As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, this information has come about mainly from irritated Croatian guests who had booked accommodation units last winter, paid for them, and then a day or two before arriving at their destination, they’d received notice of the cancellation of their reservation.
“There are excuses from the landlords that they’ve had a death in the family, so they don’t want to rent their units for a certain period, then their guests got infected with covid, so they have to be allowed to stay in the same apartment/house for another fourteen days,” annoyed would-have-been guests told Slobodna Dalmacijap. In reality, this is deception and cheaper Croatian covid reservations are being kicked to the curb as those with deeper pockets turn up on a whim.
It’s clear to everyone how the following has happened: in fear of a bad season, landlords offered their units for very low ”covid” prices, now they’ve realised that the season is doing far better than anyone could have ever predicted and they’re opting for higher paying last minute tourists instead, giving those who had previously reserved the accommodation ridiculous exuses.
Not all landlords are like that, of course. Many have stuck to their guns and rented to those who had made Croatian covid reservations months ago, when the epidemiological picture was dire and the season looked bleak.
One lady decided to book an apartment not far from Split back in March. Four people, one week, with a hundred euro advance payment included, and then two days before departure – she was hit with a shock.
“The reason for the cancellation is allegedly that the German guests who are currently there have become infected and need to isolate there. When I angrily told them that I would send an inspection to their address, they begged me not to report them,” she said.
In Podstrana close to Split, a similar story played out but with a different reason for cancellation. Before their arrival to their Croatian covid reservation which had been booked months in advance, the would-be renters called the unit’s owner and found that their reservation had been cancelled due to an alleged ”death in the family”.
Josko Stella, director of the Split-Dalmatia County Tourist Board, said that he had heard of no similar complaints, and claimed the same from the Croatian Tourist Board, which said they had no knowledge of such unfair practices.
Despite the above claims, we at TCN have been told of several similar cases occuring in Dalmatia, and claiming this isn’t happening is adding insult to injury to all of those on the receiving end of this awful behaviour.
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