Price of Wedding Venue been increased by new owners

[xxromancerxx]

Hi there

Wondering if anyone has ever come up against this........my partner and I booked our wedding ceremony/breakfast/reception at a local venue. We paid £300 pound deposit to secure the date and we received a printed receipt/booking confirmation detailing the price for our chosen package, the deposit paid and the outstanding balance.

The venue we booked is now under new management and they have revised their prices for all wedding packages. We have now received a new booking confirmation with an increased outstanding balance (increased by £150). Can they just increase our price or do they have to honour our original quote?

[sunny-dave]

It depends on the terms of the takeover - specifically any commitments given about existing bookings.

I suspect, technically, they are making a brand new offer of a price/service and if you don't like it you have the option of asking for your deposit to be returned (assuming that this was actually passed on to the new management).

[xxromancerxx]

Yeah see what you mean Dave.......have spoken to them over the phone and apparently before they officially took over, they agreed with the previous owners to supply quotes under their revised new package list, but I think we met them before this was agreed. The new owners have said they would speak to their solicitors to see where they stand on the situation

[murraymints]

most new owners honour bookings..as they buy the business and good will as well as the building !

[buildersmate]

I suggest that you remind them that you have a contract with their organisation at an agreed price and it is not your fault that the organisation has changed ownership. The tie-up between contractual commitments made between the old owners with customers and the new owners was not your responsibility to resolve.
You therefore cannot accept that the price will increase and there is the potential for damage to goodwill of the business. See what they say.

You don't say what percentage £150 is of the total. Depending whether they claim they will try and cancel the booking depends what you might do next.

They may back-down at the first hurdle. If not you could back-down at that point - appreciate you don't need this sort of hassle when you are trying to co-ordinate lots of other arrangements.