How to manage your holiday bookings made before the arrival of the Coronavirus?
Unfortunately we are in an emergency situation for Covid 19 and we need to know how to handle the reservations made before the arrival of the total blockade of our beautiful country.
Booking, one of the most used portals for vacation and business travel reservations, explains the aspects of canceling reservations due to coronavirus by calling them “Force Majeure”. By visiting the dedicated page you can see all the updates of the portal’s policies in real time. Reading the latest update as of March 15, 2020 Booking advises hosts to refund any amounts already paid and undertakes not to apply the relevant commission to them.
So if you have booked a hotel, a holiday home, a hotel or an accommodation on Booking with dates up to April 3, just click on the cancellation item of the booking indicating in the reasons the cause Force Majeure.
The same thing is for the Airbnb portal, which specializes in special accommodations around the world; unlike Booking, Airbnb covers and refunds bookings until 1st of April. While for reservations on Wimdu I have not found any information.
Ryanair has made available on the official website the notice of cancellation of Ryanair flights to covid19 and the possibility to be refunded or to make a new reservation free of charge. By entering your personal area you can manage your booking and choose the most suitable and desired option: you can then cancel for free and receive a refund or book a new low cost trip.
Trenitalia and Italo (two train italian companies) have ordered the refund of tickets for reservations made before February 23rd; the refund will be equivalent to the issue of a voucher of the same amount valid for one calendar year.
In general, all you need to do is contact the facility or organisation that has scheduled your booking and managed your trips. As a general rule, you must ask for a refund of the amount or the possibility to move the reservation to a date to be allocated in case of national emergency. If you know other sites that have arranged certain refunds share it with me, so I can integrate it in the article. Thank you
