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Cancelling a Pre-stay / Post-stay

AlanS

Easy question- what happens if you booked a paid (not GOT) pre- or post-stay through Tauck, but decide to cancel it (a) before, or (b) after final payment is made?

(a) Does Tauck remove the charge from your Summary of Purchase and issue a new one with final payment reduced by the cost of the room?
(b) Give you a choice- put the refund in your "wallet," apply to a later booked trip, or issue a refund check?

I never had that situation, but might.

Comments

Smiling Sam

AlanS - Just a guess (I haven't experienced this case), but if you booked the pre- or post- day through Tauck I believe it will get treated exactly like money you have committed towards the tour itself, subject to all of the same penalties/bonuses currently in effect in the Tauck policy. If you book the day(s) on your own, then it is between you and the hotel whether you get any refund of monies paid or will incur any late cancellation penalty.

gladysorlando984

Alan I've not had that experience but I would think that Tauck would refund the funds for a pre or post stay that you paid for, I don't think that would be considered as part of the tour.

Bob Burch

Obviously they do not issue any refund if it is the "Gift of Time" pre or post stay. I did have that happen and certainly understand that.

Claudia Sails

Alan, your thread title gave me a bit of panic as I thought it was you reporting that the Gift of Time offers had gone away.

AlanS

Claudia Sails
2:15PM
Alan, your thread title gave me a bit of panic as I thought it was you reporting that the Gift of Time offers had gone away.

Wouldn't that be a bummer! No, still just messing around with flight options, one of which requires I go two days early instead of one. I've already arranged the GOT for one day. I just don't want to wait too long before requesting Tauck book an extra day, because sometimes the number of rooms made available to Tauck are limited.

We are just a tad over 6 months out, but pre- and post-stay hotel rates have not been established in Jordan or Egypt. While I kinda enjoy all the research and planning, this is getting old, especially when there are so many unknowns.

Wjmiller

They will do choice A.

British

There hasn’t always been a gift of time and I would say that nixing it would be a good way for Tauck to make some money. People will still travel anyway

BKMD

Alan - I once inquired with Tauck about an extra day beyond the GOT. Tauck's price was substantially more than if I booked it myself using one of the online travel sites.

And not to be a stick in the mud, but you're getting yourself too worked up about hypotheticals for a trip that's probably going to be cancelled anyway.

AlanS

BKMD
3:42PM
And not to be a stick in the mud, but you're getting yourself too worked up about hypotheticals for a trip that's probably going to be cancelled anyway.

Ok, how about a Debbie Downer?

British

The prices may be more for the Tauck hotels but it includes breakfast and transport to the airport. It also means you don’t have to check in and out of two different hotels and lug luggage around. If you book the same hotel as Tauck yourself, there is always the chance you might have to change rooms too.

Claudia Sails

You can also book direct with the hotel and the worst that may happen is you won't get free breakfast or maybe access to the gym. Our second cruise had a solo traveler who had done that. He'd taken plenty of Tauck trips so knew the drill.

Tauck is getting more flexible about transfers. Last year in Amsterdam at the end of our cruise we moved to a non-tauck hotel. The cruise director arranged for a taxi to take us to the hotel which we paid for and he arranged for the transport service to pick us all up at our hotel for the trip to the airport.

Smiling Sam

It gets down to booking through Tauck is done for convenience, oftentimes at the expense of cost. Just like the current discussion of booking airfare with Tauck or on your own. I believe you can almost always get a cheaper fare doing it on your own (same goes for hotels), but when things go south like they have for COVID, then the refunds and rescheduling are up to you. It's a personal trade off of cost vs convenience.

Sealord

We have done it both ways. This includes changing hotels, and arranging our own transportation. In my view it is not worth it to book the extra hotel stays on your own. You can often save some money even at the same hotel ... still not worth the complication. We have found it best to let Tauck take care of the details ... they are good at it.

BKMD

** British** The prices may be more for the Tauck hotels but it includes breakfast and transport to the airport.

As long as the airport transfer is within 3 days of the start or end of the trip, Tauck still provides it, even if from a non-Tauck hotel.

Claudia Sails

I'll pay some extra for the convenience of the Tauck hotel but in the case of the Amsterdam stay, one of our traveling companions worked with their travel agent and found us a very nice hotel close to the central station. Three nights for about the price of 1 night in the Tauck hotel. Kimpton de Witt. Clean, comfortable, quiet, and good service. Since we'd spent 2 weeks eating and drinking on the cruise we were fine with more moderate on our own dining. Again, it's just one of those things that you have to weigh the pros and cons. On the same trip we paid for an extra night at the beginning of the cruise at the Tauck hotel plus GoT.

JanP

We have found that convenience is more important to us than some additional expense—we book extra nights and airfare through Tauck. Especially in a situation like COVID, it has been a blessing. As an aside, it was nice to hear about the Kimpton Dewitt—on our canceled K&T tour, we were going to spend a couple of days in Amsterdam before flying to Arusha and had reservations at that hotel. Oh, well—maybe next year.

Claudia Sails

Jan, we were a little nervous about the Kimpton given how much less it was than the Tauck hotel and the potential for noise given that it's in a busy part of the city. It was more quirky than plush, but nice and no noise issues ( I'm a light sleeper). They had some freebies like a coffee/tea bar during the day, wine in afternoon. We could buy tram tickets from the concierge and put it on our bill. It was so easy to catch a tram or get to central station. It was easily worth the slight inconvenience of having to pay a taxi to get us from the ship to there.

Claudia Sails

A few bucks is one thing, $1500-1600 is another. June in Amsterdam is incredibly expensive. I'd have paid $300-400 a night for the convenience but $700-800 was getting a bit much. That on top of the airfare, extra night in budapest, cat 6 cabin. We might not have done 3 extra days in Amsterdam if we couldn't find more reasonable lodging. Glad we had the extra days.

Smiling Sam

As stated previously- It is always a personal cost vs convenience trade off.