Started a new job a week ago and employer may refuse my pre-booked holidays

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I started a new job a week ago and, before accepting the position, I made my employer aware that I had **two holidays already booked**.

They acknowledged this at the time, so I believed the dates had been noted and that there wouldn’t be an issue.

After the rota was released, I noticed my upcoming holiday had not been taken into account, so I reminded them again that I had a holiday booked.

I was then told that I should have filled out a holiday request form. This was never explained to me during my onboarding, and I wasn’t aware I needed to complete a form for holidays that were already booked and disclosed before I joined.

They are now saying they **won’t approve the holidays because the form wasn’t submitted**.

I was also made aware that holiday forms have to be submitted **two weeks in advance**, which would have been impossible in this situation as I had only just started the job and had already disclosed the holiday before joining.

I completely understand that companies have procedures to follow, and I would have happily completed the form if I had been told. However, I’m frustrated that I may lose two pre-booked holidays because of a process I was never made aware of, especially when I was transparent about these dates from the beginning.

Has anyone experienced this in the UK? Where do I stand if my employer knew about my holidays before I started but didn’t explain the process or tell me I needed to submit a request?