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Terms &
Conditions of Booking
Please Read This Through Carefully
These
conditions, the information in any of our brochures and all
other relevant information given to you by us form the basis
of the agreement between us and you and any other person (s)
on whose behalf you book. In these terms & conditions, ‘we’
are Russian Gateway (UK) Ltd.
TO MAKE A
BOOKING
Bookings are accepted by telephone, fax, e-mail or post.
When requesting confirmation of a booking, you accept these
conditions , the information in this brochure and all other
relevant information given to you by us. There is a binding
contract between us as soon as we confirm all services which
are to be provided. We will not accept any alterations to
these conditions unless we inform you in writing.
PAYMENT
If you book your holiday more than 10 weeks before your
intended departure date, you must pay a deposit of 25% of
the tour cost per person. You must then pay the balance of
the trip no later than 10 weeks before departure. If you are
booking within 10 weeks of departure we require the total
amount together with your booking. We do not accept credit
cards in order to keep the cost of the services we provide
you down. In order to guarantee no surcharges we appreciate
early payment.
CANCELLATION BY US
We reserve the right in any circumstances to cancel your
tour. If so we will contact you as soon as possible and
offer you an alternative or a full refund. As all of our
tours are entirely individual and do not depend on a certain
number of passengers booking, cancellation by us is highly
unlikely. We may have to cancel due to force majeure (see
below) - if so we will give you a full refund but will have
no other liability to you whatsoever. If we do not receive
payment within 56 days of departure we may in certain
circumstances be forced to cancel your holiday which will
lead to loss of deposit. Force Majeure is unusual or
unforeseeable circumstances beyond our control, the
consequences of which neither we nor the employees of our
suppliers could have avoided even with the exercise of due
care.
CHANGES BY
US
We reserve the right to change any of the particulars in
this brochure before you make a booking with us but if we do
so we will advise you of these changes before we confirm
your booking. We also reserve the right to make changes to
your holiday arrangements after we have confirmed your
booking. These changes may be major or minor. A major change
is a change of UK airports (not including a change of London
airports), a change of resort, a change of departure time by
more than 12 hours or a change to a lower category of
accommodation. All other changes are minor. If there is a
minor change, we will do our best to notify you of this, but
we are under no obligation to do so or pay you any
compensation. If there is a major change we will offer you
the choice of a full refund or an alternative holiday, if
available. If the alternative costs less we will refund you
the difference and if it costs more you must pay us the
difference. Compensation will only be paid if a large
portion of your holiday or services are not or cannot be
provided. In this case, we will pay you an amount which is
reasonable taking in to account the circumstances of the
services not provided. On certain occasions it may be
necessary to change hotels at the last minute due to
unforeseen circumstances such as overbooking by the hotel or
other unexpected changes. We reserve the right to change
hotels within the same hotel category without prior notice
and if we change your hotel to a hotel of a lower category
we will pay compensation for the price difference between
hotels.
CANCELLATION BY YOU
After we accept your booking, if you cancel your
arrangements you will be liable to pay the following
cancellation charges. In order to avoid these charges we
strongly advise you to have a suitable insurance policy
which covers unexpected curtailment of holiday. If you wish
to cancel your holiday, you must inform us in writing and
the cancellation will not be effective until this is
received. Visa charges can not be refunded under any
circumstances. Follow the link in the info section of this
website for specialist Russia Travel Insurance
Number of
days before departure when we receive your written
cancellation.
Charge as a %
of your total holiday cost (excluding visas and other non
refundable services)
56 days or
more Deposit
55 to 29 days 30%
28 to 15 days 50%
14 to 7 days 75%
Less than 7 days 100%
Please note
if we have issued non-refundable airline tickets or any
other non refundable services then these will also be
excluded from the refund amount you receive. In every
circumstance of course we will provide documentary evidence
to your insurance company if necessary
CHANGES BY
YOU
We are not legally obliged to accept changes by you but
if you do wish to change your booking we will attempt to do
so. There may be a 20 pounds admin charge if you do change
your itinerary. You may transfer your booking to another
person for the sum of 20 pounds (more than 30 days before
departure)
SERVICE
We will provide all services purchased and confirmed by
ourselves in each itinerary. Due to the nature of the travel
industry in Russia and the CIS States, on certain occasions
due to unforeseen circumstances itineraries may be altered
with little or no notice i.e excursion changes, theatre
billing or hotel changes etc: in all cases we will provide a
suitable alternative of equal or greater value. All
excursions included in the tour price are confirmed prior to
departure. Optional excursions, time permitting, may be
offered to clients at the discretion of our local suppliers,
for extra payment. These excursions are, in all
circumstances, optional. None of our services include tips
to waiters or guides, laundry, drinks (except where
indicated), souvenirs or other items of a personal nature.
RESPONSIBILITY
As a travel operator, please note that we only act as an
agent for Embassies, hotels and other travel organisations.
