The following Terms and Conditions are applicable when booking with Longwood Holidays. Please read them carefully before booking.
1. Your
Holiday Contract
All arrangements made between Longwood Holidays Limited, a fully bonded member
of ABTA (V6754)
and ATOL (2199),
trading as Longwood Holidays Ltd, hereinafter called the “Company”, and
you the client are subject to the following conditions. When you make a
booking you guarantee that you have the authority to accept on behalf of your
party the terms of these booking conditions. A contract will exist as soon as
we issue our Confirmation Invoice, or as soon as your travel agent confirms
your booking, if using Viewdata. This contract is made on the terms of these
booking conditions, which are governed by English Law and the jurisdiction of
the English Courts. You may however, choose the law and jurisdiction of
Scotland or Northern Ireland if you wish to do so.
2. Your Financial Protection
We are a member of ABTA (holding ATOL
No. 2199 issued
by the Civil Aviation Authority,) which provide for your protection in the
event of our insolvency.
3. Your Holiday Price
a) A deposit of £100 for every person travelling must be paid when the
booking is submitted to the Company (unless the booking is made less than 8
weeks prior to departure, in which case we require full payment). The booking
is binding upon the Company only when it has issued its confirmation in
writing, unless you are booking within 7 days of your scheduled departure date
then a contract between us will exist when we, or your Travel Agent, on our
behalf, tell you that your booking is confirmed. Any money paid by a client to
a travel agent in respect of a booking with the Company and held by the agent
is, at all times, held on behalf of the Company.
b) The Company reserves the right to decline any booking.
c) The Company is not under any obligation to deliver any tickets or documents
appertaining to the booking until full payment has been received by the
Company, or your travel agent if effecting the booking via a travel agent.
d) The total cost of any booking shall be paid so as to be received by the
Company not less than 8 weeks prior to the departure date of the holiday. In
the event that payment is not received by the Company by that date, the
Company may choose to treat the booking as cancelled by the client, in which
case the deposit shall be forfeited as per our cancellation fees listed
hereunder.
e) Our prices are based on costs and exchange rates as published in our
individual product brochures.
f) The price of your holiday is subject to surcharges on the following items:
Government action, currency, aircraft fuel, over flying charges, airport
charges, and increases in scheduled airfares. Even in this case, we will
absorb an amount equivalent to 2% of the holiday price, which excludes
insurance premiums,and any amendment charges.Only amounts in excess of this 2%
will be surcharged but where a surcharge is payable there will be an
administration charge of £1 per person together with an amount to cover
agents’ commission. If this means paying more than 10% of the holiday price,
you will be entitled to cancel your holiday with a full refund of all money
paid except for any premium paid to us for holiday insurance and amendment
charges. Should you decide to cancel because of this, you must exercise your
right to do so within 14 days from the issue date printed on the invoice.
g) In the case of any decrease in cost of favourable currency fluctuations,
the Company is under no obligation to make any refunds.
4. If You Cancel Your Booking
a) You, or any member of your party, may cancel your holiday at any time
providing that the cancellation is made by the person signing the booking form
and is communicated to us in writing via the travel agent with whom you made
your booking, if booked through a travel agent. As this incurs administrative
costs, we will retain your deposit and in addition will apply cancellation
charges as a percentage of the entire holiday cost, up to the maximum shown
below:
| More
than 42 * days before departure date |
Deposit forfeited |
| Between
29 and 42 days Between 15 and 28 days Between 8 and 14 days Day of departure - 7 days (*day one of your cancellation will be taken as the day before your actual date of departure) |
30% 45% 60% 100% |
b)
However, if your booking includes a flight based on a restricted fare (eg.Apex,World
Offer, charter ticket) cancellation charges may be higher, up to in some cases
the full amount of the booking.
c) Regardless of holiday value, the minimum cancellation fee will be £ 100
per person.
d) Optional insurance premiums are not refundable in the event of
cancellation. If the reason for your cancellation is covered under the terms
of your insurance policy,you may be able to reclaim these charges.
5. If You Change Your Booking
a) If, after our confirmation invoice has been issued you wish to change your
travel arrangements in any way, for example your chosen departure date or
accommodation,we will do our utmost to make these changes but it may not
always be possible.Any requests for changes to be made must be in writing from
the person who made the booking or your travel agent.You will be asked to pay
an administration charge of £20 per person and any further cost we incur in
making this alteration.You should be aware that these costs could increase the
closer to the
departure date that changes are made and can be treated as a cancellation and
charged as per the charges in clause 4.
b) No refund or compensation will be made or given for any unused
hotel/apartment accommodation or any unused services or features of the
tour/holiday, nor will such accommodation, services or features be
exchangeable for any other accommodation, service or features if you change,
cancel or curtail your holiday.
