Your Rights
Your Rights under this agreement are set
out below. They depend upon whether we Lotus International Limited are acting
as an agent or whether your contract is with us.
a) Where we are
an agent
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i. Where we act as an agent the front of all relevant pages of the invoice will say “we act as an agent for……..” and then the name of the company with whom you are making a contract. Your contract is with that company and subject to their terms and conditions, a copy of which can be obtained from ourselves. Where the front of the invoice states “we act as an agent for Lotus Travel Limited”, the terms of your contract with Lotus Travel Limited are set out below. Alternatively, your invoice may say, “we act as an IATA agent”, and in that case your contract is with the airline. The terms and conditions imposed by the airline apply to your contract, as well as their conditions of carriage.
ii. Where we are acting as an agent, and the commission received by us from a supplier is insufficient to cover costs, a booking fee will have been included in the price quoted. Where an outstanding balance is not received by the due date, we reserve the right to charge a fee to cover the cost of the additional administration, credit control and postage that is incurred. If you have any special request, please inform us as soon as possible in writing. We will pass on such request to the principal, but neither we nor they can guarantee to meet any such request. Special requests cannot be accepted for late offer holidays. Further, we regret we cannot accept any conditional bookings, i.e. any booking which is specified to be conditional on the fulfilment of a particular request. All such bookings will be treated as standard bookings. In the event of cancellation/ amendment by you, the principal will apply cancellation charges/amendment fees in accordance with their booking conditions. In addition we will apply a charge to cover our losses in advertising, administering and then altering/cancelling the bookings. The relevant charge will be quoted to you when notifying us of a cancellation. But in the case of scheduled flights, it is normal for airlines to charge the full flight cost in such circumstances. As we are only agents in these circumstances, we accept no responsibility of any description for the failure to perform or improper performance by our principal of their contract with you. As a matter of common sense, may we draw your attention to the provisions set out at paragraphs 18, 19, 22 and 23 below relating to flight timings, check in, infants, and passport, visa and health requirements.
iii. Complaint Procedure Whilst, as stated, we are not liable in anyway for failing to perform or improper performance of the contract, we will do our best to help you resolve any complaint you might have against the principal. You are invited to set out any complaint in accordance with the rules set out in paragraph 14 below, complaints procedure. b) Where your contract is with us. When we act as a principal the relevant invoice will state that “your ultimate contract is with Lotus International Limited”. In that case, the following booking conditions will apply, as set out below in “your contract with us” and the following paragraphs. Note that for this purpose you are protected by ATOL number 84357.
Where your invoice states that we are acting as agent for Lotus Travel Limited, the booking conditions applying to your contract with Lotus Travel Limited are the same as those set our below and you are protected by ATOL number 1479 |
1. Your contract with us
Our acceptance of your deposit or payment forms a contract between us and
the party leader (first named passenger) acting on behalf of all passengers
in the party. These booking conditions apply. You are deemed to have accepted
these conditions and, where applicable, the insurance details unless you
write to us by return recorded delivery post to state otherwise. No other
conditions will apply to this contract unless confirmed by us to you in writing.
2. Payment
The deposit required will depend on the components you choose. Hotels/Condos/Villas
normally require a 35% deposit and car rental or campervan suppliers £75
per vehicle. All deposits received in respect of independent travel arrangements
will normally be held by us on behalf of the service provider concerned.
In the case of flight only arrangements we act as agents for the airline
or tour operator not as a principal and require a deposit of £100 per
person. Deposits are taken by Lotus Travel Ltd on behalf of the principal.
Although a provisional reservation for a scheduled flight may be made on
payment of a deposit a confirmed booking can not exist neither can the price
be guaranteed until final payment for the ticket has been received and the
ticket issued.
We cannot make refunds for unused car rental, hotel or other vouchers for
packages or independent arrangements.
For packages and independent travel arrangements the balance must be paid
before the date specified on the travel confirmation which is normally no
later than 10 weeks before your departure date. If we do not receive final
payment by the due date then we / the provider of the services in question
reserve the right to treat your booking as cancelled by you and cancellation
charges will be applicable as detailed in section 5 below.
Full payment will be required for all bookings made within 10 weeks of departure.
3. The price of your holiday
The price of your holiday is subject to surcharges on the following items:
governmental action, currency, aircraft, fuel, overflying charges and airport
charges. 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 50p.
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 monies 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.
Any surcharges will be notified to you no later than 30 days prior to departure.
In exchange for this guarantee we will not make any refunds in the event
of a favourable variation to currency rates. However, should the Government
decide to impose a consumer levy this will not be covered by our guarantee
and you will be advised of the amount payable. In the case of independent
travel arrangements including flight only whilst every effort is made to
avoid surcharges, service providers have the right to increase prices and
to surcharge at any time and we reserve the right to pass these on to you
in full.
