Last update 13th April 2022
The last couple of years have been a roller coaster ride for holiday home owners. The hardships and uncertainties of the first half of 2020 gave rise to an unprecedented summer where we saw record levels of Brits searching for UK holidays. This was swiftly followed by further restrictions and lockdowns and then another great summer for UK holidays during 2021. The continuous changes to travel restrictions and group sizes over the last two years, coupled with the large number of last minute bookings and cancellations has really kept us cottage owners on our toes.
This article may not answer all your questions, but it aims to provide owners with resources to current government advice, guidance and laws. We will also try to offer some practical ideas that may help holiday home owners.
We urge you to keep up to date with the latest tourism advice and government guidance for England, Scotland and Wales.
Current situation as of 13th April 2022
England
On 24th February the UK Government removed all remaining coronavirus restrictions in England. People in England are no longer being asked to work from home, it is not compulsory to wear masks and you are not legally required to self-isolate if you test positive.
Wales
Wales is currently at Alert level 0. It is no longer a legal requirement to provide COVID passes, there are no restrictions on the number of people who can meet and face coverings are only legally required in health and care settings. It should be noted that workplaces and premises open to the public are still required to carry out coronavirus risk assessments.
The Welsh Government is planning to remove all remaining restrictions on 18th April.
Scotland
On 24th February the Scottish Government announced a staged approach to ease all coronavirus restrictions. Vacination certificates are no longer legally required and there are no limits on the number of people or households you can meet or stay overnight with. It is expected that restrictions such as the legal requirement to wear face masks will be lifted on 18th April.
How should I handle bookings and guest cancellations over the next few months?
We are all excited to be able to go on holiday again. However, guests are also likely to have questions surrounding your terms and conditions, and in particular, your Covid related cancellation policies.
If you have not already done so, now is a good time to review your terms and conditions to ensure that they accurately reflect your current policies. Whilst it is important to be flexible and fair, you may decide to include reasonable clauses to prevent guests from cancelling their holiday at any time or for any reason whilst still expecting a full refund. For example, the Law Reform (Frustrated Contracts) Act 1943 makes it clear that owners are legally obliged to refund guests if a contract has been ‘frustrated’, such as due to a lockdown. However, now Covid is a known risk, it is not unreasonable to include clauses that would remove the need to refund guests if they fall ill or need to self-isolate.
There is no one size fits all when it comes to terms and conditions. Whilst flexible policies are more likely to attract more bookings, owners also need to ensure they are financially sustainable. If you are planning on reviewing your terms and conditions we recommend you read PASC’s draft paper which reviews the pros and cons of various cancellation policies. There is a useful section which looks at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) views on the laws and guidance for coronavirus and their impact on holidays and cancellations. In order to ensure your terms and conditions are tenable they must be fair, clearly set out in a contract and this contract must have been bought to the attention of your guests before they make a booking.
As you cannot retrospectively change your terms and conditions, if you are moving a guest’s booking to a new date, it is the perfect time to highlight any recent changes made and ask the guest to agree to your new terms and conditions for their revised dates.
As many insurance policies now include Covid related illness, it is important to advise guests to take out adequate travel insurance at each stage of the booking process. If you have repeatedly highlighted the need to take out travel insurance it will be much easier to apply your terms and conditions in the event of a cancellation. It is also a good idea to collect final payments at least four to six weeks before guests arrive to ensure you have enough time to re-sell the dates in the event of a cancellation.
Whatever your terms and conditions state, it is also worth considering customer satisfaction, consumer advice and customers’ expectations with regard to cancellations and refunds. Even if a booking is not ‘frustrated’, a blanket refusal to cancel a booking can cause bad feelings between guest and owner. For some owners, the potential risks and implications of unhappy guests is not worth the worry, so handling the cancellation professionally in a timely manner may be the best option for all parties. If you are going to agree to a cancellation, you may as well do this as soon as possible to give you the longest window of opportunity to re-sell the holiday if restrictions allow. If it is a booking that has already moved from 2020 or 2021, you may also find it more financially viable to re-sell it at 2022 prices.
COVID-19 cleaning standards
Most holiday home owners have now fully embraced their ‘new normal’ in terms of Covid cleaning protocols. Our blog article Coronavirus: Considerations for reopening your holiday home to guests has some practical advice and considerations to help you.
