Cancelled/postponed trips due to COVID - please share your outcomes

[outofofficebrb]

My wife runs her own small guest house. We too have a cancellation policy. Can hardly blame customers for not coming when within a few days of their proposed travel Taiwan bans all foreigners from entering. We refunded all customers 100% withing 24 hours of them requesting a refund. Actually as soon as we knew the entry ban was coming we notified our foreign customers so some did not need to pay and others could get a refund. We use LINE pay as that is popular here in Taiwan and Japan.

If if business cannot keep enough funds to keep themselves afloat for a few months then to me sounds like that they are catering only to a small market. We had our guest house full on the weekend with local tourists who are regular customers.

Something to consider and compare are the fixed and variable costs that a guest house has vs a resort or liveaboard. You are better off comparing a guesthouse to a resort than a liveaboard, I suppose. Other things to consider, as an example....In Indonesia, you are not likely to run into anyone from Indonesia staying on a liveaboard or at a resort. Given the entry restrictions and lack of flights, the likelihood that anyone is coming at all would be slim to none. It is a pretty specific type of activity and activity-based accommodation. A guesthouse in Taiwan, by comparison, casts a wider net over a customer base. Anyone needing accommodation would potentially want to stay there, foreign or domestic..Unless your country or region is lockdown, you may still have business from Taiwanese citizens or folks that just need a place to stay vs needing a place to stay for a dive specific location and purpose that pretty much only attracts foreigners on a regular basis. You might still be garnering some income in that time period whereas some of the resorts and liveaboards are not and may have a complete cessation of services. Sitting at port might cost them more money in port fees...A guesthouse that is 100% full or 100% empty will still cost your wife the same amount in rent if she does not own the property that the guesthouse runs in.

I understand what you are saying re: your cash flow and not operating your business beyond means and the ability to refund - that concept, I agree with. Your wife's guesthouse has a set amount of fixed costs - the building has to be there and be paid for if it is rented, the lights will still be on, the staff will be there anyway. The same may not be true especially for a liveaboard - if the boat is not going to sail, they are not utilizing that gas or needing to purchase that food, etc. I suppose that is even more of a reason to offer a reschedule or a refund but I am firmly under the camp that if a refund was never part of the picture in good times, it shouldn't be now...so I am pushing for reschedules if anything. So while it boils down to cash flow and leveraging that in a sensible way, the actual economics and execution of the business is quite different.

 

[Blackcrusader]

So while it boils down to cash flow and leveraging that in a sensible way, the actual economics and execution of the business is quite different.

Yes all those things you wrote are true. We were renting the property but eventually bought it and have no mortgage to cover now.
Taiwan is not in lock down other wise we would not have local guests but even then we are only taking regular returning customers.
Some resorts in Philippines I know of only catered to customers from a single country, like China or Korea. They are the hardest hit.
Their business model too niche market to a single group of customers.

We are in the mountains and as we are licensed ( there are many non licensed operators up here ) we also get the government listings and business from schools and universities in Taiwan as they do bring students for studies or sports events. We also have hiking groups as well as families that want to get away from the city. Japanese love coming to Taiwan and they are important customers for us. As many elderly people in Taiwan were educated in Japanese my wife's mom comes in handy for the Japanese who do not speak any English. We do in fact have one Japanese chap that runs his own guest house in Japan who comes here to chill out.

Buying the property meant we could actually lower operating costs which is the best thing any business can do. It also gave us long term security.

I believe many resorts will need to diversify and perhaps lower costs to get business to return. There are many very wealthy local people in the domestic markets a lot of people have ignored. It has taken us a long time to be in our position but I see other companies operating for decades that suddenly can't offer refunds and the excuse is.... we spent your money already....

 

[hsinhai]

.

 

[hroark2112]

InnerSpace 2020 at Grand Cayman has been rescheduled to October. Hopefully I can reschedule my flight.

 

[Centrals]

Resort only caters for one national because it is operated by the same national. Yes, plenty of this in Philippines and they are mostly mainland chinese or Korean.


Instead of full refund because of cancellation of flights, Air Asia is asking affected customers to open an account at Big Member and have the fund transfer to its Credit Account for future booking(valid for 365 days). They want to keep your money!

 

[Dan]

Just talked to my travel agent, Tim Yeo of Bluewater Dive Travel that Blueotwo.com is canceling all trips up to end of June and asking customers to reschedule theirs to later time. My May 25th trip on French Polynesia Master is now moved to October 12th. I’ll move my United flight & hotel stay in Papeete accordingly.

Update:
United waived $300 change fee. Also the October flight fare is $222 cheaper. So they'll send me $222 vaucher towards future trip.

 

[delacrue96]

My parents, both over 65, living in California, attempted to cancel United Airline tickets for Hawaii trip, 26-30 Mar 2020 due to CDC travel restrictions and California Gov. Newsom's shelter in place executive order. Request was denied even though they explained that they wouldn't be able to travel prior to the ticket expiration date. What to do next?

 

[Dan]

My parents, both over 65, living in California, attempted to cancel United Airline tickets for Hawaii trip, 26-30 Mar 2020 due to CDC travel restrictions and California Gov. Newsom's shelter in place executive order. Request was denied even though they explained that they wouldn't be able to travel prior to the ticket expiration date. What to do next?

