Does travel insurance cover you if you choose 'pay later' accommodation?

l.c.elliott

Following on frommy previous post, I've chosen to buy flights and accommodation separately, as I can't find a package deal that has exactly what we want. Im therefore going to buy very extensive travel insurance. I just wondered if anyone has any experience of travel insurance covering you for accommodation thats 'pay later'?

Like if we choose accommodation where we have to pay at the hotel, and something happens with the flights like they're cancelled, will we get support regarding our accommodation given that we hadn't paid yet, but we'd also committed to the booking so we would be charged if we didn't show up?

Another situation, if we cant travel due to illness, would we be covered ie not have to pay the accommodation that ae had 'committed' to pay due to not being able to travel due to being ill?

Thanks

zagfles

You really are overthinking this. I can't see that any insurance would discriminate between a cost you paid upfront and a cost you were committed to pay later for the same thing. Obviously check the terms for your own peace of mind but it would be a strange insurance that would discriminate based on payment timing. 

Also if you did encounter problems, contact the hotel. Even if the booking is non cancellable/amendable, if you run into problems they may waive any charges, or reduce them, as a good will gesture. I've done this a few times. 

elsien

However  bear in mind that there’s not many policies that cover consequential loss. If you find one, let us know because I’m still trying to hunt one down.

But if your flight was cancelled, would you not simply get a later one and still use the accommodation anyway? 

l.c.elliott

elsien said:

However  bear in mind that there’s not many policies that cover consequential loss. If you find one, let us know because I’m still trying to hunt one down.

But if your flight was cancelled, would you not simply get a later one and still use the accommodation anyway? 

Yes of course we would do that. But my worry would be that we would have to therefore come back on a later flight and would therefore have to fork out for an additional night with our accommodation? Or if we were just on a later flight, would that just shorten our stay by 1 night for example?

And would we still be covered if we had to cancel due to sickness?

elsien

You would come back on the return flight that you were originally booked on, presuming that only the outbound flight has been cancelled, so yes, losing a day of your holiday.

and yes, providing that you have declared everything that you should have, if you have to cancel because of sickness then your costs would be covered minus any excess. 

MyRealNameToo

l.c.elliott said:

elsien said:

However  bear in mind that there’s not many policies that cover consequential loss. If you find one, let us know because I’m still trying to hunt one down.

But if your flight was cancelled, would you not simply get a later one and still use the accommodation anyway? 

Yes of course we would do that. But my worry would be that we would have to therefore come back on a later flight and would therefore have to fork out for an additional night with our accommodation? Or if we were just on a later flight, would that just shorten our stay by 1 night for example?

And would we still be covered if we had to cancel due to sickness?

The default position is that you shorten your stay if just your outbound flight has been cancelled. The airline may allow you to adjust the return leg if you want to keep the same duration but they arent obliged to. 

Travel insurance will cover you for your insured losses in the event of an insured peril occurring, these will vary between policies though many of the headline elements will be the same. Notably they will only cover irrecoverable losses so if your airline cancels your return flight and so you have to spend another night it's likely the airline is on the hook for the accommodation costs rather than the insurer. 

If you've pre-paid or not makes no difference to the insurer, that said most not prepaid have more favourable cancellation terms and so your liability may be capped at one or two nights rather than the full stay. The key is to deal with matters swiftly to limit your liability. A friend had booked a week's stay at a very expensive hotel for a combined landmark birthday and anniversary, in the end they couldn't go but he'd assumed the hotel couldn't be cancelled so just put a claim in to the insurers. They asked for his paperwork and then paid out for his flight but declined to pay for the hotel because it had a 24 hour cancellation policy and his decision not to travel was 48 hours before the flight but he hadn't told the hotel. Thankfully for him they charged him 2 nights rather than the 7 but still was a couple of grand he hadn't needed to pay.