My heart bleeds for them

[junipersjuice]

The bbc are reporting that a family booked a Skiing chalet costing £17'000 and are now expecting the small family run firm to give them a refund. They don't have insurance for cancellation. The company are still open for business as far as the chalets are concerned because the area where the chalet is hasn't forced them to close which is needed for them to be able to cancel.

Surely you'd have the gumption to take out insurance if you are spending 17k on your holiday accommodation? We've had to cancel our holidays and one wouldn't give us a refund but we are insured so it's not an issue.

They probably did have insurance. The majority of the insurance companies are not paying out for a pandemic - it's in the fine print.

Airlines will refund flights if cancelled due to it, but that's it.

one family £17k is a lot, booking for 20 is £820 per head.... still a lot of money, but not 17k worth of outrage

The firm has therefore asked its guests to claim on their insurance and to follow the Foreign & Commonwealth Office's (FCO) guidelines advising against non-essential travel, to avoid insurance claims being invalidated.

if they dont have insurance, then i dont have sympathy

Who rents a place at 17000 and doesn’t get insurance? An idiot that’s who

17 grand?, bloody hell! I wish my SIL could get the 600 quid owed that his family desperatly need from the family run resturant he worked at !

I feel sorry for everyone that is losing money because of Covid - not sure why my sympathy would run out or 'my heart bleed' because its an expensive holiday for lots of people?
Honestly by posting this you sound like if something loses something that is unaffordable to you then you have no sympathy for them... which I find mean spirited.

They may have insurance but it might not pay out because technically the hotel is open. What the hell doe this bit mean to the insurance claim though? My brain isn't working this morning....

"As a result, Chalet Chardons has had to ask its guests to cancel their holidays because the company was advised that it would be in breach of its agreements with customers if it cancelled the holidays itself."

I would imagine a ‘small family business’ charging £17k for a weeks accommodation is able to offer refund.

What a horrible sentiment.

Lots of people are very out of pocket because of this pandemic, including both holidaymakers and holiday providers (holiday companies, hotel owners, Air BnB, caravan and camping sites...)
Many are not covered by their insurance, even if they have it.
People may have saved all year for a holiday that they’re now losing; a small hotel owner is now losing their livelihood. It’s sad and unfortunate for everyone affected. How horrible to gloat.

I’m so pleased I hadn’t anything booked this year.

They are being nasty expecting a small family run business to take the financial rap for them not having insurance

They should have had insurance - this makes me very angry. It's like those people who don't take out medial insurance to save 20 quid, and then expect everyone to crowdfund them when they get pissed and fall off a balcony onto a hard floor.

The family firm can't claim from their insurance if they haven't been ordered to close. It's up to holiday makers to make sure that they are covered for eventualities.

If the guests cancelled their holidays 'by choice' under instruction from the holiday company, this again would probably mean that the guests' travel insurance wouldn't pay out.

@SchadenfreudePersonified the BBC article doesn't say that the guests didn't have travel insurance. That's coming from the op.

Lots of people took out travel insurance which is now not paying out because pandemics aren't covered and hotels are still open.

Actually the booking was a family holiday for 20 people, so £850 per person
Yeah but writing it like that wouldn’t be nearly as goady would it? Actually having read the article, the family and their friends would happily accept a re-booking or even a partial refund, but the ‘small family business’ won’t even offer that. They’re being dicks. The family group booked the flights separate to accommodation, flights are cancelled so that’s ok but unless the chalet is cancelled they can’t claim on insurance. Chalet company refuse to cancel because then they’d have to refund and they state ‘they don’t want to be out of pocket’. The family are being reasonable. The chalet owners aren’t.

@koshkatt

If they don't then it serves them right

Bingo! I think that this is exactly the response that the OP was angling for.

Do read what I actually said. I said it served the holiday company right for not having insurance, not those who booked it.

The chalet is being cheeky not refunding at least part of it. If they had been more honest then perhaps this party may have rebooked next time.

thank you @SorrelBlackbeak that's how I read it but it was a bit round a bout. So the story is either;

a) group of 20 loose £17k because they didn't take out holiday insurance and holiday company won't refund as they are still open

or

b) group of 20 not covered by their holiday insurance as holiday company won't officially cancel their holiday as hotel is still open despite group not being able to travel to France

???

If they cannot use the service then the company should refund - surely the company has insurance to cover it.

Nope.

If the service is closed and unavailable, then yes. But it isn't. This is why people need to take out travel insurance.

The insurers are not paying out - insurance is a bit of a con and they are past masters at avoiding any pay outs!

However if the chalet is still open then it will be a matter of the contact terms and it would be worth paying a solicitor for an hour of time to analyse it -I have done quite a few similar jobs this week (for business clients not consumers).

I have a package for 11 of us for end of June and neither I have cancelled yet nor the holiday company so let us see what happens on that but I have not paid the final balance just £2200 deposit which seems the wisest thing to do so far _ deposit paid in early Jan.

People are always lambasted on here for not booking travel insurance, not sure why this is any different?

@IndecentFeminist because it doesn't say they've not got insurance in that article.

Whoever it "serves right" this epidemic is damaging to many people in many ways.

I question the value of starting a thread to point fingers and gloat which serves what purpose exactly?

small family run firm

Chardons? Not according to their website, they aren't.

yes, they should have insurance

but YABU because your OP is just being a nasty dig at someone you thought could afford a more expensive holiday than you can.

If they can afford to spend £17,000 on a holiday and not bother to take out insurance, then presumably they can afford to lose the money.

They are twits imo - especially since it was for a skiing holiday, where accidents can happen.

If anyone bothers to read it, it was a holiday booked for a group of friends for 20 people. But don't let facts get in The way.

YABU because your OP is just being a nasty dig at someone you thought could afford a more expensive holiday than you can.

Please do explain how you know what my cancelled holiday was going to cost? If 20 people had been going it would have been over 17k, thankfully it was only 5 of us.