“I am not going to eat!” Or how much is the refusal of the tour?

A person, as you know, only assumes … But real life sometimes changes all plans and turns into different surprises. Therefore, we wanted to touch on such a delicate subject as a rest that failed for any reason and the legal consequences and financial losses resulting from this. Tourist forums are full of such stories. We decided to conduct our own investigation of this issue and get to the bottom of the truth. So, our next crib for both beginners and constantly traveling tourists …
The situation when a tourist refuses a tour, regardless of the reason, is far from being so simple and innocent, as it seems to many “refusers”. The tourist risks to suffer very significant financial losses. In fact, there is no conspiracy of a tour operator against a tourist, but everything is explained simply: a tour operator and a travel agent initially incur the costs of organizing a tour, and the refusal of a tourist to travel leads to certain losses. It should be understood that the tourist service is not a purchase, for example, of a TV set that can stand on the store shelf for at least a year without losing its technical characteristics. Tourist service is like a perishable product, which means it is relevant here and now. If a person bought it, but for some reason did not use it, it “burns out” without restoration.
What does it mean? And the fact that your hotel room was not sold to someone else, your seat in the plane flew empty, and for all this the tour operator had already given money that irrevocably “burned”. And then the tour operator applies penalties to the travel agent. Clauses on fines are prescribed only in the contract between legal entities – a tour operator and a travel agent.
Each tour operator sets its own size and timing of fines, which means that the same travel agent may have different penalties in the case when the tours are processed through different tour operators. Even those tourists who always carefully read the contract, will not find in it information about penalties, but this does not mean anything. Just this item is not provided for the contract between the travel agent and the tourist. The agreement stipulates only that the client has the right to refuse the tour at any time, in accordance with article 32 of the Law “On Protection of Consumer Rights”, subject to payment to the contractor of the actual costs incurred by him in connection with the fulfillment of obligations under this agreement.
The amount of expenses actually incurred may be different and will depend on whether you have managed to buy a ticket, pay for the hotel, plus expenses for paying for the work of the manager, telephone conversations, etc. That is all that the tour operator can prove documented.
The manager of the travel agency must, in the inquiry form, acquaint the client with information about all the features of the tourism product, and the penalties for refusing the tour are just this feature. The tourist, in turn, must understand at what time and what size of the fine he is threatened, and be aware of all the consequences of his refusal of the tour. Any person can change plans. The only difference is that when the price of such changes is known, the person will have a more responsible attitude to the question of abandoning the tour. This applies especially to those whose vacation plans are in “floating” mode and who are not sure whether the trip will take place or not.
Even if you have found yourself to replace another person, the travel agent should have more than 3 days in reserve, as there is a certain technical process for passing information about the new person – this is entering the lists for the company’s flight, and changing the reservation at the hotel, and processing of new data in the insurance company, etc. For example, in the contract between the tour operator and the travel agent it is clearly stated that if any surname is replaced, the previous application is first canceled with all the consequences, and then a new one is created. That is, the tour operator has every reason to expose a certain penalty, because it is a new design, which means new costs associated with it.
Have time to abandon the tour more than a month before the trip.
Reissue the tour to other people (change the data of tourists in the application will be cheaper than a refusal).
To get travel insurance, if you anticipate a possible disruption of the trip. We put the insurance clause at the very end of this list, although it should be first! But our Russian tourists, as you know, are very scornful of the topic of insurance and believe that buying insurance is throwing money away. Nevertheless, managers in travel agencies should pay very serious attention to the topic of insuring a tourist from not leaving the place and explain that the policy will cover all costs incurred by a person not to leave the planned trip, delayed or early return from abroad for the following reasons:
– death, injury, illness of the insured himself or his relatives;
– damage to the property of the insured (fire, leakage, actions of third parties);
– summon the insured to court;