6. If We Change or Cancel
a) It is unlikely that we will need to make any changes to your holiday
arrangements once they are confirmed, but as we do plan many months in
advance, this may sometimes be necessary and we reserve the right to do so.
Most will be minor changes, but where they are major, for example a
significant change of resort, a change of accommodation to that of a lower
category, a change of flight time by more than twelve hours or a change of
departure airport, except between London Airports (eg: Heathrow, Gatwick,
Stansted and Luton) we will inform you or your travel agent when you book, or
as soon as possible if you have already booked.You then have the following
choices:
i) to accept the alternative offered;
ii) to choose another holiday featured by Longwood Holidays;
iii) to cancel and receive a full refund of all monies paid to us.
Whichever of the above options you choose, we will pay you compensation (not
including infants under the age of 2 on the date of travel) as follows:
| Period
of notification prior to departure date |
Compensation
given |
| More
than 56 days Nil 56 - 29 days 28 - 15 days 14 - 0 days |
Nil £10 £20 £25 |
b) We
reserve the right in any circumstances to cancel your holiday, and all
holidays operate subject to a minimum number of participants. However, in no
case will we cancel your holiday less than eight weeks before the scheduled
departure date, except for reasons of force majeure as defined below, or
failure on your part to pay the final balance in accordance with Clause 3
above. In circumstances where we are unable to provide the holiday booked, we
will return to you all monies paid or offer an alternative holiday (featured
by Longwood Holidays) of comparable standard and if a cancellation occurs
within eight weeks of departure for reasons within our control, compensation
on a scale to that shown in clause 6 above.
7. Force Majeure
a) These payments will not be made for changes that arise as a result of
situations outside of our control. For example, technical or maintenance
problems with transport, changes imposed by rescheduling or cancellation of
flights by an airline or main charterer, the alteration of the airline or
aircraft, or refusal of landing rights by the CAA to any airline.
b) This also includes any other acts of force majeure (namely: war or threat
of war, riots, terrorist activity, civil strife, strikes and other industrial
disruption, natural disasters, fire, quarantine, epidemics, weather
conditions, Government action, or other events beyond our control).
c) If we have to curtail your holiday after departure due to a situation of
force majeure, we will offer a pro-rata refund for unused accommodation and
excursions only. Compensation will not be payable.
8. Our Liability To You
a) We accept responsibility for ensuring that your travel arrangements, which
you book with us, are supplied as described in this brochure. If any part of
your travel arrangements are not provided as promised due to the fault of our
employees, agents or suppliers we will pay you appropriate compensation if
this has affected the enjoyment of your travel arrangements. Subject to
paragraph b below our liability in all cases shall be limited to a maximum of
twice the value of the original travel arrangement costs.
b) We accept responsibility for death, injury or illness caused by the
negligent acts and/or omissions of our employees or agents together with our
suppliers and sub-contractors, whilst acting within the scope of, or in the
course of, their employment in the provision of your travel arrangements.We
will accordingly pay to you such damages as might have been awarded in such
circumstances under English Law or the law you have chosen under clause 1.
c) In respect of travel by air, sea and rail and the provision of
accommodation, our liability in all cases will be limited in the manner
provided by the relevant international convention, and the conditions of
carriage of any carrier. Copies of the conventions and the conditions are
available from our office upon request.
9. Personal Injury Unconnected With Your Booked Travel Arrangements
If you, or any member of your party, suffer death, illness or injury whilst
overseas arising out of an activity which does not form part of your travel
arrangements or an excursion arranged through us, we shall, at our discretion,
offer advice, guidance and assistance.Where legal action is contemplated and
you want our assistance, you must obtain our written consent prior to
commencement of proceedings. Our consent will be given subject to you
undertaking to assign any costs, benefits received under any relevant
insurance policy to ourselves.We limit the cost of our assistance to you or
any member of your party to £5,000 and upon the following conditions being
met: a) You must ask us for help within 90 days of the incident. b) You must
make a claim under your insurance policy’s legal expenses section.You must
show us proof that the insurance company has received your claim and, if you
recover any monies you must pay us the money we have spent in helping you.
