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| TERMS OF BUSINESS |
| In these conditions 'The Company' is Four Seasons
in New England and the term 'The Client' is the person who has
made arrangements with the Company as the principle contact or
party leader and is named on our booking form and confirmation
invoices. The 'Travel Agent' is the agent of the Client,
until a booking has been confirmed by the Company to the Client,
or to the Travel Agent as the case may be. Thereafter,
the Travel Agent shall be the Agent of the Company. |
Your contract with us |
1. How to make a reservation. Before we
can accept your booking, your party leader must read these conditions
and sign the booking form where indicated. The person who
signs the booking form does so on behalf of all members of the
party and binds them jointly and severally to these booking terms
and conditions. When you ask us to confirm your booking,
we will allocate you your chosen holiday and confirm your booking
by issuing a confirmation invoice on receipt of the initial payment. This
will be the only invoice issued unless you request a change in
the holiday booked. This agreement is governed by English
law with English Courts having exclusive jurisdiction. All
payments to be in £ Sterling unless otherwise agreed. |
2. Initial payment. At the time of confirming
your booking you will be asked to pay an initial payment of either
50% of the total amount of the holiday, or as indicated by us
(plus insurance premium in full if applicable, see insurance
requirements - item 8). If this payment is not received
within seven days your booking will be automatically cancelled. This
payment is your only commitment until eight weeks prior to departure. |
3. Payment of balance. The balance of
the holiday cost must be paid at least eight weeks prior to departure. If
this payment is not received within that time, we reserve the
right to treat your booking as cancelled, in which case you could
be liable to pay us the cancellation charges detailed in paragraph
6 below. If you arrange your holiday within eight weeks
of travelling then full payment is due with your booking. |
4. Refundable security deposit. At the
same time as the balance is paid a security deposit is required
of £200 per property. This will be refunded within
14 days of your return less any costs incurred, such as accidental
damage to the property and any contents, extra cleaning costs
if the property is left in an unreasonable state, loss or non
return of keys or long distance telephone charges. If there
are any additional charges over and above the security deposit,
you will be expected to reimburse the property owner accordingly
through Four Seasons in New England. Country Inns and B & Bs
do not require a security deposit and some resorts take a credit
card impression - we will advise. |
5. If you alter your booking. If you decide
to alter any details after your booking has been confirmed by
us, providing that we are informed not later than eight weeks
prior to departure, these will be treated as changes and a £25
administration fee will be charged. However, any change
requested within eight weeks will be treated as a cancellation
and could be subject to the charges outlined in paragraph 6 below. |
6. If you cancel your booking. If you
wish to cancel your booking you must do so by sending written
confirmation. The person who signed the booking form must
also sign the letter. In the event of a cancellation and
to compensate for the expense of processing your booking and
for any loss that may result from being unable to re-sell the
holiday, we charge cancellation fees as set out below. |
Period before departure
within which cancellation notice is received
|
Amount of cancellation
fee
(as % of holiday cost excluding insurance premium)
|
| More than 56 days |
Initial Payment |
| 56-43 days |
60% |
| 42-29 days |
75% |
| 28-0 days |
100% |
|
| The amount payable depends upon when we receive
the written confirmation of cancellation. The more notice
you give, the less we charge. Insurance premiums will not
be refundable. Please note that in the case of a cancellation
made after travel documents have been issued, we will be unable
to make a refund until all unused travel documents and tickets
have been returned. |
7. If you wish to complain. If you have
a problem during your holiday, please inform the property management
company (from whom you collected the keys) or accommodation provider
immediately, and they will endeavour to correct the matter. If
the problem cannot be completely resolved locally and within
a reasonable time, please contact Four Seasons in New England
whilst you are in USA and follow this up in writing within 14
days of your return home giving your original booking reference
and all relevant information. It is therefore a condition
of this contract that you communicate any problem to the accommodation
provider or property management company, whilst you are renting
their house, and Four Seasons in New England. If you fail
to do this, we cannot accept responsibility as we have been deprived
of the opportunity to investigate and rectify the problem. |
8. Insurance Requirements. Holiday and
Travel Insurance, including cancellation cover, is essential
for your own protection and you must be suitably insured either
through us or with an insurance company of your own choice. If
you are taking our insurance, the premium should be sent with
your holiday deposit. As cover is immediate upon acceptance
of your booking, the insurance premium is not refundable. Make
certain that your insurance cover includes loss of initial payments. |
9. Party Size. At no time must any more
persons occupy a property than stated on the booking form, except
with prior written agreement. Property owners or their
agents reserve the right to refuse admittance if this condition
is not observed. |
Our Contract with you |
1. Your Holiday Reservation. When you
request confirmation for your holiday booking we allocate your
chosen holiday to you and give confirmation at that moment. That
confirmation acts as our acceptance of the booking under these
Terms of Business and your holiday is confirmed from that moment. Subsequently
we will send you a Confirmation Invoice verifying the details
