2020 was a challenging year for holiday rentals to say the least and 2021 has started off in the same way!

• First Wave of COVID 2020: When the lockdown/confinement was in place in France and the UK we moved many reservations from Spring/Summer 2020 to Spring/Summer 2021 - all at no cost to the holiday maker.
• Second Wave of COVID: The UK reinstated its 14 day quarantine period for travellers returning to the UK - this was reduced this to 5 days if you pay for a private Covid Test upon your return.
• Third Wave of COVID 2021: The UK was in lockdown until April, and France entered a 4 week lockdown period for te whole of April, with a plan to start a phased re-opening of restaurant terraces and outdoor venues and attractions by mid-May.
• The FCO is still advising against all but essential travel to France. This means that we are currently able to accept new bookings from the UK for later in 2021 or beyond, but not for holidays in the near future. The UK Government has said that international travel will not resume until the 17th May at the earliest and it will introduce a traffic light system for travel with different requirements for each colour. I will update this page once more details are known.
• 2021 - Travel from the UK to France: The UK is currently not on the list of countries that are permitted to enter the Schengen Area, so only emergency travel and workers are allowed to enter (With a valid Covid PCR Test).

OUR COVID CANCELLATION POLICY
If you have already booked a summer holiday with Vendée Holiday Cottages and will be travelling from the UK, it is possibly too early to make any decisions yet as we do not know when travel will be opened up to France - Mid-May is the earliest date for International Travel.

This is being reviewed on an ongoing basis.

Here is the policy that we are using for guests who have a current booking with us:

• If travel is permitted, then your booking should go ahead as planned.

• If you decide not to travel (when travel is permitted), then our normal terms and conditions will apply and we can open your dates up to others, but we will only be able to refund your deposit if we are able to rebook your dates.

• If travel is not permitted from the UK, but France has no restrictions, then we can either move your holiday to a future date, issue a voucher to the value of your deposit to be used for a future holiday with Vendée Holiday Cottages or open the dates to local guests and refund your deposit once it is re-booked.

• If France has a lockdown situation, then we can move your holiday to a future date, issue a voucher to the value of your deposit or offer a refund if the French Government sanctions this.

• If you have booked for 2021, but would feel more comfortable moving to 2022, then we can also move your holiday to 2022 now and open up the 2021 dates for local travellers. We have opened our calendars for 2022 early as we realise that many guests will feel happier moving to next year when travel should be back to ‘normal’.

We are also advising all guests to take out an insurance policy that will cover against cancellation, medical and transport problems. As a business, we cannot become your insurance policy and you need to take some responsibility for booking a foreign holiday during an ongoing pandemic.

If you are based in France and book a holiday with us, then we will respect the local laws with regards to lockdowns and any regional restrictions that may be in place. We can offer to move your holiday to a future date, issue a voucher or if we are all in a lockdown situation, then offer a refund.

We would like to assure all of our guests that all of the properties on this website will be following a more rigorous cleaning protocol this year and details will be available in your holiday cottage.

Thank you for your patience, and we look forward to seeing you again soon.

Annette