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It happened.  We had to cancel our trip to Ireland.  Like many other people, our summer travel plans were thrown off by the global Coronavirus crisis.  We had planned our biannual trip to Ireland for this summer and all of us had been looking forward to the trip since we arrived home from our last visit.  Unlike any other trip I have had to cancel or adjust, this one was out of my hands completely.  We had invested a lot of time and money into a trip already.  Fortunately for you, I learned some lessons and can pass them on to you.

Booking accommodation in Ireland

Using lessons learned from past experience, we booked our accommodations as soon as we knew our travel dates.  I always follow this order for booking our trips:

1. I book the flight.
2. I book our first and last night accommodation
3. Based on our desired itinerary, I start booking accommodations one stop at a time (starting with our first stop and working my way to our last stop) to ensure we don’t have overlapping days and/or can adjust the itinerary accordingly.
4. I book the rental car.

Types of accommodation in Ireland

When it became clear that the outbreak was going to be a major global event we had already booked everything except our car rental.  That included full fare on our flight and at least partial deposits on all our accommodations.  We had booked the following types of accommodations:

1. Bed and Breakfast
2. Vacation Rental through Tripadvisor
3. airbnb
4. Vrbo

I have been booking Bed and Breakfasts since my first trips to Britain and Ireland and they are my preferred places to stay.  With a young family however they are not always the best fit for us, since we require one room for four people and that is not commonly available.

Since 2014, I have also had great success with booking Vacation Rentals through Tripadvisor.  Over the last six years, the vacation home rental market has changed considerably and other options became necessary and more attractive.  This led me to using Airbnb and Vrbo for the first time.  On our last trip to Ireland I looked at both sites, but didn’t find houses that interested us.  The inventory has shifted considerably over the last two years however, and now TripAdvisor does not have as many appealing options (as recently as 2016 it was by far my preferred choice).

Canceling a reservation in Ireland

Unfortunately this was not the first time I had to cancel a trip to Ireland, I had to do the same in 2002.  Many variables made it more difficult to this time, however.  First, in 2002 I was a solo traveler and had only booked bed and breakfasts.  Second, Ireland and the travel world have both changed dramatically in the last 18 years.  Below, we will look at the cancellation policies of the four types of accommodation we booked.

1. Bed and Breakfast
2. Vacation Rental with Tripadvisor
3. airbnb
4. Vrbo

Let’s start at the beginning of the list…

Canceling a Bed and Breakfast

Bed and breakfast is a wonderful choice for accommodation in Ireland (and Britain as well) for many reason reasons.  One of which is, almost every B&B allows you to cancel your reservation at no cost with 48 hours notice.  The exception to this typically is if you book though some sort of third party system which charges a booking fee or service fee, you pay that fee up front.  If this is this case, that fee is not typically refunded.

We had book three nights at one of our favorite B&Bs, Evergreen in Swords.  The proprietor replied to my cancellation email on the same day I sent it and since you pay a B&B on departure typically, we were only out the €59.07 that we paid to book three nights online (I knowingly did this because it was more convenient for me at the time).

Experience Grade: A
Refund:  None.  Booking fee with book-a-bnb.com is non-refundable.  No money was exchanged for rooms prior to stay.

Canceling a Tripadvisor Booking

Not long ago Tripadvisor was the only platform I would consider for booking a vacation rental.  Now, however, you are forced to look into the other options as well because the inventory on Tripadvisor has reduced drastically.  I was reassured that my original reason for sticking with Tripadvisor is still applicable though!  We had booked two rental through Tripadvisor for this trip: Turret Lodge Apartment in Bunratty and Cornerstone Cottage in An Daingean.

Tripadvisor announced that due to the Covid-19 pandemic, full refunds would be issued for our travel window (we booked for June).  The owner of Turret Lodge responded to my email the same day I inquired about canceling.  I received an email that my refund was issued one day after I canceled and received the refund the first weekday after the cancellation.  It really couldn’t have been easier and the host was very friendly.  The downside to Tripadvisor is the fee is higher than if you can book directly through the owner (Tripadvisor charges a fee that the customer does not see).

The owner of Cornerstone Cottage also responded the same day.  Just like Turret Lodge, I received an email that my refund was issued one day after I canceled and received the refund three days.  They were also very easy to work with.

In both instances, this hosts were very responsive and the Turret Lodge was extremely helpful and friendly.  She continued to follow up until I assured her that we had received the refund in our account.  This experience has definitely convinced me to stay with them on our next trip.

Experience Grade: A
Refund: Every penny we had paid up to that point.

Canceling an Airbnb Booking

For this trip I finally dipped my toe into the world of Airbnb.  I found two great houses in our desired locations and was really looking forward to our stays.  Our first Airbnb booking was in Kilkenny.  Airbnb cancellations and refund policies are known for being very customer friendly and they definitely lived up to that reputation.  Before canceling, I messaged our host.  She was very friendly and understanding.  We received our refund the same day that I canceled our reservation, and even after the refund had been completely processed the host continued to stay in contact to ensure that the transaction went smoothly and give well wishes.  With this house, we did have to pay the service fee when we canceled.  It was surprisingly a very pleasant experience and I can’t wait to book with her again.