of the holiday that you have booked. This is the only invoice
that you will receive, unless you decide to alter any details
of the holiday booked. All holidays in this brochure are
subject to availability. |
2. Your Price Guarantee. We guarantee
that the price of your holiday will not be subject to any surcharges
once you have paid a deposit and received written confirmation. However,
we reserve the right to increase or decrease brochure prices
at any time. The price of the holiday shown on your confirmation
invoice will not increase unless you amend the booking after
confirmation is issued. All prices are based on US $1.75
to £1 sterling. We reserve the right to alter this
exchange rate. In the event of consumer levies or VAT being
introduced on holidays in our brochure, this will not be subject
to our surcharge guarantee. |
3. lf We Change Your Holiday. On occasions
it may be necessary to amend the arrangements you have selected
and we reserve the right to do so at any time. Where such
changes are considered to be a significant alteration of an essential
item of your contract, we undertake to advise you as soon as
is reasonably possible. Where a major change occurs (such
as a change of destination or a lower standard of accommodation),
and provided it does not arise from circumstances amounting to
Force Majeure (see below), you will have the choice of either
accepting the alternative arrangements or, once instructions
have been received in writing from you, you will receive a refund
of all monies paid, less any insurance premiums. Force
Majeure. Compensation payments do not apply where
performance of our contract with you is prevented by risk of
war or threat of war, riot, civil strife, industrial dispute,
terrorist activity, natural or nuclear disaster, fire, adverse
weather conditions, technical problems of transport, closure
or congestion of airports or ports, cancellations or changes
of schedule by scheduled airlines and any events beyond our control. |
4. If We Cancel Your Holiday. Although
it is unlikely, we reserve the right in any circumstances to
cancel your holiday. In this event we will inform you as
soon as possible and you will be offered the choice of an alternative
holiday of at least comparable standard if available, or a refund
of all monies paid, provided it does not arise from reasons of
Force Majeure, as set out above. |
5. Our Responsibility For Your Holiday. We
accept responsibility for any loss or damage which you may suffer
on holiday as a result of the negligence of the company and its
employees, acting in the course of their employment. This
liability is limited to the company and its employees only. The
accommodation is provided by independent suppliers, over whom
we have no direct control. The company accepts no liability
for loss or damage due to any fault by a travel agent, property
management agent or property owner. However, subject to
the note below, if you or any members of your party suffer death,
bodily injury or illness arising from the negligence of our suppliers
(claims will be limited in accordance with the International
Conventions which govern such services), sub-contractors, servants
or agents, we will accept responsibility provided that they were
acting within the scope of, or in accordance with, their employment
when the accident happened. Such responsibility shall be
limited only to the equivalent of such damages as you or any
member of your party would be entitled to receive under English
Law in an English court for any personal injury including illness
or death caused by negligence as understood in English Law. Note:
should any payment be made to you or any member of your party
by us, under any of the circumstances as stated above, you must
assign to us any rights against the supplier or any other person
or party you may have in relation to the claim. We reserve
the right to claim in you, place against the supplier or person
responsible for causing illness, injury or death. This
means that you must assign that part of your rights to us and
we will be subrogated to those rights. |
6. Property Standards. We have carefully
selected the managing agents who are responsible for all the
properties on our books to uphold the high standards that we
have laid down, and we have inspected a representative sample
of their houses but cannot accept any liability for any misrepresentation
by the property management agency or any change made by the owner
since our inspection or any failure by the owner/agent to keep
the property clean, dry, in good repair and well maintained and
the contents in good and working order. We accept no liability
due to any loss or damage which you may suffer due to the state
of repair or the condition of the property. We cannot anticipate
the standards required for each individual holiday-maker and
therefore cannot accept liability for disappointment in this
connection. |
Passports and visas.
It is the customer's responsibility to ensure that all travel documentation is valid as airlines will not permit passengers to travel who do not have the correct documentation and who cannot comply with all regulations. You must have a full, 10 year British Passport, that is machine readable and valid for six months beyond your return date. Children under sixteen (on date of return) may travel on their parents' passports. If you are a British Citizen, hold a full British Citizen Passport and have the right of abode in the U.K., you will not need a visa. You will have to complete a visa waiver form before landing in the U.S. This will be provided by the airline. If you do not have a British Citizen Passport, you will probably require a visa, and you should check with the American Embassy Visa Unit on their website www.usembassy.org.uk/cons_web/visa/us/visitus.htm.
Visa Restrictions: Holiday makers may be denied entry due to previous convictions. If a traveller has been arrested or convicted they must apply for a separate visa to gain entry or may be ineligible altogether. Immigration will photograph and finger print all people entering USA. Check with the American Embassy Visa Department. |
Health Requirements: There are currently no vaccinations required for entry into the USA.
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