Terms and Condtions

This is Our Agreement which you sets out what you are legally entitled to expect from us when you buy our travel services.

1. Your booking

You must be 18 years old at the time of booking. You are responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the personal details or any other information supplied in your booking. You are also responsible for notifying us prior to the time of booking of any personal circumstances and needs (e.g. if you have reduced mobility) and if you cease to be self reliant or have reduced mobility after your booking.

2. Insurance

It is a condition of your booking with us that you are adequately insured on holiday. You must arrange travel insurance yourself.

3. Booking confirmation

Your booking is not confirmed until you receive confirmation via email from us.

4. The price

We reserve the right to change any of our prices from time to time. Large movements in exchange rates can affect our costs and cause the price of our trips to go up or down. We reserve the right to increase the price of your holiday after you have booked but no later than 30 days before the departure date stipulated and will forward an Amendment Invoice reflecting any changes made. Any increase to your holiday price will be as the result of changes in our costs of supplying your holiday resulting from transportation charges, accommodation charges, currency fluctuations and government action.

If the increase would be 2% or less of the holiday price on your invoice, we will absorb the changes in our costs described above and will only pass on any increase above that level. If any change in our costs would cause a reduction in your holiday price, we will not make refunds of amounts less than 2% of your holiday price (calculated as above), but we will refund in full amounts exceeding such 2%.

If the increase is more than 10% of the holiday price (calculated as above), then you may cancel your holiday booking within 14 days of the Amendment Invoice date and receive a refund of all monies paid to us except any amendment charges; we will only consider an appropriate refund of insurance premium paid if you can show us that you are unable to transfer or re-use your policy.

The price quoted on the last Amendment Invoice issued is guaranteed, unless you change your holiday booking. Any increases in our costs which occur after the last Amendment Invoice has been sent will be borne by us. Should you instruct your credit/debit card company to “charge back” any payment(s) properly due from you in respect of your booking, we will charge you an administrative fee of £10 per incident and associated costs. We further reserve the right to cancel your booking and/or take legal action against you for all outstanding payment(s).

5. If we cancel your booking

We aim to provide your holiday as booked. But if, for example, there are not enough people booked on your holiday, we may cancel it. We reserve the right to cancel your holiday in any circumstances but if we cancel your holiday you can either have a refund or accept a replacement holiday from us of equivalent or closely similar standard and price (if one is available). We will refund the difference in price if the replacement holiday is of a lower standard and price. We will not cancel your holiday less than eight weeks before you go, unless this is the result of one of an event beyond our control.

6. If we change your booking

We hope that we will not have to make any change to your holiday but, because our holidays are planned many months in advance, we sometimes do need to make changes. We reserve the right to do this at any time. We will let you know about any important changes when you book. If you have already booked, we will let you know as soon as we can, if there is time before your departure.

Major changes to your holiday

If we have to make major changes to your holiday, we will tell you about these changes and you may either:

• accept the new arrangements offered by us; or
• accept a replacement holiday from us of equivalent or closely similar standard and price, if one is available;
• cancel your holiday with us and receive a full refund of all monies paid.

Either way, we will pay you compensation, using the Compensation table shown, unless the change is for reasons beyond our control and we will always refund the difference in price if the replacement holiday is of a lower standard and price.

Major changes to your holiday for which we will pay compensation may include the following changes: a significant change of destination; a change in accommodation to that of a lower category, a change in the dates of your holiday.

Compensation

Any compensation payable will be on these scales, based on how many days before your booked holiday departure we tell you of a major change.

Period before departure when a major change is notified	Compensation payable per person
More than 56 days	0
55-29 days	£10
28- 15 days	£20
14-8 days	£30
7-0 days	£40

Events beyond our control

Events beyond our control include: war, threat of war, riots, civil disturbances, terrorist activity, industrial disputes, natural and nuclear disasters, fire, epidemics, health risks, technical problems with transport including changes due to rescheduling or cancellation of flights by an airline or alteration of the airline or aircraft type for reasons beyond our control or that of our suppliers; closed or congested airports or ports, hurricanes and other actual or potential severe weather conditions, and any other similar events.

7. Complaints

If you have a complaint about your arrangements whilst away, you must immediately notify the supplier of the service in question locally. If they are unable to resolve the problem immediately, and a member of our staff is not available, you should contact us straight away by telephone/fax/e-mail and we will endeavour to assist. If you are still not satisfied on your return home, you must write to our Customer Services within 28 days of returning from your holiday to allow your complaint to be investigated properly. Please include your daytime and evening telephone numbers. If you do not give us the opportunity to resolve any problem locally by reporting it to the supplier, or calling and informing us, then we may not be able to deal positively with any complaint on your return.

