Need to know
- Website Hotelgift claims to offer Australia's best hotel gift card
- But its vouchers only last two years – which is less than the three years required under Australian law
- One consumer who had to cancel her holiday after her Hotelgift voucher expired sooner than expected has a warning for anyone considering buying an overseas gift card
Joanne Rowles should have just returned from a holiday to regional Western Australia.
"It was supposed to be for around now, towards the end of the year, early summer," the Perth resident says, describing the plans she'd made for the road trip with her family.
"It was going to be up north in Kalbarri," she adds. "I've got some really nostalgic memories of my own childhood up there, so me, my husband and my son were going to go for a long weekend up there."
Instead, the three of them had to stay home after Joanne discovered a $600 gift voucher they had been relying on to pay for their accommodation had expired sooner than expected – and sooner than is allowed under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL).
"Without the gift voucher, we couldn't afford the rest of the holiday, so it was actually cancelled," Joanne says.
Hotel voucher expired sooner than legally allowed
The gift card was issued by website Hotelgift in December 2022 and Joanne had received it in a time of grief.
"I had a pretty significant personal loss. My first baby was stillborn and I have an amazing group of brilliant friends who were so supportive. And as part of that support, they put some money together and gave me the voucher."
Still recovering from their loss, Joanne and her husband didn't use the card straight away.
"We were grieving," Joanne explains. "And then we were very lucky, we actually got pregnant again. So I then had a high-risk pregnancy, because of what had happened in the first, and then I had a newborn."
I did some mental maths and I was like: it was gifted [in 2022] so it should still be good
Joanne, recipient of Hotelgift gift card
Under the ACL, gift cards sold in Australia have to be redeemable for at least three years from the day they were purchased.
Following the birth of her son, Joanne still hadn't used the $600 on her card. Assuming the voucher was ACL-compliant, she felt confident putting it to one side to redeem later.
"It had been in the back of my mind and once my son was a bit older, we decided that we'd like to try and use it … I did some mental maths and I was like: it was gifted [in 2022] so it should still be good," she says.
But when she tried to redeem the card in June this year, she had a shock.
"I went to apply to use the gift card and I put the code in. It said it was expired and then I noticed the two-year expiry date."
If you or someone you know has been affected by stillbirth, support is available from bearsofhope.org.au, or call 1300 11 HOPE.
Australia's best hotel gift card?
Despite claiming to be Australia's best, Hotelgift's cards expire faster than allowed under national consumer law.
Written on the gift card Joanne received was a line mentioning that the voucher will only be valid for two years from the date of purchase. The same disclaimer is made on Hotelgift's website.
Joanne admits she made a mistake in not paying enough attention to this, but hoped Hotelgift would make an exception after she explained what she and her husband had been through.
But multiple emails pleading her case to representatives of Hotelgift parent company Experiencegift got her nowhere – the company said it would not extend her card or issue a new one.
Experiencegift argued that because it was based in the Netherlands, it was applying Dutch law to its products and this allowed it to limit its gift card to only be redeemable for two years.
The company said it was applying these Dutch legal requirements to all customers, no matter where in the world they were based, in order to be "fair and consistent".
This application of Dutch law over Australian regulations is despite Hotelgift claiming on its website to be "Australia's Best Hotel Gift Card" and "the best way to gift a hotel in Australia".
CHOICE has seen other websites offering accommodation gift cards (some even based outside Australia) that last three years, in line with the ACL.
What to do if you're having issues with an overseas business
By October, when Joanne should have been on her holiday, she was instead seeking the assistance of her state fair trading agency, Consumer Protection WA.
In emails seen by CHOICE, the agency's representatives said they had tried to negotiate with Experiencegift to see if they could secure Joanne a goodwill offer from the company, but had also come away empty handed.
The agency isn't alone in hearing nothing from Experiencegift – the company also didn't respond to any of our emails seeking comment on Joanne's story.
In theory, all businesses supplying goods and services to Australian consumers, regardless of whether they are based in Australia or overseas, must comply with the ACL, including the three-year minimum redemption period for gift cards.
In theory, all businesses supplying goods and services in Australia must comply with the Australian Consumer Law.... but this may not happen in practice.
But this may not happen in practice, and overseas companies selling into Australia have been known to deny Australian consumer rights.
If an overseas business isn't respecting your ACL rights, you should first explain this and try to negotiate with the company's representatives.
If this doesn't work, contact your state or territory fair trading agency, like Joanne did with Consumer Protection WA. You can also report the issue to the ACCC, the national consumer regulator.
The ACCC will likely just provide you with information or advice, but your state or territory regulator can help negotiate a resolution between you and the business.
If this isn't successful, your agency may then take further action, including taking the company to court.
But they're less likely to do this if the business is based outside of Australia and is the source of only a few complaints resulting in limited harm.
Joanne's experience a warning to others
Joanne has given up on a gesture of goodwill from Hotelgift, but wants her experience to be a warning to local consumers, considering the company's marketing to Australians.
"Coming up to Christmas, [gift cards are] such a common gift. International companies and purchasing online have become so commonplace that sometimes it's hard to remember that they're not necessarily all covered by the same laws," she says.
Consumer Protection WA, who assisted Joanne with her case, agrees and recommends buying gift cards from companies that are actually based in Australia or have a presence locally, as these are more likely to follow the ACL and its three-year minimum redemption period.
How to know if the business you're buying from is Australia-based
Here are some tips from Consumer Protection WA on how to check if the business you're buying from is based, or has a presence, in Australia:
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