Accommodation Booking Service: Terms & conditions

Terms of Business

Our services are operated by Sherpa Expeditions Ltd. trading as The Sherpa Van Project. Whether the services are arranged directly with the company or one of its appointed sales agents your contract is with the company.

Booking & Payment

We reserve the right to decline any booking

Full payment must be received with your order you may pay by credit card, a sterling cheque or bank draft. Payments are not accepted in foreign currency. Clients using our hotel booking service must provide credit card details with a date of expiry later than the date of the last hotel booking. Please note that your credit card will not be debited on line at the point of booking. This will be done when we have reviewed and confirmed your requirements. If you choose to pay by credit card, a supplementary charge of 02.5% inclusive of VAT will be applied to cover credit card clearance charges. There is no charge for debit cards or cheques.

Failure to make use of services booked
It is a condition of booking that you have arranged adequate insurance cover. Once your holiday has commenced there will be no refund for any of our services that you fail to make use of for whatever reason.

Bags should weigh no more than 20 kilos.
Our insurance does not permit us to leave baggage unattended. In the event that there is no-one to receive your baggage it will be left at a convenient dropping point and must be collected at the end of your days walk.

We undertake to collect and deliver your baggage to the next hotel by 4.30pm. Baggage must be ready for collection by 9am and clearly labelled using the labels provided and securely packed without loose items attached. We prefer that your baggage is also locked. On occasion for operational reasons you may be asked to have your baggage ready for collection earlier.

If for reasons beyond our control (e.g we are unable to gain access to a property) you will be reunited with your baggage the following day.

Like all road users Sherpa Vans are subject to the vagaries of weather and traffic conditions, accidents or road closures, and can be subject to delays. We recommend that a generous margin of time is allowed when planning onward travel arrangements at the end of your walk or cycle ride.

Emergency Assistance
From time to time walkers suffer sprains or injuries. We will always happy to assist in such situations. One seat is available in our vehicles which ideally can be booked the evening before by telephone. Last minute arrangements however can not always be responded to if it will jeopardise the timely delivery of clients bags. It must be clear that we can not operate this service for non walking members of groups on a daily basis.

Accommodation booking services
When we book accommodation on your behalf we act only as your agent. Our responsibility ends when we have confirmed the rooms as requested. We are not involved in the day to day running of any of the properties and therefore not liable for the quality of service received. Any complaints must be addressed to the hotel proprietors. We have made reasonable efforts to establish that the properties we list provide a suitable service, however, the inclusion of a property in our services does not constitute a recommendation. We are pleased to hear about any hotel that fails to meet appropriate standards of service.

The prices of rooms quoted is the latest supplied by the hotelier (The date that the hotel last updated their details is shown on their entry on our database), and represents an average room cost. Room prices may vary slightly from room to room within a hotel by virtue of their position, facilities and view.

Prices are per person based on two people sharing and are for bed and Breakfast only, evening meals and packed lunches are not included. ( please note that in youth hostels breakfast is not usually included and where available must be paid for separately. Whilst we reserve the hotels on your behalf, you pay the hoteliers directly as you follow the trail. Whichever hotels/accommodation you select it is inevitable that on some nights yourfirst choice will not be available. In such cases we will provide the best alternative available.

Alteration or cancellation of bookings by you

You are requested to check theconfirmation documents you will receive at the time of booking carefully
If you wish to change your hotel or baggage transfer arrangements subsequent to us having booked them there will be an amendment fee of £15 per person. Should you curtail your holiday after having started. Iit is your responsibilty to advise both Sherpa, and any hoteliers we have made reservations with on your behalf.

Cancellation
Hoteliers extend the facility and convenience to our clients to book without deposits and all the administration that involves, they must however be protected against no shows, and last minute cancellations. You are advised to take out suitable travel insurance at the time of booking. Should you subsequently cancel your arrangements or fail to show without notice cancellation charges will be levied on behalf of the hotels already booked and confirmed on the following sliding scale.

More than 56 days before departure 10% of the hotel costs.
55-35 days before departure - 30% of the hotel costs.
34-15 days before departure - 50% of the hotel costs.
Less than 14 days before departure - 100% of the hotel costs.A credit card with an expiry date later than the last nights accommodation booked must be provided at the time of booking.

Group Bookings
It may not always be possible to book large groups into the same hotel. If it becomes necessary to split groups, every effort will be made to book them into properties that are close together.

(If you are able to start your walk mid week do so. Most people start at weekends and this creates bottlenecks at points on trails where there is limited accommodation.)

Your contract with Sherpa van is subject to english law and jurisdiction. Whilst every effort is made to ensure that services booked on your behalf with third party suppliers are of an acceptable quality and performance, we cannot accept liability for any loss or onconvenience caused by the errors or omissions of third parties over which we have no direct control.

Your statutory rights are not affected.

17 November 2010

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