WIMCO Policy on Villa Contracts

I spoke with my Wimco representative again this morning. Needless to say, he mentioned that they are fielding a lot of inquiries into possible cancellations to Barths. I am inside of 60 days of my arrival date, so my reservation has been paid in full. If I were to cancel before 15 days of my arrival, I have 30% of my total reservation dollars at risk. If I were inside of 15 days, which I am not, then 100% would be at risk. He did mention to me that Wimco is reaching out to individual villa owners on a case by case basis should a client want to cancel. Wimco is asking villa owners if they would be willing to keep the deposit as a credit for a future reservation. Most Villa owners he has spoken with have been receptive to the idea, but they did have a client cancel three days prior to arrival and the villa owner refused a refund of any amount and the client incurred a total loss.
 
Of course the villa owners and the rental agencies are within their rights not to return deposits or change the reservation for cancelled vacations,

but since this virus is a pandemic now, it would be wise to tread lightly with your customers right now. People tend to remember kindness in a crisis and will be back to enjoy the villa at another time, but something they never forget is being treated unfairly in a situation that was beyond their control.

It would be difficult to woo back a customer that no longer trusts you.
 
Of course the villa owners and the rental agencies are within their rights not to return deposits or change the reservation for cancelled vacations,

but since this virus is a pandemic now, it would be wise to tread lightly with your customers right now. People tend to remember kindness in a crisis and will be back to enjoy the villa at another time, but something they never forget is being treated unfairly in a situation that was beyond their control.

It would be difficult to woo back a customer that no longer trusts you.

I agree 100% with you Didier! We have every intention on arriving next Saturday (21st). The only reason we wouldn't make it is if we got "sick" or airlines cancelled our flights and we are unable to rebook. We are holding our breaths. We have booked with WIMCO. I have not reached out because I know there is not much they can say to any theoretical situation I might float. But if the worst happens, and especially as a long time client, I would expect some kind of flexibility. Hopefully everyone (on both sides of the transaction) will operate in good faith in situations such as the world right now is dealing with.
 
We just returned last night from 2 weeks on the island. While we were there the news broke of the confirmed case on the island, including the hospitalization of the parents in St. Maarten. We could not find any sanitizer on the island. It was sold out every where. Bottled water was easy to find as always. Tradewinds confirmed that they have had many cancellations and are certainly concerned about tourism with the upcoming bucket, usually a major draw for the island as high season comes to a close.
 
We just returned last night from 2 weeks on the island. While we were there the news broke of the confirmed case on the island, including the hospitalization of the parents in St. Maarten. We could not find any sanitizer on the island. It was sold out every where. Bottled water was easy to find as always. Tradewinds confirmed that they have had many cancellations and are certainly concerned about tourism with the upcoming bucket, usually a major draw for the island as high season comes to a close.

How did your concern about the virus create any impact on your visit?
 
Answering a question that wasn’t directed towards me, but my concern is not upon my time in St. Barths but the concern lies in the travel to the island. Airports and long plane flights concern me.....sitting on Saline with a glass of Rose just seems like heaven.

Our part of the U.S. is turning into a nightmarish hell. Local groceries stores are wiped clean of essential food and supplies. When weighing the risk/reward in traveling to our favorite island.....I honestly believe reward wins. Cross your fingers, but expect to see me dancing on a Nikki Beach table the third Sunday in April.
 
We just made decision to put off our April trip till June...no problem changing with our Villa, American or Tradewind.
Looking forward to being “Junies”...
 
You will enjoy June time on island. Me, I love being here any day that ends in the letter “Y!”
 
We're still having the risk/reward discussion here for our first-week-of-April trip...and not ready to pull the trigger either way quite yet. I like the idea of escaping (our grocery/Target/Costco shelves are wiped clean, schools closed, etc) and bringing our tourism dollars to SBH where they're needed, but I also want to be a responsible global citizen (we're low risk but what if we travel asymptotic? or get sick once we arrive?)...doesn't seem like an easy answer either way. We'll probably see about pushing our reservations to April of next year if we don't go now.
 
Last night while dining at Maya’s I noticed a lot less cheek kissing and more hip bumps and sole kissing..foot to foot that is.

Looks like you’ll have to go back to the old “air kisses” Amy!;)

And now with SXM closing it’s doors to the USA; our April trip is not looking very good:sad1:
 
We were supposed to have arrived this Saturday. Obviously that is not happening so we reached out to WIMCO. It is up to the villa owner to decide how to handle cancellation. We have our fingers crossed that our villa owner will let us roll our reservation over to next March. In this unprecedented event, I expect flexibility. We would have been there if it had been at all possible. So we wait and see.
 
I looked on airbnb and some villa owners are still advertising their villas for the dates of this lockdown. also, you would have to rent the villa for a minimum of 2 weeks after your arrival in sbh, as you would be in mandatory quarantine for 2 weeks. that means that you could not leave the villa at all.
 
We were scheduled to arrive this Saturday. We just recently took the decision to cancel our trip due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Well, frankly, France took that decision for me. I was seriously considering re-routing through San Juan and Tradewind Aviation since Princess Juliana Airport will not allow United States Citizens to pass through the airport with all American flights canceled. That has not proved a prudent option, given President Macron's lockdown mandate from last night. As much as I love St. Barts, would not be enjoyable to be confined to our Villa. Also the potential to be self quarantined for 14-days thereafter.

Thankfully, I rented through Happy Villa Rental. Guillaume and Olivia have excellent relationship with Villa Owners they represent. They reached out to the Villa Owner and secured us a postponement until March 20, 2021 arrival for the next running of the BUCKET! Yay, something positive to look forward to. Everyone's contract may vary. I am feeling blessed. St. Barts STRONG
 
Tiffany,
Anita and I are scheduled to arrive April 25th for 10-days. Not to sound negative, does not look good to have significant improvements in the COVID-19 situation a mere 5-weeks from now.
 
Tiffany,
Anita and I are scheduled to arrive April 25th for 10-days. Not to sound negative, does not look good to have significant improvements in the COVID-19 situation a mere 5-weeks from now.
I know. I’m so bummed. The press conference yesterday said this could linger for the US until the summer. Who knows how that will affect flights and travel restrictions at this point. I feel so bad for St. Barts because they just recovered from Irma. Now looking forward to our November trip and hoping to get one in before then.
 
[FONT=&#10]We have a villabooked through WIMCO (arriving April 11th) and are exploring our options forcancelling. It seems like AA will allow flights to be cancelled with theability to rebook for a later date at no fee. As for the villa, as ofnow, we are told we can only rebook for 2020 which is unfortunate as we may notbe able to coordinate another trip for this year. WIMCO is still workingthrough details with managers and have not finalized their approach yet, atleast with our villa. [/FONT]
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For those that have rebooked for a later date in2020, how was the price difference of the villa handled since your reservationwould move from high to low season, or potentially to the Christmas/New Yeartime frame which would probably be more expensive? We were told therewould be no price adjustment moving to the low season, but again that was notthe final decision, just preliminary guidance based on their current policies.
 
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