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Given a choice I enjoy staying at full-service hotels verses vacation rental properties. I enjoy having all the facilities that a good hotel can offer – pool, restaurant, bar, social areas, spa, and possibly a lounge. If you have elite status it can be even nicer. Susan on the other hand loves a nice vacation rental property. Typically, they’re roomier, have a full kitchen, and it’s much easier to have multiple bedrooms and bathrooms if a family is staying together.
Our youngest daughter is currently attending San Diego State University and for Easter weekend this year Susan rented a HomeAway property in the Ocean Beach area of San Diego. HomeAway is a sister brand to VRBO, another business that does “Vacation Rentals By Owner”, and both are owned by travel giant Expedia. San Diego State’s normally scheduled spring break wasn’t the same week as Easter, and with Susan and I staying at a property close to our daughter’s college it would make it easier to enjoy the holiday together as a family. Additionally, our vacation condo was directly on and overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and with our other daughter also joining us the three girls could spend time soaking up the beautiful west coast sunsets and the beach. And then March 2020 came, and all hell broke loose.
With the Covid19 pandemic and shelter in place orders, all of this was cancelled. San Diego State sent all students home to finish the semester studying remotely. Most airline traveling was cancelled, unless deemed essential. We also had many work issues to deal with, including how to operate a business and our jobs remotely. By the time we got around to the end of March we had almost entirely forgotten about our family trip over Easter together in San Diego. The trip had been planned April 9th through the 13th at the HomeAway condo property in the Ocean Beach neighborhood of San Diego.
Condo Living Room – Credit HomeAway
The property we had rented was paid in full in October of 2019. The nightly rate was $390, and with cleaning and service fees the total came in at $1,582.00 for our four nights. The cancellation policy is clearly listed as, “100% refund if canceled at least 60 days before arrival date. 50% refund if canceled at least 30 days before arrival date.” The cancelation policy was pretty cut and dry, and I really wondered how much of a refund would be offered. At the HomeAway website the following message regarding the Covid19 pandemic is offered:
Request a refund: We are strongly encouraging property owners and managers to issue at least a partial refund for situations in which a flexible credit cannot be accommodated. Please contact the owner or property manager to discuss cancellation and refund options. Although they are not obligated to provide a refund outside of the cancellation window, those who do not offer flexibility are subject to penalties in our marketplace.”
For reservations booked before March 13, with a stay night between March 13 and April 30, there are two possible options:
Request a flexible credit: We are asking property owners and managers to offer a full credit for the amount you already paid if you are outside of your cancellation window. This credit can be applied to future bookings at that property within the next year (at no additional cost). Please contact the owner or property manager to discuss credit options.
Request a refund: We are strongly encouraging property owners and managers to issue at least a partial refund for situations in which a flexible credit cannot be accommodated. Please contact the owner or property manager to discuss cancellation and refund options. Although they are not obligated to provide a refund outside of the cancellation window, those who do not offer flexibility are subject to penalties in our marketplace.
We’re refunding our service fee on all cancellations. Whether your cancellation was due to travel restrictions, government mandate, or simply looking out for the best interest of your family and loved ones, we’re refunding the money we make through our service fee. You don’t have to do anything to collect the refund of this fee; it will automatically be issued over the next few weeks. If a flexible credit is selected, the service fee will not be refunded and will be applied to the future booking instead.
Please note, due to the unprecedented volume of travel disruptions, refunds may take a few weeks to process. We appreciate your patience during this time.
This seemed like a reasonable approach to a booking, but at the end of the day the owner of the property had full discretion on what they could do. Although not ideal, a credit would suffice, as we had already booked this property once before and had an excellent experience with both the property and the owner, Robert. Odds are we will be staying at this property again, as our daughter finishes her undergraduate degree. Susan and I discussed how we should approach our cancellation.
Fortunately, all of this didn’t matter. Before we could reach out to Robert, he reached out to Susan and asked if we would still be staying over the Easter weekend. We informed him of our situation, and he was completely amenable to a cancelation and refund. His only comment was to stay safe. Class act. Two weeks later HomeAway issued a refund. Giving all the public issues going on, I thought the time to credit the refund was reasonable.
I would add that although I haven’t reviewed this rental property, I can absolutely recommend renting and staying at Robert’s Ocean Beach beachfront condo. It is well appointed and a fantastic location. Susan and I really appreciated Robert working with us. We have a number of hotel, flight and travel reservations to cancel over the next three months, and Robert’s willingness to work with us meant we had one less item to track during the next year.
