The ash cloud over Europe
This week the airports have been in full chaos all over Europe. As flights are canceled, tourists are stuck all over the world unable to arrive home, forced to extend their holidays. As this situation is considered 'force major' most of the airlines are not returning the money of the tickets, let alone providing the clients with a hotel to stay during their wait of sometimes days. The extension of the holidays is not necessarily a welcomed thing: it exhausts the finances of those who are suddenly paying extra hotel-nights and causes worry about things left undone at home. There are talks about forced holidays for airline employees if the situation does not improve.
The situation is as frustrating for the would-be tourists who have booked their holidays a long time in advance ready to go for the much-needed holidays and now not knowing if they will go later or at all. The situation is also bad at this end when tourists cancel their reservations at the last moment. It complicates not only the hotels but also those who cater for them: cleaning and laundry services, restaurants ..... It is a force major for everyone.
At Casa do Valle our normal cancellation policy is as follows: we return the deposit in full if cancellation is made at least two weeks prior to the scheduled check-in date. As the European airports are closed, and people are canceling their reservations from one day to the next, we have adopted the following policy for this specific situation: we will not refund the deposit paid by the clients, but we will consider that money during one year for them. This means that if you paid a 50 euro deposit, those 50 euros are yours to spend at Casa do Valle during the next year. Hopefully people are able to reschedule their holidays within that time. OR if they know someone else coming here, they can reallocate those 50 euros to them OR if their travel-insurance does cover force majors, we will be happy to send an official document to the insurance company of the deposit paid so as to recover the deposit.
In the meanwhile, we are announcing a special to try to recover some of our losses as well for the next week: Reservations made this week (17-24/4) for at least two nights this week have 20% off the room price! So instead of 140 euros for two nights, you pay only 110 euros!
The situation is as frustrating for the would-be tourists who have booked their holidays a long time in advance ready to go for the much-needed holidays and now not knowing if they will go later or at all. The situation is also bad at this end when tourists cancel their reservations at the last moment. It complicates not only the hotels but also those who cater for them: cleaning and laundry services, restaurants ..... It is a force major for everyone.
At Casa do Valle our normal cancellation policy is as follows: we return the deposit in full if cancellation is made at least two weeks prior to the scheduled check-in date. As the European airports are closed, and people are canceling their reservations from one day to the next, we have adopted the following policy for this specific situation: we will not refund the deposit paid by the clients, but we will consider that money during one year for them. This means that if you paid a 50 euro deposit, those 50 euros are yours to spend at Casa do Valle during the next year. Hopefully people are able to reschedule their holidays within that time. OR if they know someone else coming here, they can reallocate those 50 euros to them OR if their travel-insurance does cover force majors, we will be happy to send an official document to the insurance company of the deposit paid so as to recover the deposit.
In the meanwhile, we are announcing a special to try to recover some of our losses as well for the next week: Reservations made this week (17-24/4) for at least two nights this week have 20% off the room price! So instead of 140 euros for two nights, you pay only 110 euros!
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