I reserved a hotel room in Spain a few months ago for July next year.

The hotel is part of a small chain. The guy at the central reservations desk called the hotel to get the rates from them directly before confirming the reservation. I gave my credit card details, agreed to pay for 5 nights (even though I wanted 4 - it was their minimum) and I received an email with the rate and dates which includes wording assuring me that my reservation is guaranteed – as well as ‘gracias por confiar en nosotros’ – which loosely means ‘thank you for trusting us’ or better; 'thank you for putting your faith in us'.

However, I’ve just received another email from the same guy from the central reservation desk saying that the hotel will only accept bookings that include meals. The new rates are over twice those in my ‘guaranteed’ reservation. The hotel is close to a popular music festival and they obviously want to capitalise on this – it’s certainly why I’m going.

My question is, as the email I received in August clearly states the lower rate (which is around 110Euros per night for a double room) and says my reservation is guaranteed, does this email form some kind of a contract I can hold the hotel to? Or do they have the right to change their prices?