These Booking Conditions, together with our privacy policy and any other written information we brought to your attention before we confirmed your booking, form the basis of your contract with Based on a True Story Limited (Company no. 10106210) (“we”, “us”, “our”). Please read them carefully as they set out our respective rights and obligations. In these Booking Conditions references to “you” and “your” include the first named person on the booking and all persons on whose behalf a booking is made or any other person to whom a booking is added or transferred.

By making a booking, the first named person on the booking agrees on behalf of all persons detailed on the booking that:

a. He/she has read these terms and conditions and has the authority to and does agree to be bound by them;

b. He/she consents to our use of their information in accordance with our Privacy Policy;

c. He/she is over 18 years of age and where placing an order for services with age restrictions declares that he/she and all members of the party are of the appropriate age to purchase those services; and

d. He/she accepts financial responsibility for payment of the booking on behalf of all persons detailed on the booking.

1. Booking and paying for your arrangements

A booking is made with us when you have sent written acceptance of the final offer for the itinerary created for you, subject to payment of the agreed deposit.

Following payment of the deposit, if you believe that any details concerning your booking are wrong you must advise us immediately; it may harm your rights if we are not notified of any inaccuracies in any document within ten days of our sending it out (five days for tickets).

The balance of the cost of your arrangements (including any applicable surcharge) is due on the date specified on your confirmation (or upon acceptance of the itinerary if within 60 days of departure). If we do not receive this balance in full and on time, we reserve the right to treat your booking as cancelled by you in which case the cancellation policy set out in clause 6 below will become payable.

Any additional arrangements and expenses booked or incurred during your holiday will be invoiced at the end of the trip. All such invoices must be paid within 7 days of issue.

If you fail to make a payment due to us by the due date, then, without limiting our other remedies, you shall pay interest on the overdue sum from the due date until payment of the overdue sum, whether before or after judgment, accruing each day at the rate of 5% a year above the Bank of England’s base rate from time to time. You must also pay all bank charges incurred by us in connection with your booking.

2. Insurance

Adequate travel insurance is a condition of your contract with us. You must be satisfied that your insurance fully covers all your personal requirements including cancellation charges, medical expenses and repatriation in the event of accident or illness. If you choose to travel without adequate insurance cover, we will not be liable for any losses howsoever arising, in respect of which insurance cover would otherwise have been available.

3. Jurisdiction and applicable law

These Booking Conditions and any agreement to which they apply are governed in all respects by English law. We both agree that any dispute, claim or other matter which arises between us out of or in connection with your contract or booking will be dealt with by the Courts of England and Wales only.

4. Changes by you

If you wish to change any part of your booking arrangements after our confirmation invoice has been paid, you must inform us as soon as possible. Changes are subject to payment of an administration fee of up to 20% of the total value of your booking plus any applicable rate changes or extra costs incurred, as well as any costs incurred by ourselves and any costs or charges incurred or imposed by any of our suppliers. You should be aware that these costs could increase the closer to the departure date that changes are made.

Note: Certain arrangements may not be amended or transferred after they have been confirmed and any alteration could incur a cancellation charge of up to 100% of that part of the arrangements.

5. Cutting your holiday short

If you are forced to return home early, we cannot refund the cost of any services you have not used. If you cut short your holiday and return home early in circumstances where you have no reasonable cause for complaint about the standard of accommodation and services provided, we will not offer you any refund for that part of your holiday not completed, or be liable for any associated costs you may incur. Depending on the circumstances, your travel insurance may offer cover for curtailment and we suggest that any claim is made directly with them.

6. If you cancel

If you or any other member of your party decides to cancel your confirmed booking you must notify us in writing to Based On A True Story, Dickhurst House, Rodgate Lane, Haslemere, Surrey, GU27 2EW, United Kingdom. Your notice of cancellation will only take effect when it is received in writing by us at our offices and will be effective from the date on which we receive it. We recommend that you use recorded delivery.

We invest a great deal of time and resource in the creation of each holiday. Each service provider has its own cancellation and amendment charges. In the event of cancellation or a change which service providers treat as a cancellation (such as a change of holiday dates), you will only be charged to the extent set out in and pursuant to the Supplier’s cancellation terms. Furthermore, we will also do our best to negotiate lower cancellation charges and recoup pre-payments from suppliers as far as possible.

However, as our holidays are so individual, substantial costs and losses up to 100% of the value of the holiday are usually incurred where a holiday is cancelled or treated as cancelled, which you will be responsible for meeting. Our service fees and trip planning fees (which cover the arrangement of your holiday, the provision of personnel to oversee its performance and all related and ancillary services by us) which have already been incurred when cancellation is notified or which are incurred in connection with the cancellation will not be refundable and/or will remain payable in full.

