Campbell Point House wedding: Damages awarded over botched booking

A LUXURY Victorian hotel must pay up after losing a VCAT battle over a wedding booking.

Vanessa Lui — Facebook image

NEWLYWEDS have been awarded damages after a luxury Bellarine Peninsula venue was found to be liable for “misleading and deceptive conduct”.

Campbell Point House near Geelong has been ordered to pay back Vanessa Lui and Mohan Du’s $5875 deposit, after they cancelled their planned April 2017 wedding at the Leopold estate.

The business had lodged a counterclaim in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal seeking $9917 from the couple for the balance of their original deal.

The counterclaim was dismissed, with VCAT finding in favour of the couple, who scrapped their booking after conflicting information about the number of guests allowed at the wedding vows.

Campbell Point House

VCAT deputy president Ian Lulham found that Campbell Point House manager Aaron Parkhill had told the couple the venue could host 150 guests.

Later the wedding contract referred to a maximum of 100 guests, while an email in October last year that said there could only be 110 people had made Ms Lui nervous, the tribunal heard.

“By this time she had also heard reports of other people whose weddings at Campbell Point House had been disappointing, and she saw that the terms and conditions said that a wedding ceremony could be shut down,” Mr Lulham said.

Ms Lui cancelled the booking the following month, because she did not want to reduce their guest list.

Mr Parkhill chose not to attend the hearing, submitting a letter containing denials that Mr Lulham described as “uninformative”.

Campbell Point House

His wife and property owner Megan Blackhall represented the company at the proceeding, with her case drawing criticism from the tribunal, which labelled one submission as “nonsensical”.

“I think it appropriate to record that the way it chose to conduct the proceedings is in no way a reflection of the financial resources available to it,” Mr Lulham said of the company.

“As a corporate entity which owns a substantial asset, and conducts business, (it) chose how to run its proceeding. It bears the consequences of these tactical decisions.

“I find that Aaron Parkhill’s representation was contrary to (the company’s) obligation ... not to engage in misleading and deceptive conduct in trade or commerce.”

Ms Lui yesterday said she was “relieved” by VCAT’s verdict.

“We wanted this to be public so other couples have some insight and information before they make their own bookings,” she said.

“This is something no couple should have to go through.

“This was not about the money, but the principle.”

Originally published as Campbell Point House wedding: Damages awarded over botched booking