Press statement in response to recent coverage
Covid-19 is an ever-changing, complex and challenging situation for everyone across the travel industry. We understand the impact the global pandemic has had upon the holiday and travel plans of many of our customers and we are working very hard to provide them with the best possible outcomes under the circumstances.
The lifting of lockdown across Europe is being managed on a country by country basis and, in some cases, such as Spain, on a regional basis. In addition to this countries are moving at different rates on easing restrictions and this is adding complexity to the situation.
Where a holiday could not be fulfilled because the destination country was in lockdown, customers were entitled to a refund and we have already made full refunds to thousands of flight inclusive package holiday and villa-only customers. However, due to local lifting of restrictions in certain destinations it meant that those non ATOL protected villa-only customers were unfortunately no longer eligible for a refund.
Initially we set about actively helping those customers affected to claim back monies through their travel insurance, however it became apparent that this was more challenging to achieve than expected. We also learned that a significant number of our customers had not taken out appropriate travel insurance. It was never our intention for any of our customers to be left out of pocket and as a result of this we are providing a full refund to those Villa Plus villa only customers who believe that a refund is the best option for them.
“Nicholas Cooper and Rajesh Mavani, Company Directors at Villa Plus” said, “Whilst throughout all of this we complied with our booking conditions, we came to understand that some villa only customers would suffer financial loss which was clearly very disappointing for them. We are sorry for the upset that they experienced and are determined to help them. Offering a full refund to those customers seems to us the right thing to do.
“The majority of our customers have been happy with our response to a testing set of circumstances, however we understand there have been some frustrations that at times we have been unable to respond as quickly and as clearly as we might have done. We have acted to improve the speed and clarity of our communications and we are working around the clock to try and get back to customers as fast as possible. Where concerns remain we are working with our customers on a case by case basis to resolve them. In the meantime we continue to encourage customers to visit our website that has all the latest updates on our Travel News section.”