Over the past few weeks the Coronavirus (or COVID-19) has dominated the media, following its spread throughout the world. Since Haute Retreats wants to protect the travel investment of their clients they decided to have an article about the current situations and changes for some of the major destinations. This article will be updated as soon as Haute Retreats receives new policies.
BARBADOS:
As of now, there are not any documented cases in Barbados, travel advisories, or bans in place specifically against travel to Barbados.
A policy has been discussed and confirmed yesterday. The policy is to considered temporary but will affect both existing and new bookings:
In all cases, the alternatives provided below can only be exercised within 28 days of your stay since the situation is changing so rapidly. This means flexibility will be permitted commencing 28 days prior to arrival up to and including the day of arrival. Any changes made more than 28 days prior to arrival will subject to the Cancelation Policy in place at the time of original booking for existing bookings, or Standard Cancelation Policies in respect of new bookings taken from today onwards.
SITUATION 1: BARBADOS OR GUEST COUNTRY OF ORIGIN IS CONSIDERED HIGH RISK AND HAS BARRIER TO ARRIVAL
Where at least one of the following conditions exist pertaining to the guests’ origin of travel:
1. The Barbados government refuses passengers entry based on their origin (whether by residence, recent travel to a particular destination, or based on flight origin)
2. A Foreign government issues a specific travel ban to or from Barbados that prevents a guest from traveling
3. A Level 3 CDC Warning or Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO) Advisory against Barbados must exist
Guests will be given the below alternatives:
a. Permit full credit towards a future booking to be used within 12 months of their original travel dates in the same house subject to availability.
b. If the customer cannot or does not take option (a), the booking will be canceled and deposit will be refunded in full less a processing fee equal to 2.5% of the booking value
What this means for a guest: What this means for a guest: They can book with confidence that if the situation in Barbados changes and they are unable to come that they can a) have flexibility to change dates and enjoy their holiday at a later time without losing any money b) they are able to get almost a full refund if they can’t come at a future time.
SITUATION 2: NO SIGNIFICANT RISK TO BARBADOS SPECIFICALLY
In a case where none of the 3 conditions are met as in Scenario 1, but the guest wishes to cancel due to general concern for the risk of travel:
1. Guests to be given one of the following alternatives with respect to changes to their booking or cancelation:
a. the guest may rebook with full credit towards future stay in the same house within 12 months with any cancelation penalties waived.
b. If the customer cannot or does not take option (a), the booking will be canceled and the Standard Cancelation Policy will apply.
2. In all cases guests will be given 30 days notice of the removal of the relaxed cancelation policy once the situation in the world in respect of COVID-19 improves during which time they will have 30 days to make changes to their booking without penalty before booking terms will revert to Standard Cancelation Policies.
What this means for a guest: You have the flexibility to change dates with no penalty as long as you still come at some point in the next 12 months.
The above policy is our standard policy, however, we have some owners who may have approved some minor adjustments to the above policy. For this reason we request that you reach out to us directly to confirm that this will apply to your specific guest request prior to confirming agreement with the guest.
Extension of Stay or Early Dearture
Under the circumstances we also would like to confirm that in a case where a guest is required to shorten their stay after already arriving, the unused days may also be carried as credit towards a future stay for 12 months.
For those guests who arrive in Barbados and wish to extend their stay, we are happy to offer a 15% discount on the additional nights, subject to availability.
Finally, where guests are stranded in Barbados due to restrictions beyond their control, a distressed rate of 50% of the published rate would apply for up to one additional week, subject to availability.
Health & Safety
Providing safe and clean environments for our guests is a top priority. The staff working at our selection of villas in Barbados are undergoing training as we write to you to ensure that protocols issued by the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) and local authorities in respect of cleaning for virus prevention are being followed in our homes particularly between bookings. Comprehensive COVID-19 guidance is in place globally detailing how to best protect against transmission of the virus and we have included this in our protocols for cleaning procedures including frequent cleaning of high-touch areas.
MYKONOS (a selection of villas Haute Retreats offers)
Any new reservations (as today March 16th 2020) guests will have the option to cancel/modify their booking till May 15th without cancellation fee.
IBIZA & MALLORCA (all the villas Haute Retreats offers)
As of today (Monday 16th March) we are now able to offer the following preferential terms, allowing both you and your guests to book villas in Ibiza and Mallorca with full peace of mind.
25% refundable deposit rather than 50% non-refundable deposit
75% balance due 30 days prior to check-in rather than 50% 60 days prior to check-in
Postpone booking until later in 2020 or 2021 without penalties Offered as an alternative to refunds
Flexible check-in days and shorter stays available (please send us an email to reservations@hauteretreats.com for more information)
ITALY
Haute Retreats offers a case by case cancellation policy and option to save your future travels since things are changing so quickly.
ST. MARTIN
As of today, March 12th, the US State Department issued a Level 3 Travel Advisory asking US citizens to reconsider travel abroad. Other countries will no doubt follow the US issuing similar instructions to their citizens soon enough. With this in mind we have asked our owners to allow guests scheduled to arrive between today and April 15th to be able to postpone their travel plans through April 15th, 2021 in light of these recent updates. The postponed dates would have to follow these conditions:
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Any new dates must be approved by the homeowner and must be rebooked within the next 2 weeks;
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Not available for Festive dates unless Festive requirements are met or between Feb 13 and 20th, 2021;
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No partial refunds will be considered if the guests decide to postpone their dates to travel in low season;
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Any owner discount which may have been applied on the reservation will not be available for new dates;
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7 nights minimum will be required within the high season 2021
We have also been discussing temporary updates to our cancellation policies with our owners and we will be sharing with you the list of owners who will be participating with the below request we’ve made. It is not certain all owners will participate but we will do our best to get most of them onboard for these flexible temporary terms.
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For existing reservations booked prior to March 12, 2020 for an arrival before September 15, 2020, guests that have not paid their final balance by March 12th will now have their cancellation date moved to 14 days prior to arrival with no refund of their original deposit if cancelled 14 days prior to arrival. Final Balances will still be charged following the original cancellation terms (60 days prior) but the cancellation policy is being moved to 14 days. If a guest cancels within 14 days of arrival, the reservation is non-refundable unless force majeure conditions apply* (please email to info@hauteretreats.com for more details)
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For new reservations we will update cancellation terms to offer a refundable 14-day cancellation policy for new reservations booked beginning March 12th, 2020 for an arrival before September 15, 2020. Final Balances will still be charged following the original cancellation terms (60 days prior) but the cancellation policy is being moved to 14 days with the possibility to receive a full refund. If a guest cancels within 14 days of arrival, the reservation is non-refundable unless force majeure conditions apply*(please email to info@hauteretreats.com for more details)
Please check back for more updates and please don’t hesitate to contact Haute Retreats
info@hauteretreats.com
or call 1-877 ME VILLA (toll free from USA and Canada)
cell phone 24/7 + 39 333 206 5514