We should be able to sort out any complaints you may have. But if we cannot agree, you can take the matter to an arbitrator appointed by The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. Details and application forms are available from ABTA, 30 Park Street, London, SE1 9EQ.

The arbitrator will only deal with your complaint if it relates to a holiday and:

• you are claiming up to £5,000 for each person or £25,000 for each booking;
• you contact them within 9 months of the end of your holiday; and
• your complaint does not involve major physical injury or illness in excess of £1,000.

Our responsibility for your holiday

We will arrange for you to receive the services that make up your holiday. These services will be provided either directly by us or through independent suppliers contracted by us. We are responsible for making sure that each part of the holiday you book with us is provided to a reasonable standard and was as advertised by us (or as changed and accepted by you). If any part of your holiday is not provided as described and this spoils your holiday, we will pay you appropriate compensation unless this is due to reasons beyond our control.

We have taken all reasonable care to make sure that all the services which make up the holidays advertised by us are provided by efficient and reputable businesses. These businesses should follow the local and national laws and regulations of the country where they are provided. However, overseas safety standards in South East Asia are generally lower than in the West.

8. Personal Injury

We have no direct control over the way our suppliers provide their services but everyone employed or contracted by us or by our suppliers is expected to carry out their duties in accordance with accepted standards of behaviour in that country. If they do not carry out their duties in accordance with accepted standards of behaviour in that country (or at all) and that fault results in your injury, illness or death, we may make a payment to you. We will not make any payment if your injury, illness or death was caused by an event or circumstances which the person who caused it could not have predicted or avoided even if they had taken all necessary and due care. We will not make any payment if your illness, injury or death was your own fault. If we do make a payment, it will be similar to one you would receive under English law in an English court.

Note: We will make such payments for injury, illness or death on the basis that you are expected to accept that:

You must tell us and the supplier involved about your injury or illness while you are at the location. You should also contact our Customer Services via the contact form on our website within three months of coming home from your holiday to allow us to investigate it properly and co-operate with us so as to enable us to carry out such investigation. Please include a letter about your injury or illness from your doctor if you can.

• You should transfer to us any rights you have against the supplier or any other person.
• You should co-operate fully with us if we or our insurers want to enforce those rights.
• Any payments we make may be limited in accordance with international conventions.

We ask you to transfer your rights to us so that we can claim back from suppliers any payments we make to you, plus any legal or other costs. We will not make a profit from this. If we get back from the supplier more than we have paid you plus these costs, we will give the extra money to you.

If you fall ill or die while taking part in an activity which is not part of the holiday, or you need to incur unpredictable extra expenses for which we are not liable because the event is beyond our control we will, where appropriate and subject to our discretion, try to help if we can. For example, we can help by:

• providing translation services
• communicating with authorities and others in foreign resorts
• recommending foreign lawyers (if necessary)
• explaining the procedures you should follow
• telling you of any time limits

We will help everyone on your holiday booking up to a total cost to us of $3,000 as long as the following conditions are met:

1. You must ask us for help within three months of coming back from holiday.
2. You must make a claim under your insurance policy’s legal expenses or other appropriate section. You must show us proof that your insurance company has received your claim and, if you get back the cost of legal or other expenses, you must repay us any money we have spent in helping you.

9. Your contract

By asking us to confirm your booking, you are accepting that the terms of this Agreement constitute the entire agreement between us with regard to your booking and your travel arrangements. You also consent to our processing personal information about you. Your contract with us shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the law of England and Wales. You agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales over any claim or matter arising under or in connection with your contract with us.

10. Payment

You will be required to pay a deposit to us. The deposit amount will be specified by us. If it is not specified, then it will be the amount that we ask you to pay when you book, even if this is 100% of the holiday price. You must pay the amount on the last Invoice issued by us, at least eight weeks before you go on holiday. If you don’t, we reserve the right to treat your booking as cancelled and to charge you a cancellation charge up to 100% of the total on that last Invoice, in accordance with the scale in section 12.

If your payment is made by credit card a handling fee will apply, please check fee at time of booking. This may also apply to some debit cards. We accept bank transfers direct to our account, with any bank fees paid by you.

11. If you change your booking

11.1. If you want to change any details of your booking, we will do our best to help but please note that more major changes, such as those that would lower the basic price of your holiday, will be treated by us as a different holiday. We charge an ‘Amendment Fee’ of $50 if you make the change more than 56 days before departure or $100 if you make the change within 56 days of departure.

