BOOKING CONDITIONS
PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS CAREFULLY
BEFORE YOU MAKE YOUR BOOKING.
The airlines featured in this brochure are not party
to the contract for the provision of the holidays.
Your Financial Security
Creative Tours (Europe) B.V. ECTE with whom you make a contract when
you book your holiday is a member of ABTA (The Association of British
Travel Agents Ltd), number v5471, J5340 and has an ATOL (Air Tour
Operators Licence) Licence number 5794. We are fully bonded by the
CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) for all holidays and travel arrangements
in this brochure. This means that when you book a holiday with us,
you can be entirely confident that in the unlikely event of our insolvency,
before or during your holiday, any money you have paid to us (excluding
insurance premiums) is entirely secured, and if you are overseas,
that full arrangements will be made to repatriate you at the end of
your holiday.
Booking and Deposit
To make a booking you must complete and sign the booking form and
pay a deposit of 50 per person, or make payment in full if you are
booking within 31 days of departure. Bookings may be made direct to
our office or through your local ABTA travel agent. If you book through
a travel agent, upon receipt of your money your travel agent will
provide you with an ATOL receipt which gives the relevant details
of your booking. Within 3 days of notification of the booking to us
by the travel agent we will send him an ATOL Confirmation Invoice
which he will immediately pass on to you. No contract for the provision
of the holiday exists between you and us until we have sent out our
Confirmation Invoice so that if, for reasons such as unavailability,
we are unable to accept your booking, our liability to you will be
limited to refunding to you the full amount of any money you have
paid. All money paid to your travel agent under or in contemplation
of a contract to provide one of our holidays is held by the agent
on our behalf until he passes it over to us. If you book direct with
us we will immediately either issue a Confirmation Invoice or return
your deposit.
Payment of Balance
You must pay the balance of the price of your holiday at least 31
days before departure otherwise we shall be entitled to cancel your
booking in which case you will be liable for the cancellation charges
detailed under Cancellation by You below.
Changes by You
If after we have confirmed your booking you wish to make any changes,
we will make every effort to accommodate your wishes, subject to availability
and any extra costs applicable. We will also make an administrative
charge of 25 per person. Notification of required alterations must
be in writing and should reach us at least 31 days prior to departure
We may, at our discretion, treat any alterations requested less than
31 days before departure as cancellations and new bookings, so that
the cancellation charges referred to below will then apply. Changes
of city destinations will be treated as cancellations / new bookings.
Cancellation by You
If you wish to cancel your booking, you must notify us in writing
and the following charges will apply, effective from the date we receive
your notification:
Number of days before departure before tickets issue:
| 31 days or more |
deposit |
| 30-15 |
50% |
| 14-7 |
80% |
| 6-0 |
100% |
| After tickets issue: |
100% |
(CTE will automatically issue tickets 2 weeks prior
to departure unless advised otherwise.)
Insurance
It is a condition of booking with us that you take out our special
insurance or arrange another policy that provides you with as much
or more cover, the details of which we require from you in writing.
In the event that you do not provide details of your alternative insurance
by the time full payment for your holiday is due we reserve the right
to cancel your booking.
Complaints
In the unlikely event of your having any cause for complaint during
your holidays you must immediately inform the local CTE representative
and the supplier in question to enable them to resolve any problems
as soon as possible. If a problem cannot be resolved locally you must
write to CTE giving full details within 28 days of returning to the
UK, failing which we shall have no liability to you. We can normally
agree an amicable settlement of any complaints we receive. However,
if this is not possible, a dispute may be referred to arbitration,
if you so wish, under a special scheme which, although devised by
arrangement with ABTA, 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. The scheme does not apply to claims for an amount
greater than 1,500 per person. There is also a limit of 7,500 per
booking form. Nor does it apply to claims which are solely or mainly
in respect of physical injury or illness or the consequence of such
injury or illness. The rules of the scheme provide that the application
for arbitration must be made within 9 months of the date of return
from the holiday but in special circumstances it may still be offered
outside that period. Alternatively, you are entitled to seek redress
through the appropriate court.
