Have you ever had a force majeure event that caused you to have to cancel a pre-paid trip to a host country for a long-awaited vacation? This article, written from my own experience, is for those who are facing it for the first time and do not want to lose extra money when cancelling a tour. It will be especially relevant at this time in connection with the mass cancellation of tours to Turkey, Egypt and many other countries, because of which travel agencies hardly want to return your money! Refer to specific articles from the laws I will not, I will try to explain in general terms, as well as tell you about his experience of return of funds from the travel agency. More comprehensive information you can get directly from a lawyer. Tour operator and travel agency are not the same thing. First, let’s understand the difference between a tour operator and a travel agency: . In fact, travel agencies work simultaneously with several tour operators. So, if you concluded an agreement with a travel agency, then it is necessary to write an application for the cancellation of the tour with a refund to it (for example, “TourGuide Shop”), and not to the tour operator (for example, “Coral Travel”). Further in the text we will use the term “tour operator.a brief history of my experienceI decided once to buy a tour to Thailand (what is the right way, TaIland or TaYland? ) for New Year and I booked it at the travel agency “Terra Europe” LLC from the tour operator Coral Travel. But in 2 weeks, I realized that I would not be able to relax in Pattaya and I wrote an application for cancellation of the tour with a refund. Because I was up to that point legally unprepared, the travel agency did not accept the application according to the rules of the current legislation, because of that after the cancellation of the trip I could stay without money (first they threatened me that the money would not be returned because of the Christmas season, then they agreed to a 10% penalty with a month of waiting for the return.
I had to visit a couple of law firms that specialize in the laws of consumer protection and bases of tourist activities, where I was clearly instructed in the sequence of correct actions after the cancellation of the tour with a refund, which I describe below.
Luckily the court was not able to provide me with the necessary information.
Attention! If you live in St. Petersburg, bypass the law firm N1 Company, in which lawyers are riding clients on their ears. Signed up, then, for free consultation, at which I, firstly, promised that I would be able to sue for 2-3 times more money after the cancellation of the trip due to moral damages, which in my case is not. Secondly, the lawyer suggested that I draw up a contract to draw up a claim and claim in court for 18 000 p. and put a minimum amount of 500 p., which I can easily collect in the event of its termination, because the consultation was free. However, in the end, in the process of termination of this amount was deducted, guess what for? For the free consultation!
General information about canceling a tour with a refundCancel the tour and then cancel it at any time and for any reason, even if you simply do not feel like leaving your home country, but the best option would be if you provide some kind of certificate, which would indicate a valid reason for cancelling the trip with a refund, such as a court order prohibiting travel abroad in debt.
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But this certificate does not mean that the travel agency would be willing to give you your money back, in any case they would want to charge you fines for the cancellation of the tour and extra interest for the penalty. Remember that any penalties for the cancellation of a tour, even though they are prescribed in the contract are illegal (travel agencies often develop contracts in violation of existing legislation). You are obliged to get a refund, taking into account the real costs, no matter how many days you apply, the exception may be less than a week.
If you’re alarmed by the small amount of the refund or in general you were deducted 100% of the money, feel free to sue the travel agency, which, in 90% of cases, you will win for sure. In this case, she will be required to collect and submit documents proving their actual expenses on the reservation of the tourist product. Luck in getting almost all the money back, also, you can smile if you take out travel insurance.
Luck in the return of almost all the money, also, you can smile if you take out travel insurance.
For those who do not trust travel agencies and therefore do not want to use their services, you can plan your trip yourself. If you’re flying to the Land of Smiles, then first you should book round trip airline tickets and hotel, and only then deal with the issue of visa to Thailand.
Foreign insurance – what is it?
When you sign a contract with a travel agency, it is advisable to form a no-departure insurance. In this case, the chance to get your money back in case of cancellation of the tour increases many times (almost 100%), even if it is canceled a day before departure. However, this insurance does not cover just because of over-considered vacation, it will work only with a documentary presentation of a valid reason for inability to travel. This can be a sudden debt in the tax office, because of which you can not cross the border (more than 10 thousand rubles), or a serious illness.
In any case, before signing a contract for travel insurance, read it carefully, perhaps it says that it applies only in case of a revolution in the country of rest đŸ™‚ Also, the insurance payment after the cancellation of the tourist product you may not receive if you were injured while intoxicated. There are a lot of nuances that I can’t describe in this article, let’s take a better look at how to properly execute the application for cancellation from scratch.
How-to-cancel-tour-and-return-money correctly
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Let’s remember the sequence of recommended actions when cancelling a tour abroad, which will begin with a visit to a lawyer and end with a possible lawsuit in court.
Lawyer visit
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Before writing an application to cancel a trip with a refund, if you are not legally savvy, I recommend that you sign up for a free legal consultation. In this case you will know what to expect and what to demand from the travel agency. The lawyer will give you advice specifically on your situation. However, he may ask in advance to draw up a contract for legal services and make an advance payment. Is it up to you to draw up or not – but I do not recommend that you rush, for a start (if time is not pressing) you should try to sort it out yourself.
