TERMS & CONDITIONS

Fair Trading Guarantee

At Ski Snowbreaks / Snowcoach we appreciate that a well organised and enjoyable holiday is of the utmost importance. Before you make your holiday choice, we want you to know that we are dedicated to ensuring all aspects of your holiday experience will be memorable for the right reasons!

We have been operating ski holidays in Europe for over 40 years since the first trips to Austria in 1978. We now specialise in providing ski and summer holidays to the resort of Valmeinier. The Hotel l’Aigle has been owned and operated by us for over 20 years.

Our Price Promise

Once you have paid your deposit to book the accommodation we guarantee there will be no changes to the price. The sole exception being any taxes or increases imposed by the UK or foreign governments.

Ski Pack and Travel Prices: Once any other services have been paid the price is guaranteed and there will be no surcharges.

We reserve the right to alter the prices for accommodation or other services until such time as a deposit is paid.

Paying for your Holiday

When booking, a deposit of £150 per person must be paid to confirm your holiday accommodation. We will then send a confirmation, by email or post, of your booking. The balance payment is due 10 weeks before departure. If not paid, we reserve the right to treat the reservation as cancelled.

When you make a booking, you guarantee that you have the authority to accept and do accept, on behalf of your party, the terms of these booking conditions which, unless agreed in writing, cannot be changed. All those listed on the booking are jointly and severally party to the contract. A contract will exist between us when we issue the confirmation invoices. The contracts are made on the terms of these booking conditions, which are governed by English law and the jurisdiction of the English Courts.

Insurance

It is a condition of this contract that all clients have travel and winter sports insurance cover. In the event of cancellation, inability to travel or an accident we may incur costs on your behalf, some of which may be covered by your insurance. By paying the deposit to confirm your booking, you are accepting our booking conditions and you agree to indemnify us against any costs that we incur on your behalf whether or not they are covered by your insurance. If for any reason an insurer should not meet a claim, then a complaint must be made to the Financial Ombudsman and determined prior to considering making any claim against us.

Personal Property

We recommend that you do not bring valuables on holiday. We accept no responsibility for clients’ personal items. Cars are parked at the owner’s risk.

Passport and Visa Requirements

It is your responsibility to ensure that you have a valid passport with a minimum of six months from your holiday to the expiry date and if you do not hold an EU passport you must ensure that you have any visa that may be required.

For health and travel advice visit and/or www.fco.gov.uk.

Special Requests and disabilities

We will endeavour to meet special requests or preferences but no guarantee can be given. We will do everything we can to help those who need assistance prior to or at the time of booking. If assistance is required during the journey to the resort or during the holiday it is important that full details are given at the time of booking.

Early Snow Guarantee

With the variable early season snowfalls, we have decided to provide this special snow guarantee free of charge. It covers departures from mid-December to mid-January (excluding stays including New Year’s Eve). If every ski area on our normal programme has less than 50% of its lifts open, then 5-3 days before departure you can decide to change your holiday to our other hotel the same week or change to another departure date, subject to availability. If you change to a less expensive holiday the price will remain the same. If you change to a more expensive holiday we will pass on any difference in price as advertised. There will be no administration fees for these changes. Under this guarantee there will be no cash refund.

Accuracy of Website and Information

We endeavour to ensure that all information on the website is up to date and correct. However, if there is something that is important to you for your holiday, please let us know and we will do our best to keep you informed of any change. All the information in the brochure and/or website is published in good faith and is believed to be correct and valid at the time of going to press. Unfortunately, errors may have occurred and changes taken place affecting this information and it is your responsibility to check the updated information at the time of booking. You must understand that certain facilities (including entertainment, excursions, local transport and sporting activities) and services mentioned may be subject to consumer support, maintenance or weather conditions and may not be available at certain times, in particular during the early and late season.

Luggage

Restrictions apply to weight and dimensions and also in respect of hand luggage. Full details are provided in the Holiday Itinerary emailed to you two weeks before departure. Our liability for the loss, damage or delayed luggage is limited as set out under the heading ‘Our Liability to You’. Porterage is not provided.

Delays

Regardless of the mode of transport, it must be accepted that delays can occur.

You will understand that be it due to traffic, weather conditions, mechanical failure, an accident or some other reason, the location of any delay cannot, even with all due care, be predicted, nor the circumstances or conditions which may exist. Accordingly, we cannot accept liability for any inconvenience or expenses you may incur or any consequential losses.

Accommodation

Accommodation is reserved from 16.00hrs on your arrival day into resort. On your day of departure you will be required to vacate your room at 0900hrs.

Live and Let Live

You have to consider other people. We reserve the right to refuse or cancel a booking or admittance and/or re-admittance to the accommodation or transport to clients who breach any applicable rules or whose behaviour (including bad language and abuse) or health or hygiene which in our opinion or that of any person in authority may impair the comfort, or well-being of others, their safety and the safety of employees, or damage to property.

