REAL Socialising – Terms and Conditions

Our Deposit and Payment Policy:

UK Day Trips from £10pp : Euro Day Trips from £10pp – each excursion may vary so please read ‘Latest Events’ for further information

Short Breaks: Please register your interest as if you were booking the trip, stating number of places and room type. As soon as sufficient interest has been received we will contact you to confirm the excursion will proceed as advertised and request your initial deposit and date for final payment. After our confirmation, deposits paid are non-refundable. Final Payments for all trips are required between 6-8 weeks prior to the event date.

Please ensure you have adequate travel insurance in place to cover any eventuality that may stop you attending.

When booking, we must draw your attention to our terms and conditions as below.

Booking Conditions and our Terms and Conditions for travel, trips and excursions.

Your contract with REAL Socialising.

1. YOUR PAYMENTS TO REAL SOCIALISING

MEMBERSHIP – Annual Membership is FREE when subscribing to our e-newsletter. However, if you require these posted to your address, then we make a £15 per annum charge to cover postage and printing.

SHORT BREAKS – When booking a short break, following our confirmation that the trip has reached sufficient interest to be confirmed, we will contact you and request a non refundable deposit and give dates when the final payment is due.  Final payment is usually required 6-8 weeks before the travel date, but may depend on third party suppliers, such as hotels and transport providers.

If you have made your holiday booking within the final 6-8 week period, then its likely the full amount will need to be paid, but we will advise you according to each trip.

DAY TRIPS – We request a deposit to be made to secure your place for our day trips. Full payment is required 6-8 weeks prior to the event. Deposits vary according to the cost of the day trip. For trips under £30 we will request full payment at the time of booking to save administration costs and time. 

TICKET ONLY – PAYMENTS FOR TICKET-ONLY EVENTS WILL BE SPECIFIED WITH EACH EVENT AND WILL FOLLOW THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE TICKET AGENT, THEATRE OR VENUE GROUPS MAY WISH TO SET UP A PAYMENT SYSTEM THROUGH THEIR GROUP LEADER OR SOCIAL ORGANISER. PLEASE CONTACT REAL SOCIALISING TO ARRANGE THE MOST SUITABLE METHOD OF PAYMENT FOR YOUR GROUP (BACS, CHEQUE, PAYPAL OR OTHER)

2. IF YOU CHANGE YOUR BOOKING – If, after making your booking and receiving our confirmation of same, you wish to change or alter to another of our short breaks or alter tour booking in any way (e.g. by changing departure date, excursion or name change) we will do our utmost to make the changes, provided written notification is received at our office/via email from the person who made the booking at least 6 weeks before the departure date. Changes under any circumstances will incur a minimum payment of £15.00 per person to cover administration fees and payments made for your protection through the package travel regulations provided by the tour provider/organiser specified on the tour itinerary issued for your specific tour. If we are promoting a tour organised by a third party tour operator, then cancellation payments may be different and may incur cancellation or admin fees of a different cost to our own charges.

3. IF YOU CANCEL YOUR BOOKING– If you or any member of your party wishes to cancel your booking, you must notify us by email or in writing. In any case, the date of cancellation will be the date on which notice is received at the registered office or email account of REAL Socialising.

As the cancellation process incurs administrative costs and payments will have been made for your protection through the package travel regulations, these fees will be reclaimed in the instance of cancelling short breaks, and as we may not be able to resell your booking, cancellation charges may be applied as below. (*charges are likely to be the equivalent of the initial deposit).

For Day Excursions (excluding third-party ticket elements*): Amount of cancellation charge shown as a % of the total price.

More than 45 days – Nil%*

30 to 44 days – Deposit only*

29 days or under – 100% of the total cost

For Day Excursions which include pre-purchased tickets*, REAL Socialising reserves the right to charge you for the ticket price unless tickets can be re-sold

For Weekend and Short Break Excursions, payments and refund policies will be set by third-party suppliers (such as hotel and transport providers) and the following will apply: Amount of cancellation charge shown as a % of the total price.

More than 45 days – Deposit Only*

44 days or under – 100% of the total cost

*Cancellation after we have confirmed the excursion will take place and your initial deposit has been paid, you will incur a charge usually equivalent to the initial deposit paid per person, to cover administration and payments made for your protection under the Financial Failure Indemnity Scheme which REAL Socialising belong to. Details of our Financial Failure policy for the year 1-1-2023 to 31-1-2024 can be read by clicking this link:  EVO Booking Confirmation Wording 2023 – Real Socialising

NOTE: If you require a letter /invoice confirming your payments and subsequent cancellation; for an insurance claim, please request it as quickly as possible and in any event within 14 days of the date of notification to REAL Socialising.

