Vacationers on Cape Cod deal with power outages, rental refunds

Jul. 25--WEST YARMOUTH -- Zaneta Luna heard about a tornado touching down on Cape Cod, but it wasn't until she saw the roof missing on one wing of the Cape Sands Inn on Wednesday that the California resident realized her vacation plans were about to change.

"I was surprised when we drove in," said Luna, who is from San Lorenzo. "They were doing something here, and we didn't know what it was."

Instead of checking in, she planned to start calling a list of motels and hotels provided by Cape Sands Inn owner Bobby Khan.

While the Cape Sands Inn was the only motel to suffer significant structural damage Tuesday, widespread power outages on the Lower and Mid-Cape have stranded hundreds of vacationers in rentals with no electric lights, air conditioning, electric ovens or -- in rentals that rely on wells -- running water.

Some places, including Cape Sands, are reimbursing visitors for lost days and referring them to facilities that have power and water.

Where the rental is a private home, vacationers may have to negotiate with their landlord to receive any reimbursement, reduction in rates or credit for future stays, according to a Cape attorney.

"Each (rental) lease is different," Michael Pierce, of Hyannis, said. "That's why tenants have to be careful."

A day after a tornado touched down on Cape Cod -- in West Yarmouth and Harwich -- power in the main office of the Cape Sands Inn remained out and even the undamaged wings have no fire alarms or phone service, Khan said.

Vacationers are being reimbursed and referred to motels that will honor the rates charged by Cape Sands Inn, Khan said.

"We have to relocate them," Khan said.

"In the industry it's called walking your guests to another property," said Wendy Northcross, president and CEO of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce.

It helps that the tornado occurred early in the week, when motels and hotels are not typically full, Northcross said.

The Chatham Tides is reimbursing guests who choose to leave due to lack of power and limited services, said Lynn Mucciano, vice president of sales and marketing for Maverick Hotels and Restaurants.

The hotel overlooking Nantucket Sound also is reaching out to guests expected to arrive by Friday to let them know they'll get a refund if they cancel and will be given the opportunity to rebook at a later date at the same rate, Mucciano said.

Hotel officials hope the power is back on by Thursday, but they do not have a guarantee, Mucciano said.

Even so, "we're open. Everybody's safe and sound," Mucciano said.

By late Wednesday afternoon, the parking lot of the Soundings on Nantucket Sound in Dennis Port was nearly empty.

A man who worked there said the corporate office made the call to evacuate given the lack of working fire alarms and pumps for the septic system.

Some vacationers are staying put in their rentals and doing their utmost to make the most of rustic circumstances.

Elaine Axler, of Connecticut, said she and her family have no intention of cutting their vacation short, despite having no power and a downed tree in the backyard of their rental cottage.

"We are going to enjoy it," Axler said during a visit to Englewood Beach in West Yarmouth on Wednesday morning. "We paid for it until Saturday, might as well make the best of it."

The neighborhood surrounding the beach was among the hardest hit in town, according to Town Administrator Daniel Knapik.

In nearby Dennis Port, the streets were like a maze, with parts of Lower County Road and Summer Street blocked off while crews from electric companies and tree services attended to live wires and downed trees.

On the narrow roads leading to Nantucket Sound, large branches squashed white picket fences in front of small cottages that remained remarkably unscathed.

Vacationers renting private homes who want some compensation for tornado-related power outages flattening their plans have to look to their leases -- or the goodwill of landlords -- Pierce said.

The clauses in leases that refers to unexpected or disruptive events are called by a French term, "force majeure," Pierce said.

"They deal with unforeseen events or circumstances," Pierce said.

Unless language specifies that the tenant is entitled to a refund, price reduction, relocation or credit, the landlord may be free of any obligation to provide the tenant with compensation, Pierce said.

"A lot of landlords want overly broad act-of-God clauses," Pierce said.

But some landlords provide automatic refunds before even considering other ways to satisfy guests for circumstances totally out of the landlords' control, said Elizabeth Weedon at the Wellesley office of We Need a Vacation, which also has an office in Brewster.

Besides checking in with guests and making sure they are safe, landlords may consider negotiating with the guest and coming up with a solution that both the renter and the landlord agree on, Weedon said.

We Need A Vacation has more than 1,400 clients from Hyannis to Orleans, Weedon said. She said Wednesday she doesn't know how many are affected by the power outages, but "our phone is ringing off the hook."

Vacationers in homes that rely on well water to flush toilets and run water are going to have a harder time when the power is out than vacationers in rentals with town water, Weedon said.

Every case is different, she said.

When a guest of We Need A Vacation co-owner Joan Talmadge had a problem with the air conditioning, Weedon said that Talmadge immediately called a repair person and gave the guest a gift certificate to a nearby inn.

Be responsive and sympathetic, Weedon said.

Having rental insurance also can make it easier to reimburse renters when the unexpected happens to the guests' vacations and the landlords' budgets, Weedon said.

Put things in perspective, Mucciano said.

"They can always rebuild hotels. They can't rebuild people," Mucciano said.

-- Follow Cynthia McCormick on Twitter: @Cmccormickcct. Reporter Kristen Young contributed to this story.

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