10. If You Have A Complaint
If you have a problem during your holiday, please inform the relevant supplier
(e.g. your hotelier) and our resort representative immediately, who will
endeavour to put things right. If your complaint is not resolved locally,
please follow this up within 28 days of your return home by writing to our
Customer Relations Department, providing your booking reference and all other
relevant information. Please keep your letter concise and to the point, this
will help us to quickly identify your concerns and speed up our response to
you.
It is strongly suggested that you communicate any complaint to the
supplier of the services in question as well as to our representative without
delay and complete a Customer Report Form whilst in resort.
If you fail to follow this simple procedure we will have been
deprived the opportunity to investigate and rectify your complaint whilst you
are in resort and this may affect your rights under this contract.
What Happens To Complaints
It is unlikely that you will have a complaint that cannot be settled amicably
between us.However, disputes arising out of, or in connection with this
contract which cannot be settled amicably,may (if you wish) be referred to
Arbitration, under a special scheme which, though devised by arrangement by
the Association of British Travel Agents, is administered quite independently
by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. The Scheme provides for a simple
and inexpensive method of arbitration on documents alone with restricted
liability on the customer in respect of costs. Full details will be provided
on request or can be obtained from the ABTA website (www.abta.com).The scheme
does not apply to claims for an amount greater than £5,000 per person.There
is also a limit of £ 15,000 per booking form. Neither does it apply to claims
which are solely in respect of physical injury or illness or their
consequences.The Scheme can however deal with compensation claims, which
include an element of minor injury, or illness subject to a limit of £1,000
on the amount the arbitrator can award per person in respect of this element.
The application for arbitration and Statement of Claim,must be received by the
Chartered Institute of Arbitrators within nine months of the date of return
from the holiday. Outside this time limit arbitration under the Scheme may
still be available if the Company agrees, but the ABTA Code does not require
such agreement.
11. Brochure Accuracy
a) Description of facilities provided at hotels and all information are given
in good faith and every effort has been made to ensure their accuracy.However,
it is possible that hoteliers, shop-keepers, nightclub owners, etc. (over whom
we have no control) may wish to change or reduce their facilities (e.g. a
swimming pool may be closed for maintenance or empty for cleaning, a
discotheque may be closed for redecoration) which will then be temporarily or
permanently unavailable. In some cases the operation of air-conditioning or
central heating is at the discretion of the management and so is the heating
of swimming pools. Some hotels charge for nightclubs or discotheques, tennis
courts, mini-golf, table tennis, deck chairs, umbrellas, health clubs, beach
equipment and similar additional facilities. Public holidays and religious
festivals may also affect the operation of resort or hotel facilities.The
operation of swimming pools is at the discretion of hotel management and
clients who require confirmation of availability of swimming should check when
booking their holidays. Hotels offering satellite TV may provide only a
limited selection of channels in English. b) Whilst we endeavour to ensure
that all of the details shown in this brochure are correct, changes may need
to be made to the brochure descriptions, facilities offered or any building
work being undertaken. We do therefore; reserve the right to make changes to
the particulars contained in this brochure. Should the change be deemed to
seriously affect your holiday, you will be notified of such changes at the
time of booking, or as soon as we become aware of any changes, if the changes
occur after you have made your booking.
12.Your Responsibility
a) You must have comprehensive insurance when travelling. If you are not
taking our insurance cover, you must take travel insurance providing
comparable or greater cover.
b) We can refuse to accept you as a customer or continue dealing with you if
your behaviour is disruptive and affects other holidaymakers, employees or any
third party. If we do this, we will not be responsible for any additional
costs which you have to pay. If you are prevented from travelling because in
the opinion of any person in authority you appear to be disruptive, we will
have no further liability to complete your holiday arrangements, and will not
be liable for any refund or compensation.
c) When you travel with the carrier, you must comply with their Conditions of
Carriage. Whilst we will assist you where possible you must note that any
matters relating to the airline, such as lost/delayed baggage, is the sole
responsibility of the airline.
d) Please note that in accordance with the Air Navigation Orders, in order to
qualify for infant status, a child must be under 2 years of age on the date of
their return flight.
13. Extra Beds and Single Rooms
Please ask our reservations department for details regarding the type
and availability of extra beds in hotel rooms or self-catering accommodation.
Some hotels have twin or double bedded rooms where a third or fourth bed may
be added. It should be noted that in some cases the third/fourth beds may be
rollaway beds or divans, and the room may well become cramped. It should also
be noted that single rooms may sometimes be smaller in size. Single room
supplements are based on a cost per room basis and reflects the real cost to
us. Please see Holiday Information section.
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