the amount due is not refundable even if the booking is cancelled or modified.” I checked the conditions for the “advance saver” you booked; in return for a 15 per cent discount on the regular, flexible rate (refundable until midnight the night before), it makes quite clear you are not getting your money back. Sorry.

Yet there is rather more to your case than that. I have tried to make a booking for Saturday night and found the place is full up. The website says: “Unavailable for the selected dates”. There are two possibilities that I can see: one is that the hotel will have an unoccupied room on Saturday night because you won’t be showing up; that would be a shame. The other is that the hotel has deliberately overbooked. Hotels often predict a certain number of no-shows of people who have booked and paid in advance, perhaps selling 102 rooms in a 100-room hotel. (I recently asked at the front desk of a four-star hotel in Brussels if they had any rooms available that night, and was told “minus two” – ie it was overbooked.)

Whichever explanation is correct, I think it would be fairer and commercially smart on a busy night to allow you to change dates for a fee or to allow you to cancel completely for, say, a 50 per cent refund. Then the hotel could resell your room with confidence, and probably price it at significantly more than the £95 you paid due to strong demand. For now, though, I fear all you can do is spend your hard-earned money elsewhere in future.

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Q What countries have you not been to?

Steve Holland

A Far too many to mention. While I relish visiting new nations, I am in no sense a “completist” wanting to visit every country in the world. I am sure the scattering of island nations across the Pacific have their charms, but I won’t be putting together a complicated, expensive and time-consuming itinerary to visit them. (I have, though, been to Easter Island, part of Chile, which I wholeheartedly recommend.)

My most pressing wish is to explore more of Africa. In the west, I have heard great things about Sierra Leone and Ghana. Congo looks fascinating. And, in the southeast, Malawi and Mozambique are tempting. In the Indian Ocean, Reunion (technically part of France) and Madagascar appeal.

In the Middle East, I will be visiting Lebanon for the first time this October, but Syria, Iraq and Iran I will save for later. The main Asian nations I long to visit are Pakistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. I have tried to visit the last of those. The authorities refused to issue a visa. I hope officials in Ashgabat may be more lenient next time. North Korea? I would much prefer to visit when this strange land is freed from tyranny.

In South America, my “missing” nations are the sole Dutch and French representatives on the continent, Suriname and French Guiana. I will reach them one day.

Mostly, though, I am desperate to explore more of the countries I have already visited. I am looking forward to returning to Ukraine – as well as Belarus and Russia – when the war ends; tourism is a force for healing after conflict. Large swathes of Turkey look enticing, as do Georgia and Armenia.

At the other end of Asia, I have barely done Indonesia justice, and will do so soon. Finally, the more I see of the great European nations – France, Spain, Italy, Germany... – the more I want to return.

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Q I am going to Belgium in early September. I don’t think we have time for Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp. Which two of those would you choose?

John Gregory

A Without question, Antwerp and Ghent. Bruges is a superbly preserved medieval city with a magnificent, Unesco-listed historic centre. But in summer it is Belgium’s strongest contender for overtourism, especially when a big cruise ship docks at nearby Zeebrugge. According to maritime sources, vessels will call at the port on most days in the first half of September.

Bruges and Ghent are sometimes portrayed as similar – but in my view, the latter has more to offer. Rivers and canals slice Ghent into a collection of enticing quarters. You can survey them from the top of the 14th-century belfry – accessible by 366 steps.

The first cultural highlight is a superb Modern art museum, Smak. Next, a spectacular work of art, The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb by Jan and Hubert Van Eyck, on display in the cathedral; it is also known as the Ghent altarpiece. And Citadelpark has much to offer, including the beautiful University Botanic Gardens, with 10,000 species of plant, and MSK – the Museum of Fine Arts.

Antwerp is twice the size of Ghent and more industrialised, but the city centre is eminently walkable. The central station is more than a busy transport hub: it is a palace of mobility and the grandest possible entry point to a city. The impressively refreshed Royal Museum of Fine Arts (also known as KMSKA) is lots of fun. Antwerp’s Flemish renaissance Grote Markt feels like a more enjoyable central square than even the Grand-Place in Brussels.

Both Antwerp and Ghent offer superb food and drink at reasonable prices – as does everywhere else in Belgium. Just in case you have time en route from Antwerp to Brussels airport or main railway station for your journey home, Mechelen is well worth a lunch stop, too.

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Q I was booked to fly from the Maldives to Doha and onwards to London on Qatar Airways on the day the Iranians fired their missiles at the Al Udeid Air Base. The flight to Doha was cancelled. Ground staff at the airport could only give me a slip of paper telling me to contact the local Qatar Airways office. That was impossible; two emails only got automated replies. So I bought full-price British Airways tickets home for the following day. Qatar now refuses to pay any compensation or expenses and has only offered a refund of the unused return portion.

Of course, I accept the cause was beyond the airline’s control. Even though it was a “non-UK sector” that was cancelled, because the whole journey started and finished in London, that gives me UK rights, I think?

Leon D

A Your experience mirrors mine last November when Qatar Airways cancelled a flight from Kathmandu to Doha, not in such dramatic circumstances as yours. The carrier washed its hands of the matter, offering a replacement flight a week later. I ended up spending £1,300 to get home via Bangkok. Qatar Airways issued a refund for the return leg promptly, but it didn’t cover even half of that cost.

You have, I’m afraid, become the latest traveller to learn of the loophole in British and European air passengers’ rights rules. They do not apply to a non-European airline flying from outside the UK or the EU. So there is no obligation to find another flight or provide hotels and meals. This is infuriating and should be addressed. Rules notwithstanding, the passenger-friendly course of action for Qatar Airways would have been to rebook you immediately on the British Airways flight for which you ended up paying top whack. But tens of thousands of passengers were stranded in various locations. Many of them, such as those flying out for the UK, were covered by air passengers’ rights rules. So it is unsurprising that they were prioritised.

If you happen to have been on a package holiday to the Maldives, then the holiday company is required to look after you and should recompense you. Otherwise, I suggest you try your travel insurer.

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