Blue Waters Hotel - Not willing to refund after cancellation

During January 2019, our 9-year-old son wanted us to go to the Monster Jam show at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban. We decided to look for nice accommodation on the Marine Parade in Durban, as this was logistically close to the stadium. We googled different hotels and decided to go for the Blue Waters Hotel, after looking at the Hotel's website and room configuration we made an on-line booking, as mentioned on their website. Immediate payment was also made on the specific site for 2 rooms, one family suite, and 1 one-bedroom room, with my husband’s credit card in the amount of R17 744.00 - or that's what we thought we paid. Shortly after we received a booking confirmation from 'reservations@bluewatershotel' We also booked and paid for the Monster Jam tickets on Computicket's website. The following day we were invited by friends to stay with them, and clicked on the link on booking conformation to cancel booking. We were aware that a 10% admin fee on cancellation would be retained - which we accepted. We waited for 10 days and the money still wasn't paid back, upon investigation we also realised that they deducted a higher amount (R19 521.95) then what the original booking invoice showed. I then got in contact with the duty manager. After several emails between us and sending them proof of the money that was deducted, they then told us to contact a company called "Air B and B" - I explained numerous times that we booked on-line on their website and that I wasn't going to phone Air B & B which was in San Francesco USA, as I never booked through an agent but directly on their website. My husband is a lawyer, so we decided to place them on terms with a letter of demand, from his practise. They did not respond. We then issued a summons against the Blue Waters Hotel, initially the manager at the Blue Waters Hotel contacted my husband’s partner at the firm, in an attempt to settle the matter but received no further correspondence from them. The summons was defended by their lawyers which in principal means that they are denying liability to reimburse. In effect this means that we must engage in expensive litigation in the Durban jurisdiction area. We are now considering not proceeding with the matter, but felt that it would be in the interest of fellow South Africans to share this unfortunate experience which cost us R20 000.00 without receiving any value therefor. We hope and trust that you might find this worth investigating.