4. Insurance
Please note that it is your responsibility to ensure you are adequately insured.
5. Is your money safe?
Yes, we are a member of the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) and
all packages are licensed and bonded by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)
and protected under our ATOL Licence (1479).
6. What's included in the price of your holiday?
1. Return flights (if appropriate).
2. All UK airport and security charges but not all overseas departure taxes.
3. A free baggage allowance for your journey which we will be dependant on
the airline, destination and class of travel. Please check at the time of
booking.
4. UK VAT on certain holidays within the EC.
7. Can you make changes to your booking?
Should you wish to make any changes to your holiday/flight booking after
it has been confirmed, you must send your request to us in writing signed
by the person who made the booking. This request must be accompanied by an
amendment fee of £30 per person. Whilst we will endeavour to meet any
such request, we cannot guarantee we will be able to do so. However in the
event that you have booked a scheduled flight you must consult with us to
establish the cost which varies according to airline, type of change and
departure date.
Any request to make changes must be received not less than 8 weeks before
departure. Any request for changes received less than 8 weeks before departure
will be treated as a cancellation of the booking by you and the cancellation
charges set out below will then apply. Any new arrangements subsequently
made will be treated as a new booking.
Where the size of the party is changed, the price for the rest of the party
members will be recalculated on the new party size if applicable. Providing
a name change is provided to us before this will be treated as an amendment
and carry the appropriate fee except in the case of scheduled flights where
they will almost always levy 100% cancellation charge.
Please note that we cannot make any refunds for unused car hire or hotel
vouchers etc irrespective of what you are told by the local car hire company
or hotel management.
Car hire and hotel vouchers are only valid for the exact services for which
they are issued. Please read carefully any vouchers sent to you as they contain
useful information.
8. Changes by us
As your holiday/flight arrangements are made many months in advance, it is
occasionally necessary to make changes to holiday/flight details both before
and after booking and we reserve the right in our discretion to do so. Most
changes will be minor ones. In the event of a significant change, we will
inform you if there is time to do so before departure. A significant change
is a change made before departure which involves a change of outward or return
flight time by more than 12 hours, a change of UK airport (except between
Luton, Stansted, Gatwick and Heathrow) to one which is more inconvenient
for you, or a change of resort airport, or a change of accommodation to one
of a lower official classification, or in a different resort.
In the event of a significant change, you will be offered the choice of:-
1. Accepting the altered arrangements or
2. Purchasing another holiday from us (and paying or receiving a refund in
respect of any price difference) or
3. Cancelling your holiday and receiving a prompt refund of all monies paid.
In addition, if we are forced to make a significant change, we will pay you
compensation on the scale set out below except where the change was made
as a result of unusual and unforeseeable circumstances beyond our control,
the consequences of which we could not have avoided even with all due care
which include but are not limited to those amounting to "force majeure" as
defined in the important note below.
Please note that no compensation is payable in respect of minor changes and
no other claims for compensation or expenses will be considered.
Please further note we reserve the right to substitute alternative airlines
and/or aircraft to those shown in our brochure and such a change will not
be a significant one entitling you to cancel without payment of the normal
cancellation charges.
9. Cancellations by you
Should you wish to cancel your booking, you must notify ourselves in writing
signed by the person who made the booking as soon as possible. Any such notification
must be sent by recorded delivery if posted. Notification of cancellation
will only be effective on the date it is received at our offices. As we begin
to incur costs from the date your booking is confirmed, we must levy cancellation
charges to cover these calculated as a percentage of the total cost excluding
insurance premiums and amendment charges which are non refundable in the
event of your cancellation.
This is to compensate for the expense of processing your booking and for
the risk that we may not be able to resell the flight/holiday. For scheduled
flights the charge will almost always be the full amount paid except for
regular full fare tickets with no cancellation restrictions where an administration
fee will be charged.
