Hanover/Reit am Winkl.
The landscape is green and the lifts are standing still: the worst-case scenario for a winter holiday. However, travel expenses are not often reimbursed.
Fewer slopes or even a closed ski area: when mild temperatures let your winter holiday fall through, it’s extremely annoying.
However, this is often not considered a lack of travel. “Whether you can actually ski on site is not in the control of the organizer. He can’t conjure up snow,” explains lawyer Paul Degott, who specializes in travel law. Weather conditions are therefore part of the general life risk of travelers.
What promises did the organizer make?
An exception is if the tour operator has made certain promises about the destination in its catalog or on its website – a “snow guarantee” or “snow certainty” for example. “Or when he shows pictures of snowy landscapes and full pistes and promises snow adventures,” says Degott.
The description of the travel area is a kind of contractual assurance, explains the travel lawyer. If it is so full-bodied, there could be claims for a reduction for the travel days on which skiing was not possible.
It is best to collect evidence during the booking process
And when you read that the ski area is not open at all due to a lack of snow? Can the package tour then be canceled free of charge? Rather no, according to Degott. The right of withdrawal only exists in the event of a significant deficiency in the travel service. In such a case, the organizer must have already made enormous promises and advertised the trip as a snow adventure.”
In order to have proof of this in case of doubt, it is advisable to keep the catalog or take a screenshot of the description of the trip on the tour operator’s website during the online booking.
Bad cards for individual travellers
Everything that has been written applies only to package tours. However, many winter holidaymakers book their accommodation themselves and travel individually by car or train. Then it looks even worse with free cancellations. “In such a case, room bookings remain, the provider is providing his service,” says Degott. Here one can only hope for goodwill.
Mild temperatures are currently causing problems for the German ski areas during the popular Christmas holiday season. On the Winklmoosalm in Reit am Winkl, for example, skiing has been on hold since Christmas Eve. The start of the season has been postponed at the Großer Arber in the Bavarian Forest. Elsewhere, fewer lifts and slopes are open than usual. (dpa)
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