Travelers may withdraw from the contract at any time without reason
Travelers have the option at any time before the start of their vacation “to withdraw from the travel contract without giving reasons”. However, “appropriate compensation” must be paid for the resignation, the Foreign Office explains. Cancellations for package tours are much easier than for individually planned trips.
This always becomes clear when travelers have a right to a full refund according to German legislation: While a travel agency in Germany has no choice but to reverse the payment, travelers with individually booked holidays abroad have to contact every tour operator, every hotel and cancel each transport company individually.
Significant impairment due to extraordinary, unavoidable circumstances
Foreign law applies. This means that travelers not only have to deal with the additional work of many individual cancellations and researching their rights abroad, but they may also get less money back.
As the ADAC explains, it was crystal clear before Corona: If the Foreign Office issues a travel warning, trips booked with German providers could usually be canceled free of charge due to “extraordinary circumstances”. In general, a free cancellation under German law is always possible if the execution of a trip is significantly impaired by “unavoidable, extraordinary circumstances” or the provider changes the booked services significantly, according to the ADAC on its website.
In which countries are free cancellations possible?
In the following countries, however, there are particularly good chances of a full refund or a voucher for the price of the canceled booking, even with individual bookings: Finland, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, France. This list does not claim to be complete.
According to the ADAC, it has not been finally clarified whether the travel warnings from the Federal Foreign Office are still valid as a reason for free cancellation, even after the countless travel warnings since the beginning of the pandemic – one of many reasons for striving for an amicable solution with the provider instead of with a cancellation before to draw court.
Editorial office finanzen.net
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