Best way to get a refund from Secret Escapes during Covid

Summary

Secret Escapes is an online booking site for luxury hotels and home rentals. Secret Escapes is regularly poorly rated for their customer service and is rated 2.7 on Trustpilot<https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.secretescapes.com> with 25% of reviewers leaving a rating of Poor. During Covid, many millions of customers had hotel bookings cancelled and were left chasing refunds from Secret Escapes and other online travel agents like BudgetAir, eDreams and Opodo. The UK regulator the CMA is even conducting an investigation into whether airlines breached consumer rights laws during Coronavirus. But unlike airlines, travel agents aren't regulated. If you're one of the many unlucky Secret Escapes customers waiting on a cancelled flight refund due to Coronavirus travel bans, you have a few options. Some options require more time than others, and with varying chances of working. You can call, email or use social media to get in touch directly with Secret Escapes. Unfortunately, this is what everyone else is doing (2 million others) so you'll have to join the queue. Telephone| 02078872772 ---|--- Website| https://www.secretescapes.com Twitter| @secret_escapes Time Taken:| 6-10 Months.

Key information

• •Secret Escapes is an online booking site for luxury hotels and home rentals. Secret Escapes is regularly poorly rated for their customer service and is rated 2.7 on Trustpilot<https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.secretescapes.com> with 25% of reviewers leaving a rating of Poor. During Covid, many millions of customers had hotel bookings cancelled and were left chasing refunds from Secret Escapes and other online travel agents like BudgetAir, eDreams and Opodo.
• •The UK regulator the CMA is even conducting an investigation into whether airlines breached consumer rights laws during Coronavirus. But unlike airlines, travel agents aren't regulated.
• •If you're one of the many unlucky Secret Escapes customers waiting on a cancelled flight refund due to Coronavirus travel bans, you have a few options. Some options require more time than others, and with varying chances of working.
• •Telephone| 02078872772 ---|--- Website| https://www.secretescapes.com Twitter| @secret_escapes
• •Time Taken:| 6-10 Months ---|--- Chances of working:| Moderate Cost:| Free
• •These sites help you send a polite letter of complaint, based on EU law. Unfortunately this can be like screaming at a brick wall (or banging your head against it), since a lot of the time the airline has already reimbursed the travel agent so they claim it's not their problem anymore.
• •Even worse, if you do win your case through a complaints site, they'll take 25% of your refund, leaving you with no holiday and no money to book one in the future.
• •Time Taken:| 2-3 hours ---|--- Chances of working:| Moderate Cost:| 25% of your refund
• •You can ask your bank or credit card company to process a refund, also called a chargeback. During Coronavirus, this has become more difficult, and can take months.
• •Time Taken:| Months ---|--- Chances of working:| Moderate Cost:| Free
• •By using a licensed solicitor to commence legal proceedings against the travel agent, you can get them to sit up and pay attention.

Practical guidance

• •Source: [Best way to get a refund from Secret Escapes during Covid](https://lawhive.co.uk/knowledge-hub/travel-agent-refund/get-a-refund-from-secret-escapes-holidays-during-covid)

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