INFORMATION ON OUR TRUST ACCOUNT
1. Financial protection with our ATOL and Trust Account
If you book both accommodation and flights with us, you will be covered under our ATOL protection and the EU package regulations. All monies paid to us will go instantly into our Trust Account. This Trust Account is managed by trustees that are members of the CAA (the Civil Aviation Authority) and therefore your money is completely protected and is not able to be misused by us. Your money stays in our trust account and we can only access it once you have returned from your holiday. The only monies that are paid out on your behalf prior to your return from holiday are those to the airline for any flights and any deposit paid to the accommodation owner on your behalf.
2. Changes and amendments to your holiday
Please note that these conditions do vary from our general terms and conditions. You will be entitled to amend or cancel your holiday under the following circumstances:
If you have booked a holiday including flights and they are cancelled due to:
1. The FCO advise against travel to your destination
2. The borders of your destination are closed
3. You are required to quarantine at the destination
Then we will either:
1. Cancel your holiday and refund any payments made to us or offer a credit towards a future holiday.*
or
2. Amend your holiday to another destination or a later date. (There may be additional charges if you choose dates that are more expensive).
*Please note: Not all flights may be cancelled and therefore in these circumstances we will not be able to refund this part of your holiday but offer an amendment only or credit note for the flight part.
If you have booked accommodation only with us and
1. The FCO advise against travel to your destination or
2. The borders of your destination are closed
Then we will :
Amend your holiday to a later date with the approval of our accommodation owners. (If you choose a more expensive date and room choice there will be increased costs). The amendment would be for later the same year, amendments to a future year are discretionary and will also be dependent on individual suppliers allowing these amendments.
General amendments
Should you wish to amend your booking then we will do our best to meet your request however, most suppliers are only agreeing to amendments within the same year and only if the government advice is against travel to your destination. Whilst we appreciate everyone’s concerns regarding travel, we are only able to look at amendments to the following year if your travel date is imminent and there are restrictions on travel. If we are able to amend your booking, please be aware that amendment fees may apply be incurred and the new rates relevant to your date change would be charged.
Please note: Due to different COVID regulations in force in countries, some planned amenities or facilities may not be able to operate, the hotel and ourselves are unable to offer compensation or refunds in this situation.
New ideas and Experiences
We have some new ideas and experiences being added to our portfolio as well as new destinations and so do please give us a call to discuss these or indeed any holiday you may be interested in. Our staff have great knowledge of all our destinations and would love to chat to you about your future holiday.
We would like to thank all our guests who booked their 2020 holiday with us and for their patience and understanding for those who requested refunds and to those who amended their bookings to 2021.
Also a massive thank you for all those that did travel in 2020. We would also like to thank you for the lovely feedback we received over how we dealt with this terrible situation. All your very kind words were gratefully received by all of us at the Discerning Collection. It has been a difficult and challenging time for all of us in the travel industry but we want to assure you that we will do all we can to make certain that your booking with us in 2021 and beyond will go as smoothly as humanly possible. We will look sympathetically at all bookings, should the problems of 2020 arise and will endeavour, with the assistance of our suppliers, to make sure that refunds, where necessary, are made promptly and deferrals are made with no or minimal cost.
We appreciate there is a lot of uncertainty around holidays and travelling and we at Discerning Collection want to ensure you that we will do our best to offer you the best advice and keep you informed with any relevant information.
As you know we are a small family business and we strive to ensure we offer you a very high level of service and want to ensure you that any monies paid to us are 100% protected in our trust account.