Experience Grade: A
Refund: Deposit that had been paid minus service fee.

 

Our other Airbnb booking was in An Ring.  Our host at this home was also extremely understanding and friendly.  Like with Kilkenny, I contacted her before canceling.  Once I had cancelled, we received our refund the same day minus the cleaning fee and service fee.  I was really looking forward to staying here and visiting this area, and to be honest my interactions with the host while canceling made the home even more appealing.  She continued to follow up until she was content that we had been taking care of to her satisfaction.  It was really reassuring.

Experience Grade: A
Refund: Deposit that had been paid minus service fee and cleaning fee.

 

Canceling a Vrbo

As you have seen up to this point canceling our three week trip to Ireland had been pretty painless.  The last place I booked for this trip was on Vrbo.  We booked Skeagmore in Castletownshend, Co. Cork.  I found this booking after weeks of trying to book something on Oileán Chléire to no responses.  The house looked perfect for us and is in a beautiful setting!  After reading the terms and conditions, Vrbo did seem less appealing than the other platforms we had used for booking but the house fit our needs so I booked it.

I messaged our host before cancelling to discuss our situation and not cancel blindly (as I had done with all of our other bookings).  My first message went nine days with no reply.  I sent a second message nine days later.  At this point (nine days later), I haven’t heard back from the host and yesterday Ireland released their plan to ease restrictions.  At the time of our stay travel would still be restricted to just a few miles from home.  Also of note, the Vrbo website gives directions for canceling a trip but this property does not allow that.  While I will wait to pass my final judgment, obviously at this point it hasn’t made me feel good about staying here on our next visit.  For those of you reading this post, I would recommend this article as well.

Experience Grade: F D
Refund: None and no response from host.  I did receive a refund for the Vrbo service fee 59 days later, but never did receive a reply from the owner and did not receive any of the deposit back or the booking fee.  Three weeks after the booking was canceled Vrbo followed up to see if I was offered any kind of refund of partial refund (On this date the Irish government still had domestic travel restrictions in place and a mandatory 14 day self-isolation for international travelers).

I’m happy to report that Vrbo eventually followed up to ask if I had received a refund.  I responded that I had not and they must have followed up because 48 days later I received a refund from the host.  So, it 3 1/2 months, but I did get a refund.  I still don’t think I will use Vrbo again unless I have to, but they did contact the host and ensure that everything worked out well.

Canceling United Airline Flight

Unsurprisingly, this is the one that got me upset.  Perhaps I entered into this transaction with more trepidation and so I was expecting it to be harder, but anyway this is what happened.  I had received an email from United stating that change fees had been waived through the end of month for my flight and I could chose a refund or a voucher that would be valid for 24 months.  Naturally, I logged in realizing that our trip was not feasible for this summer.  Upon logging in I realized that my flight had been changed from a nonstop flight and that the departure time had been moved to 12 hours earlier with a 10 hour layover in Newark.  That concerned me as I had not been notified of this drastic change in schedule (nor was I offered money for being placed on a much cheaper flight).  Undaunted, I followed the directions on the screen and claimed my voucher.  I received my voucher a few hours later (nice job, United!).   Later, I noticed that I had not received the full ticket price on my voucher.  Fearing I was only been refunded the amount of the cheaper one-stop flight, I contacted United through Twitter and the United Website.  The first response came from the Twitter account but was very unhelpful.  The next day I got a reply from the website which explained the fee discrepancy.

While everything appears to have worked out well, it did cause me a couple of days of unnecessary stress.  The remainder of my ticket fee was for seat upgrades I had purchased (one of the possible explanations I had in my head, but was hoping for confirmation).  The money for the seat upgrades, I was told, would take up to 20 days to process and would be refunded.  I was pleased to discover my refund arrived in nine days   So, all of it ended up working out the way it should have but the process was more unpleasant than it needed to be.

Experience Grade: B
Refund: Every penny, but communication was not very clear on how the funds would be refunded.

 

What Did I Learn?

• Bed and Breakfast is still a high quality stay with low booking risk.  Even the strictest B&B cancelation policy gives you a week to cancel.
• TripAdvisor is still a good option, though the cancellation policies are different for each rental.  The corporate accountability is still there.
• Airbnb is a good option.  I was originally hesitant due to do worries about accountability on the part of the host.  After my experiences this year though, I’m on board and look forward to using this platform for future travels.
• Vrbo was very disappointing.  I won’t be booking through Vrbo anytime soon.
• A lot of what I had to do would work in a non emergency situation too.  Even without COVID 19, we still would have been able to cancel our trip and get a lot of our accommodation money back.

What do I recommend?

• DO book Bed and Breakfasts
• DO book through Tripadvisor for vacation rentals
• DO use Airbnb if you find a property you like
• DO NOT use Vrbo unless you can’t use the options above

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