Vancouver man’s trip to Monaco for F1 race takes ugly turn: lawsuit

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Plans for a trip to Monaco to watch a Formula One Grand Prix event from a hotel room overlooking the racetrack hit the skids for a Vancouver traveller who has filed a lawsuit claiming more than $18,000 in extra hotel expenses from an online booking firm and a hotel chain.

James Mann is suing Fairmont Hotels and an online booking company after the hotel room at the Fairmont Monte Carlo Hotel he bought and paid for three months in advance for a three-night stay in May 2022 through Trip.com was cancelled two days before check-in, according to a notice of civil claim in B.C. Supreme Court.

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Trip.com sent him an email telling him his confirmed room for the three nights he had paid more than $8,000 for was no longer available and advising him to call them to rebook, the lawsuit states.

Mann sent numerous emails insisting Trip.com honour the reservation and when that didn’t happen, on the day he was to check in, he found what he said was the “last hotel room left in Monte Carlo” for the Grand Prix, paying about $26,700 — $18,500 more than his original booking.

And he said he was frustrated that the “anticipated relaxed viewing” of the race didn’t happen because the expensive hotel room he was able to book at the second hotel didn’t have a view of the track, the lawsuit said.

The Fairmont Hotel, meanwhile, had offered Mann a room on the day he wanted but the rate was more than $20,500 a night, or $61,700 in total.

But Trip.com said the most it would offer in compensation toward that room was $8,200 a night.

Mann said he demanded compensation from Trip.com for “breach of contract” and the inconvenience the cancellation caused him and was offered about $9,200 — about $1,100 more than what he would have paid for the original reservation.

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He rejected it, citing the inconvenience, discomfort and “agony” the cancellation of his reservation caused him, plus the “exorbitant amount” he had to spend to book a less fit-for-purpose room at the second hotel.

He is seeking $18,446.62 in special damages, the difference between the cost of his original reservation and what he paid at the second hotel, plus general damages for the economic loss, pain, agony and suffering he experienced.

None of the allegations has been proven in court.

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