Red Pennant and non booking of sites.
Just met some people whose motorhome has broken down whilst in France. Red Pennant have looked after them well and they have had a chalet at their destination paid for without difficulty. However they are saying that they will not be covered for the accommodation needed on their return journey because they have nothing pre-booked. If this is true it would potentially have a great impact on those of us who do not book sites in advance. Surely it should be pointed out. Anyone else come across this?
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There may be so many variable replies to this problem that I think the best things would be an explanation from the club.
You don't say if they came home in their motorhome, The wording suggests not. In that case the policy would cover their return home, possibly by flying or train, in which case they would not have required accommodation on the way back.
Red Pennant brochure has the following:
Return home from scene of mishap total cost total
Continuation of holiday travel Up to £2000
Continuation of holiday accommodation Up to £20000 -
They have a hire car and are driving home. Their motorhome has been repatriated. The thing is you can forsee a situation where someone has no proof of their intended destination, so how would enabling their holiday to continue work then?
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Harry is wise to suggest reading the brochure. It has full details of the cover.
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I wonder what happens in the case of a caravan becoming unusable whilst abroad? Would there be an option for the van to be repatriated whilst the member and family, using the car, continued to holiday with alternative accommodation?
We have seen people pulling a caravan with a camper van as the tow car, so that option would probably be highly desirable.
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Should the accommodating vehicle, be it caravan or motorhome, become unavailable, then under 'continuation of holiday' rules surely the criteria would be to provide a solution until the date of the return ferry journey. if this is not the case, then Red Pennant are not fulfilling the spirit of the contract.
If the return ferry had not been booked either then I can see that some difficulty might arise.
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We had our caravan written off whilst in France in the 90's by a drunk driver who completely demolished one side of it. At the time we had no desire to continue our holiday really, we were just happy to be still alive and couldn't face driving at all for days. We paid for a very cheap hotel and very cheap meals and more or less stayed put in a village near the accident until our return ferry date. All our belongings were initially carried loose in the car boot or in black bin liners. A claim to Red Pennant refunded part of the hotel and meals costs up to the daily policy amount limits. We did find hotels and eating out vastly more expensive than French campsites and buying supermarket food. We also found that although our caravan was returned to the UK but then written off, some of the contents were missing. We have only ever been back once. In our experience, " continuing your holiday " wasn't really what we wanted, we just wanted to be home and safe asap....
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I imagine from what is being said that the motorhome is being repatriated to the UK and Red Pennant have provided them with a hire car? A vital piece of information is missing, how far are they from their return ferry port? It may well have been that with the motorhome they would have taken it in easy stages back to that port. It they were only 250/300 miles into France then Red Pennant may have made the decision that it was perfectly doable drive in one day. If they were much further into France then the decision does seem a bit strange and not what you would expect from the Club. I would have thought a pretty fair proportion of RP customers don't book en route sites.
David
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One good thing to come from this thread is that, when arranging a trip abroad, we need to consider more thoroughly than we probably do, what knock-on effects may take place in the event of a mishap. This includes unexpected overspends, and how any delays may affect our obligation back home.
Red Pennant could help by producing a booklet with a list of "what ifs", with answers as to how RP would act and what their limitations would be, and at what point our own contingency plans would have to be in place. It may not be possible to pre-guess every conceivable situation, but past history would account for most probabilities.
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Fundamentally Red Pennant was designed as an insurance policy for caravanners going overseas - to cover the perennial question of how to get the caravan home if the car breaks down. It was also designed for caravanners who book ahead - we will take you to a pre booked destination and bring you back as well.
But motorhomes are different and motorhomers are different. They need a breakdown policy for one vehicle not two. They don't generally have pre booked overseas destinations to be taken to. And when their engine needs garage attention they have nowhere to sleep.
So is Red Pennant the wrong sort of insurance for motorhomers ?
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I have always thought that there was emergency accommodation cover in the Red Pennant policy. Motorhome owners are in exactly the same position as caravan owners if some setback denies them use of their own vehicle for accommodation.
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We were insured through Saga/AA and car and caravan recovered to UK. I do recall that the insurance would not cover our one night hotel stay meals (I think) but we did eventually get it fully reimbursed after an appeal process, largely due to delays by them in arranging flights etc. which caused us to have to stay an extra night.
Motorhome European breakdown and recovery is often offered as an add-on at quite moderate cost e.g Safeguard, Comfort.
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