Contact United for further instructions. Text to 62616 (United text messenger) and answer the questions. You will get the following guidelines/info:
“You have successfully been subscribed to messages from United Airlines. Reply HELP for help. Reply STOP to unsubscribe. Msg&Data Rates May Apply.
Hi, I’m United’s automated cancellation assistant. I know things are changing daily, so I’m here to help you understand United’s policies and process your cancellation request.
How can I help you? Please type the letters 'A', 'B', or 'C' to select:
A) I want to learn more about cancelling my trip
B) I want to cancel my trip
C) I want to know more about traveling with United“

You reply: “A”

United:
“Ok. What would you like to know? Please type the letters 'A', 'B', or 'C'
A) How can I cancel my trip?
B) How can I change my trip?
C) I want to learn about cancellation fees and refunds”

You reply: “C”

United:
“Here are some questions I can answer about fees and refunds. Please type 'A', 'B', 'C', or 'D' to select.
A) Is there a fee if I change or cancel my trip?
B) How can I use the value of my cancelled ticket?
C) Can I get a refund?
D) How do I request a refund?“

You reply: “A”

United:
“Did you buy your ticket using money or miles?
A) Money
B) Miles”

You reply: “A”

United:
“If you purchased a refundable ticket, you will receive a full refund, less applicable cancellation fees, to the original form of payment.
If you cancel a non-refundable ticket purchased using money, you can retain the value of your ticket, in the form of a travel credit, to be applied to a new ticket in the future.
There will be no change fee when you re-book and apply this travel credit, if your are scheduled to travel on or before May 31, 2020 or if you purchased your ticket between March 3, 2020 and March 31, 2020 regardless of travel date.
If you have additional questions and are in the United States, please give us a call at 1-800-UNITED1.“

If your ticket purchase meet the guidelines, then call United to get the refund. You’ll be put on hold for a few minutes, just hang in there. They’ll get to you.

 

[BDSC]

I just read an article where several Senators are pressing the airlines to offer refunds instead of credits or at the very least make the credit have no expiration dates for future travel. I think no expiration date would be fair.

 

[outofofficebrb]

The one liveaboard op that has been dragging their feet for weeks on my group has finally decided to do something but I am still not thrilled with it, granted it is better than just holding onto our money and refusing a reschedule at all...We weren't even asking for a refund. They wanted to wait until this was all over before they would agree to anything.

I am still refraining from saying who it is until this is finalized, or they have decided they aren't budging further. This is their first offer and our sailing was originally for April 1, 2020.

Long story short, we received a group discount for a half charter. A variety of reasons prevented us from going, whether it was the Indonesian government banning travelers from a particular country, a lockdown in our own countries, or the apex of this being the marine park we were due to sail in was closed and the liveaboard could no longer sail. They have finally agreed to a reschedule, but are only offering 80% of the original cost of the trip which has been paid in full by all of us. Long story short, net all the math of our group discounts and the prices of this year's sailing vs next year's, we would have to pay an additional $775 to get back onto the same trip next year if we decide to take this offer. The same trip next year is shorter by a day so is a couple hundred bucks cheaper. I don't even want the difference. Just reschedule us. I'm not happy about it because we would obviously like a straight reschedule but I acknowledge it is better than what other liveaboards I have been reading about through PM are offering. I have been trying to be as objective as possible in responding to everyone else's posts, but obviously, I have a lot of bias and subjectivity for my own situation so I would love your fresh eyes on this.

To help soften the blow, our agent is offering $200 off for each of us on a future trip booked with him.

Here is what the liveaboard is saying as justification for this. I would love to hear your gut reactions and feedback as objectively as possible. I will hold off on further reactions from me....(Thank you!)

------------

"We made this decision after a long and careful consideration over the past few weeks for the following reason:
As recalled here above free of charge reschedules for all the cancellations is not financially feasible for our company.
How could we possibly ignore the huge cost for us to reschedule about 1/4 of our yearly customers? Not only we expect to have our boats empty for a period of at least months but we’ll have ¼ of our trips filled with non-paying customers in 2021.
Given the fact that we still need to go through all our fixed costs as salaries, marketing, boat maintenance, yearly mandatory dry docking, fuel, just waiting that the situation ends , we will certainly suffer huge losses and eventually have to shut down our business. if the bookings do not resume in the incoming months.
I’d like to emphasize especially about our crew: we have to keep paying their salary since unemployment benefits do not exist in Indonesia. They would be left with zero financial support if we don’t do so. Also, establishing an effective crew on liveaboard take years and they are, after all, the heart of our service.
We are sorry to have to involve our customers in this financial difficulty, however, we won't be able to maintain the standards of safety and service aboard our boats in any other way.
I hope I have clearly explained why we are not able to give any refund or free reschedule and I hope that the guests will find our proposition fair and acceptable.
Many thanks in advance for your understanding,

Best regards,.
XXXXXXXXXX
Managing Director

The terms and conditions of this offer is as follows:
1. non-refundable and can not be redeemed for cash.
2. can not be transferred to other parties/guests.
3. valid for one-time booking only.
4. apply to cruises until 15 September 2021.
5. once made, bookings using this voucher can not be rescheduled further unless cancelled by the operator
6. bookings are subject to availability.
7. this voucher doesn't constitute a debt.
8. this voucher is valid as long as the company is financially able to honor it."