A friend of ours booked on the French side for December with a substantial deposit. The place wont be open and is saying they cant provide a refund yet as they cant access funds in their bank.

Just wondering if that is the case for many others who have had to cancel their near-term plans.

I would think the banks should start to have electricity and be open by now.

Yeah, to me, I think by now, a month after the hurricanes, that banks definitely should be operational by now.

Some will, some won't, but I wouldn't count on anything. And it's not so much a matter of banks being open. It could be an insurance matter which takes time, or they are just going to walk away from the whole mess, the money just ain't there, or any number of reasons. Just don't count on it.

For the French side I understand that the Government has blocked business bank accounts, I do not know why. For the Dutch side there might be limitation too as it is not possible to withdraw more than 500 usd from personal accounts and $2000 or $3000 for businesse accounts.

Interesting, wonder what the reasoning is for blccking accounts? Or even the reason for limiting the withdrawals of money?

Seems it would be more difficult to rebuild/repair with those kinds of limits.

I saw in the DH there was a limit on withdrawals of CASH at one point, which sort of makes sense, but I thought that limit had been lifted.

well the banking system works on about 20% real money and 80% virtual money and giving the fact that there is not much hard currency circulating right now banks would be yemptied in a few days and unable to function properly.

Right, now THAT makes sense, but that is not at ALL the same thing as refunding a deposit to someone in the States. That would never be in CASH anyway.

Good question. We have two deposits - Club Fantastico & Club Orient. We would accept a credit on a future visit, but would prefer a refund. Chloe sent out an email that Club F plans to reopen in Dec., when we can't go. Club O will take considerably longer. We've been in contact, but no definite answers yet.

We have a bank on the French side: Caisse d'Epargne. We just did a transfer from our US bank to our French bank. It appears as if everything went through, although I have not received a bank statement from the French side bank yet.

I think its also a issue of if the hotels credit card machines are functioning to issue refunds not really if the bank is. I know in good times it takes a long time to get those sorts of things back online and the bank to replace or come fix or reprogram. Lets face it, some properties just won't have the money to refund and even more so if they are not going to reopen. Some did not have insurance , some did not have enough and then the issuance companies will not pay out quickly and want to under pay or deny parts of the claim. A lot of infrastructure has been badly damaged too and your dealing with a lot of work and in some cases low productivity. Island time can work for you and against you. A month or more may seem like a long time to wait but in many cases they are still digging out.

Bear in mind the accounting system that the organization has; they may have lost computers on which they keep the books. It may really take time to determine who paid a deposit and to figure out how to get those funds back to you.

I paid in full for three weeks at the Horny Toad. The owners and managers were off island when Irma hit and were unable to get back on the island. They have promised that when they are able to get back on the island and access the office (which appears to still be standing), they will refund my money. The transaction was by check, and I do have an electronic copy of the receipt they emailed to me. I believe them but doubt I'll be seeing a check for several more weeks.

I had no problems and I have received a refund from The Westin for the vacation that was to start on October 2nd. The check came from the group that is the owner or operator of that hotel.