Cancellation / Refund Policies?

Just curious how others are reacting and trying to decide what to do for our own trip scheduled to start at the end of March. What are your personal experiences with refund/cancellation policies for the various charter companies/hotels/marinas? Are they holding fast to their cancellation policies or allowing exceptions for US and/or Canada travelers? Is anyone giving full refunds?

I have a reservation for a hotel on VG for 4/19-4/24, they were very accommodating. I have not cancelled yet, but did call and discuss options. She said to wait until it gets closer but she would would not charge me. I am just planning on postponing until later this spring or summer and offered to have her hold my deposit or give me a gift certificate for the value vs refund but she was the one who wanted to refund. Very classy.

remains on their cancellation policy. well i can take the loss, i'm going to go somewhere else next year, last minute, with a big company, finish helping local entrepreneurs.

Can you clarify? It's hard to understand what you're saying. Did you have a cancellation issue? Do you want to finish helping locals or are you finished helping locals?

Not sure what everyone else is doing, but at Coconut Breeze Villas we are allowing guests to cancel per the published policy (most would give up 30-50% of the deposit) or if the cancellation is because of coronavirus concerns/travel issues we are allowing the full deposit to be applied to a stay in the next 12 months.

This too shall pass. I guess with we learned anything from Irma and Maria, sometimes you can do everything right and still take a hit. When it is over we want our clients back. John has been very proactive in our approach to this from the beginning. Here is a link to our ever-changing updates.

CYOA Yacht Charters Coronavirus Policy/Updates

We are finding upcoming guests are postponing but planning to rebook down the road once this nightmare passes.

Same with us at Hideaway Villa.

Postponing visits with no transfer of payments to their new dates.

We let guests book for a time in the future - same thing we did when Irma hit.

Our airline and charter company gave option of full refund or future rebooking. No hassle.

What charter company?

Sunsail (and British Airways).

BA let us cancel even before BVI and UK ban on travel.

Sunsail allowed us to make changes no fuss as we were travelling within 6 weeks of the travel ban being announced.

Sunsail was great. Rescheduled our April 24th charter no questions asked.

I rescheduled for end of June. Hopefully it will all be cleared up by then.

DYC is allowing credit for rebook till 12/31/20, not for one year from charter - we had April 16 in Antigua. This is helpful but still challenging for my group and April is the only time we can get all 8 of us at one time. Hopeing I can negotiate something workable with them. Too much going on now to push the issue but I know other companies are extending one year out. Its a hard time for everyone so flexibility will be the key for customer loyalty.

We were scheduled for a charter starting April 9th, So far our charter company told us they will let us reschedule to any available date thru December 15th 2020 but will charge a rescheduling fee of $300.00. We don't agree with this and are asking them to waive the fee. I could understand if this was within our control but with the BVI government closing entry to the BVI's we don't have choice.

On a related note, what kind of weather can be expected and are the bar and restaurants still open during the first week of July?

Interesting perspectives on: https://www.facebook.com/groups/395158714235374/permalink/950071808744059/

It sounds like most people are ok with rescheduling and are doing so, how far out should the charter companies be allowing you to reschedule for? 6 mos? 1 yr? thoughts?

Is June going to be far enough out to get past this? Anyone going in June and worried?

The weather is beautiful in July, the bars and restaurants are still open. Christmas in July is a little crazy though.

Thank you all, hopefully this will all be calmed down by July...On a brighter note, July heat might make the cold beer taste better!
Our charter company did answer us to say they would negotiate the $300.00 change fee.

We had to postpone our April charter. The charter company said they preferred us to book before the end of the year. They also said if we picked a time when the charter prices were more, we would have to pay the difference. Also, if we picked a time when the charter was less, there would be no refund.

I think that is fair.

We have a charter in early June with TMM and we’re nervous. TMM appears to currently have a good reschedule policy, but we have an added complication that isn’t addressed. Employers of two of our four couples have a 14 day self quarantine policy after international travel, which effectively means they can’t go even if the BVI will allow us in unless their employers also change their policy. Too many moving parts.

I received an email from Sunsail yesterday. Since the BVI's are officially closed to visitors, they are issuing a full credit for our charter which was to start April 16. We can use the charter anytime before September 30, 2021. I hadn't called them yet, since their website says they are handling March charter customers first, so I was pleased to see the automatic response. I'd love to apply the credit sooner, but right now it looks like we will push out 1 year until our April 2021 school break week.