Advice regarding refund after covid ?

[neil1489]

Hello people after a little bit of advice please

Our original holiday (26th March to 16th April) was cancelled on 15th March - after enquiring with the villa owner he refused any refund as we were cancelling less than a month prior but he did offer to amend our dates to next year (2021)

So the holiday is now planned for 18th March to 10th April and as this date gets closer that date is looking very unlikely too.

So I am tempted to ask the villa owner if we can now cancel, and as we are now cancelling our stay more than 2 months in advance of our stay we would be due to a full refund minus deposit (£450) I suspect he will refuse but what do other holidayers / villa owners think?

Personally I think the villa owner is being harsh in refusing any refund so far, yes its as per his terms and conditions but this is an unprecedented event and in refusing ANY refund he is still taking his costs plus profit?

I would be grateful for any advice or thoughts because I don't want to upset him if legally we are not entitled and so any advice with a legal background as opposed to a moral opinion would be grateful, happy to listen to moral opinions though as well

[munmun]

The answer is based in the contract you signed. I believe he moved your booking under goodwill, if you now choose to cancel rather than try to move the booking again or go on your holiday you are not due a refund as your origional conditions state you are apparently not.

You made the choice to move the booking, you could have claimed on your insurance at the time of the origional cancellation you choose not to.

You had a contract, you need to read it. Sorry if this is not what you wanted to read.

[neil1489]

Actually my insurance (like many others) which would have covered under a "natural disaster" did not include a pandemic so my insurance did not cover and my ONLY option rather than lose everything because the villa owner refused ANY refund at all was to move dates.

[Guest]

As per pp. This is a matter of contract rather than statutory law. What did your new contract state when you changed it? Nobody can really give you a steer without knowing what you signed up to.

[neil1489]

He didn't send me a new contract just agreed to amend the dates - don't get me wrong I feel for him I just think this is a extraordinary event and he was mean to refuse any refund at all, if we didn't stay during our original booked dates his costs would be less and he still takes his profit, I would have been more than happy for him to cover his costs and refund us the balance (and I've heard of many holidaymakers who were in the same situation and their villa owners agreed a full refund) but unfortunately not and so I had no option but to move dates, which at the time I was very happy to do but now it looks like next year isnt going to happen either,

[steve@mac155.f]

The only way to find out the answer to your question is to talk to the owner and see if you can come to an agreement that is acceptable to both of you.

Steve