New EU package travel directive as of Sunday 1 July

What changes can we expect?

Firstly, the directive clarifies what exactly falls under ‘package travel’ as “new market trends and technical innovations, such as websites allowing holidaymakers to put together their own customised travel arrangements, have created legal grey areas”.

The directive includes other forms of package travel beyond traditional package holidays, such as combined travel offers that are sold on the same website as a single product. As an example, this includes flights and accommodation or accommodation and a day trip.

Every package holiday contract sold from 1 July 2018 onward will have new rules to follow, specifically offering transparency to consumers concerning booking and cancellation rights. According to Karin Basenach, the director of the European Consumer Centre, the key change of the directive is in liability: if anything goes wrong on the holiday, such as advertised facilities not being available, the organiser of the package travel is responsible.

 Stricter rules for raising prices after the original booking

According to the new directive, package travel organisers may only raise prices after the booking under certain circumstances - such as the price of fuel having risen, unexpected additional taxes, and large variations in currency exchanges.

The directive also provides customers with a chance to cancel should such price increases take place. If the package travel organiser can prove that their cost has increased, the customer will have to pay. That said, if the price has risen by more than 8% of the price of the package travel total, then the customer can cancel without charges and be refunded within 14 days.

What happens if the holiday doesn't correspond to what the organisers sold?

Organisers are liable to compensate the customer if things go wrong during the holiday. As for how the level of compensation is determined, the directive will be using the so-called Frankfurt Table chart, which is applicable in many European countries, as a basis for calculations.

The Frankfurt Table lists various things that could go wrong and suggests a corresponding compensation amount. For instance, if an air conditioning unit is broken, then, depending on the time of year, customers can get between a 10-20% of their original travel price refunded. Other examples of the Frankfurt Table chart are that tourists can request a 50% refund if they were promised a balcony or sea view but do not get it