As holiday home owners, we have a duty of care to ensure we keep our guests, staff and ourselves safe at all times. With Covid-19 on our doorstep, cleaning standards will need to be higher than ever with a focus on procedures and protocols to limit the spread of the virus. In order to ensure we have taken all reasonable measures to manage the risk of coronavirus at our properties it is important to carry out a coronavirus risk assessment.
The PASC (The Professional Association of Self-Caterers) has put together some informative protocols and cleaning standards, including a Risk Assessment template, for the self-catering industry. This is freely (and very kindly) available for all.
Can owners claim on their holiday home insurance for loss of income?
Unfortunately, many holiday home owners have found that despite having insurance for business interruption, insurance companies have refused to pay out. PASC has been lobbying the UK government and helping to coordinate several action groups to ensure that Insurance Providers pay those customers who have paid a premium for a service that they are not receiving. This collective lobbying has made good progress with many Insurance Providers now paying out. If you are still struggling with your insurance claim, we suggest you get in touch with PASC to join the relevant action group.
After extensive lobbying from PASC, some insurers have now agreed not to deduct Government grants from insurance payouts. To date, the list of insurance companies includes Ageas, Allianz, Aviva, Axa, Axa XL, Covea, Direct Line Group, Ecclesiastical, Hiscox, QBE, RSA and Zurich. If you have had your grant deducted by any of these insurance providers we suggest you get in touch with them.
Government grants and loans
The UK, Welsh and Scottish Governments have announced various funds and grants for the hospitality sector since the start of the pandemic. There are currently no grants available for holiday home owners.
Moving forward
The demand for UK self-catering that we saw last summer was unprecedented and we are unlikely to see the same opportunities this year. The combination of the rising cost of living, with the option to go abroad, has meant that many holiday makers are either staying at home, seeking sunnier shores, or waiting until the last minute to make a booking. However, whilst it has been a slower start to the year, we are currently seeing large volumes of people looking for a holiday on our website, therefore showing that there is still a reasonable demand for self-catering holidays in the UK. Here are a few tips to help fill those gaps left in your calendar.
- We highly recommend you use the last minute offers function every time your property has a gap in the calendar. There is no charge for this and you will gain extra exposure in a highly visited part of the Independent Cottages website.
- Ensure your calendar is up to date. Not only will this save guests getting in touch when you do not have availability, but each time you update – or sync – your calendar it pushes your advert up higher in the search results.
- Ensure you have set detailed pricing tariffs. 70% of people we surveyed said they would not bother enquiring if an owner was not showing the cost so prices are really important in the success of your advert. Whilst the guide prices at the top of the advert are helpful, they do not provide enough information. In addition, not only are guests used to seeing this information on an OTA or agency site, but detailed pricing will make your advert stand out more, therefore increasing the likelihood of enquiries.
- Finally, make sure you have a good selection of photos, including both inside and outside your holiday home. You can find some tips on taking good photos here.
If you have comments or relevant experiences please feel free to share them with other holiday home owners below.
Thank you this is some of the best advice I’ve heard for us independent cottage owners. Please share it widely!
Thank you Wendy. Pleased you found it helpful.
Thanks also Sarah, excellent advice from you in these very unusual times.
It will be a bit ‘bumpy’ for most people over the next few months.
Thank you for some very sensible advice. I have been thinking long and hard about what to do about cancellations and your advice fits in with my thoughts so far.
Good luck to all the independent owners through this challenging time.
This is hugely helpful. Any chance of an update following the new government advice (16th March). Be really interested to hear whether hosts generally are staying open for business?
Hi Roz, thank you for your comments. We have just revised the article and added a couple of extra links in there to sites which will hopefully provide more information for owners to carry out research. We will continue to update moving forwards so please revisit our page and we welcome any comments owners can share.
Thank you Sarah. Really helpful as always and perfect timing for me as I have just had a request for a refund from a new customer! Having said that, one of my regulars flatly refused!! How lovely is that! I have assured them I will make it right with them next time!
Thank you again. Stay well and safe.
Thank you Sarah for your very helpful advice. I agree that trying to offer alternative dates is a good option rather than a refund at the moment. At least you are keeping a relationship and hopefully an arrangement which suits both parties. Stay safe everyone.
Thank you very much Sarah and Steve. Very helpful.
Warmest wishes,
Caroline
Thank you so much for your help and advice guys. This is my favourite site and I hope in the future independent sites rise from the awful greedy big ones (no names mentioned)! Sarah and Steve care and it always showsx
Little Larsas Retreat
Matlock
Derbyshire
I have just had a cancellation and my guests were happy to have a credit note towards a holiday to be taken in the future
Thanks Sarah that’s so helpful!