11.2. The price of your new travel arrangements will be based on the prices that apply on the day you ask for the change. These prices may not be the same as when you first booked your travel arrangements.

11.3. Name change, and or departure details such as date and time changes are not always allowed by airlines and other transport providers whenever they are made. Whilst we will do our best to change the details of the booking, please bear in mind that most airlines and other transport providers treat name and departure detail changes as a cancellation and charge accordingly. These charges will be passed on to you. Once tickets have been issued, and sometimes even before they have been issued, any changes made to the ticket, including names or initials, will result in you having to pay for the cancelled ticket and buy a new ticket at full cost.

11.4. If at any time after you have booked your holiday, you want either to change to a different holiday, then you will have to pay cancellation charges (see section 12).

11.5. Subject always to clause 11.3, if you are prevented from taking the holiday you have booked, you may transfer your booking to another person, provided you meet the following conditions:

• You must authorise us to make the transfer;
• The person to whom you transfer your holiday booking must comply with all the terms of the existing booking;
• That person must accept the transfer and the terms of Our Agreement;
• That person must show us new evidence of their holiday insurance, as your policy cannot be transferred to another person (and the premium cannot be refunded);
• We will also charge amendment fees in accordance with section 11.1. This will be added to the new Invoice issued to that person;
• You cannot transfer a holiday booking within 14 days of departure; and
• You will remain responsible for the payment of any balance on that new Invoice should that person fail to pay it.

12. If you cancel your booking

If you want to cancel your booking, you must advise us. Once we receive your notice of cancellation you will receive a Cancellation Invoice within 14 days. If you do not then please contact us. To cover the cost of processing your cancellation and to compensate us for the risk that we may not be able to resell your travel arrangements, we make a cancellation charge on the scale shown below. The person who made the booking is responsible for paying this charge. The size of the charge depends on when we receive your notification– the more notice you give, the less we will charge.

If you are travelling on a scheduled flight, we cannot give you any refund until we have received your old travel documents, including tickets. Please return them to us immediately.

Cancellation charges

These charges are based on how many days before your booked departure we receive your cancellation notice. These charges are a percentage of the total cost of your booking, not including your insurance premium.

Period before departure within notice of cancellation is received.	% of total booking price.
56 days or more	Loss of deposit*
55-36 days	50%
35-22 days	70%
21-11 days	90%
10-0 days	100%

* Where the standard deposit is increased to secure specific facilities or an additional payment has been made for transport tickets (see Section 10 and 11.3) and these are non-refundable in whole or in part, then the scale of charges shown will be calculated based on a % of the cost of all other arrangements and the non-refundable charges will be added to that cancellation charge to give the total charge. If a low deposit scheme was used for your booking, the full deposit as advised at time of booking or as stated on the confirmation invoice will need to be paid in full upon cancellation, if you have not already paid the full percentage of deposit due (standard deposit £150 per person short haul and £225 per person long haul).

13. Your accommodation

Any accommodation we arrange for you must only be used by those people named on your Confirmation Invoice (or on latest Amendment Invoice issued). You are not allowed to share the accommodation or let anyone else stay there. You are responsible for the cost of any damage caused to your accommodation or its contents during your stay,. These charges must be met by you and may have to be paid locally.

14. The conditions of your ticket

When you travel by air or by sea, your journey may be subject to certain international conventions such as the Warsaw Convention, Montreal Convention or Athens Convention. You agree that the transport company’s own ‘Conditions of Carriage’ will apply to you on that journey. When arranging this transportation for you, we rely on the terms and conditions contained within these international conventions and those ‘Conditions of Carriage'. You acknowledge that all of these terms and conditions form part of your contract with us as well as with the transport company. You can ask us to provide you with a copy of any of the conditions applicable to your journey. We will tell you the identity of the air carrier when you book with us and if it is not known at that time or subsequently changes we will inform you as soon as possible and no later than at check-in for your flight.

15. Contacting you

If you book via our website or have opted in other circumstances for us to contact you via e-mail, we will communicate with you using the e-mail address you have provided. For example, to provide your e-confirmation, e-ticket, e-cancellation, etc. We will assume that your e-mail address is correct and that you understand the risks associated with using this form of communication.

16. Contacting us

Holiday Volunteers is a division of Travel Business Analyst Limited, having its Registered Office address at 46 Boulevard des Arbousiers, Sainte Maxime, 83120, France. To contact us, please use the contact form on our website.