Booking Information

Welcome!

We’re OPEN and we’re here to support you.

As a small team we’ve delivered hundreds of holidays, and we’re confident (and often told) that our rules are fair, that we’re helpful, and that we go beyond to try and support guests (and owners!). We might be working from home in the lockdowns but we’re definitely here for you.

We’ve built this business in the last 10 years and have a loyal following of guests and owners.

There's no need to feel sad!

Keep in the know….. !

You can reach us on the phone at 01590 462005 or at the hello@newforestescapes.com email address which is monitored every day from early until late, including weekends.

Up to date information and advice regarding COVID19 can be found on the GOV.UK and NHS websites.

Being well informed at the current time is so important. It will give you peace of mind. Below are our most asked questions, if you have more, do just ask us.

Cancelling because of a Government lockdown rule

We will refund you 95%, less our non-refundable booking fee, and we’ll refund right away.

If you cannot travel due to Government rules: (and that’s been a lot of you this year!)

1. If you have paid in full, we will refund 95% of your holiday cost, straight away. We will keep the non-refundable booking fee which covers our credit card charges (we are charged when you pay and when we refund).

2. Or we will try to move your dates (tho’ this is not always possible) and we can’t promise it. If your new dates cost more then you’ll have to pay more, if it’s less, we’ll refund you.

3. If you have paid your deposit and want to cancel (this has to be a month before your stay), you will only pay a maximum of £100. For full info’, click here.

Read our COVID and normal cancellation guides here.

Our COVID cancellation policy applies where related to Government lock down rule.

We have fair and flexible booking conditions

It’s ok to change your mind…

We’ve changed the final payment date to one month away. This makes it easier for you to finally commit and plan again if you need to. Try and tell us ASAP tho’, we’re a small company and we need time to resell places for our lovely owners.

The balance is due 4 weeks before the booking. This is the last date you can cancel and only be charged the cancellation cost of £55.00 and non refundable booking fee when you made the booking.

If you cancel after that date, we’ll work with you on options; we can try to resell the house for you and refund you what we get for it, some of you can still stay, and we may be able to move the dates. Please read our full cancellation guide here.

Everything spick-and-span...

We are delivering a stricter cleaning regime…

We take our lead from the Professional Association of Self Caterers in the UK. They have high standards!

All properties will be super clean on your arrival, in accordance with our comprehensive Cleaning Guide.

This has affected our checkin times. Now it’s 5pm standard. If we can get you in early, we’ll call you. In off peak and low season this will happen more often.

Here's our most often asked questions regarding COVID-19, if you have more, do just ask us.

COVID-19 FAQs

If I book now, what is my situation for cancelling?

If you are looking to book a holiday with us, to stay after lockdown, then we are happy to offer you these more flexible booking terms.

You will need to pay a 50% deposit to confirm the booking, as normal. To give you more time to decide what to do, we have moved the balance due date to one month away (it was 8 weeks) from the stay date. This means you can cancel, for any reason up to 4 weeks away.

After that, balance due date, if YOU cancel then you’d need to claim on your Travel Insurance but we will try to resell the date too and may be able to give you some refund, although it may not be the amount you first paid.

If the Government stop you travelling, with another lockdown for example, we will refund (less 5% of your full amount paid + our non-refundable booking fee ) or move your date for you. The reason that we will take 5% is because at this point of the arrangement, our work is done. We are an advertising, marketing and sales company and our job is to find the right guest, make sure they are in the right house, at the right price. Our work is then essentially done at this point. We were not covered by this rule in the recent lockdown and spoke with all our guests to agree a voluntary fee that was fair. 95% of people agreed that this was fair, so we have decided to extend this in our terms going forward.

Moving your dates takes us admin’ time and we charge £55 for this. We don’t need to know your dates when you first tell us you are changing the stay. If you move your stay, you’re welcome to change house at the same time, bigger or smaller, we don’t mind. You may have to pay a surcharge if you choose a larger house to make up the difference, or we might owe you money if you choose a smaller one. We ask that you try to keep your stay within the year if possible.

Read our cancellation policy.

Read our full terms and conditions.

How will our check in and checkout be affected?

We are now working to the new guidelines from the Professional Association of Self Caterers (PASC). The new set of guidelines are comprehensive and the cleaning requirement is huge.

Normal changeovers are already hard work, but now the disinfection requirement is adding a great deal of time to the cleans. We have decided to delay all checkins to 5pm to allow enough time for this.

In order to deliver the holiday and to comply to regulations, we may also have to remove some of the items from houses that are for styling purposes, or that are not suitable for guests with the enhanced cleaning required. For example, first aid kits, shared food basics etc.

We also can’t provide enough pillows for everyone any more. We have to rotate our pillows between groups. So we will provide 1 pillow per person and be asking you to bring another if you want it. We also need you to strip your own beds at the end of your stay. That way our teams are protected against the virus transfer on bedding.

There is a lot for our teams to do!

Your safety and that of our property teams is of the highest priority to us. We will be contacting you by email shortly, to help you prepare for what to expect.

How are we currently cleaning properties between stays?

We are following best practice advice given by PASC. www.pascuk.co.uk

We already clean all the areas they suggest but will also extend our cleaning practice to include “an increased focus on cleaning and disinfecting ‘community’ areas (interior and exterior); light switches, TV controls, WIFI router, doorknobs, light switches, handles”, and the house keys and key box, for example.

It is important that you understand we will do our absolute best to ensure the cleanliness of all our properties, however we cannot guarantee it will be perfect. It is your choice to travel and take a holiday and we cannot be held responsible, in any way, if you contract COVID19, or other illnesses on holiday.

For more information on cleaning, please read our comprehensive Cleaning Guide.

What's on and what's happening in the local area?

The local community is slowly opening up again, following Government advice of course. There are some good local websites that will shortcut you to what’s happening.

For Lymington – use – https://www.lymington.com/

For Milford on Sea – use – http://www.milfordonseanews.org/

For an overview on the area and Brockenhurst – use – https://www.thenewforest.co.uk/

Where are the nearest hospitals?

Southampton Hospital is excellent. https://www.uhs.nhs.uk/home.aspx

Bournemouth Hospital is also very good. www.rbch.nhs.uk

Lymington has a community hospital with a minor injuries A&E. https://www.southernhealth.nhs.uk/locations/lymington-new-forest-hospital/

What about the local community?

At New Forest Escapes, our highest priority will always be for the safety of our guests, our team and the local community, which is why when the government called for the closure of holiday rental properties, we did so immediately. We have taken no guest stays to start in lock down except from those who came before lockdown started and stayed in isolation here just as we ourselves have done.

Unlike other holiday companies, we also offered our guests a refund of their holiday so that we could support them in their time of need.

During the summer lockdown we worked hard to implement many changes to our cleaning regime, in line with guidelines from the PASC (Professional Association of Self Caterers) we are ensuring that our communication to guests, our team and owners are clear on what we are doing that is best practice in our sector.

We are asking that all guests are following the law and only travelling if they are healthy and in appropriate group sizes for the current law.

We have provided additional training to our team, we are employing more local cleaners for additional cleaning time, we are only using cleaning materials that are approved based on their chemical make up. We are doing all we can with the help of our guests to ensure that changeovers leave minimal exposure to the COVID 19 disease for the next set of guests.

By implementing all these new protocols we are doing our part to minimise the spread of this disease as best we can by following government advice. Read our cleaning guide.