4. COMPLAINTS – If you have a complaint during your holiday, please immediately inform our local representative or courier who will do their best to rectify the problem. If the matter cannot be put right on the spot you must record the details of your complaint in writing with our local representative. We cannot consider any claims if this procedure is not adhered to.

5. CONDITIONS OF CARRIAGE – We would advise you that coach journeys are operated by vehicles hired by REAL Socialising and the specifications on these vehicles may therefore be different to those detailed in the advertised event. Cross Channel Transport (Eurotunnel and Ferry) may sometimes be subject to change from that originally advertised due to reasons beyond our control such as strikes, weather or essential maintenance.

6. TRAVEL DOCUMENTS – You are solely responsible for ensuring that all necessary travel documents, e.g. passports, visas, vaccination certificates etc. are valid and effective. Please ensure you are compliant with travel regulations due to Brexit. Current details can be found here: Visit Europe from 1 January 2021 – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) NB: We would be pleased if you would note that some non-EEC passport holders must now obtain a special visa for entry into France.

6. OTHER ITEMS

(a) You must not bring pets or other animals on our excursions.

(b) Personal music players such as MP3 players are allowed, but please respect fellow passengers by keeping the volume to a minimum.

(c) All our coaches used are NON-SMOKING – This includes E-Cigarettes/Vapes.

(d) You are responsible for ensuring that you are at the correct departure point at the correct time, and we cannot be held liable for any loss or expense suffered by clients because of the late arrival at any departure point. As a precaution, we would strongly advise clients to arrive at their departure point at least 15 minutes prior to departure of their tour.

7. RIGHTS OF REFUSAL – We must point out that REAL Socialising reserves the unconditional right to refuse a booking or terminate a passenger’s holiday in the event of unreasonable conduct.

OUR OBLIGATION TO YOU

1. CONFIRMATION OF YOUR BOOKING – We will confirm your place by email within 14 days of your booking and the contract is made when you receive this email. Group bookings will be confirmed to your group organiser within 14 days. However, REAL Socialising reserves the right to delay confirmation until minimum numbers have been reached to ensure the day trip or short break will proceed. (See 4 below).

2. SURCHARGES – In these uncertain times, no organisation can be sure that surcharges may not be levied by our third-party travel operators, through external influences such as fuel increases or by way of currency fluctuations or further measures beyond our reasonable control such as those we faced during the pandemic. We will do our utmost to ensure that once you have paid the final balance due, there will not be any additional surcharge levied unless in extreme conditions; but we are at the mercy of others should any increases occur due to unforeseen circumstances or economic pressures. It may therefore be necessary to add a surcharge to the original sale price. Due to currency fluctuations, prices on some European excursions may have to be amended due to economic influences. We will do our utmost to advise you as soon as we know. However, in extreme circumstances, this may be close to the travel date.

3. IF WE HAVE TO CHANGE YOUR BOOKING – Your short breaks and day trips are usually planned many months in advance and although it is unlikely; it is possible that circumstances may force us to make changes to the advertised event. If for reasons beyond our control, it proves necessary to change your hotel accommodation, for instance, our tour supplier will undertake to provide alternative accommodation of similar or higher classification. Again, where some feature of your holiday such as a visit or excursion cannot be offered, we shall substitute an equivalent or improved arrangement wherever possible.

If a major change becomes necessary, we will inform you as soon as is reasonably possible if there is time before your departure. A major change is one that we make to your holiday arrangements before departure which involves changing your day of departure, resort area, or offering accommodation with a lower classification. You must opt for one of the following:

(a) Accept the changed arrangements as notified by us.

(b) Transfer to another short break or day trip from us or

(c) Cancel your holiday. If you choose to cancel, where possible, we will either (a) refund all the money you have paid to us, but will have no further liability to you; or

(d) issue a credit voucher if we are bound by third-party refund restrictions due to third-party cancellation clauses.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Compensation payments do not apply to changes caused by war or threat of war, riots, civil strife, terrorist activity, industrial disputes, natural disasters, fire, technical problems, transport, closure of airports, or ports and similar events completely beyond our control. We are also bound by clauses in third-party contracts including for ‘Force Majeure’ which may provide a set of circumstances beyond anyone’s reasonable control. Third-party contracts with suppliers may also be subject to change or amendment due to reasons beyond our control but we will do our utmost to bring matters to a mutually convenient end.

