ComplaintsforTexas Hill Country Vacations

• Initial Complaint

  10/19/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I booked a bed and breakfast with the company via Vrbo. I contracted Covid and contacted the owners. They said they would not give me my money back and we couldnt come to the bed and breakfast. They offered no refund, partial refund, or credit to use at a later date. They said since I have Covid they cancelled my reservation and kept my $1200. No one in our party was allowed to go and I didnt have the opportunity to let someone else use it. They discriminated against me for having Covid and stole my money. I contacted Vrbo and they suggested the owners give me my money back-I never heard from the owners again. They stole from me and told me I should have cancelled 30 days ago-as if I could have predicted I would have Covid.

  Business response

  10/19/2021

  The guest booked our home through Vrbo on August 9, 2021.She and her family were to arrive on Oct 15, 2021 and depart on Oct 17, 2021.

  
  She contacted us on Oct 8, 2021, 7 days prior to her arrivaldate, to let us know she and multiple family members tested positive forCOVID-19. We immediately called her. During that phone conversation sheinformed my husband that she had to cancel her trip and demanded a refund.Stating that we either refund her money or she would come to our home withCOVID-19.

  
  We did not discriminate against this guest in any way. Wenever once told her that she could not come to our home she requested thecancellation. She never once stated that other people would come in her place she in fact stated that we either refund her money or SHE was coming to ourhome with Covid-19.

  
  Her request for cancellation, 7 days prior to her arrival, fallsinside of our "**** days ... no refund" window, which you can see onpage two of our THCV Terms and Conditions (attached).
  I have also attached a screenshot to show where our guestsmust agree to our rental agreement term and conditions, which includes refundand cancellation information, prior to completing their booking.  The guest had to click Agree & continueotherwise she would not have been able to complete the booking process.

  
  A little history about us when Covid-19 first became anissue in the Spring of 2020, we offered all our guests the opportunity torebook any date within the next 2 years. We even offered an additional night atno cost to them if they chose to reschedule for a future date. For those gueststhat chose not to reschedule, we offered a refund. We worked hard to take goodcare of our guests. We kept this policy intact until summer 2020. Vrbo also cancelledtheir Covid-19 policies in June of 2020. At that time,they acknowledged COVID-19 to be a force majeure or act of God therebyplacing the hosts cancellation policies back into effect.

  
  For us personally, once we had a better understanding ofwhat Covid-19 was and how to deal with it we went back to our regular bookingterms and conditions. With that in mind, we included additional options for ourguests to purchase travel insurance. Even offering cancel for any reason travelinsurance through a third-party provider. We strongly advise that our guestspurchase travel insurance, but we cannot force them to do so. This guestelected not to purchase travel insurance through our third-party provider. Shealso declined travel insurance through Vrbo at the time of booking.

  
  We informed the guest that if we received anotherreservation for the dates linked to her original booking we would issue arefund less the 10% cancellation fee. This fee is notated in our THCV Terms andConditions which we have provided you a copy of. To be clear this is not apolicy of ours, we were bending over backwards and trying our best to help thisguest.

  
  In closing, we did in fact receive a booking for the dateslinked to her original booking. However, we cannot process the refund becausethe guest has filed a dispute with her credit card company. We must now waitfor the credit card company to complete the dispute process or for the guest toretract her dispute. Unfortunately, the information we received from the creditcard company was that the dispute process could take up to three months. Ourhands are tied.

  
  Please let me know if you need any additional informationfrom us.

  Thank you

  ***** and *************************

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