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I booked 2 hotel rooms in Munich a while back for a couple of day during Oktoberfest. The rate I received was 77 € a night. Yesterday, 3 days before I'm supposed be there, they canceled the rooms. I contacted them and they told me sorry for the inconvenience but they canceled the rooms. I looked online and they are now selling the rooms for 250 € per night, but told me they are full.

Are there any laws in Germany preventing this type of sketchy behavior?

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    The way you booked it (directly with the hotel, through a travel agency or online booking site...), the country the company you actually dealt with, the country you are a resident of, and whether you paid something in advance or not may be relevant. – jcaron Sep 14 '17 at 16:51
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    Also, even if that's not proper evidence, take screenshots showing that the same room is still sold online and at what price. – jcaron Sep 14 '17 at 16:51
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    I did give them a Credit Card, I booked it thru the hotels central reservation system, and received a conformation emial from the hotel directly. No where did it mentions word like Stornierung, Kündigung, Rücktritt. I assume this is not legal for them to do? – Dan Dean Sep 14 '17 at 17:03
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    I am in the States, however I just had a German friend of mine call and really laid into them..... 5 minutes later I get a call with an apology and they have 2 rooms held at their sister property for the same rate...... I'm not sure what was said, I don't speak German, but man it was an intense conversation.... lol – Dan Dean Sep 14 '17 at 17:29
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    No idea about Germany. Some US jurisdictions protect a merchant from having to honor a price that is a clear blunder, say, 0.77 Euros for the room. (Sometimes the merchant honors it anyway, to avoid the PR nightmare.) 77 does not look like that to me, it looks like they forgot to put Oktoberfest surcharge on the calendar and decided to try it retroactively. – Andrew Lazarus Sep 14 '17 at 18:50
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I did some recherche in German concerning your problem.

It depends on the AGB (allgemeine Geschäftsbedingungen) i.e. TOS you got with your booking. Generally spoken, if you got a booking confirmation you have signed a contract with the hotel and both parties have to fulfill the resulting duties. Look thoroughly if the AGB or the booking confirmation contain a section about cancelling (Stornierung in German) of bookings. You may post that section here, I guess there are enough Germans here to translate it.

So, if there are no agreements on cancellation, you have a claim on the booked room. If the hotel refuses to let you in, you have a claim for damages. In this case you should call them and let them know that you know about your rights, because they will assume that you won't sue them in a German court.

If that doesn't help, you can enter your complaint on de.reclabox.com. This is a well known complaint management site. Often companies react quickly on complaints written there.

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Are there any laws in Germany preventing this type of sketchy behavior?

Yes, very much so. A booking is a contract between the hotel and you. Unless the contract or terms of service explicitly state a right to cancellation for any of the parties, both are bound to uphold their end or are liable to pay damages to the opposing party.

Even if it is stated in the terms of service, it might still not give them the right to back out of the contract. Certain points of the terms of service can be null and void if they penalize one party unilaterally. I'm no lawyer but I think cancelling 3 days before the trip without reason falls in this category.

Also, the only reason that the hotel can claim otherwise is if they could not forsee the unavailability of those rooms, like the hotel burnt down or something like that.

In all other cases, dissovling the contract can only be done in agreement of both parties - which is what they might have tried to do here. If they try this with enough people, some might just say okay, and they have dissolved the contract.

Considering the comments, I'd guess they were trying to pull one on you and got caught pants down...

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