‘My father has weeks to live so I called off wedding but hotel held on to our deposit’

After being contacted by the Standard, the hotel said it would refund the couple’s deposit
“Heartbroken”: Tara Mendelsohn with fiancé Tarun Naipal
Matt Watts11 August 2015

A bride-to-be accused a hotel of “unbelievable heartlessness” after it refused a refund when she cancelled her wedding having found out her terminally ill father had just weeks to live.

Advertising executives Tara Mendelsohn, 35, and fiancé Tarun Naipaul, 41, the nephew of Nobel prize-winning writer VS Naipaul, had booked the boutique Foxhill Manor Hotel in the Cotswolds for September 9.

But they decided to cancel the £17,000 wedding after learning that Ms Mendelsohn’s father Peter was losing his battle with a rare form of cancer and would be unable to walk her down the aisle.

However, the eight-bedroom private manor house hotel declined to return their £3,000 deposit — stating that the couple could postpone their wedding by up to six months.

Ms Mendelsohn, who lost her mother to cancer seven years ago, said: “I am just devastated. I’m heartbroken I am going to lose my dad.

“It was my dream he would give me away. I wanted him there so much. I don’t want to go ahead with the wedding there without him.

“It’s unbelievable heartlessness that the hotel would behave in this way. The booking was made not long ago and was on a Thursday.

“I can’t believe they will have lost out on business as a result of us cancelling. As a business you would just hope they had some heart and could see these are exceptional circumstances.”

The couple, who live in Kensal Green, had planned to marry next year but brought the wedding forward so Ms Mendelsohn’s father, a retired dentist from West Hampstead, could give her away. They were told last week he was losing his battle with a neuroendocrine tumour and could live “just weeks”.

The Foxhill Manor Hotel, which describes itself as providing “a heartfelt personal service” is in the woodland estate of Farncombe. After being contacted by the Standard, the hotel said it would refund the couple’s deposit.

Andrew Grahame, chief executive of Farncombe Estate, which owns Foxhill Manor, said: “We have fully refunded the wedding for Ms Mendelson and Mr Naipaul, as we would always do under these circumstances. As a family-owned business with strong values, we would never knowingly conduct business in a manner that was not sympathetic to our valued customers.”

Ms Mendelsohn added: “We are both really pleased Foxhill Manor have now apologised and offered to refund our deposit in full. My dad is really happy with the news.”

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