Refund or credit for a NZ holiday booked during lockdown?

Wednesday, 1 April 2020

The lockdown has forced many Kiwis to cancel planned holiday breaks, but they are not necessarily getting a full refund.

Stuff was contacted by a reader annoyed that Bachcare was offering a 12 month credit, rather than a refund, for holiday home bookings due to be taken up during the lockdown.

Bachcare says credit given for bookings during the lockdown could be used anywhere in the country and was valid for 12 months

Consumer NZ head of research Jessica Wilson said complaints were starting to trickle in about the handling of cancelled accommodation bookings.

'Most cases we have heard of accommodation providers have given a refund, but there are some cases coming through where that is not happening and the provider is charging a huge cancellation fee in the hundreds of dollars.'

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Kaikoura Holiday Homes lost all its school holiday bookings as a result of the Covid-19 lockdown, but business owner Alison Glenn is giving full refunds. 'We just hope that they will come back and I'm confident they will.'

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Wilson said Bachcare had to comply with terms and conditions on its website which clearly said a refund would be given if a property was unavailable for any reason.

'At the moment rental properties are unavailable because we can't travel around the county and we have to stay at home.

'It may be considered a 'frustrated contract' because of events such as the one we are in now, and where those conditions apply, there's grounds for a customer to cancel a contract and recoup their money.'

Jules Shelliker of Bachcare said it was the company's policy to offer a credit for stays through to June 30.

'We're expecting that once the current Covid-19 situation is resolved many of our customers will be eager to rebook a getaway and we look forward to working with them to do that.'

Customers were given customers plenty of time to use their credit which was valid for 12 months.

Bachcare said this was in line with similar booking companies in New Zealand and internationally.

However some New Zealand holiday home booking services are taking a different approach.

Kaikoura Holiday Homes director Alison Glenn is offering full refunds for all cancellations and has done so since coronavirus first began to affect bookings back in February.

She said a lot of people might no longer be in a financial position to take a holiday once the lockdown ended and she was not comfortable with offering credits.

'Holding all that money with interest didn't seem right to me.

'It was better to treat them well and they'll come back to us.'

Trade Me Property has waived its standard $75 cancellation fee for holiday home bookings that were checking in from March 17 until the end of alert level 4.

Spokesman Aaron Clancy said they were working with holiday home owners to rebook people, but it was up to owners to decide how or if they enforced the cancellation policy for their property.

Hospitality NZ chief executive Julie White said policies on cancellations was a commercial decision left to each operator to make.

'We do know first hand, many of our members have shown manaaki (generosity) and waived [charges] or given credit.'