Why ESC recommends you take a personal travel insurance policy.
If you take a personal travel insurance policy it will protects you from potential losses if for some reason you have to cancel your booking. ESC will endeavour to find a replacement booking but this can not be guaranteed especially at the last minute and there is an administration fee of 5% with a minimum cost of £50. Full refunds cannot be given immediately because most of the properties are individually owned and ESC provides a management service for them and ESC needs to protect their clients investment interests. If you can imagine you were the owner of a property that ESC managed and you were advised that a booking has been achieved for a given period 6 months in advance and then at the last minute the person cancels and no replacement booking is found. You would not be very pleased with ESC If a full refund was provided immediately you were left with no income from your investment property. ESC could have also advised several other interested parties that during the time from the original booking to the cancellation date that unfortunately the property was booked. It would therefore mean that ultimately ESC would just be operating a reservation system and not a booking one.
Therefore ESC has to protect it's clients but would always advise guests to protect themselves from potential losses by taking out a comprehensive travel insurance policy. It would also cover you for theft, medical emergencies, travel delays etc, etc A travel insurance policy should be mandatory in any travel plans that people make.