Changes by CTE
This brochure is prepared in advance of the holiday season, therefore
CTE are not in a position to confirm the airline operator or type
of aircraft / airport and some changes to the holiday arrangements
may occur. If changes occur prior to your booking we will inform you
of these prior to issuing our confirmation. In some cases changes
occur even after bookings have been confirmed and we therefore reserve
the right to make changes at any time. If the changes are minor, we
will inform you or your travel agent as soon as possible but will
have no other liability towards you. Occasionally we may have to make
a significant change to your holiday after confirmation and we therefore
reserve the right to do so. A significant change will include change
of UK departure airport, change of your departure or return time if
more than 12 hours, change of accommodation to a lower price or classification
as detailed in this brochure. If we have to make a significant change
we will notify you as quickly as possible and you may either:
a) accept the change in which case the contract between us will be
varied to incorporate the change; or
b) take another available holiday from the brochure at its advertised
price; or
c) cancel the holiday completely in which case we will refund all
monies paid to us.
Cancellation by CTE
We may have to cancel your holiday in exceptional circumstances, or
because in respect of some tours not enough people have booked for
the tours to be commercially viable. Details of minimum numbers for
tours are given in the tour descriptions. CTE therefore reserves the
right to cancel your holiday. However, under no circumstances except
for those beyond our control will we cancel the holiday within 4 weeks
of your departure date. If we have to cancel your holiday we will
offer you either an alternative holiday of equivalent quality (subject
to availability) or a full refund of all monies paid to us.
Prices
Whilst we reserve the right to increase or decrease the prices of
any of our holidays, once you have made your booking and we have issued
our Confirmation Invoice, we guarantee that the price of your holiday
will not be subject to any surcharges. You should note, however, that
if you amend any details of your booking after it has been confirmed
you may be subject to an amendment fee as detailed under Cancellation
by You or Changes by You.
Our Liability to You
We accept full liability for the proper performance of our obligations
under any agreement entered into with you for provision of a holiday
featured in this brochure, including liability for the acts or omissions
of our employees, agents, sub-contractors and other suppliers, unless
proper performance is not achievable due to:
a) matters which are the fault of you and/or other members of your
party; or
b) unforeseeable or unavoidable circumstances which are the fault
of persons who are not connected with the provision of these services
to be performed; or
c) any unusual and unforeseeable circumstances beyond our control,
the consequences of which we could not have avoided by exercising
all due care; or
d) any event which either we or the relevant supplier with all due
care could not have foreseen or forestalled.
Our liability as set out above is limited to the lesser
of:
i) (except in the case of personal injury) twice the price of the
relevant holiday; or
ii) the amount laid down in the relevant international Conventions
(whether or not those Conventions have been ratified or adopted in
the UK), for example the Athens Convention and the Warsaw Convention.
In the case of claims for personal injury (including
illness or death) subject as above, we accept responsibility for the
negligent acts and/or omissions of CTE's employees or agents and also
of our suppliers and sub-contractors whilst acting within the scope
of, or in the course of their employment, but not otherwise, and we
do not in any event accept any liability for the acts and omissions
of the air and sea carriers (and their servants and agents) in performing
any domestic, internal or international carriage of any kind. Additionally,
where appropriate and subject to CTE's reasonable discretion:
a) we shall afford general assistance to a client who through misadventure
suffers personal injury, (including illness or death) during the period
of the holiday arising out of an activity which does not form part
of the holiday contracted for; and
b) if you undertake legal action in relation to that misadventure
with our prior agreement, we shall meet your initial legal costs provided
such assistance is requested within 90 days of the date of the misadventure.
In any event, the aggregate cost we incur in respect
of a) and b) above shall not exceed 5,000. Furthermore, in the event
of your recovering any of these costs, whether through insurance or
otherwise, you shall immediately repay them to us.
Jurisdiction
The contract arising from any confirmed holiday booking is to be interpreted
under and is subject to the laws of England. We both agree to submit
any dispute or claim under it or connected with the holiday to the
English Courts or, if you live in Scotland, the Scottish Courts. |