Devastated family canceled Cornwall holiday after owner asked for an extra £ 650 at the last minute

FAMILY was devastated after their stay was canceled – only to be asked to pay an extra £ 650 to keep it.

Shelley Keeble and her husband James booked their Airbnb in Cornwall last year for the summer vacation, along with their 10-year-old son Miles.

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However, despite paying £ 1,625 for a week in St Ives, they were subsequently ‘gazumped’ after the owner sold the property to someone else, who refused to honor the booking.

Shelley said: “We got a message earlier this month from [the owner] saying he unfortunately had to sell the property but the new owners would be in touch as they had agreed to honor all reservations.

“He also explained that the company he was using couldn’t exchange reservation contracts, so we would receive a full refund and the new owners would be in contact to reorganize.”

However, after not hearing from the new owner, they then contacted them directly, only to find that they would have to pay more for the reservation.

She explained: “We made contact last week to find out there would be an astronomical increase of almost £ 700.

“My husband started to panic and emailed them when we hadn’t heard anything.”

They then realized that the property they had booked was listed on Instagram as available on the dates they had booked.

“ABSOLUTELY DEVASTE”

Shelley added: “We were just left in limbo so my husband sent such a nice email asking if we still had it because [the new owners] had already started advertising it on Instagram saying it was available on the exact dates we booked. “

“We were absolutely devastated. As far as we knew we were told they would honor the reservation.

She continued, “We had booked it for a year.

“How many people are looking forward to this, like we did, for twelve months for someone out of ignorance but the price to go up and tell us it was our choice.

“It wasn’t our choice at all because we didn’t have that extra money.”

They have since booked a different property for their vacation, but Shelley said: “It made us more determined to come, but the sad thing is that I’m not the only one.

“We are not the first and we will not be the last.”

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