Many people are experiencing cancelled or changed holiday plans during the Covid-19 outbreak. In the next blog by our commercial litigation department, we discuss package holidays and the effect coronavirus may have on your plans.
What is a package holiday?
Package holiday providers are bound by the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangement Regulations 2018. These Regulations set out the criteria for what makes a holiday booking a package. Usually, when you book a holiday through an agent, the holiday will include flights and accommodation for one price and would fall under these Regulations and be classed as a package trip. However, there are other things to consider when figuring out if the holiday you are purchasing or offering is a package.
The Regulations are lengthy but there are a few criteria which your holiday must fulfil to be deemed a package. A package holiday must cover a period of 24 hours or involve overnight accommodation and is a combination of two or more travel services. Travel services may be:
- Transport
- Accommodation
- Car rental
- A “tourist service” which could be a tour guide, a trip to a historic attraction, or a ski or snowboard instructions, where this service forms a significant part of the holiday through value or because it is essential to the trip.
If your travel company offers two or more of the above and has asked you to:
- Pay in a single payment or “one price”;
- Select a combination of services before you entered into a contract to pay for them (ie, your flight and hotel);
Or they have:
- Advertised the trip or holiday as a “package” or used similar language to describe the deal;
- Sold you a travel service, transferred your details and payment details to another company which you then booked another travel service with, all within 24 hours;
Your holiday is a package and the provider is subject to these Regulations.
The Foreign and Commonwealth office have advised against all but non-essential travel indefinitely due to unprecedented international border closures. So, what happens to your package holiday? Are you entitled to a refund?
As things stand, your travel agent or holiday provider should be willing to either rearrange, offer a travel voucher, or refund the cost of your holiday which is unable to take place because of the travel restrictions. This is a completely unprecedented situation and the guidance on this is changing daily. It may be that the Government issue some instruction to package holiday providers about this in due course. At the time of writing, ABTA are encouraging the government to relax certain aspects of the Regulations, in particular, the clause which states that refunds must be given within 14 days.
You should contact your holiday provider without delay to find out if your holiday is affected and to provide them with any details they may need to issue a refund or credit note. It may be that your travel insurance policy will pay out in these circumstances, and you should also contact them to find out what your policy covers. It is understandable that in these circumstances, especially as many offices will be shut, the wait times for a response could be lengthy, so the earlier you can put things in place, the better.
Insight from Scott Milne, Dispute Resolution & Claims Solicitor. For more information contact Scott or any member of the Dispute Resolution & Claims team on 03330 430350.
