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A Different (Edit: Good!) Cancellation Experience

My favorite place to stay is a little 4-bedroom B&B in Berlin called mittendrin. I've stayed 40 nights over the last 4 years. Part of the charm is staying in an early 20th century building that has maintained its bones/internal character (despite an updated facade); much of the charm, though, is the gracious owner and hostess Sabine. I had reserved a room for April 30 to May 6 via e-mail earlier in the year.

I wrote Sabine to apologetically cancel my reservation and told her I would still like to pay for the room, emulating a good German who honors his agreement, even if unable to keep it. I expressed concern for her and her business. I ventured an informal "Liebe Grüße" ending, instead of the more business-appropriate "Mit freundlichen Grüßen" ending.

Part of her response (via Google Translate):

My dear Dave, thank you so much for your warm words. Yes, mittendrin
is closed until further notice. Unfortunately, most are not good
Germans and do not voluntarily pay cancellation fees. So it touched me
very much that you want to pay. But please dear Dave, you do not have
to pay for this, this is force majeure and I do not want to charge any
cancellation fees. But a thousand thanks for your offer. I do my best
to get through the middle of the Corona crisis and then we have a
party with red bull and champagne, if we can see each other again in
spring next year, that would be great.

A sweet, sweet lady (who remembers my bad Red Bull habit!).

Posted by
7891 posts

Bravo to both you and Sabine. But i gotta ask - are the Red Bull and champagne going to be in separate glasses, or is she proposing a punch combining the two?

Posted by
1320 posts

That's lovely -- on both sides.
Thank you for sharing an uplifting story.

Posted by
1332 posts

And you’ve given her something that she couldn’t buy with any amount of Euros, free advertising in a place that’s absolutely her target audience. While Berlin isn’t on my immediate travel list, you’d better believe I’m searching out her B&B should I decide to decide to visit Berlin.

Maybe crosspost this in the Germany reviews forum along with more details about the B&B.

Posted by
4027 posts

Cyn... I think Red Bull for me, champagne for her. Sabine is far too classy of a lady to mix the two! 🙂

Posted by
33722 posts

Thank you very much for sharing this beautiful story, Dave.

Posted by
2252 posts

What a lovely story and so good to read something so positive. Thank you for sharing your experience. We had to cancel a month's worth of B&Bs in Italy (arrival scheduled for 12 September 2001) and received similar responses from all over Italy. We did carry through the same trip, staying in the same B&Bs the following year. It never ceases to amaze me how responsive and supportive people all over the world really are during a crisis.

Posted by
4160 posts

Sitting here with my second coffee this morning , what a bright spot to begin the day .