The Times - UK (2020-07-31)

the times | Friday July 31 2020 2GM 11

NewsNews

Staycation families lose out as

cottage owners cancel bookings

David Byers Assistant Money Editor

Case study

Z

oe and Andy

Myerson,

from

Finchley,

north

London, paid £1,

to stay with their two

children in a

beachside apartment

in Torquay, Devon,

and received their

booking confirmation

on July 19, including

the full address and

details of key

collection (David

Byers writes). Last

Tuesday they received

an email from

cottages.com saying

that it was cancelling

the trip with no

explanation.

They were unable

to get through on the

phone but, after The

Times intervened,

they received a call

from the company.

Mrs Myerson said:

“They said that the

owner had wanted to

use it for himself for

that week. The person

on the phone

described it as being

double-booked.”

The company is

now trying to arrange

an alternative holiday.

The website

Trustpilot was flooded

with scathing reviews

after cottages.com

issued its last-minute

cancellations.

One, by a user

called Lesley, said that

she had booked to

travel on August 8

and had received a

cancellation notice

this week: “I was told

the cottage has been

double-booked. Looks

like I could be waiting

for 30 days for my

refund. I’ve booked

dozens of cottages

through this company

over the years without

problem but this has

left such a bitter taste

in my mouth I won’t

use them again.”

Anne Crawford,

who was due to travel

on the same date,

wrote: “One star is

too many.”

The Myersons’s trip was cancelled by Cottages.com

WWW.ANDYSCAYSBROOK.COM

Survivors say that their

hearing has got worse

About one in eight people who were

treated for Covid-19 at

Wythenshawe Hospital in

Manchester said that their hearing

had deteriorated. A letter in the

International Journal of Audiology

says that of 121 people questioned

eight said that their hearing was

worse and eight said they had a

tinnitus-type noise in their ear.

Researchers said that it could be

related to Covid-19 or medication or

simply the stress of the illness, and

that more study was needed.

Virus flew across globe

from Italy, China and Iran

In most of the 99 countries where

Covid-19 appeared before the

pandemic was declared on March 11,

the first case was someone who had

recently been to Italy (27 per cent),

China (22 per cent) or Iran (11 per

cent), a study in The Lancet

Infectious Diseases suggests. The

research, by the US Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention,

also highlighted clusters in “faith-

based settings”.

British tourists in Spain were sent texts

and emails telling them to return early

just as the government extended quar-

antine restrictions to Luxembourg.

It emerged yesterday that holidays in

the Balearic and Canary islands had

been cut short by up to a week because

of concerns over the cost of operating

flights. Jet2, Britain’s second-biggest

tour operator, said customers had until

Monday, August 3, to catch a flight, sug-

gesting that those who did not do so

faced having to come home at their own

expense.

The move was made after the gov-

ernment changed its travel advice to

warn against non-essential trips to the

Spanish islands, bringing it into line

with guidance issued for the mainland

on Saturday. Quarantine measures

have been imposed on everyone enter-

ing the UK from Spain.

The Foreign Office said that those

already abroad should remain as nor-

mal and finish their holidays.

However, Jet2 said it could not con-

tinue operating “empty outbound

flights” to the islands to repatriate cus-

tomers. Tourists received emails and

text messages saying that their pre-

ernment announced changes to travel

advice to other countries. The Depart-

ment for Transport has announced that

people returning to England from Lux-

embourg must quarantine for two

weeks from today. Scotland announced

the same measures yesterday.

It is also expected to confirm rising

concerns over countries including Bel-

gium, which has recorded 31.8 Covid-

arranged return flight was no longer an

option and they would have to take an

alternative in the next four days, the

BBC reported.

One Jet2 customer said on Twitter:

“Why are you flying holidaymakers

back a week early? We flew when the

government said it was safe to... Our

hotel know nothing about this.”

The confusion emerged as the gov-

Holidaymakers who rented properties

for staycations have had their plans

ruined as the owners cancel their own

overseas trips.

Families who had paid thousands of

pounds for accommodation on Cotta-

ges.com, a rental platform that has

18,000 properties, have complained

after receiving emails telling them that

the flats and houses they had reserved

were suddenly unavailable.

