Insurance against holiday cancellation because of COVID?

[WobblyLondoner]

Am going on holiday in the UK in a few weeks and was wondering whether any insurance policies would pay out if we had to cancel either because one of developed symptoms or if our home or the destination area was locked down.

Have been scouting around and wondering whether anyone else had done the same? It isn't that clear from an initial look.

I don’t think there are any unfortunately but would be interested to discover otherwise.
Have you checked the provider’s covid terms? Many companies would offer a credit note or change of booking in the event of a local lockdown, but nothing if you were ill or needed to self isolate (although in those circumstances I think demand is so high you would probably be able to resell anyway)

Have a look at Trailfinders - someone told me earlier this week they are the only company covering Coronavirus-related cancellations.

Thanks. The major costs are just an Airbnb property rental (no refund if cancellation within 7 days of trip start) and car hire. It's not a huge amount I'd rather not lose it!

@Ohdeariedear thanks, will take a look.

From Trailfinders:

^What about if there is a local lockdown, like Leicester?
There is no cancellation cover for a local lockdown or any other ‘general’ lockdown. The quarantine cover is valid for the specified insured person and persons, plus close dependants, not if a whole region is told to self-isolate^

I would be very surprised if any such product exists.

insurance can function if the insurance company can calculate the odds of something happening accurately enough, and then sell enough of the policies to a wide range of people, such that the premiums of the lucky people who don't need to make a claim pay for the pay-outs to the unlucky ones.

its entirely possible that there could be a second lockdown if the current relaxations prove to be a mistake, and the data doesn't exist to estimate your probabilities of needing to cancel, so I think the risk is probably all yours.

I suspect that over the summer there will a a flurry of sadface press articles about people in your position who ended up losing large amounts of money, and gradually the various provider companies will find they can't secure any bookings unless they change their Ts&Cs to allow customers to make last-minute changes in the event of covid-related disruption. certainly the provider of the uk break I have booked says that the break can be rescheduled to another point in the next 18 months if we end up being unable to go due to covid.

Useful tip from @Ohdeariedear - Trailfinders do explicitly cover cancellation if you or a travelling companion develop COVID or have symptoms and have to isolate. The unsurprising downside is that it it's expensive - £58 for a week's cover for a UK trip (this seems to be a standard cover rate for Europe trips).

Jet set offer a policy from Rush insurance that do this.
It’s available on their holidays but also as a stand alone policy
Jet set is a franchise I think but there should be someone local to you or it might be available nationally if you Google it. I promise I don’t work for them