Travel Insurance / Cancellations
Top 8 reasons to buy travel insurance
A vacation isn't as big an investment as your car or your home. But it's still a lot of money. You purchase airfare and accommodations. Maybe excursions or other activities. Most of it paid for entirely in advance. Isn’t all this value worth insuring, in case some unforeseen problem threatens your travel plans?
1. LOST LUGGAGE
Whether your luggage is lost, stolen or damaged, it could get expensive to replace all the contents, including clothes, electronic devices and medication. Travel insurance could help cover much of the cost of these items.
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2. SOMEONE GETS SICK OR HURT
This might be the most common cause of ruined vacations. If you or a travel companion were to get sick right before your planned trip and you have to cancel, you could lose the full cost of the trip. Or if a medical emergency crops up during your trip and you need to come home early, in many cases there may be no reimbursement available. That’s where travel insurance could come in handy.
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3. FOREIGN HOSPITALS
Your health insurance often doesn't apply in foreign countries, so you could get stuck paying for an entire hospital stay – unless you have the right travel coverage.
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4. EMERGENCY AIRLIFTS
If you need to be flown to a hospital or evacuated from a danger zone, helicopter transport could cost you thousands of dollars. Travel insurance may cover these types of costs.
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5. LOSS OF A FRIEND OR FAMILY MEMBER
Say someone really close to you passes away just before your departure date. With trip cancellation coverage, you may be able to cancel or postpone your vacation in the event of a tragedy.
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6. EARLY RETURNS
If you have to fly home immediately and cancel the rest of your trip, the airline could charge you for your flight changes – even for an emergency. Travel insurance may help reimburse you those fees.
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7. DAMAGED DESTINATIONS
When a hurricane or winter storm closes the airport for days keeping you from reaching the resort you’re heading to, you could lose the cost of airfare, side trips and even what you’ve paid for the resort. Buying your travel insurance policy when you book your trip may help you get reimbursed for these costs.
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8. YOUR JOB GETS IN THE WAY
Even though your trip has been on the work schedule for weeks, what if your back-up leaves the company or you're offered a new job that starts immediately? Travel insurance may be able to help if you have a cancel for a work-related reason. If you’re planning a trip, now is the time to start thinking seriously about buying travel insurance
While we are sensitive to changes being necessary in life sometimes, there are no exceptions to the cancellation policy as laid out in our rental agreement above. We urge you to get traveler's insurance when booking any vacation. Especially if you are traveling during hurricane season. It's worth every penny as tropical storms (and things in general) can happen anytime. If you need to cancel your trip, this is so important to have in order to recover your funds.
There are countless options for travel insurance. Here are a couple that guests have used and liked:
1- TRAVEL GUARD
2- SUN TRIP PRESERVER
3 - GENERALI
4- ALAVHR
US News article - 12 Best Travel Insurance Companies of January 2024
Forbes article - Best Travel Insurance Companies of 2023
DIRECT BOOKING CANCELLATION:
Please note that when a date is booked, it becomes blocked off on our calendar and having a cancellation would mean missing other possible renters for those dates, and a loss of income for our family's rental business. While we are sensitive to changes being necessary in life sometimes, there are no exceptions to the cancellation policy as laid out in our rental agreement above. We urge you to get traveler's insurance when booking any vacation.
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DIRECT BOOKING CANCELLATION POLICY & FEES: (TAKEN FROM RENTAL AGREEMENT 5/1/23. Please check your signed agreement for current terms)
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VRBO CANCELLATION:
To cancel a reservation on VRBO, you must contact them and cancel through them. We are not allowed to cancel bookings without penalty. They handle all of your cancellation needs. Please contact them directly.
REFUNDS:
The Rental Agreement is a legally binding agreement between Guest and The Agent. Your reservation and signed Rental Agreement bind you to a specific property (965 W. Beach Blvd #2601 Gulf Shores, Alabama) for a specific period of time [checkin date to checkout date]. There should be no expectation of refunds or relocation because you are not satisfied with the property. All properties are privately owned and furnished per the owner's requirements, so unlike a hotel, we cannot relocate you without specific authorization from the Property Owner. In the event that a problem arises during your stay, we will make every attempt to solve it in a timely manner. There will be no refunds for early checkouts.
HURRICANE / WEATHER EVACUATION
In the event of an ordered mandatory evacuation due to hurricanes or other storms, you are required by state law to vacate the property. The Agent will not issue refunds in part or in full for inclement weather. It rains on the Gulf and may rain during your trip. If a Hurricane Evacuation order is made for our home, you will be given the choice to rebook or receive a refund for unused nights. Our recommendation for travels during (especially during hurricane season) is for you to research and purchase trip cancellation insurance.
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The following is taken from your rental agreement: "HURRICANE/WEATHER EVACUATION In the event of an ordered mandatory evacuation due to hurricanes or other storms, you are required by state law to vacate the property. Unused nights after a hurricane evacuation order will be offered to rebook at a later date. The Agent will not issue refunds in part or in full for inclement weather. Our recommendation for travels during (especially during hurricane season) is for you to research and purchase trip cancellation insurance. "