The following happened to me and my husband last week.
Our London Airbnb host refunded us with grace and kindness.
The Portugal and Spain reservations were in hotels and our tour operator is working on refunds for that.
I wrote the following for friends and family but it may give a perspective for the stress of travelers as well as owners. I too, have and will loose money with the cancellations due to the virus. I refunded some reservations I did not have to. Because it was the right thing to do.
Corona Virus Spoiled Our European Vacation
Randy and I had a trip to Europe planned for many months, way before Corona virus made headlines. We weighed the pros and cons of not going and decided that we would use due diligence and every precaution known to prevent getting sick. We had invested a lot of time and money in this trip and were looking forward to it.
So, last Wednesday night Randy and I were in the boarding area for our flight to London when President Trump made the announcement for a 30 day ban on travel from Europe beginning on Friday. Of course we went straight to the boarding desk, along with a hundred other US citizens and cancelled our flight. And thus, cancelling our much anticipated European vacation. We did not want to be stuck in Europe with no way home for a month.
Needless to say, it was rather chaotic after Trump’s announcement. Not only for us but for the American Airline personnel, who kept calm and did everything that they could. They were as blindsided as we were. The next day it was clarified that as US citizens we would be able to come home within those 30 days.
Our trip was to include a four day adventure in London and then meeting with 80 or so members of our ski club in Lisbon on Sunday for a few days and then going on to Spain and touring three different areas and returning at the end of March from Barcelona. After the announcement by Trump the other members of our ski club cancelled their trip due to all the uncertainties and the knowledge that anyone returning from Europe would be quarantined for at least 14 days.
Along with the stress, time lost and disappointment there is the pecuniary $ loss of money for this trip……Yes, I know if could have been worse.
The only good thing about this for us, is the fact that if Trump had made this announcement a few hours later we would have arrived in London, thinking that we could not go home for 30 days (I know that changed later) and that all flights from Europe to the US were cancelled and not knowing if our existing hotel reservations and transfers in the other countries were even valid anymore.
Imagine flightless and homeless in a foreign country.
At this point I am happy to be safely at home in the USA!