Information on current developments – Covid-19

On March 13, 2020 we flew to France to add some new top villas to our offer and create a new video presentation for the “Villa l’Horizon”. Highly motivated as always – but certainly also aware that they were traveling at a particularly uncertain time with regard to the development of the corona pandemic. It was a short stay, as we had to reschedule after the curfew was announced and left France on March 18 from an almost deserted Terminal 2 at Nice Airport in the direction of Cologne.

It’s already May and a lot has happened in the meantime – all bookings up to the end of May have had to be canceled, we’ve made countless phone calls to tenants and owners, and our email traffic has almost doubled in the last few weeks.

A flood of hourly changing news and speculation in TV and the press is of course very unsettling for all travellers, and the situation has not yet improved in terms of planning security, especially for the tourism industry. There are concepts for the gradual easing of restrictions for vacation homes and apartments as well as hotels and restaurants, and there is already a very clear timetable for Germany, which already provides for the second phase of vacation rentals of vacation homes and apartments – all depending on the current number of cases, of course.

It can be assumed that this concept will also be implemented in neighboring countries and that transnational approaches will soon be agreed for the tourism industry in particular.

Now that the Easter vacations and the pre-season have been completely canceled, it is also essential for local businesses that tourism can be gradually ramped up again. Since October 2019, seasonal businesses have had no income at all and have to budget well to make it through the winter until the usual re-opening at Easter. This was cancelled this year, i.e. the empty cash registers after the winter could not be filled yet. It is foreseeable that this cannot go on for much longer and solutions or easing measures will have to be found!

Prospect of easing

In France, the easing will take place according to the current case figures in the individual departments. For this purpose, there is a daily map of the regions. The regions “Var” and “PACA” were upgraded from “orange” to “green” the day before yesterday, i.e. the number of people currently infected has decreased significantly and the basis for easing is given.

Source: Direction générale de la Santé quoted by Le Parisien

The planning currently provides for

• All markets can take place again from May 11, 2020
• All stores are allowed to reopen from May 11
• the beaches are expected to be able to reopen from June 2, 2020
  Update: May 11 -> the beaches in Nice will reopen for sports activities from May 16, sunbathing is still prohibited for the time being
• the restaurants will remain closed until June 3, 2020 – a decision will be made at the end of May as to when they will reopen
  Update May 11 -> if the departments classified as “green” remain in this classification until June 1, 2020, restaurants and cafés will be allowed to reopen

On Sunday, May 3, 2020, the French Ministry of the Interior announced that there will be no quarantine measures for citizens entering the country from the Schengen area or the UK. We do see this as an indication of planned tourist movements within the Schengen area.

Extending the health emergency in France until 24 July 2020:

This measure enables the government to implement measures such as curfews or confiscations in a fast-track procedure in the fight against the virus. In addition, rapid measures to support the economy during the crisis can be adopted under these conditions. This is not the same as a travel ban or a travel warning or similar.

Our measures

To give you a little more certainty regarding existing bookings and planned bookings for the 2020 season, we are offering modified cancellation conditions for the entire season in connection with COVID-19* as follows:

• Cancellation in connection with COVID-19* without pro rata payment of the rental price up to four – instead of the regular eight – weeks before the start of the trip. In this case, there is only a cancellation fee of 100 euros
• in the event of entry or exit restrictions or border closures imposed by the governments on the planned day of arrival: refund of the deposit paid by the owner
• Suspension or postponement of the final payment if there is still no clarity about the travel options four weeks before arrival

With regard to the hygiene measures, we will also raise the awareness of the owners in due course and develop a concept for disinfection measures in the private villas, the implementation of which the housekeepings are then required as part of the final cleanings. We will come back to you separately on this topic.

In the light of the above developments, we would be grateful if you initially maintained your booked trips for the high and low season. We are confident that the situation will stabilize further in the coming weeks and that travel to private vacation villas will be possible – albeit with some restrictions.

* e.g. early cancellations of flights by airlines, closed borders, beaches closed on the day of arrival or other infrastructural facilities that are not available

Your
Vera Birgel