SPECIAL APARTMENTS

As you are well aware: Eyjafjallajokull, the Iceland volcano that erupted this week has caused havoc, with all flights to and from Europe being canceled.

We have been asked by many of our guests what we would do in these exceptional circumstances and if we will reimburse our clients for their prospected stay in one of our apartments.

This, is as one can well imagine a very delicate situation for us: If we reimburse everyone that could not come at such short notice (and contrary to our cancellation policy) we will suffer great financial difficulty in already extremely hard times. Even the airlines are considering taking their countries to court if  they do not get compensation for being grounded. We are not in such a powerful position, so money that we would reimburse would just be entirely lost. Unfortunately we would not be able to handle this financially, whilst continuing to offer the same kind of service that people have come to expect from us and our survival would be placed in jeopardy.

We ourselves pay rent for the apartments that we offer, not working on a commission basis as many other agencies do. This guaranties exclusivity of the majority of our apartments and a certain standard, but puts the risk factor on a much higher level, whether high season or low, economic crisis or natural catastrophes….

On the other hand we believe that we should make a gesture and try to help out in some way, so after careful consideration we have decided the following:

Anybody that reserved an apartment with Special Apartments and was not able to come because of the volcano incident will be awarded high reductions for a stay of the same length over the next year*.

A 20% reduction on normal prices for a future stay during high season (From now until July 15th 2010, 25th August-31st October 2010 and March 15th- 30th April 2011) For stays over the Christmas/New year Holidays (15th December 2010 - 5th January 2011) there is normally a 20% surcharge this will be wavered for this offer, so the price will be as at other times of year.

A 30% reduction on normal prices for a future stay during Low season (From July 15th- 25th August 2010, 31st October-15th December 2010 and 5th January-March 15th 2011)

This offer cannot be associated with any other special offers (last minute or timesavers) and only concerns the same number of days as the original booking. Any additional dates will be charge at normal rates. If not all the dates are used, the dates that are left may still be used for another stay before the expiry date of the offer (30th April 2011).  Extra services will not be offered at a reduced rate.

Additionally, any extra services that were ordered (museum passes, shuttles, baby cots, grocery shopping etc.) will be reimbursed immediately to the same credit card that was used to make the original booking.

For clients who arrive a few days late for their stay, we will try to arrange that they can stay for some extra days at the end on a case by case basis.

We hope that this will alleviate in some way the losses and disappointment that this situation has caused.

*Offer ends 30th April 2011

We’re very proud of our Guest relations officer Hugh Yates, who has been training very keenly for the last few months to run the Paris Marathon on the 11th April.

Here is a note from him

On the 11th April I will be pounding the Parisian pavements (je trottinerai les trottoirs parisiens) for 42km (it sounds way further in metric). I shall be running in aid of the Ellen MacArthur trust, a charity set up to encourage young people who have suffered from cancer to get their lives going again by introducing them to sailing.

I am doing this in memory of my brother Will, who was a very keen sailor (and general all-round Francophile), and would have really approved of the charity and its work.

I haven’t set a target for donations (or for my finishing time) so please just give what you can.

Thanks very much,

Hugh

And here’s the link to give a donation for a great cause! Click here

We’ve just had some great articles on a couple of great sites on the internet !

The first one coming from Swell City Guide features one of our new luxury two-bedroom apartments situated near the Opera Garnier (reference #009), which you can check out by clicking here . We think that Swell City Guide is pretty cool too, with lots of info about quite a few cities in the world.

The second Article is on a well-known site for the gay community in Germany, who wrote a great article on our service (in German), highlighting a few of our apartments, which you can read by clicking here