Speaking at Abta’s Travel Law seminar on Monday (9 May), Themis Advisory director Jo Kolatsis said flexibility "was here to stay", and stressed she felt people were booking closer to departure due to the additional flexibility businesses are offering.
Addressing delegates on the potential changes businesses may have to make to people’s trips owing to the pandemic, Kolatsis warned businesses that their terms and conditions needed to be watertight.
"We were hoping we would be travelling with much less uncertainty," said Kolatsis during a session on the questions arising for travel businesses as a result of the strain the pandemic has placed on how firms interpret and implement the provisions of the Package Travel Regulations.
"Match your PTR obligations with your supplier agreements," she advised. "Try to push back where you can... and try to negotiate flexible solutions. Make sure you are not exposed until you get to that point with your suppliers."
Kolatsis highlighted offers such as later balance due dates as the kind of areas where firms could easily introduce greater flexibility with clients while ensuring they can meet these demands.
She advised firms to make their T&Cs "clear and unambiguous", including clear liability and compensation options, and urged those making Covid promises to make it clear where there is any flexibility in them and – critically – when it ends.
"Suppliers are more likely to work with you if they don’t think they are going to be hung out to dry legally," she said. "Customers are used to flexibility now, I don’t think that’s going anywhere – flexibility is going to be the key driver going forward. People are looking closer to the time [to book] due to all these promises of flexibility.
"Not everyone covered themselves with glory during the pandemic, and we are paying the price for that now," she added, reiterating how the public have become used to raising issues via social media and having consumer groups on their side.
’People have lost out’
"People have lost out," she continued. "You have to be very clear with your messaging. If you get your messaging right, you should be on strong ground."
Highlighting how the new Package Travel Regulations only came into effect in summer 2018 shortly before the pandemic, Kolatsis said it was unfortunate Covid has become a "test bed" for them.
Delegates heard how the UK government is now looking to reform the PTRs post-Brexit, and how EU – which created the Package Travel Directive on which the PTRs are based – is looking to reform the directive too.
Abta director of legal affairs Simon Bunce said a lot of businesses "rushed" promises out to customers "to get the bookings in... without realising the consequences". He said he expected many offered more, or "wider", flexibility that perhaps firms had anticipated.
He said Abta had noted the trend towards late bookings, and flagged one potential way to ease this would be to build more flexibility into booking processes.
