Why cant we just change the dates?

After six years of running Highgate House we've had the most fantastic, amazing, wonderful, beautiful and brilliant guests.  Seriously, the people who choose to come and stay with us are lovely. So lovely that we always try our absolute best to make sure that everyone has a really relaxing and enjoyable stay.  

And this is why we hate it when we can't always give everyone, everything they want, and in particular it's why we get really upset ourselves when we have to tell a guest that they can't have a refund or can't just rebook new dates if they are unable to come to and use their rooms on the date they booked (if it's within the no cancelation period of course).

"Why not, it's just another date and you've already got our money? Just change the dates and we'll come then and that way nobody loses out". We hear.  But is it just another date?  Yes we've been paid, but we've been paid for the dates you booked, which we can't now resell* because hotel rooms are a 'perishable product'**.  If we agree to change the dates we are effectively giving you the room twice, for the one payment meaning that we are covering your loss out of our own pocket.

This why we advise guests to take out travel insurance so that they can get their money back if something happens and they cant come and stay with us on the booked dates.

*If we can rebook the rooms for someone else we will always happily refund because in that situation no one has lost anything.  We make a small charge for providing a refund because we get charged by the card companies, but its typically very small. 

​**A tourism product is perishable in the sense that, unlike a can of beans, it cannot be stored away for future sale if it does not sell the first time (Weaver and Lawton, 2006, p. 207).

So please do make sure you have insurance.

Andy