NB You may be able to recover these cancellation charges from your insurance
company if the reason for your cancellation falls within the terms of your
insurance policy.
| Period before departure within which written notification of cancellation is recieved by us | Cancellation charge per person cancelling |
| More than 70 days | Deposit only |
| 69 - 43 days | 60% of holiday cost |
| 42 - 29 days | 70% of holiday cost |
| 28 days or less | 100% of holiday cost |
10. Cancellations by us
Occasionally, it is necessary to cancel holiday/flight arrangements and we
reserve the right in our absolute discretion to do so. However, we will not
cancel after the date the final balance of your holiday falls due unless
you default in payment or we are forced to do so as a result of unusual and
unforeseeable circumstances beyond our control, the consequences of which
we could not have avoided even with all due care such as those mentioned
in the important note below. If we do cancel (other than due to your default
in payment) we will offer you the choice of an alternative holiday/flight
of comparable standard if available (with you paying or receiving a refund
in respect of any price difference) or a full refund of all monies paid.
| Period
before departure a significant change or cancellation is notified to
you (or your travel agent) |
Compensation per person (excluding infants) |
| More than 70 days | £0 |
| 69 - 43 days | £10 |
| 42 - 29 days | £15 |
| 28 days or less | £20 |
11. Important Note
We regret we cannot accept liability or pay any compensation where we are
forced to cancel, curtail, delay or in any way change your holiday/flight
or where the performance or prompt performance of our contractual obligations
is prevented or affected in whole or part as a result of circumstances amounting
to Òforce majeureÓ. Such circumstances include war or threat
of war, riot, civil strife, industrial dispute, epidemics or health risks,
terrorist activity, natural or nuclear disaster, fire or adverse weather
conditions, technical problems with transport, closure or congestion of airports,
cancellations or changes of schedules by scheduled airlines, government action
or advice and all similar circumstances outside our control.
12. Our liability to you
a. Quality We accept responsibility should the services which we are contractually obliged to provide prove deficient or not of a reasonable standard expect where injury or illness results, dealt with below. So far as services provided by airlines or sea carriers are concerned, our liability is however limited as if we were carriers within the appropriate international conventions. This clause is subject to force majeure and the other terms of these booking conditions including the “exceptions” listed in the next paragraph. b. Personal injury connected with your holiday arrangements We accept responsibility should you or any member of your party suffer death, injury or illness as a result of any failure to perform or improper performance of any part of our contract with you by any of our employees, agents, suppliers or sub-contractors providing they were at the time acting within the course of their employment; except where the failure to perform or improper performance was due to the “exceptions” namely:- i). your own acts and/or omissions or ii). those of a third party not connected with the provision of your holiday arrangements and which were unforeseeable or avoidable or iii). an event which either ourselves or the supplier of the services in question could not have foreseen or forestalled even with all due care. In addition, please note that in the case of services provided by air or sea, our liability is limited as if we were carriers within the appropriate international conventions. It is however a condition of our acceptance of liability that you notify us of any claim in writing within 28 days of your return from holiday and, where any payment is made, that you assign to ourselves and/or our insurers any rights you may have to pursue any third party. In addition, you must give ourselves and our insurers your full co-operation. c. Personal injury not connected with your holiday arrangements If, through misadventure, you suffer illness, personal injury or death from an activity which does not form part of your holiday arrangements, we shall still give every assistance including, at our absolute discretion, advice and initial financial assistance to take legal action against a third party up to a total maximum cost to ourselves of all assistance provided (whether monetary or otherwise) of £5,000 per booking form. Assistance must however be requested within 90 days of the date of misadventure. In the event of there being a successful claim for costs against a third party or a suitable insurance policy or policies in force, we will, however be entitled to recoup from you the costs we actually incur. Although we may be stating the obvious, an unfortunate previous experience requires us to make the point that animals are not allowed in our accommodation. |
13. Information accuracy
In the event of any conflict or inconsistencies between the Booking Conditions
and anything stated elsewhere in a brochure or by a member of staff, or elsewhere,
these conditions shall prevail.
We have made every effort to ensure that all the information we provide is
correct at the time of giving it. However, you will appreciate that we do
not own the accommodation, airlines and other facilities that you will be
using. Although we have described these as accurately as possible we cannot
be held responsible for any other subsequent alterations made.
There may be occasions, particularly in low season, when some facilities
may temporarily be withdrawn. If we receive prior notification of these we
will inform you. Services provided by staff in resort, if applicable, are
subject to local regulations and staff availability.
14. Complaints procedure
We sincerely hope you will not experience any problems with our services.
If you do however, you should contact the representative or agent immediately
as it is likely they will be able to resolve any problem on the spot. If
the problem cannot be resolved, your party leader should complete a report
form which is normally available from the representative. You should then
write to us quoting your booking reference and giving full details of your
complaint within 28 days of your return from holiday. We will acknowledge
your letter within 14 days with a full reply following within 28 days unless
we have been unable to investigate your complaint within this time in which
case a detailed explanation for the delay will be provided and a full reply
sent in any event within 56 days.
We regret we cannot accept liability for any complaint of which we are not
notified in accordance with the provisions of this clause.