Thank you very much Sarah for your advice which as always is very helpful. It’s also been very interesting reading the replies from other owners.
We have experienced both ends of the spectrum; one of our current guests keeps extending as she prefers to work from the cottage rather than go into the office whilst others are cancelling.
I wish all the best to all holiday cottage owners during these very difficult and unprecedented times. Hopefully we can all weather this storm.
We have emailed all our guests offering full credit to rebook anytime 12 months from the start date of their booked holiday. We have had overwhelming thanks and praise from our guests, either rebooking for next year or saying they will let us know dates as soon as possible. Good luck to you all in these uncertain and emotional times.
Going on holiday is non-essential travel, and if we listen and follow the government guidelines this should be avoided. Most of our bookings have been postponed to a date to be decided when the current situation has improved. We will not accept anybody in our holiday accommodation at the moment.
Handeling dirty laundry is a particularly high risk. The virus can be in the fabric, when you handle it, it puts any cleaning staff at risk. If you take it to the laundry, you put the people there at risk. The person who slept in the bed, might not know they were infected…. There are a lot questions to which there are no clear answers.
We are not willing to take the risk, and will not put any cleaning staff at risk, so therefore we will close as long is needed.
Unfortunately we already know some people who have the virus and hope they will pull through this.
If you value your health, and that of the people around you, make the right decision. Do a risk assessment!
Thank you so much Sarah, such useful information.
Safe safe, and take care. Regards to you both.
This weekend there have been reports in our village of confrontations between locals and tourists, with locals telling the tourists to go home. (There was a large influx of tourists/day-trippers into the village on both Saturday and Sunday.)
It would appear that villagers are fearful that this disease could possibly be brought into the area by tourists.
As holiday home owners we should consider the local community and their concerns with regard to Coronavirus. By allowing our holiday homes to continue operating and accepting tourists could foster fear and anger by locals to both our guests and ourselves.
Because of this we have closed our business down for the next 6 weeks with a view to extending the closure, as and when, events develop.
Something I have come across which I would like to share ‘The virus doesn’t move, people move it. We stop moving, the virus stops moving, the virus dies. It’s that simple’.
Brilliant advice Thanks
I have checked the Government site and it seems that holiday let owners are not covered by either the £10k business grant or the grant for the leisure industry (at least in Scotland) although bed and breakfast places are covered this seems unfair
Hi Gary, may be worth having a read of this: https://www.gov.scot/news/supporting-tourism-through-coronavirus/ and also https://www.mygov.scot/non-domestic-rates-coronavirus/. Hope it is of help.
Thank you for this blog.
With the revised guidance today (27 March) that holiday lets should close, I would be interested in views on:
– obligation to refund clients(including deposit) because our T&Cs only cater for us cancelling rather than external events forcing/ordering closure
– for privately owned holiday lets that qualify for small business rates relief, the confidence that government will compensate.
Many thanks,
Graham
Does anyone have any answer to Graham’s first question? All of our Easter school holiday bookings have been offered and, except for one, have accepted an alternative date in 2021; this one customer thinks it right that they should get a full refund as they do not wish to book another date instead. Yesterday we offered to refund the balance paid, but not the ‘non returnable’ deposit which they think is unfair. What is the legal position? What is the moral decision? Our business profit is our main source of income……so hard for everyone! We can’t access the 80% income that the self employed now can apply for…….
Goodluck to everyone financially, but even more so to keep physically & mentally well.
HI
The grants that are available are only for business that either pay business rates or get rates relief most holiday lets don’t get either so who is going to help us that’s what I want to know ???
Hi Sarah
The Welsh government has since revised its approach to the £10,000 Business Grant that the UK government originally promised to help holiday let business that are on Non Domestic Rates survive this so that Welsh holiday lets are only eligible if they provide 2 years’ accounts, have let 140 nights in 2019/20 and the income from holiday lets is more than 50% of your income. Clearly, this will mean many if not most genuine business owners in Wales will lose out on this grant. I have read that sites such as yours will be contacted by lobbyists to try to garner some momentum to fight this revision in Wales (which does not apply in England) as it is discriminatory and completely at odds with the spirit of the grant.
Please could you let us know if you have had any info on this/can help generate a coherent response for other Welsh owners impacted by this?
Thanks
Hi Sara, I am hoping that other owners may have some further information they can share on this.
