Hiya,

The wife and myself have booked the holidays of a lifetime last February. The tour will take us in Siberia and Mongolia in August and September and we can't wait for it. Trouble is now the travel company wants to charge us a fair bit more....

After doing a bit of research, we have decided to book our holidays through Trailfinders. The actual travel company is called Sundowners and are specialised in trips in these parts of the world, Trailfinders are only the intermediaries.

Our travel arrangements are tailor made and a combination of arranged hotel stays and some special tours in between. As for the the price on our booking forms, it is separated in two parts: one for the flights and one for all the other components of the trip put together.

Out of a total of £4500 we paid a deposit of £1300 in March, with the remainder due in a few weeks. Part of the deposit goes towards plane tickets and such, who are non-refundable. All papers were signed at the time when we paid the deposit.

Now less than two weeks before we are due to pay them the remainder they are calling back telling us that they have misquoted us because they forgot to count one of the special tours in the total price. And they want to charge us an extra £620 each for it.

Question 1: can they do it? I have the feeling that when I signed off the paperwork that is a contract and they cannot modify it like that (if they made an accountant error, tough!).

Question 2: what recourse do I have if discussions with them fail? We cannot afford the supplement but stand to lose the deposit as it was for 'non-refundable' plane tickets so I feel like being squeezed between two very uncomfortable rocks....

Sundowners have accepted already that it is an account error from their part though, Trailfinders told me that much over the phone.
Trailfinders are also looking into this, but I would like to know what you think and who I should contact if I cannot resolve the issue.

Thanks in advance