4. IF WE HAVE TO CANCEL YOUR BOOKING – In certain circumstances, we may have to cancel your short break or day trip and if this should occur, we will operate under a standard refund policy. Short breaks and day trips will only proceed on reaching the minimum number viable for this to proceed. If minimum numbers are not reached, a full refund of the monies paid will be given.

5. OUR LIABILITY – REAL Socialising accepts liability for day trips which are wholly within our control and therefore, accepts liability to clients for the negligence of our agents, which includes our employees and voluntary staff. REAL Socialising uses third-party organisers and suppliers who are fully compliant with the Package Travel Regulations through either ABTA / ATOL or carry other types of protection such as bonding. The type of cover will be outlined on your travel itinerary and full details will be shown in the event of you having to make a claim. However, we would draw your attention to the following circumstances which fall outside our direct control or where for some other reason we are not prepared to accept liability.

(a) We make every effort to ensure that proper arrangements have been made for all short breaks and day trips as advertised and that the suppliers of the services which you will enjoy during your holiday are efficient and reputable. However, we do not have any direct control over the provision of such services to you by those suppliers and do not accept liability for any loss (however caused) arising from the action or omissions of such suppliers of services or their employees or agents.

(b) Please remember that some hotel amenities (e.g. lifts, swimming pools) require servicing or cleaning and we cannot, therefore, guarantee that they are always available. Other factors such as weather or lack of demand can affect the provision of entertainment or outdoor amenities described in our advertising. To our best endeavours and knowledge, the event as advertised is correct at the time of going to press.

(c) The published running times of services are estimates only and we will not be liable for any loss (however caused) arising from delay or failure to operate services per published timings. GENERAL INFORMATION RESERVATIONS – Your reservation will be confirmed when you have completed the online booking form and submitted your deposit or full payment where applicable. The minimum number of passengers required to operate any tour is usually 30. If numbers are below this figure, it is unlikely that a trip will proceed and we will inform you at least 14 days before departure. Full refunds will be given.

DEPOSITS – The required number of deposits will vary depending on the activity. Where possible we will include a deposit amount on our website, with the balance payable by the date. Due to suppliers such as Theatres, Hotels and transport providers requiring deposits in advance of our activity, some deposits may be classed as ‘non-refundable’. All specific terms and conditions of each event or short break are detailed on our website (Full payment is required for all at the time of booking for all-day trips). Ticket-only event payment will be specified on an individual basis and be subject to the venue provider’s requirements and conditions.

PAYMENTS – Payments can be made by online banking, PayPal or debit or credit cards. Larger groups can enter special arrangements with us.

CHILDREN – REAL Socialising welcomes children unless we specify the tour is unsuitable for those under a certain age.

NO SMOKING COACHES – All our Coaches used are strictly NON-SMOKING.

PASSPORTS & VISAS – You are solely responsible for ensuring that all necessary travel documents are valid and effective. You will either need a full 10-year British passport or a 1-year British Visitors passport for all continental holidays. When travelling alone you cannot use a joint passport. Some EEC citizens are now required to take out a visa for entry into French territory. If you were born outside the United Kingdom please enquire at the appropriate Embassy. Please ensure you follow up-to-date rules following Brexit: Visit Europe from 1 January 2021 – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

PLEASE NOTE: Major factors may impact travel in the coming months, and we will only proceed with travel if it’s safe to do so, please ensure you are up to date on requirements for after Brexit. Further information can be found at https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice

HEALTH – Please check https://www.gov.uk/european-health-insurance-card as of 1st January 2021, the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) may not be valid so please ensure Health insurance forms part of your travel insurance.

COVID-19 – We follow guidelines for travel as directed by the Government. The onus for checking requirements lies with you, the booker to ensure you comply with the rules of the country you are visiting which may change at short notice – Please visit:  www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice

INSURANCE – is strongly recommended to be taken out by all travellers on all tours of whatever duration. REAL Socialising does not offer travel insurance nor has the ability to offer services under a repatriation scheme other than in the instance of its own financial failure as outlined below. Should the need arise and you are not able to join the planned return journey for any unforeseen circumstances; you will need to rely on your own travel insurance from that point forward.

