Mr *** ***
Following the Covid virus outbreak Booking.com ignores the fact that clients who have travel insurance in place could claim from their insurance themselves in the first instance. Failure to include a clause that can protect Partners at no loss to the client, leaves the Partner with an unnecessary loss of rental income. Further, it raises the possibility of future bookings being cancelled without the Partner being able to cancel such booking without loss, simply as Booking.Com would want their commission. Only at the last moment is the booking then cancelled.
On our own website we advise clients that it is a condition of booking that they have in place travel insurance, which is a general condition with private renters and travel companies in the UK and elsewhere in the world. The first port of call for any claim should be with the travellers (client) insurance company and not simply Booking.Com crediting a client regardless. What Booking.Com is effectively doing is saving Insurance companies money from any claim at the expense of Partners.
It would be helpful if Booking.Com could simply state it is a condition of booking that the client has travel insurance when booking a property, which is also in their own interest to do so. If Booking.Com want to be over protective then they could even go further to say that should a bona fide claim be refused by the insurance provider on the grounds of Force Majoure then Booking.Com will ensure protection and seek to obtain a credit for you from the private advertiser. This really ought to be Booking.Com's own insurance cover though and not always the loss to Partners.
Clients only need to prove they had an insurance in place at time of booking and proof that the insurance rejected their claim.
This is simple to do and serves to protect Partners.
I do understand the crisis in the travel industry and what Booking.Com is effectively doing is killing PARTNERS off before the insurance has had a chance to compensate clients. This is grossly unreasonable and unfair to Partners.
If all our bookings came via Booking.Com, it would be at a great loss.
I therefore urge Booking.Com to urgently change the existing policy small print and put into the T&C for private property owners a clause that protects Partners as described above.
Spot on!! I honestly do not understand why they are not simply referring guests to the hosts cancellation policy and if non refundable then advise them to go through their travel insurance. £100 booking is not a lot for individual guests to claim through insurance but these £100’s that we are “expected” (or have already been authorised on our behalf) all add up for us when you are getting inundated with cancellations and will ultimately put some out of business! Why should we be the ones to foot the bill!! I’m exasperated!
Sorry but this is now incorrect.
Not all travel insurance honor payout when an act of god occurs.
In fact many have a specific section to cover themselves so they dont have to payout.
We've had 2 clients able to claim from their travel insurance successfully, one of whom is with Aviva.
I read this on the FCA website at https://www.fca.org.uk/firms/insurance-and-coronavirus-our-expectations
Extract;
Travel insurance
There is currently a lot of consumer demand alongside fast-moving changes to risk, especially in the travel insurance market. Firms must ensure that they continue to treat their customers fairly during the whole product cycle of purchase, claim and renewal.
For existing customers with policies that are impacted by coronavirus (eg, future travel booked before the outbreak), we expect firms to clearly communicate any policy exclusions that result from coronavirus to their existing customers.
There will be some instances where a consumer bought annual travel insurance to cover the risk of cancellation or curtailment and are relying on a policy renewal to cover travel arrangements made before the coronavirus situation escalated. In these circumstances, the terms of the current policy may allow for a pay-out when the event causing the cancellation or curtailment occurs.
If the claim arises after the renewal date, we would expect insurers to treat customers fairly, taking individual circumstances into account. This includes where the policyholder was given a reasonable expectation that cover would continue. Where appropriate, renew or consider claims under the terms of the original policy for these travel arrangements.
There may well be input from government should insurance firms act unfairly or renege on policy commitments.