7. Force Majeure

Except where otherwise expressly stated in these booking conditions we will not be liable or pay you compensation if our contractual obligations to you are affected by any event which we or the supplier(s) of the service(s) in question could not, even with all due care, foresee or avoid. These events can include, but are not limited to war, threat of war, civil strife terrorist activity and its consequences or the threat of such activity, riot, the act of any government or other national or local authority including port or river authorities, epidemic, pandemic (including Covid-19, and any new strain or permutation of Covid-19) or any significant risk to human health such as the outbreak of serious disease at the destination, industrial dispute, lock closure, natural or nuclear disaster, fire, chemical or biological disaster and adverse weather, sea, ice and river conditions and all similar events outside our or the supplier(s) concerned’s control.

8. Disabilities and medical problems

We are not a specialist disabled holiday company, but we will do our utmost to cater for any special requirements you may have. If you or any member of your party has any medical problem or disability which may affect your stay, please provide us with full details before we confirm your booking so that we can try to advise you as to the suitability of your chosen arrangements. We may require you to produce a doctor’s certificate certifying that you are fit to participate in the tour. Acting reasonably, if we are unable to properly accommodate the needs of the person(s) concerned, we will not confirm your booking or if you did not give us full details at the time of booking, we will cancel it and impose applicable cancellation charges when we become aware of these details.

9. Complaints

We make every effort to ensure that your holiday arrangements run smoothly but if you do have a problem during your holiday, please inform our representative immediately who will endeavour to put things right. If the problem cannot be resolved and you wish to complain further, you must send formal written notice of your complaint to us at our Surrey office within 28 days of the end of your stay, giving your booking reference and all other relevant information. Please keep your letter concise and to the point. This will assist us to quickly identify your concerns and speed up our response to you. Failure to follow the procedure set out in this clause may affect ours and the applicable supplier’s ability to investigate your complaint, and will affect your rights under this contract.

10. Our responsibilities

Subject to the remainder of this clause, we have a duty to provide the trip-planning services we have agreed to provide and select the suppliers of the services making up your booking with us with reasonable skill and care. We have no liability to you in except in cases where it is provided that we have breached that duty and damage to you has been caused.

(1) We will not be responsible or pay you compensation for any injury, illness, death, loss, damage, expense, cost or other claim of any description if it results from:

a. the act(s) and/or omission(s) of the person(s) affected;

b. the act(s) and/or omission(s) of a third party unconnected with the provision of the services contracted for and which were unforeseeable or unavoidable; or

c. unusual or unforeseeable circumstances beyond ours or our supplier(s) control, the consequences of which could not have been avoided even if all due care had been exercised; or

d. an event which either ourselves or suppliers could not, even with all due care, have foreseen or forestalled.

(2) We limit the amount of compensation we may have to pay you if we are found liable under this clause:

(a) loss of and/or damage to any luggage or personal possessions and money,

The maximum amount we will have to pay you in respect of these claims is an amount equivalent to the excess on your insurance policy which applies to this type of loss per person in total because you are assumed to have adequate insurance in place to cover any losses of this kind.

(b) Claims not falling under (a) above and which don’t involve injury, illness or death.

The maximum amount we will have to pay you in respect of these claims is twice the price paid by or on behalf of the person(s) affected in total. This maximum amount will only be payable where everything has gone wrong and you or your party has not received any benefit at all from your booking.

(c) Claims in respect of international travel by air, sea and rail, or any stay in a hotel.

i) The extent of our liability will in all cases be limited as if we were carriers under the appropriate Conventions, which include The Warsaw/Montreal Convention (international travel by air); The Athens Convention (with respect to sea travel); The Berne/Cotif Convention (with respect to rail travel) and The Paris Convention (with respect to hotel arrangements). You can ask for copies of these Conventions from our offices. Please contact us. In addition, you agree that the operating carrier or transport company’s own ‘Conditions of Carriage’ will apply to you on that journey. When arranging 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 the terms and conditions contained in those ‘Conditions of Carriage’ form part of your contract with us, as well as with the transport company and that those ‘Conditions of Carriage’ shall be deemed to be included by reference into this contract.

ii) In any circumstances in which a carrier is liable to you by virtue of the Denied Boarding Regulation 2004, any liability we may have to you under our contract with you, arising out of the same facts, is limited to the remedies provided under the Regulation as if (for this purpose only) we were a carrier.

iii) When making any payment, we are entitled to deduct any money which you have received or are entitled to receive from the transport provider or hotelier for the complaint or claim in question.

(3) It is a condition of our acceptance of liability under this clause that you notify any claim to ourselves and our supplier(s) strictly in accordance with the complaints procedure set out in these conditions.

