Lay My Hat

Just sending our Spanish guests, who were due to arrive for Easter, a cancellation e-mail, sadly. As we know Spain is on lockdown for 2 weeks so they will not be allowed to travel and can see this continuing past 2 weeks. With France having shut restaurants/bars etc and tourist sites closing there would be nowhere for them to eat or to visit. Plus there is the health risk to ourselves. I am offering to refund their deposit or hold it for another time later in the season (if there is any more season by the time this nightmare has ended). It is a difficult time for people who are probably having their income reduced considerably (just like us) so perhaps they could benefit from having deposits refunded at this unusual time.

I had this answer from Pour-les-Vacances who I advertise with, when asked what if our clients use the excuse "force majeure" to demand a refund of their "arrhes" and cancellation of their reservation:

"Cette mention de “force majeure” ne sera acceptable que pour un séjour prévu pendant les dates d’un confinement éventuel."

So until the French government imposes forced confinement they can't use that reason for demanding the repayment of their "arrhes" which is all I'm worried about.

Macron will speak tonight and may bring in forced confinement!

Obviously the speech by Macron has upped the game now.

Does anyone know if we are actually allowed to be open as a B&B or holiday lets? We have a floor of the house for guests and dont actually even need to greet them - although we usually do!!

Maybe we should just close totally and tell the tourist office which would at least avoid us from having to do more of their "dratted" taxe de sejour returns each month!

What are you all doing? Is there a consensus?

VT

vacancesthezan wrote:Obviously the speech by Macron has upped the game now.

Does anyone know if we are actually allowed to be open as a B&B or holiday lets? We have a floor of the house for guests and dont actually even need to greet them - although we usually do!!

Maybe we should just close totally and tell the tourist office which would at least avoid us from having to do more of their "dratted" taxe de sejour returns each month!

What are you all doing? Is there a consensus?

VT

I think now we must return all monies that have been paid for the period of forced confinement, then maybe the government will pay us back.

Bassman wrote:

vacancesthezan wrote:Obviously the speech by Macron has upped the game now.

Does anyone know if we are actually allowed to be open as a B&B or holiday lets? We have a floor of the house for guests and dont actually even need to greet them - although we usually do!!

Maybe we should just close totally and tell the tourist office which would at least avoid us from having to do more of their "dratted" taxe de sejour returns each month!

What are you all doing? Is there a consensus?

VT

I think now we must return all monies that have been paid for the period of forced confinement, then maybe the government will pay us back.

Breath not being held on that one Bassman

Good luck and bon courage a tous!!

VT

The situation is fluid at the moment this is how im going to approach it in the next few weeks.
The guests cancel but might be aloud to travel: I will advise them not to cancel and say they can pay the balance later, if i get an enquiry for those date i will inform them and then they must decide to pay the balance or cancel. They maybe entitle to compensation from insurance if the situation changes and they cant travel.
Guest cant travel due to restriction: we must both wait to see if/how either of us can claim on our/their insurance or whether we/they receive govt compensation.
If they dont have insurance then it is not my problem.

We have had two cancellations for April. The first appears to have insurance and we have supplied the required documentation.
The second has said he will take legal action against us for not returning his deposit, presumably he doesn't have insurance but hasn't answered the question.

Edouard Philippe announced today that all tourism businesses/services will be allowed to offer a postponement of cancelled holidays during the Coronavirus crisis which would be valid for up to18 months instead of having to refund guests who cancel. I don't have the official texte but it is mentioned here:
https://www.lechotouristique.com/articl ... les-avoirs

la vache! wrote:Edouard Philippe announced today that all tourism businesses/services will be allowed to offer a postponement of cancelled holidays during the Coronavirus crisis which would be valid for up to18 months instead of having to refund guests who cancel. I don't have the official texte but it is mentioned here:
https://www.lechotouristique.com/articl ... les-avoirs

My wife spoke today with the UNPI and yes that is pretty much the case, we can offer guest another date in the next 18 months but if they dont accept eventually we must return all monies. They also said the situation is fluid!!

Are the government giving you any support in light of them ordering a refund??

(Sorry, I don’t trust my rusty French to try and understand your link).

zebedee wrote:Are the government giving you any support in light of them ordering a refund??

(Sorry, I don’t trust my rusty French to try and understand your link).

Its fluid maybe yes maybe no, more chance if you are classed as professional i think (not us), there is also insurance for lose of earning that depends on the classification of the emergency!

I sincerely hope there is something for you.
Best wishes, and stay safe.

Bassman wrote:

zebedee wrote:Are the government giving you any support in light of them ordering a refund??

(Sorry, I don’t trust my rusty French to try and understand your link).

Its fluid maybe yes maybe no, more chance if you are classed as professional i think (not us), there is also insurance for lose of earning that depends on the classification of the emergency!

We are possibly in the same boat as you Bassman, do you have a link to the classification and insurance for loss of earnings from the authorities as there are a lot of anecdotal comments without any base on the net. Thanks

bornintheuk wrote:

Bassman wrote:

zebedee wrote:Are the government giving you any support in light of them ordering a refund??

(Sorry, I don’t trust my rusty French to try and understand your link).

Its fluid maybe yes maybe no, more chance if you are classed as professional i think (not us), there is also insurance for lose of earning that depends on the classification of the emergency!

We are possibly in the same boat as you Bassman, do you have a link to the classification and insurance for loss of earnings from the authorities as there are a lot of anecdotal comments without any base on the net. Thanks

We have an insurance for lose of earning, the last time we spoke to them they said for the moment we wasnt cover for this event, but that may change. We will call again today to see if anything has change! The only other information i get is from the UNPI and there is no news for the moment regarding compensation from the government for people in our situation (non professional) for now.

I posted about a fund that has been set up by the government to help TPE s. No one has replied with any more information. - maybe there isn't any yet.

VT