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Information on current developments – Covid-19

May 4, 2020

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

Now it’s already May and a lot has happened in the meantime – all bookings until the end of May had to be cancelled so far, we made countless phone calls with tenants and owners and the mail traffic has almost doubled in the last weeks.

A flood of hourly changing reports and speculations on TV and in the press is of course unsettling all travelers and especially for the tourism industry the situation has not yet improved in terms of planning reliability. Concepts for step-by-step relaxation for holiday homes and apartments as well as hotels and restaurants are available and here there is already a clearly defined timetable for Germany, which in the second phase already provides for the holiday rental of holiday homes and apartments – all this, of course, depending on the current number of infections.

It can be assumed that this concept will also be set up in this way in the neighboring countries and, especially for the tourism industry, transnational approaches will soon be agreed upon.

Now that the Easter holidays and the pre-season have already been completely cancelled, it is also essential for the local companies that tourism can be gradually ramped up again. Since October 2019, the season-dependent companies have had no income at all and will have to keep a good budget until the usual re-opening at Easter in order to get through the winter. This was cancelled this year, i.e. the already empty purses after the winter could not yet be filled. It is foreseeable that this cannot go well for much longer and solutions or relaxation measures will have to be found.

Prospect of easing

In France, the relaxation will be based on the current number of cases in each department. A daily updated map of the regions is available for this purpose. The regions “Var” and “PACA” were upgraded from “orange” to “green” the day before yesterday, i.e. the number of persons currently infected has fallen significantly and the basis for easing the situation is in place.

The current planning provides for

  • all markets can take place again from 11 May 2020
  • all shops may reopen from 11 May onwards
  • the beaches can probably reopen from 02 June 2020
    Update: May 11th -> the beaches in Nice will open again from May 16th for sports activities, sunbathing is still forbidden at first
  • the restaurants will remain closed until 03 June 2020 – at the end of May it will be decided when they will open
    Update 11 May -> if the departments classified “green” remain in this classification until 1 June 2020, restaurants and cafés may reopen

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

The extension of the health emergency in France until 24 July 2020: 

This measure will allow the government to implement measures such as curfews or confiscations in a fast-track manner in the fight against the virus. Moreover, under these conditions, rapid measures can be adopted to support the economy during the crisis. This is not the same as a travel ban or the like.

Our measures

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

  • Cancellation in connection with COVID-19* without pro-rata payment on the rental price up to four – instead of the regular eight – weeks before the start of the trip. In this case only the cancellation fee of 100 Euro will be calculated
  • in the event of entry- or exit restrictions or border closures decided by governments on the planned date of arrival: reimbursement of the paid deposit by the owner
  • suspension or postponement of the balance payment, if there is no clarity about the travel possibilities four weeks before arrival

With regard to the hygiene measures, we will also sensitize the owners accordingly in due course and work out a concept for disinfection measures in the private villas, which the housekeepers will then be required to implement during the final cleaning. We will come back to this topic separately.

Against the background of the above-mentioned developments, we would be grateful if you could initially maintain your booked trips for the high- and after season. We are confident that the situation will continue to stabilize in the coming weeks and that it will be possible to travel – albeit with some restrictions – to private holiday villas.

* 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

Yours
Vera Birgel

 

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