Our pooch was banned from the restaurant in a ‘canine pleasant’ resort – can we demand a refund? DEAN DUNHAM replies

My wife and I took our dog for a weekend at a ‘dog-friendly’ boutique hotel. It was nothing of the sort! 

We couldn’t take our labrador into the restaurant but we weren’t allowed to leave him in the room either. 

We ended up eating in the bar, which was not what we had in mind. Can we get our money back?

M.V., via email.

Dean Dunham replies: When a hotel advertises its services and provides descriptions of its facilities, this forms part of the contract between you, the guest, and the hotel owner.

As a matter of contract law, the descriptions provided must be accurate, otherwise the hotel breaches the contract.

Barred: A hotel which advertised itself as dog-friendly wouldn’t let a reader’s best friend in the restaurant

In addition to this, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 states that goods – such as a hotel room and facilities – must be ‘as described’. If not, there is a breach of the law which automatically entitles you to a remedy.

Before proceeding further you need to gather evidence to support your position.

This means considering why you believed the hotel was ‘dog-friendly’ before you booked it. How was this communicated to you? 

Did the website describe the hotel as ‘dog-friendly’ and did any communication you received either before or after your booking provide such a description?

Armed with this information you should write to the hotel and ask for a price reduction on the basis that a reasonable consumer would have assumed that a hotel described as ‘dog-friendly’ would allow dogs in the restaurant and would not prohibit you from leaving them in the room.

However, I must warn you that you will not be entitled to a full refund as you continued to stay at the hotel, so your remedy will be a reduction in the bill to take account of your diminished enjoyment and the stress of the situation.

If the hotel disagrees with your position, it will no doubt be on the basis that the hotel description online or within

correspondence specifically stated that dogs were not allowed in the restaurant and also stated that they could not be left alone in the room.

If this is the approach, the hotel must be able to prove that this important information was made prominent.  

Three-year warranty reduced to two in UK 

I purchased a generator online from the US with a three-year warranty. Two years later, it has broken down, so I approached the manufacturer only to be told that in the UK the warranty period is two years. What are my rights?

R. Gibson, via email.

Dean Dunham replies: You need to look at the actual warranty documentation you were given when you purchased the generator and see what this says about the warranty period.

If it says two years like the manufacturer says, you won’t have any recourse against the manufacturer. However, the warranty doesn’t really matter – so this is not the devastating news you probably feared.

The Consumer Rights Act is a powerful tool at your disposal, as this states that if goods are faulty and the problem was neither caused by you nor is down to wear and tear, you are entitled to a remedy.

Here there are multiple remedies: a free repair; a refund (after deducting some money to take account of the use of the goods you’ve had); a price reduction, which would mean you get some money back to take the fault into account (not ideal if the goods do not actually work); or an exchange.

This course of action is against the retailer you purchased the goods from and in the first instance it can choose which remedy to invoke, so long as it is adequate.

My advice is to take the problem to the retailer and ask it to either fix the generator (free of charge) or to take

the generator back. If the retailer refuses and you paid by credit card, contact your card provider and say you want to make a Section 75 claim.

Make sure you tell them that there has been a ‘breach of contract’ as the generator is faulty and your rights under the Consumer Rights Act are being denied.

If you paid via any other method, your only other redress will be to either ask if the retailer is subscribed to an alternative dispute resolution scheme or go to the small claims court.