Raw Deal: All Tyne and well but teenager has to fight for cash after digs call-off

Adam Clark was on the bus to Newcastle with 11 of his friends to celebrate his 19th birthday when he received a message revealing their weekend accommodation had been cancelled.

The lads had been looking forward to spending a couple of days in the city and sampling its famous nightlife. Adam, from Kirriemuir, Angus, and his friends had paid £1,360 via Booking.com for two nights in August at the well-sited Alexander Prestige apartments.

“We got two flats that each slept six people and the location seemed ideal,” said Adam. “We had saved up and had been looking forward to the weekend away for ages.”

Adam, an apprentice painter, paid the full cost of the accommodation on the day they travelled and was also asked for copies of everyone’s ID. But he was stunned when he got a WhatsApp message from the operators of the apartments to say that their stay had been cancelled as they were too young.

“We were on the bus on the way there when I got the text,” Adam said. “Our party was made up of 18 to 23-year-olds but out the blue I was suddenly told that you had to be over 26 to stay at the apartments.

“Apparently this was in the terms and conditions but this wasn’t made clear to me when I booked. I was in a bit of a panic because there were 12 of us and we now had nowhere to stay.

“I didn’t know what to do. I thought we might have to come straight back up the road on the next bus.”

The mum of one of his mates came to the rescue and managed to sort out alternative accommodation before they reached Newcastle.

“I wasn’t too worried about getting the money back for the original booking as I had been told a refund wouldn’t be a problem,” he said. “We ended up having a pretty good weekend.”

However, after he returned home Adam ran into issues with securing the refund.

“I was trying to contact the apartments to get our money back but I couldn’t get a satisfactory response from them,” he said.

Adam said when he raised the issue with Booking.com he was told the matter would be ironed out.

“I had phoned them every day for two weeks to try and get this resolved,” he said. “I was eventually told it would be sorted and I would get a call from the finance department but this never happened and I felt like I was getting nowhere.”

At the end of his tether, Adam turned to Raw Deal. We contacted Booking.com on his behalf and asked the company to look into the matter. It wasn’t long before the £1,360 was back in Adam’s account. Booking.com also said it would work with the accommodation provider in Newcastle to make sure the age policy was made clearer to customers up-front.

Booking.com said: “Our primary aim is to facilitate smooth and enjoyable travel experiences for all of our customers.

“While we always encourage customers to pay close attention to a property’s booking policy, we will be working with this partner to ensure certain terms and conditions are highlighted throughout the booking process and have offered the customer a full refund.”

Adam thanked Raw Deal for intervening. He said: “We are very grateful for the help in getting our cash back, especially as I was going around in circles.

“We are all just young guys and we couldn’t have afforded to write off an amount of money like that.”