(4) Where any payment is made, the person(s) receiving it (and their parent or guardian if under 18 years) must also assign to ourselves or our insurers any rights they may have to pursue any third party and must provide ourselves and our insurers with all assistance we may reasonably require.

(5) Please note, we cannot accept any liability for any damage, loss or expense or other sum(s) of any description: (a) which on the basis of the information given to us by you concerning your booking prior to our accepting it, we could not have foreseen you would suffer or incur if we breached our contract with you; or (b) relate to any business.

(6) We will not accept responsibility for services or facilities which do not form part of our agreement or where they are not advertised in our brochure. For example, any excursion you book whilst away, or any service or facility which your hotel or any other supplier agrees to provide for you.

(7) Many of our services are provided by third party suppliers/subcontractors. Providing we have selected the suppliers/subcontractors with reasonable skill and care, we will have no liability to you for anything that happens during the service in question or any acts or omissions of the supplier, its employees or agents. Where damage has been caused which doesn’t involve injury, illness or death, the maximum amount we will have to pay you in respect of these claims is the amount paid to us in respect of our service fees.

11. Experiences

Whilst every care is taken to ensure the safety of the arrangements you book with us, due to the nature of some of the arrangements and the environment they take place in, an element of risk over and above that of a ‘normal’ holiday excursion will still exist. By making a booking with us you are deemed to understand and accept this risk. Parents/Guardians are responsible for supervising their children, and are deemed to consent to any activities they allow their children to participate in.

All arrangements are provided in compliance with local standards. However safety standards in other countries may differ from those applicable in your own country. We strongly advise that all customers seek to minimise their exposure to injury by familiarising themselves with relevant safety information.

Excursions or other tours that you may choose to book or pay for whilst you are on holiday are not part of your contracted arrangements with us. For any excursion or other tour that you book, your contract
will be with the operator of the excursion or tour and not with us. We are not responsible for the provision of the excursion or tour or for anything that happens during the course of its provision by the operator.

12. Passport, visa and immigration requirements and health formalities

It is your responsibility to check and fulfil the passport, visa, health and immigration requirements applicable to your itinerary. We can only provide general information about this. You must check requirements for your own specific circumstances with the relevant Embassies and/or Consulates and your own doctor as applicable. Requirements do change and you must check the up to date position in good time before departure.

Most countries now require passports to be valid for at least 6 months after your return date. If your passport is in its final year, you should check with the Embassy of the country you are visiting.

Special conditions apply for travel to the USA, and all passengers must have individual machine-readable passports. Please check www.usembassy.org.uk for up to date travel advice, as well as from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, www.fco.gov.uk

Non-British passport holders, including other EU nationals, should obtain up to date advice on passport and visa requirements from the Embassy, High Commission or Consulate of your destination or country(ies) through which you are travelling.

We do not accept any responsibility if you cannot travel, or incur any other loss because you have not complied with any passport, visa, immigration requirements or health formalities. You agree to reimburse us in relation to any fines or other losses which we incur as a result of your failure to comply with any passport, visa, immigration requirements or health formalities.

13. Conditions of suppliers.

Many of the services which make up your holiday are provided by independent suppliers. Those suppliers provide these services in accordance with their own terms and conditions which will form part of your contract with us. Some of these terms and conditions may limit or exclude the supplier’s liability to you, usually in accordance with applicable International Conventions. Copies of the relevant parts of these terms and conditions are available on request from ourselves or the supplier concerned.

14. Advance passenger information.

A number of governments are introducing new requirements for air carriers to provide personal information about all travellers on their aircraft to the Authorities before the aircraft leaves the country of origin. The data will be collected either at the airport when you check in or in some circumstances when, or after you make your booking. Accordingly, you are advised to allow extra time to check in for your flight. Where we collect this data, we will treat it in accordance with our privacy policy.

15. Ownership of Intellectual Property

All intellectual property rights in or arising out of or in connection with your trip shall be owned by us, including but not limited to all photos, images, film and recordings taken of you and your party during your trip (“Images”).

We do however agree:

a. not to use any such Images which include any recognisable images of you or any member of your party (“Personal Images”), without your written permission;

b. to assign ownership of any Personal Images to the relevant member of your party, upon request,

c. to grant you a fully paid-up, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free perpetual and irrevocable licence to use any of the Images for any non-commercial private purpose.

16. Delay

We cannot accept liability for any delay which is due to the reasons set out in clause 7 of these booking conditions (which includes the behaviour of any passenger(s) who fails to check in or board on time.

17. Severance

If any provision or part-provision of this agreement is or becomes invalid, illegal or unenforceable, it shall be deemed deleted but that shall not affect the validity and enforceability of the rest of this agreement.