Deposit, cancellation policy advice etc?

[goldpendant]

Hello there

Been so long since we booked a villa for a holiday that I can't remember what is normal cancellation policy and what might have been implemented since Covid.

Looking to book a large villa for next summer (2022). Many cancellation policies seem to basically be non refundable after booking, or 50% refundable up to 60 days before the stay.

Is this usual?

Does anyone happen to know if travel insurance would cover the stay if Covid meant it couldn't go ahead (we have ongoing annual insurance).

TIA

No direct advice, but I'd strongly recommend a package rather than separate elements at the moment.

I would read the small print of the policy and any amendments.

Last year our holiday couldn't go ahead due to pandemic and insurance wouldn't pay out anything even though we had booked pre covid and supposidly covered for it. It was as FCO were saying you could go to countries even though countries were not allowing you in. Even when you could claim there was an excess per person per category and you had to try and reclaim directly first. Was completely useless to us though school's insurance policy paid out for cancelled school trip deposit when FCO banned travel to Italy.

The issue is there are many different scenarios possible like one person gets covid, one has close contact isolation, local lockdown here, local lockdown there, entry ban there, entry ban here, quarantined over there, over here, etc.