ACM: in case of force majeure, you will receive a refund via hotel booking site | Financial

They can also agree to a possible alternative solution, such as a date change or a voucher. That is the opinion of the Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM) in response to complaints from Koninklijke Horeca Nederland (KHN).

The industry association had complained to the regulator that hotel booking sites would wrongly accept cancellations due to the corona crisis. According to KHN, that worsened hotels’ financial difficulties, as they had to refund all canceled bookings to travelers.

ACM subsequently conducted discussions with the various parties and conducted investigations. Booking and Expedia are allowed to use the “force majeure” clause in their terms, the watchdog concludes. Travelers who had a booking that could not actually be canceled can also request a refund.

However, according to an ACM spokesperson, this only applies if there is a case of force majeure, for example when there is negative travel advice for the area where the hotel is located. So whether people can get money back varies greatly from case to case. According to the spokesman, Dutch people who had booked a hotel stay in the Netherlands themselves cannot simply claim the clause.

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