The email falls like a hair on the soup while the confinement has just been extended. "Prepare your trip to Lisbon with our practical advice!" Wrote TripAdvisor on Sunday March 29 to Simon, who, for his spring break from April 5 to 12, rented an apartment to a private individual in the Portuguese capital. Because this Parisian must obviously give it up. An alert message still opens the email: "Covid-19: To help you make informed decisions about your travels, go to this page for important resources and tools, or join the conversation in our traveler forums. "
But the rest leaves one wondering: these are good plans to discover Lisbon around housing. Immediately Simon writes to the booking platform: she accepts without objection the full refund of the de facto rental canceled. On its site is even indicated to "disregard ordinary cancellation conditions".
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"Booking platforms such as TripAdvisor or Expedia, which are not registered in the register of travel and stay operators, are 'market places': they do not depend on the tourism code and will reimburse the services according to their own policy. They are not covered by ordinance 2020-315 published on March 25, which sets up a device derogating from the tourism law protecting both professionals and travelers ", says Maître Emmanuelle Llop of the law firm Équinoxe, specialized in tourism, air and leisure law, and expert for professionals.
All departures until May 15 postponed
This Friday, April 3 at 11 a.m., Emmanuelle Llop will host a webinar organized by Auvergne Rhône-Alpes tourisme to answer questions from travel agents, tour operators, hoteliers, campsites, tourist accommodation & accommodation, receptives, parks and other tourist sites. , on the new regulatory provisions relating to the conditions of cancellation of stay.
On the eve of the spring break which begins on Saturday April 4 with zone C (academies of Créteil, Montpellier, Paris, Toulouse, Versailles), there is a good chance that the questions will be numerous. Especially since French tour operators announced Tuesday the postponement of all departures scheduled until May 15 inclusive, against late March so far, due to the coronavirus. This decision is motivated by "the health situation" linked to the Covid-19 pandemic and the "inevitable and exceptional circumstances which impose travel restrictions", said in a press release the Seto (union of tour operators).
About 350,000 customers of tour operators are concerned for the month of April. In the frequently asked questions that confined holidaymakers ask themselves, Le Figaro has submitted some to Maître Emmanuelle Llop.
LE FIGARO - Can we get a deposit refunded for a stay in April?
Emmanuelle Llop Équinoxe law firm
EMMANUELLE LLOP - No. All trips purchased between March 1 and September 15, which may be affected by the Covid-19, can be canceled by both the traveler and the professional, in the light of the health emergency law n ° 290 and of ordinance n ° 315 of March 25. If he considers himself to be rich enough, the professional can reimburse the deposit paid. But he can choose the option of offering his client a credit corresponding to the amount of the sum paid, deposit or entire trip. And this proposal cannot be refused by the traveler.
However, this credit has a limited duration of 18 months. When does this deadline begin? Will the traveler be able to be reimbursed if he still wishes to do so?
The traveler will indeed have to wait 18 months, if a new contract has not been concluded, to be reimbursed. And then it should be. But if a professional has gone to great lengths to make a new proposal without an increase in price, I think that many will not refuse.
The risk of sinking a business is to get neither reimbursement nor travel.
Emmanuelle LlopThis order, which aims to protect tourism professionals from bankruptcy as they are faced with a volume of cancellations of unrivaled magnitude, may also be an opportunity for consumers. Because the risk of sinking a business is to get neither reimbursement nor travel.
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The professional must act quickly to inform his client of the credit he benefits from, with the details and the proposal for a replacement trip. He must do this by email or by post. This information obligation must be done within 30 days of the publication of the March 25 order, that is, until April 25. And the new proposal, valid for 18 months, must be sent within three months of the termination of the original contract.
The order does not cover the departure dates, but rather the date of termination of contracts already concluded, between March 1 and September 15. We have set September 15 as a plausible deadline beyond which we can no longer cancel a departure due to coronavirus. But it can evolve. There is no agenda for the epidemic.
Can I get a refund from a hotel or car rental company?
Ordinance No. 315 also applies to so-called "dry services", such as hotel reservations or car rentals. You can therefore be reimbursed for cancellations between March 1 and September 15, but not immediately: at the end of the validity of 18 months of the voucher that will have been offered to you, if you have not used it . But this only concerns France. There is a lot of work currently being done by the agencies to negotiate a harmonization of hotel rules in Europe.
However, this credit does not apply to transportation services ...
In fact, SNCF has its own reimbursement policy. And dry flights are not included in the order. The airlines were unable to obtain a waiver.
If the ticket was purchased online, in theory, the passenger should be reimbursed or offered a flight as soon as possible. Except that the planes are grounded. European companies give “vouchers” according to the goodwill of each. It is up to consumer associations to act to obtain the reimbursements actually due.
The situation becomes complicated when the ticket was purchased from a travel agency accredited by the International Air Transport Association (Iata). Because the agencies claim that they cannot reimburse customers until they are themselves reimbursed by Iata. They sent a hundred letters to this association which brings together 290 airlines around the world, denouncing in particular the failure to reimburse non-stolen plane tickets. But Iata does not answer them ...