If You Have a Complaint

If you have a problem during your holiday, please inform the hotel management of the service/s in question who will endeavour to put things right. If your complaint is not resolved locally, you must obtain from our representative, a Client Comment Form for immediate completion. This will assist us to quickly identify your concerns and speed up our response to you. It is an express condition of your contract that this simple procedure is followed. We cannot accept liability in relation to any claim, which does not involve death, injury or illness if this procedure is not followed. If you have a complaint, we will try to settle it amicably.

If You Change Your Booking

If, after our confirmation invoices have been issued, you wish to change your holiday arrangements in any way, for example your departure date or accommodation, we will do our utmost to make these changes but it may not always be possible. Any request for changes (including alterations to names) must be in writing from the person who made the booking. You will be asked to pay an administration charge of £25 per person, and any further costs we incur in making this alteration. An alteration within ten weeks of departure may be considered as a cancellation and subject to the cancellation charges set out below.

If You Cancel Your Booking

You, or any member of your party, may cancel your holiday arrangements at any time. Written notification from the person who made the booking, on your behalf, must be received at our offices. Since we incur costs in cancelling your travel arrangements, cancellation charges are applicable.

More than 72 days deposit only.

57 - 72 days before departure 30% (or deposit if higher)

29 - 56 days before departure 50%

15 - 28 days before departure 70%

0 - 14 days before departure 100%

If the reason for your cancellation is covered under the terms of your insurance policy, you may be able to reclaim these charges.

If you, or a member of your party, is prevented from travelling, a third party may be substituted (introduced by you) without incurring any charge, other than a £25 amendment fee, providing 21 days’ notice prior to departure is given. Within 21 days cancellation charges as set out above may apply.

If We Change or Cancel Your Booking

It is unlikely that we will have to make any changes to your holiday arrangements, but we do plan the arrangements many months in advance. Occasionally, we may have to make changes and we reserve the right to do so at any time. We also reserve the right, in any circumstances, to cancel your holiday arrangements. For example, if the minimum number of clients required for a particular arrangement is not reached or for reasons set out under the heading ‘Force Majeure’ or failure by you to pay the final balance.

If we make a major change to your holiday, we will inform you as soon as is reasonably possible if there is time before your departure. You will have the choice of either accepting the change of arrangements or accepting an offer of alternative arrangements of comparable standard from us if available. We will refund any price difference if the alternative is of a lower value. Where the major change arises due to reasons set out under the heading of ‘Force Majeure’ this would be subject to an insurance claim. A major change is one which involves a change of resort, departure time by more than 12 hours, accommodation to that of a lower standard or classification.

In case of travel arrangements being changed or cancelled due to COVID19 issues please refer to Force Majeure information and our separate COVID guarantee policy for full details.

What if my holiday is curtailed whilst I am in resort?

If your holiday is curtailed following departure and due to circumstances which are beyond our control, we would not be able to provide a refund for the main holidays cost, as by that point we would have incurred all of our own costs in providing the holiday (i.e. transport, accommodation, staff, food, etc.). In that case you would need to submit a claim to your travel insurance company for holiday curtailment, so you should ensure that you have appropriate travel insurance policy in place prior to departure.

Our Liability To You

1) We promise to make sure that the holiday arrangements we have agreed to make, perform or provide as applicable as part of our contract with you are made, performed or provided with reasonable skill and care. This means that, subject to these booking conditions, we will accept responsibility if, for example, you suffer death or personal injury or your contracted holiday arrangements are not provided as promised or prove deficient as a result of the failure of ourselves, our employees, agents or suppliers to use reasonable skill and care in making, performing or providing, as applicable, your contracted holiday arrangements. Please note it is your responsibility to show that reasonable skill and care has not been used if you wish to make a claim against us. In addition, we will only be responsible for what our employees, agents and suppliers do or do not do if they were at the time acting within the course of their employment (for employees) or carrying out work we had asked them to do (for agents and suppliers).

2) We will not be responsible for any injury, illness, death, loss, damage, expense, cost or other sum or claim of any description whatsoever which results from any of the following:-

- the acts (s) and/or omissions (s) of the person (s) affected or any members (s) of their party or

- the act (s) and/or omissions (s) of a third party not connected with the provision of your holiday and which were unforeseeable or unavoidable or

- ‘force majeure’ as defined under the heading ‘Force Majeure’.

- a failure by the travel insurance to pay a claim that should have been covered under the requirement for clients to be adequately insured.

3) Please note, we cannot accept responsibility for any services which do not form part of these contracts. This includes, for example, any additional services or facilities, which your accommodation provider or any other supplier agrees to provide for you where the services or facilities are not advertised in our brochure and we have not agreed to arrange them and any excursion you purchase in resort. Where such services are arranged by us we act solely as an agent for the provider and do not accept any liability. In addition, regardless of any wording used by us on our website, in any of our brochures or elsewhere, we only promise to use reasonable skill and care as set out above and we do not have any greater or different liability to you.