Filling-in a tour cancellation application
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After you have visited a lawyer, you can go to the tour operator and start filling out the application for cancellation and refund. The content indicates the reason for refusal of the tourist product, if you have a valid reason, it is desirable to attach any certificate. The application must be written in duplicate, in which the manager must put a stamp, date and signature of acceptance for review. One statement remains with you, and the other at the travel agency.
It’s possible that the manager can assure you that the tour cancellation application is not written in duplicate and the marks of acceptance are not put (this was my case) and does not want to take it, feel free to insist on his own! And if you did not succeed, you can send a statement (with a claim) to the legal address of the travel agency (it should be specified in the contract) with inscription of attachment according to Form 107 and a notice of receipt. Once you receive the notice, count 10 days from the date on the piece of paper. In the application, please send a response to the return address or to the office of the travel agency.
In the application
After receiving a response from the travel company about the cancellation of the tour abroad, decide what to do next. If:
- response is positive and you’re satisfied with the refund amount, wait for your money for about the same amount of time.
- reply negatively, you’re not satisfied with the amount of refund, or you’re waiting 10+ days for your money, then file a complaint.
Composing a claim for canceling a tour abroad
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In general trial claim to the tour operator for the cancellation of the tour and a refund is recommended to prepare before writing the statement and give it to the manager together with the statement (or not later than 20 days). This way you will have a better chance of getting your money back without going to court. For those who are interested in the question “How do I write a claim to the travel agency?”, I say that, unlike a lawsuit in court, there is nothing complicated about it, so you can write it yourself, as I did (you can download a sample of my claim for a refund at link).
The claim for the cancellation of the tourist product and the refund is also drawn up in two copies, which are stamped with the note of acceptance for review. The content of the claim must include:
- Contact information – yours and the tour operator.
- A detailed description of the situation that caused you to cancel your trip.
- Links to specific articles of consumer protection and travel law that you believe they have broken.
- Proposals for a refund to the extent requested, moral damages and legal advice.
- Warning that you can claim liquidated damages equal to 3% of the total price of the tour for each day from the date you request your refund. If the contract does not specify the percentage forfeit, it is calculated at the key rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (for the total amount and period of withholding).
After filing a pre-trial claim to cancel the tour with a refund we wait no more than 10 days for a response from the travel agency. The claim does not give such a guarantee of a refund as a lawsuit in court, but if you are lucky with a positive response, please accept my congratulations, otherwise you will have to write a lawsuit in court.
Creating a lawsuit against a travel agency
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Sue the travel agency after the cancellation of a tourist trip abroad is somewhat difficult, because the judicial system requires a legally competent approach, so it is better to order this service from lawyers, anyway this money will return to you. The claim to the court must be written in 3 copies: you, the defendant and the judge, and if the court will be the third party, then they, too, a copy. You can defend your rights in court as follows:
- with a lawyer – in this case, in addition to a lawsuit in court you have to spend money on his services, and, believe me, the cases of the judge it is better to solve with him;
- without a lawyer – in this case, you have to prepare thoroughly: the first thing you must simply go to the consultation with a lawyer, to study the necessary in court, articles, and prepare morally and be prepared for the pressure from the defendant’s defense.
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If the amount of damage is less than 50 thousand rubles, the case is considered world judge, if more – district. You can download a sample claim to the court at link.
compensation for moral harm and legal services
Any compensation from the defendant, including for moral damages and legal fees, will depend on the judge’s decision. If you sued the travel agency for a refund simply because you changed your mind to go, you can’t really count on moral damages. If you get 5,000 rubles of compensation, it’s already good, but you may not get anything.
If you get 5,000 rubles of compensation, it’s already good, but you can get nothing.
It’s a different matter if you wrote a statement and a claim to cancel the tour, for example, due to illness or tax debt, and the travel agency refused to return your money in time. And they, in turn, were needed for urgent treatment or repayment of debts in a given time, then you can safely claim for moral damages because of your experiences in the amount of at least 30% of the value of the tourist product.
As for compensation for legal services, if the judge finds that the cost of legal services was adequate, then you’re covered by 100% of costs, if not (for example, you spent more than 100 thousand rubles on a claim, claim and defense in court), then you can only count on a certain percentage of compensation.
In addition to compensation for moral damage and for legal services, you have the right to demand compensation from the travel agency for a penalty of 3% for each day of the total cost of the trip from the date of writing an application to cancel the tour with a refund. In this case, the amount may accumulate equal to the original cost of the trip.
In this case, the amount may be equal to the original cost of the trip.
Summing up, it is safe to say that after winning the case in court, in the best case you will get almost the full cost of the tour. Good luck in the difficult struggle to assert your rights and, preferably, in pretrial proceedings! Remember, first of all, before signing the contract, carefully study its content, and secondly, it is better for the travel agencies to spoil the relationship with the tourist than with the airline or hotel.
To be sure that you have a good chance of winning in court.
Read More:- 10 differences between Thailand and Turkey – where to vacation better?.
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- Airbnb – finding and renting private apartments (apartments and houses).
- Introduction to Thailand – step by step instructions.
- Tips for Buying an Apartment in Thailand.