LUGGAGE – Adequate accommodation is provided in our coaches for passengers’ luggage, but space is not unlimited, and passengers are requested to restrict their luggage to one medium-sized suitcase per person plus small hand luggage which may be taken in the coach. On all continental tours using a night crossing, you must take a small overnight bag as your cases stay locked in the coach until arrival at your first hotel.

HOTELS – Unless otherwise stated, the hotel accommodation provided is usually of a minimum 3-Star Standard i.e., a twin, double or single room (unless a 3 or 4-bedded room is booked) with private facilities. Under certain circumstances, we may need to change hotels for those stated in the advertisement. If this becomes necessary you will be informed in good time, however, we cannot accept claims for compensation as a result of this.

BEDROOMS – The position of any room cannot be guaranteed and in the main room allocations are the responsibility of the hotelier. However, special requests such as a lower floor or disabled rooms are passed on to the hotelier.

SINGLE ROOMS – These are usually subject to a supplementary charge (single supplements will be stated in the advertisement). Friends travelling together are advised to share twin rooms. If you’re prepared to share you can avoid this charge and if there is someone else on your tour who is also prepared to share with you then we will arrange this. Please ask us at the time of booking if any others are willing to share. Of course, this is subject to availability.

MEALS – The board for each holiday or short break is specified in the advertisement. This could range from breakfast, half board or full board. If you have any special dietary needs, please notify us at the time of your booking.

ENTRANCE FEES – We specifically state where entrance fees and other charges are included in the tour price. In general, however, visiting attractions is optional and you should allow for these additional expenses.

SERVICE CHARGES AND GRATUITY – Service charges are included in all tour prices (unless otherwise stated in the descriptive flyer or itinerary) but as you know, tipping is part of the tourist scene. If you have had a good service and are satisfied you may wish to show it. It is usual for us to show appreciation to our coach drivers through a collection on our homebound journey. Contribution is at your discretion.

FINANCIAL SECURITY WHEN BOOKING A SHORT BREAK WITH REAL SOCIALISING:

We, REAL Socialising Ltd, are committed to customer satisfaction and consumer financial protection.

We are therefore pleased to confirm to you that, in accordance with our obligations under the current Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations July 2018 No.684, we have purchased Travel Regulation Insolvency Protection Insurance in our name for your benefit.  All passengers booking with REAL Socialising Ltd, are fully insured for the initial deposit, and subsequently the balance of monies paid as detailed in your booking confirmation form. The policy will also include repatriation/continuation if required, arising from the cancellation or curtailment of your travel/accommodation arrangements due to the insolvency of REAL Socialising Ltd.

 

This insurance policy has been arranged by Everywhen with AXA Insurance UK plc (the insurer).

Please contact us if you require a copy of the policy wording.

 

Making a claim

To make a claim, please contact Everywhen using the contact details shown below   Telephone (+44)1932 334140   Email tcs@everywhen.co.uk   Please be aware that •        Everywhen cannot make alternative travel or repatriation arrangements on your behalf •        A claim will not be considered until insolvency has been verified by the insurer and the Administrators.

 

Policy exclusions: This policy will not cover any monies paid for Travel Insurance or any claim relating to Air Flights. If you have booked flights as part of your travel, you should ensure that the company with which you booked the flights has the appropriate CAA/ATOL bonds in place.

************

From time to time, REAL Socialising will also offer short breaks for third-party tour and travel operators who carry their own bonding or Financial Failure Insurance which complies with current travel regulations. In these instances, such as travel involving air flights; third-party operators will be ABTA or ATOL protected and the appropriate bonding or financial protection scheme will be identified on your travel itinerary for each short break booked with them (REAL Socialising acting only as an agent promoting an excursion to our members)

The EU Package Travel Directive extends and applies to three different types of travel combinations:

Pre-arranged holiday and travel packages – pre-arranged packages from a travel agent, tour operator or holiday operator made up of at least two elements, such as flights, transportation, accommodation, car rental, etc.

Customised holiday and travel packages – a selection of holiday and travel elements for the same trip, bought by the traveller from a single business, whether in an online or offline sale.

Linked travel arrangements – other linked marketing combinations for travel services.

AGTO – Association of Group Travel Organisers

For your additional protection, REAL Socialising is a member of the Association of Group Travel Organisers and has Group Travel Organisers Combined Liability and Professional Indemnity Insurance in place with Towergate Travel,  3000 Hillswood Drive, Hillswood Business Park, Chertsey, Surrey, KT16 0RS