15. Arbitration
In the unlikely event that we are unable to resolve any complaint amicably,
you may if you wish refer the dispute to arbitration under a special scheme,
which though devised by arrangement with the Association of British Travel
Agents, is administered quite independently by the Chartered Institute of
Arbitrators. The scheme, details of which can be supplied on request, provides
for a simple and inexpensive method of arbitration on documents alone with
restricted liability on the customer in respect of costs. The scheme does
not apply to claims for an amount greater than £5000 per person. There
is also a limit of £25,000 per booking form. In addition, it does not
apply to claims which are solely or mainly in respect of physical injury
or illness or the consequences of such injury or illness, but claims with
an element of injury not exceeding £1000 may be entertained. If you
wish to make use of the scheme, written notice requesting arbitration under
this scheme must be made within 9 months after the scheduled date of return
from holiday but may in exceptional circumstances be offered outside this
period. Full details are available from the Association of British Travel
Agents, 68/71 Newman Street, London. W1P 4AH. Alternatively, AITOÕs
Independent Dispute Service (details on request) may be called upon by either
side to bring the matter to a speedy and amicable solution.
16. Is there any way my holiday can
be terminated?
We reserve the right in our absolute discretion to terminate without notice
the holiday arrangements of any customer whose behaviour is such that it
is likely, in our opinion or that of any airline pilot or any other person
in authority, to cause distress, danger, damage or annoyance to any of our
other clients, employees, any third party or to property or if you are or
appear to be unfit to travel by reason of intoxicating liquor, misuse of
drugs or otherwise. In these circumstances, our responsibility for your journey
or holiday, including any return flights thereupon ceases. Full cancellation
charges will apply and no refunds will be given. Furthermore, we shall then
be under no obligation whatsoever to pay you any compensation or meet any
costs or expenses you may incur as a result.
17. Special requests
If you have any special requests, please inform us as soon as possible in
writing. Although we will endeavour to meet any such requests, we regret
we cannot guarantee to do so. Special requests cannot be accepted for late
offer holidays.
18. What about flight timings?
The flight timings quoted are for general guidance only and are subject to
change. Latest timings will be shown on your confirmation invoice but updated
information will if necessary be provided by way of the ticket or itinerary
or by way of further confirmation or notification and you must read these
very carefully to ensure you have the correct flight times.
You must in addition ensure you read and observe the instructions sent with
your tickets for reconfirming your return flight. Generally, you will need
to reconfirm by telephoning the airline or the airport two working days before
the date of your return flight.
19. When do I check in?
You must ensure you check in at the airport in good time before the flight
departure time and in accordance with the information provided with your
tickets. Generally, you will need to check in at least two hours before departure.
If you fail to do so, you are likely to be refused admission to the flight.
In the event of your being refused admission to any flight or destination,
country, or U.K. on return by the airline or any government authority, we
will not be under any liability to you and will not be able to assist you.
In the event of our being able to make alternative travel arrangements for
you, you will be responsible for meeting all costs involved.
20. Carrier's Conditions
Please note that the relevant carrierÕs conditions of carriage will
apply in the case of all air or sea travel some of which may limit or exclude
the CarrierÕs liability to you, often in accordance with international
conventions. Copies of these conditions of carriage are available for inspection
at our offices. Please further note that, by our contract with you, we do
not enter into an agreement for carriage by air but rather we only undertake
to reserve seats on board one of the airlines mentioned in our brochure or
such other airlines as may be substituted.
21. Outward and return tickets
Both the outward and return portions of your ticket must be used. If you
do not use the outward portion, you will not be allowed to utilise the return
portion.
22. Infants
To be classed as an infant in accordance with the Air Navigation Regulations,
a child must be under 2 at the date of return travel. At present, an infant
is permitted to travel on an adultÕs lap or, if between 6 months and
2 years old at the date of return travel, in a car seat. If travelling in
a car seat, the infant will occupy its own seat and will therefore be liable
to pay a childÕs price for that seat. Any car seat used must be approved
by the airline and it is your responsibility to ensure that your particular
seat is acceptable. Please therefore check this point with us at the time
of booking.
23. Passports, Visas and health requirements
While we provide basic advice to UK citizens regarding passports and visa
requirements clients not holding passports marked British Citizen should
check with their Embassy or Consulate. You must make sure you have all the
necessary valid travel and health documents to comply with the requirements
of the country you are visiting.
24. Luggage
We cannot accept responsibility for any loss or damage or delay to your luggage
unless directly caused by the negligence of one of our employees.
25. This contract shall be deemed to
be made at the Registered Office of Lotus Travel Ltd, Sandpiper House,
39 Queen Elizabeth Street, London SE1 2BT and is subject to English Law
and the jurisdiction of the Courts of England and Wales.
Data Protection
Disabled Clients |