Travel Insurance only willing to pay my portion of a villa refund

loular13

I treated the family by booking a villa holiday last year, due to go in July 2020. 
I insured the holiday, (AA silver plan), but now the insurer are refusing to refund me for my whole villa cost. 
This was my holiday purchase for everyone, my transaction, and I insured the holiday. 
Surely they cannot just get away with this? The holiday was a surprise, so they didn't know about it and obviously didn't insure themselves.
Regardless, I did insure my holiday that I paid for! 

ciderboy2009

This is standard for most travel insurance policies?

What do the terms and conditions of your travel insurance say?  You say that you insured the holiday so was this a separate insurance policy?

If it was a surprise holiday then why didn't you buy travel insurance for everybody to ensure that they were covered?

loular13

Ciderboy- appreciate the quick response- I'm not giving you an argumentative response, so sorry if it comes across that way! I'm just playing devils advocate here as I do think it's unfair of them; 
Because no one had confirmed their attendance yet and if they could get time off work etc- regardless of who ended up going, i was still going on the holiday to that villa. As soon as they knew they were going, obviously they would insure themselves (or I would pay). 
I insured my holiday that I paid for- why wouldn't they refund me? 

blindman

loular13 said:

Ciderboy- appreciate the quick response- I'm not giving you an argumentative response, so sorry if it comes across that way! I'm just playing devils advocate here as I do think it's unfair of them; 
Because no one had confirmed their attendance yet and if they could get time off work etc- regardless of who ended up going, i was still going on the holiday to that villa. As soon as they knew they were going, obviously they would insure themselves (or I would pay). 
I insured my holiday that I paid for- why wouldn't they refund me? 

We would need more detail
What are they exactly not refunding and what is their excuse for not doing so?
Insurers assume that if you book (say) a 4 person house and the other 3 are not on your insurance then the Insurers will only pay 1/4 of a claim.
Just guessing here.

[Deleted User]

Because they will only insure the person/s named on the insurance.   Somewhere along the line you must have told them there were x amount of people to be staying at the villa?    A lot of discussion in past about this and it seems to be pretty standard policy.    Fact is if you had declared the people to be named on the policy the price of purchasing it would have increased to reflect this.    Whenever I have purchased holiday insurance online, it always asks me the names of the people I want insuring?     
Not sure how many people you are speaking about but why are you no longer wanting to go.   Is the Villa unavailable to you or are the flights not going?    

sharpe106

Travel insurance is for you or the named parties, not for everybody. Otherwise it would cost more. If companies did not one person would just pay for everything and the entire party would be covered and it would cost the insurance companies a lot more. 

blindman

sharpe106 said:

Travel insurance is for you or the named parties, not for everybody. Otherwise it would cost more. If companies did not one person would just pay for everything and the entire party would be covered and it would cost the insurance companies a lot more. 

So if I hire a 4 seater car and have to claim they would only pay 1/4?

sharpe106

A car is a car you get 4 seats generally if just you or 4 people. 

blindman

sharpe106 said:

A car is a car you get 4 seats generally if just you or 4 people. 

A Villa for 6 can also just be for one person if you like space and solitude.

[Deleted User]

Indeed it can blindman which is why am interested to know if the original poster has somehow notified the insurance company that there are others staying?   It seems pretty standard that insurance for holiday cover will only cover the person/s named on the policy.  Just how they know there are extras staying I don't know.   I mean someone could rent a whole stately home for themselves if they wished couldn't they?       

I am assuming the car insurance is costed differently?.     Although have to say insurance is a minefield to understand.   Always that small bit that you fail to see which prevents a claim in my experience

lanclass_2

Unfortunately this was a learning point for me as well. We paid for a villa for seven of us (immediate family and girlfriends) and I only took out insurance for my family thinking that we'd paid for everything so we could claim back the costs. But I realised we could only claim back for those you take insurance out for so 5 of the 7 in our case.