Many travellers are currently wondering whether they can… Greece-Be able to travel.
But in which cases will you get your money back if the holiday cannot take place?
Travelers traveling on packages may be concerned about forest fires
If you have booked your trip with a travel provider, you can cancel free of charge if you are unable to travel due to exceptional circumstances. This means that you have the right to withdraw if,
according to ADACthere is a probability of at least 25% that there is danger to life and limb.
What seems clear is actually more complicated. In order to get your money back, some conditions must be met:
- Natural disasters, such as forest fires, must be within reach. In concrete terms, this means that you have the right to cancel your trip free of charge if a fire breaks out near your hotel. Mere heat or increased risk of forest fires is not enough.
- The events must be temporally related to the trip. Many circumstances that affect the booked trip cannot be assessed in advance. If you therefore want to cancel your holiday weeks before the start of your holiday because of the risk of forest fires, you will probably have to bear the costs yourself.
- If the Foreign Office issues a travel warning shortly before the start of the trip, package holiday travellers can cancel free of charge. This is considered to be an exceptional circumstance.
If you are not sure whether your trip will go smoothly, we recommend that you contact the travel provider as soon as possible. It is important that it is not the personal feelings of the holidaymakers that are decisive, but rather the specific situation at the place where they are staying.
To get a better understanding of the situation, the Rhineland-Palatinate consumer advice center recommends following the reports of the Foreign Office and also reading the local media in the holiday destination.
Individual travellers are less likely to be entitled to a refund
If you booked a hotel, vacation rental, or Airbnb yourself, different rules apply.
You are only entitled to a refund if the accommodation is not accessible or if the owner cannot provide the services.
This is the case, for example, if the holiday apartment or hotel is damaged by fire or even has to be evacuated. Even if the airspace is closed or entry is prevented, a refund is possible.
Airbnb’s clause makes cancellations more difficult for self-bookers
When in doubt, as an individual traveler you depend on the goodwill of the owner.
This is especially true if an exceptional circumstance occurs, but the accommodation is accessible and habitable without health risks.
Airbnb also underlines this in its Cancellation Policy stresses that free cancellations are only possible in the event that events “are not foreseeable at the time of booking and prevent or legally impede the execution of the booked stay”.
They also note that refunds are not possible if weather and natural events occur so frequently that they are foreseeable in that location. When in doubt, Airbnb hosts may want to refer to this clause if they want to cancel due to the risk of forest fires in southern European countries.
In any case, we recommend that you check the general conditions of the respective provider and that you familiarize yourself with the cancellation conditions.
The law of the country of holiday applies
Travelers should note that local law applies when booking accommodation directly with a local owner. For example, if you book a holiday apartment with a Greek family, Greece’s legal cancellation conditions apply. Inform yourself about the legal regulations in advance.
Even though a warning has been issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, individual travellers cannot cancel automatically and free of charge.
Fires in other Mediterranean countries too: holidaymakers’ card
To inform you in advance about the current situation at your holiday destination, the European The Commission provides an interactive map where you can view current forest fires. The map can be found here.