The holidaymakers had mostly paid

the full balance of their trip and had

already received email confirmations

with details of check-in times and con-

tact details for the owners. Most had

been due to check in within days. They

are now being offered credit notes or

refunds but are being warned it may

take 30 days to get their money back.

A spokesman for Cottages.com said:

“Some [proprietors] are choosing to use

the property themselves as they are un-

able to travel abroad for their summer

holiday.”

Amid suspicion that some reserva-

tions were being gazumped by people

who offered more over the past two

weeks, the spokesman said: “Preference

is never given on the basis of cost/

potential income.” However, he said the

owner had “the final say” over which

booking was taken, in the event of a

clash.

Last Saturday the government an-

nounced that 600,000 British tourists

returning from Spain would have to

quarantine for two weeks. This led hun-

dreds of thousands of people to cancel

future trips to other European destina-

tions, fearing that the measures might

be extended.

Cottages.com admitted that some

trips were also being cancelled by the

platform because of technical errors

caused by “unprecedented” demand on

its website, which meant some listings

were double-booked. Meanwhile, some

elderly owners who had originally in-

tended to go away had lost confidence

and decided to stay.

The website is owned by Awaze,

which is the parent company of Hosea-

sons and several European holiday

companies. The company said this

week that UK bookings were 223 per

cent higher over the past four weeks

compared with the same period of last

year, while call volumes in July were ten

times as great.

In June the company agreed to give

customers refunds for trips cancelled as

a result of the pandemic after the Com-

petition and Markets Authority inter-

vened. It had previously only offered

credit notes or transfers.

A spokesman for Cottages.com said:

“Occasionally owners book weeks

themselves, which we weren’t aware of.

Some are concerned about Covid-

and have decided to leave 72-hour gaps

between guests arriving; some are

elderly and have recently taken the de-

cision to shield and not take bookings;

while recently some are now choosing

to use the property themselves as they

are unable to travel abroad for their

summer holiday. On top of this there

are, of course, occasional system issues.

“This year we have seen more book-

ings than ever. Of course, while any

double bookings are of course regretta-

ble we will do all we can to rebook them

journalist Emma Pittard, will go on show at Dorset County Hospital in October or issue a prompt full cash refund.”

Holidaymakers called back a week early

cases per 100,000 people in the past two

weeks — almost three times the rate in

Britain. The Czech Republic, Croatia

and Malta have rates almost twice as

high as the UK.

The government changed its travel

advice for Spain after a huge rise in

cases in the country. Latest figures

show it had 50.7 cases per 100,000 in the

past 14 days — four times Britain’s 12.4.

Jet2 suspended all holidays on the

Spanish mainland until August 16, and

on the islands until August 9.

It said in a statement: “We appreciate

that some of our customers were due to

stay on holiday for longer than this and

we apologise for any inconvenience.

“It is important to note that we are re-

sponding to a very fast-moving situa-

tion with updates coming from the gov-

ernment with little or no notice.”

An investigation by the Civil Avia-

tion Authority has revealed widespread

flouting of consumer law on passenger

refunds after aircraft were grounded by

the pandemic. A review of 18 airlines

found that some had refused to provide

cash refunds, forcing passengers to ac-

cept a voucher. In many cases carriers

promised passengers their money back

but had such a backlog that they missed

the seven-day deadline for payouts.

Graeme Paton Transport Correspondent

Travel agent to

close 166 shops

Tui is to close almost a third of its

high-street shops in the UK and

Ireland. The tour operator said that

166 shops would shut in response to

the pandemic and a rapid migration

to online bookings.

About 70 per cent of the 900

affected jobs will go to a new

“home-working sales and service

team”, while some staff will be

relocated. However, as many as 250

jobs may be lost. The company

announced in May that it planned

to cut 8,000 jobs globally to reduce

overheads by 30 per cent.

Demand for holidays abroad has

collapsed, with hotels forced to shut

and countries closing borders. Flight

bookings fell by 99 per cent in the

UK at the height of the lockdown.

Tui restarted its overseas holidays

on July 11 but was badly hit by the

government’s decision to advise

against non-essential travel to Spain

and to quarantine all arrivals from

there. It has had to cancel Spanish

holidays for at least two weeks.

British Airways, EasyJet, Jet2 and

Virgin Atlantic have all announced

sweeping job losses.

Graeme Paton, Dominic Walsh