I believe a lot of owners will have this problem. There are many people who have another job or pension to support their holiday let. This can mean that there holiday let fails the 50% income despite it meeting all the criteria. Additionally if a business has in the last two accounts period spent money on new large items e.g boiler, windows which according to HMRC should be included as a renewal, then this could also bring profits down below the 50% threshold.
The Welsh Government are using a one size fits all approach. So the people who have invested their savings and have maintained their property to a high standard without over inflating prices are being heavily penalised. Despite their properties bringing tourists and money into the local area.
Realistically proper support would have been given to genuine holiday let businesses if they had just used the first two criteria of the business rates (where the owners also pay for business waste removal) and the number of days let and available. The third condition of the 50% income is largely irrelevant.
Holiday home insurance only covers cancelled bookings , it does not cover loss of potential bookings where people wait until the last minute to book.
Hi Sarah
Do you or any other owners know if there are government advisory guidelines/instructions on how we should be cleaning between guests when(if) we can open on 4th July? We were taking extra steps before we had to close but I was wondering if there’s any official guidance we have to follow.
Thanks
Hi Denise, thank you for raising this. We have just updated our article (see the ‘moving forwards’ section near the bottom) to provide some useful links to the NHS and government guidelines on cleaning. Hope this is helpful.
Thanks for the advise, lots of useful information and its nice to check that what we are doing is along the right lines ,
Being taken to small claims court after being asking for refund , after he was turned down by holiday insurance company !!
Lots of helpful information. It would be great to be able to complete all painting and gardening work on our cottages, however, we live in England and our holiday let is in Wales so are not allowed to travel to it to complete work, due to the Welsh Government travel restrictions. Anyone else having this problem?
I’d also like the guidance on this. We have property managers but in early March had to leave items that now need to be removed in our Cornish flat – including a dismantled bed frame and single mattress under the double bed! It would not fit in the car. We live 300 miles away so can’t go for a day trip. At some point before guests are allowed back, we really want to check on our business and decide which items to remove and any other work we feel needs doing – we don’t want to rely on the property managers, however good they are – and we want to bring the bed home. Do you think that once lettings are allowed, we’d be justified in visiting a week beforehand? Bearing in mind the place will need to be deep cleaned after we’ve been. Surely one essential visit late next month would be OK?
Hi, thanks for posting.
We are in a similar situation with our own cottages and are waiting for restrictions to be lifted to enable us to visit. Until they do, all we can do is ensure our properties are checked regularly and maintained by our housekeeper to ensure we comply with our insurance policy.
I would be grateful to understand why we cannot get to our holiday cottage now. Can we ask for review from the government as a group? I don’t fit into any government schemes and therefore don’t get any help. The NHS is not overwhelmed anywhere now in the uk and I feel we should be able to use our holiday cottage overnight, at least to get maintenance done. We live too far away for the day – it does not make sense that we can be there during the day – just not when we are sleeping at night? I am a detached house in its own grounds which I am paying bills.
I’ve only just stumbled over this blog – glad I did as it’s very helpful. Thanks.
You make a brief comment about insurers, both of owners and of visitors. Re the latter you say “However, … we are hearing of many cases where cancellations due to coronavirus may not be covered.” I bet you have as insurers are quick off the mark to claim that such and such an event is not covered despite the detailed policy wording explicitly covering the situation. For instance, I am reasonably certain that the travel element of theinsurance that is part of my bank’s current account charges does cover cancellation.
Of course it’s much easier for a visitor to claim from an owner than fight an insurance company. And the reputations of all service providers have been tarnished by some airlines who are subject to specific legislation.
My insurance company does cover me for cancellations during a pandemic. And they are not refusing to pay for cancelled bookings existing as at 23rd March. But they say that they will deduct my (modest) claim from the £10,000 grant they assume I have received from the local authority. Nowhere in my policy does it mention a government grant. My sister, in receipt of a £10,000 grant, has been paid in full by her insurance company so it all seems a tad arbitrary. I am wondering if I should approach the financial ombudsman. What do other holiday let owners think?
I have spoken to my insurers today (I4me) who have said the same. They said while my policy covers me for Covid (denial of access) it is based on ‘profit’ so the gov grant would be taken into account. This doesn’t seem fair, as it would then be the insurance company benefiting from the gov grant. I have heard that there are groups trying to contest this but can’t find any more details.
Hi Claire, we are hearing of many owners finding themselves in this position (ourselves included). There is a link on the article (under ‘Can owners claim on their holiday home insurance’ section to the Pasc. They can provide information on action groups.
