Petition · past parliament

FORCE HOLIDAY COMPANIES TO RELAX BALANCE DUE DATES

Rejected 14 signatures

What the petition asks

Force holiday companies to relax balance due dates until it is known if holidays are going to go ahead as planned.

Balances are due for holidays taking place later in the year which could be cancelled if the FCO extend travel restrictions due to coronavirus.
Customers are now forced to pay the balances so they do not break the terms and conditions of bookings and could lose the deposits if this balance is not paid.

Holiday Companies could be providing the same assistance as banks by allowing extensions to payments. Some people have now got reduced earnings or have lost their jobs and therefore could struggle to pay the balances and therefore lose their deposits for little reason leaving a great deal of money lost to this industry unnecessarily.

Why it was rejected

It asked for something that is not the responsibility of the UK Government or Parliament.

Arrangements regarding payment for goods and services, and any changes to these, are governed by any contractual agreements between individual consumers and retailers, and are not a matter for the Government or Parliament. We are only able to accept petitions for actions which the Government or Parliament are responsible for.

We have published a petition calling on the Government to Create a fund to reimburse money lost due to covid-19 travel cancellations, which you might like to sign: Create a fund to reimburse money lost due to covid-19 travel cancellations

ABTA – the Travel Association – has published advice for customers, which you might find helpful: https://www.abta.com/news/coronavirus-outbreak

You can find out more about coronavirus and how you can protect yourself and others here:

www.gov.uk/coronavirus
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

The Government has also created an online service to help you out what you can do if you’re struggling because of coronavirus: https://www.gov.uk/find-coronavirus-support

You can read NHS tips to help if you are worried about coronavirus here: https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/coronavirus-covid-19-anxiety-tips

You can read impartial analysis of the Government response to coronavirus and policy developments here: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/coronavirus/

You may also be interested to know that because of the large number of petitions that have been started in relation to coronavirus, the Petitions Committee has been questioning the Government about its response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Find out more and watch the Committee put questions suggested by petitioners to Government Ministers and the Deputy Chief Medical Officer: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/326/petitions-committee/news/145767/committee-question-deputy-chief-medical-officer-and-ministers-on-coronavirus-response/

Read letters asking further questions of Government Ministers: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/326/petitions-committee/publications/3/correspondence/

Timeline

1 Apr 2020 Petition opened for signatures
6 May 2020 Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 14
Status Rejected
Rejected 6 May 2020

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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.