We reserve the right to cancel, alter or adjust any travel
programme at our discretion and at any time for economic,
safety or other reasons beyond our control, or where we feel
there may be danger or other problems for our clients. In
the extremely unlikely event where we have to take such
measures, our liability is limited to refunding 100% of
monies paid to us by our clients. All clients should take
out travel insurance to cover personal effects, injury,
death, disablement etc as Russian Gateway is not responsible
for the provision of such insurance. We can not be held
responsible for 3rd party errors or other misdemeanours ie
post strikes, flight delays, accommodation problems etc but
in every circumstance will do our very best to sort
everything out amicably. Any problems caused by delays in
transport, lost mail, rescheduling of flights, trains or
ships will be dealt with by the customer's insurance company
to whom we will provide full support in order that the
customer receives prompt refund of any costs incurred.
Please note certain products we offer are dependent upon
good weather (fighter flights, tank driving, climbing,
adventure tours) and bad weather may, in the interests of
your safety, make it necessary to cancel, postpone or
reschedule the activity. If this does happen once again we
will provide full support to your insurance company to
ensure you receive the necessary refund. As always your
safety is of paramount importance to us. Please make sure
you check all your travel documents including Russian Visas
to make sure they tie in with the trip you booked. An
explanation of what your visa will look like can be found
here
. Make sure the names and dates are what they should be - if
not call us right away. The Consulate does make mistakes
from time to time but they are easily amended. You are
responsible for sending us your valid passports in good time
for your trip to Russia according to your booking
confirmation. Normally this means approximately ten weeks
before departure. Please note if you are a non UK customer,
we will return passports to you by Royal Mail International
Signed For service unless you specifically request courier
(FEDEX or UPS) which will attract a fee of around £40 GBP.
Royal Mail International Signed For tracks packages up to
entry in to destination country - thereafter it is dealt
with by your l
COMPLAINTS
PROCEDURE
In the unlikely event you have any complaints about the
travel services we provide, in the first instance please ask
your guide for help or call one of the office numbers we
provide you. Your guide or our Russian offices will
immediately contact us in the UK for clarification and
resolution of the problem. If the situation can not be
resolved satisfactorily by the efforts of either our Russian
or UK offices, write to The Managing Director of Russian
Gateway for a full and proper investigation within 30 days
of returning home. Please note in 99% of cases all problems
can be resolved locally so if you do not inform your guide
or our Russian offices the exact nature of your issue, we
can not offer compensation upon your return to the UK. We
will, in all circumstances, endeavour to please our clients
with every aspect of our service.
OVERVIEW—PLEASE READ
By making a reservation with Russian Gateway (UK) Ltd, you
explicitly agree to the terms and conditions on this page.
In all cases, we reserve the right to cancel any
reservations where clients fail to make the necessary
deposit or full payment of the tour. If we, for whatever
reason, cancel the tour, our liability is limited to the
money paid to us by our clients.
Note: While
every effort will be made to adhere to the schedules as
outlined in each itinerary, due to the specialized nature of
these programmes, please understand that all times are
tentative, stops and sights are subject to change or
cancellation at short notice due to reasons beyond our
control, including, but not limited to inclement weather,
water levels, museum closures, theatre billing alteration,
government action, civil unrest, acts of God or similar,
equipment breakdown etc. Your understanding and co-operation
will be required and appreciated. Purchase of travel
insurance is highly recommended.
Prices are
based on currency rates as at 01.04.2007 and may be
subject to change with short notice.
YOUR
PROTECTION
Russian Gateway (UK) Ltd is compliant with European
Commission Directive on Package Travel (The Package Travel,
Package Holidays and Package Tour Regulations
1992-SI3288/1992) your money is kept secure until you return
from your holiday ensuring repatriation should Russian
Gateway go bankrupt. In all circumstances, payment for
flight elements will be made to our ATOL protected flights provider
or the airline themselves and your tickets will always
be issued within 48 hours of payment being made. All of our
flights, without exception are on scheduled airlines and you
will always be provided with valid return air tickets and
prepaid accommodation, excursion, guide and transfer
vouchers so you are 100% protected in the extremely unlikely
event of our insolvency.
Russian
Gateway (UK) Ltd is a limited company in England and Wales
(UK) - company registration number is 3878501. VAT
Registration number is 803 3949 31.
LAW AND
JURISDICTION
The contract we have with every client is governed by the
laws of England and the Courts of England and Wales will
have jurisdiction to hear any dispute arising out of or in
connection with it. This included clients booking from any
country in the world.
CAN I PAY
BY CREDIT CARD ?
Due to the nature of our business and the number of non-UK
clients we have, security is virtually impossible to ensure
and our bank takes 4.1% transaction fee on all credit or
debit card purchases. Bank transfers, cheques, drafts etc
incur no surcharge |