Hi Clare, In exactly same position as you with same insurer. I’ve refused to accept it and they have passed it to their complaints department, I did ask if the government are aware that they were using the public’s money to net off their liability? and if the grant was paid to cover losses throughout the entire period COVID19 affected the business (not just lockdown as they are treating it) if they could advise exactly when my business will no longer be affected using their magic crystal ball they seem to have, waiting for response…
Hi Phil, if you don’t mind – please keep us all posted and let us know how you get on. Thanks for sharing.
I’m struggling to find any Government guidance for accommodation providers on the following issues:
1/ I have back to back bookings from 4th July onwards. In addition to high levels of cleaning and disinfecting should I be leaving a gap of 24-72 hours between guests to ensure it’s safe? Obviously I can’t disinfect items such as mattresses and sofas.
2/ In the event that a guest develops Covid19 symptoms whilst staying at my holiday cottage, would they have to self isolate there or be allowed to travel home? I am concerned that I would have to cancel other guests while I have guests self isolating at my property for an extra 14 days. Surely I wouldn’t be able to charge them for their extended stay and would be paying the running costs such as gas and electricity. As my property sleeps 10 guests my running costs are quite high. In addition to this I would be providing refunds to cancelled guests and losing income.
Has anyone else found official advice or guidance?
Many thanks.
Nicola
Hi Nicola, there is a Tourism Industry Emergency Response Group who will be sharing practical advice to the self-catering industry (such as self assessments, cleaning protocols, etc), hopefully sometime between the 14th and 18th June. The industry is waiting for confirmation of when we can re-open and measures that will need to be taken to re-open safely.
I live 150 miles from my holiday home. I would ordinarily arrange decorating and a deep clean prior to the first booking. In this case it would need to be before 4th July 2020. The government guidelines are not clear on whether I or my nominated representative can stay overnight at the property while this work is being carried out.
Please could you advise whether the property can be occupied overnight before 4th July by the person carrying out the essential cleaning/ maintenance (it would only be one person).
Many thanks.
Hi Simon, unfortunately we do not have an answer. Once a date for re-opening has been confirmed, we are hoping there will also be some clarity with regard to whether owners can travel to their holiday homes (and stay overnight if they live too far away to commute) on a business basis to carry out essential maintenance work in preparation for opening.
Hi, My cottage is in North Wales and I do not want to reopen it until it is completely safe to do so. However it is marketed by one of the big holiday rental firms who I feel are putting too much pressure on me to offer discounts and schemes to guarantee that the cottage is safe etc etc in order to get bookings as soon as possible. I have made a substantial loss and seem to be unable to get the business grant or any other help. So discounting is not my preferred way to proceed.
My cottage is cleaned and managed by a wonderful person without whom I could not carry on the business. So I would rather leave a week between bookings to ensure that she is safe even when the market gets back to normal. That way she can leave the cottage for three days after the customers have checked out, and similarly it will be free for three days after she has cleaned it.
Does anyone else feel the way and what advice can anyone give me?
Linda
Hi Linda, you are not alone. We have owners who will be leaving gaps between bookings, and others who are looking at measures to handle back to back bookings. Some owners will also remain closed until their personal circumstances allow them to safely welcome guests once again. As an independent owner, it is very much personal choice and circumstantial. Hopefully some of our owners will share their thoughts about how they intend to handle bookings once government restrictions are lifted.
Thank you very much Keith, it’s good to hear from a like minded owner.
And thanks Sarah. It’s nice to know there are others in the same boat and great that you provide the forum for sharing concerns.I’m glad I found you online!
Linda
When we do eventually open for business and for the foreseeable future, we intend to only accept 7 or 14 days bookings (no short breaks). The cottage will then be unoccupied at least 7 days before and after each booking. It will then undergo a full in-depth cleaning process after each change-over. This is to ensure the safety of guests and ourselves by minimising the risk from contracting the virus
Thanks for sharing Keith.
Hi Sarah
I think just taking short breaks is a good idea at the moment but it wont always be possible due to those who have booked a full week already that may be during the early periods of when we allowed to open. If doing this I would ask the cleaners to come on Thursdays rather than Mondays to allow time for the virus to hopefully die.
My main worry is social distancing within the cottages as they sleep up to 16 and due to being hen parties/celebrations will most likely be coming from 16 individual houses all over the country. This could apply to smaller cottages too, with friends or more than one family meeting up. Any suggestions on how this can be managed. I have already deep cleaned and sanitized, with hand santizers in the outside of the cottage to be used before entry, all games, brochures, books etc removed. Every irem has been cleaned.
