Hammerfest chalet deposit scheme

My view on the entire Hammerfest/New Britannia shambles that has the majority of fans up I outrage.

For those of you who have not heard, Hammerfest and New Brittania are now asking for a £100 deposit for the rooms AFTER the deposit and tickets have been fully booked. The official Press statement is below


Apartment Security deposits

New Britannia conditions of contract after their refurbishment, dictates, you will be required to leave £100 security deposit on apartments. This can be paid in 2 ways. We can swipe your card on pre authorisation or you can pay in cash on arrival – cash is then refunded on checkout once rooms have been cleared. Card pre authorisation will expire a week after check in. We apologise for any inconvenience but do remind everyone this is standard Britannia policy for all customers.

Now the fact that this is standard Britannia policy I understand, that’s all fine and dandy. The thing that gets me angry is the fact that this is announced 2 WEEKS before the start of the festival, and nowhere when booking the tickets was this mentioned whatsoever. So therefore the terms of the contract has been changed, so therefore would this make the verbal contract everyone agreed to when paying null and void as there has been an alteration without both parties consent as at no-time did I remember hearing that they can make an alteration to the contract without both parties consent.

However to move away from the legal jargon, and to back the unfavourable view here, I can understand New Britannia’s trepidation as I remember going last year and watching people throw themselves off the roof off the chalet’s onto their beds and smashing the beds. HOWEVER this was the only group I witnessed doing this in the entire weekend, and they were evicted straight away, and the majority off the people were stood their checking their inventory checklists or informing security. So this sort of behaviour is not condoned even by the “unruly” metal heads.

It is not the payment I object to, it’s the timing off the introduction. If this was introduced for the next Hammerfest, I would be happy to pay it, but 2 weeks before the start is a bit much to ask for people to find the cash.

My advice to everyone-
Do the pre-authorisation on the card, as the cash is not needed on hand, take a camera and take photo’s before and after showing the room in its previous and current site, don’t throw parties in the chalet’s, throw them on the green. And when it comes to checking out, make sure you find out all the relevant information about the cancellation of the pre-authorisation.

Apart from this little blip I really hope everyone enjoy’s the festival and doesn’t let this put a dampner on the festival.