If the contract we have with you is not performed or is improperly performed as a result of failures attributable to a third party unconnected with the provision of the services, or as a result of failures due to unusual and unforeseeable circumstances beyond our control, the consequences of which could not have been avoided even if all due care had been exercised, or an event which we or our suppliers, even with all due care, could not foresee or forestall, and you suffer injury or other material loss, we will offer you such prompt assistance as is reasonable in the circumstances.

4) The promises we make to you about the services we have agreed to provide or arrange as part of our contract - and the laws and regulations of the country in which your claim or complaint occurred - will be used as the basis for deciding whether the services in question had been properly provided. If the particular services which gave rise to the claim or complaint complied with the local laws and regulations applicable to those services at the time, the services will be treated as having been properly provided. This will be the case even if the services did not comply with the laws and regulations of the UK which would have applied had those services been provided in the UK.

5) As set out in these booking conditions we limit the maximum amount we may have to pay you for any claims you may make against us. Where we are found liable for the loss, damage or delay to any luggage or personal possessions (including money), the maximum amount we will have to pay you is £50 per item affected unless a lower limitation applies to your claim under this clause or clause (6) below.

6) Where any claim or part of a claim (including those involving death or personal injury) concerns or is based on any travel arrangements (including the process of getting on and/or off the transport concerned) provided by any sea, rail or road carrier or any stay in a hotel, the maximum amounts of compensation we will have to pay you will be limited. The most we will have to pay you for that claim or that part of a claim if we are found liable to you on any basis is the most the carriers or hotel keeper concerned would have to pay under the international convention or regulation which applies to the travel arrangements or hotel stay in question. Please note: Where a carrier or hotel would not be obliged to make any payment to you under the applicable International Convention or Regulation in respect of a claim or party of a claim, we similarly are not obliged to make a payment to you for that claim or part of the claim.

7) Please note, we cannot accept any liability for any damage, loss, expense or other sum (s) of any description (1) which would 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 (2) which did not result from any breach of contract or other fault by ourselves or our employees or, where we are responsible for them, our suppliers. Additionally we cannot accept liability for any business losses.

8) You must provide ourselves and our insurers with all assistance we may reasonably require. You must also tell us and the supplier concerned about your claim or complaint as set out under the heading ‘If You Have a Complaint’. If asked to do so, you must transfer to us or our insurers any rights you have against the supplier or whoever else is responsible for your claim or complaint (if the person concerned is under 18, their parent or guardian must do so). You must agree to cooperate fully with us and our insurers if we or our insurers want to enforce any rights which are transferred.

Force Majeure

Except where otherwise expressly stated in these booking conditions, we regret we cannot accept liability or pay any compensation or repayments where the performance or prompt performance of our obligations under our contract with you is prevented or affected by, or you otherwise suffer any damage or loss (as more fully described in ‘Our Liability to You’) as a result of ‘force majeure’. In these Fair Trading Conditions, ‘force majeure’ means any event which we or the supplier of the services(s) in question could not, even with all due care, foresee or avoid. Such events may include war or threat of war, riot, civil strife, actual or threatened terrorist activity, industrial dispute, natural or nuclear disaster, adverse weather conditions, traffic conditions, mechanical failure, fire, intervention by government bodies in the UK or abroad restricting the right or freedom to travel on holiday and all similar events outside our control.

Data Protection

We take full responsibility for ensuring that proper security measures are in place to protect your information. We may pass the information on to the relevant suppliers of your travel arrangements such as hotels, transport companies, insurers etc. We will not pass any information onto any person not responsible for part of your travel arrangements.

Indemnity - Payments by Card

The consumer credit act 1974(section 75) applies to all payments by credit /debit cards. In the event of payments being made by credit or debit cards it is a condition of this contract that in the event of any dispute or other matter arising, an insurance claim or a court claim under UK law must initially be made. If for any reason the insurer should not meet a claim, then a complaint must be made to the Financial Ombudsman and determined prior to considering making any card claim against us. It is expressly agreed that prior to a determination by the Financial Ombudsman a card claim would not be made. In the event of a premature card claim or a “chargeback” claim being made contrary to the above conditions (either UK court claims or insurance claims), it is agreed that all monies received under that premature claim remain our property and must be reimbursed to us.

Sending Your Travel Documents/Tickets

Travel information and itinerary will be emailed to you approx. two weeks prior to departure.

Additional services required for coach travel, ski passes, ski hire etc. will be confirmed and invoiced separately following the holiday accommodation booking with Ski Snowcoach Ltd.

Ski Snowcoach Ltd registered in England No. 06861215

7 Parkway, Porters Wood, St. Albans, AL3 6PA