Hi Pat, we have put the link to PASC on this blog article which provides useful info on cleaning protocols and a template for risk assessments. We believe, to the best of our knowledge, that there are currently no government guidelines in terms of how many guests you can accept and whether multi-households can stay at a property. More information may become available on 18/6.
SISS – I have been refused the Self Employment Support from HMRC stating that income from “Furnished Holiday Lets” does not qualify as Self Employment. I have raised this with my MP without success. Has any one else had this problem?
We are a holiday let owner, we have very vulnerable family members. How do we stand if we do not feel comfortable opening? Our holiday letting agent is trying to charge us thousands of pounds for bookings we do not feel safe in taking. Despite the fact we have been trying to cancel them for ages but the agents phone lines have been closed and all emails have gone unanswered! We just don’t feel safe opening and have to look after ourselves and our vulnerable family members.
Hi Max, it is a very hard situation and I do feel for you. I guess you will need to somehow communicate with your agency to work out the best way forward.
Hi all
Regarding insurance companies offsetting the government £10k grant against any claim, has there been any developments on this ( topic above in Pat, Claire and Phil comments) ? Very interested to know what’s happening and haven’t been able to find out any action groups. Thanks
Hi All,
Moving forward now into 2021, I am wondering what others are offering in terms of refunds for cancellations this year. I have spent hours and hours trawling through various sites and trying to come up with the best decision but it seems there are lots of variations. I would be interested to know others’ thoughts.
This is where I have got to so far. For goodwill, since last March we have offered full refunds for any reason. We were continuing that up to March 2021, but I am now deciding to extend it to the end of April in the hope that the vaccine will have Covid under control by then.
However, from there on, in line with the Competitions and Markets Authority ruling, I obviously intend to continue to give refunds only if government legislation on lockdowns or tier 3 and upwards say we can’t open or guests can’t travel from their areas
Other than that I propose refunds and cancellations are only in line with my normal, pre-Covid, Ts and Cs. Any cancellation due to illness etc even if it is Covid would be for the guest to claim on their hopefully robust Holiday Insurance Policies. I think Sarah touched on this in another part of this site. I feel that there has to come a point where we are not the ones having to carry the can, and guests must not be allowed to expect full refunds as a new normal.
This is without touching on the thorny topic of retaining an admin/booking fee. This year I moved into accepting card payments and accepting the fact that there is a charge to me for that. However, as we are not allowed to make a separate named % charge to customers for that, I guess we are not allowed to deduct it from a refund either. I guess what the big boys charge booking fees for is largely to cover card charges. I have tweaked my prices for this year to allow for it.
It is just all so frustrating, isn’t it?
Hi Melanie,
Fully sympathize with your comments of 4th Jan ’21 however I am not so sure about your saying you are not allowed to charge extra (as a detailed additional payment) for card fees. Whilst I know that always was the case under “credit/debit card law”, I have a feeling the law has changed so yo can now add on a fee …maybe you would be able to check up on this and it may help moving forward.
Hi Keith, it is in fact the other way around. Up until 2018 you could charge an additional fee for processing payments by card but this is now unlawful and you can no longer do this. More information can be found here.
Thank you
I came to this site trying to find an answer to the question raised by Melanie on 4th January
I fully accept that we have to (CMA Guidance) offer full refunds if Government Restrictions prevent customers taking their holiday. What is not clear what we should do in terms of refund if a guest cancels at short notice because they have Covid or because they or a member of their family is self isolating. My instinct is to agree with Melanie “Any cancellation due to illness etc even if it is Covid would be for the guest to claim on their hopefully robust Holiday Insurance Policies”
What do others think
Hi Tim, the PASC have provided lots of very useful information and assistance to holiday home owners throughout this time of Covid and this document on cancellation policies provides lots of information to help owners decide how best to manage cancellations, terms and conditions etc moving forwards.
Always sound and comprehensive advice. Many thanks Steve & Sarah. Worth every penny of our subscription.
Many thanks Christine. Pleased we can help.
I am like many others I am sure, looking for guidance on how to legally go to my holiday let to prepare for my first guests since October 2020, arriving on 12th April ? The local county council haven’t a clue and just say it”s a police matter re travelling or not in a lockdown ! Very helpful, not. Any ideas ?
Hi Tim, we have been awaiting clarification and have just updated our blog this morning with more information so do take a read.
Very much appreciated. Thank you for this excellent article. Keep posting!