DENVER — A travel agency in Colorado had to cancel 90% of their trips, including school trips, because of COVID-19, leaving them on the verge of bankruptcy and one parent upset about the refund.
Louis Rodriguez paid more than $2,500 for his daughter's school trip to Mexico. When Denver Public Schools canceled all trips because of COVID-19, Louis got back $995 as a refund from Walking Tree Travel.
He said that's "not even half."
When we asked Walking Tree Travel about the refund, they think the refund was more than fair.
"Many student travel companies are not offering refunds at all, Walking Tree is actually an exception in that regard," wrote Walking Tree Travel Co-founder Luke Mueller.
He pointed to their policy, "refunds are not offered within 60 days but we made an exception to that policy in favor of families."
The trip was canceled 12 days before departure, which Mueller says was a huge limiting factor. "We understand why Louis is mad but Walking Tree didn't cancel the program, DPS did," wrote Mueller. "Our first option is to always offer the same trip but at a future date, in which case we can offer 100% credit so families realize the full value of their investment."
Denver Public Schools told 9NEWS several of the travel agencies that had to cancel or postpone trips have already fully refunded students and families. “We are disheartened to hear some travel agencies aren’t offering full refunds given the circumstances of the global pandemic," wrote a DPS spokesperson.
In an email to Rodriguez, Mueller with the traveling agency wrote, “we should be holding on to every penny to which we're legally entitled but decided against that path in order to try and do the right thing."
"I was insulted," said Rodriguez. "Just the fact that it seemed very unfair that they would take the money then tell me you're lucky you got what you got."
The single father said he worked extra to collect the money for the trip -- now more than ever he wishes he had his full refund.
Walking Tree sympathizes with Rodriguez and says no one was expecting a pandemic like this. "If travel doesn't resume in the near term, Walking Tree is facing bankruptcy," wrote Mueller.
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