BOOKING CONDITIONS OF SHANTI MOUNTAIN RETREATS
By booking a trip with Shanti Mountain Retreats you are deemed to have accepted on behalf of everyone involved in the booking these Booking Conditions, which constitutes the entire agreement between you and SMR ( Shanti Mountain Retreats) , and your booking will be accepted by us on this basis.
- Booking process
A booking is possible if made by either a client online or by the staff of SMR when a certain program and price have been agreed beforehand. In both cases an invoice is issued and sent for payment, which also represents the confirmation for the services, ordered by our clients. Any special requirements and medical problems should be reported by the client at the time of booking. After the full payment is received a set of documents will be sent over to the client, or provided directly to him on arrival, containing vouchers and other relevant information if needed (trip notes, route notes etc.). Please make sure all details inside are correct and contact us immediately should you notice incorrect or missing information.
- Payments
All clients are required to pay a non-refundable deposit of 150 Euro per person for their booking to be confirmed (valid for multi-day tours), or a smaller amount in other occasions (i.e. day tours). In any case the required deposit will be made clear on your invoice. If a reservation of flight ticket is needed we may ask the full amount of the ticket to be paid as well at the time of the deposit payment. Full payment should be received not later than 40 days prior departure. If your booking is made within 40 days of the departure date then the full amount is payable at the time of booking. If the services you have ordered amount to less than 100 Euros per person then the full amount may be required at the time of booking. If full payment is not captured on time we will send you a written reminder and if no payment follows within 5 days, we reserve the right to cancel your reservation. Payment deadlines are always available inside the invoices received by the
clients and should be followed strictly. Bank charges are at the expense of the client. It happens often that wire transfers made outside Europe use intermediary banks in Europe, which transfer the payment afterwards to us. These intermediary banks charge extra (appr. 20-30 Euros per transfer). All clients should make sure their bank doesn’t use such mediators, otherwise the charges of the latter will also be added to the final bill of the client.
- Booking alterations
Changes of the published prices by SMR before your booking confirmation shall not be treated as indecorousness from our side. Although we do our best to maintain up to date rates throughout our websites, unfavourable changes in exchange rates, local operators’ costs, transportation costs and taxes may occur, which will affect the final price. In such cases we will cover any increase up to 3% of the published price, but the client will be responsible to cover the balance and will be notified about the changes as soon as they become known to SMR. If the increase is more than 10% the client can cancel the reservation within 10 days of the notification and the deposit will be fully refunded. If a full payment is received by that time however no surcharges will be paid by the client. If a client wants to do changes in the tour program it is necessary that these are advised as early as possible. Although we will make efforts to satisfy those changes we do not guarantee that we will be able to meet such requests. Tours and services with mixed-up starting dates due to clients’ fault may not always be handled if the mistake is noted less than 5 days before the starting date of the services. Administrative taxes of 45 Euros up to 100% of the package price will be applied in such cases.
- Cancellations by the client
All cancellations should be made in written to SMR on our corporate email: info@shantimountainretreats.com Cancellations, advised verbally to a company staff (i.e. drivers, tour guides, resort representatives) or in written to another email addresses will not be considered as valid. The following cancellation charges (as a percentage of the total cost, but not less than the deposit) apply for cancellations made by clients for services in Bulgaria, booked through SMR.: > 30 days -30%; 29 -15 days -50%; 14 -9 days -70%; 8 days or less -100%; The following cancellation charges (as a percentage of the total cost,
but not less than the deposit) apply for cancellations made by clients for services outside Bulgaria: > 41 days -30%; 40 days or less -100%. For bookings, where a flight ticket is included, the clients should pay the charges levied by the airline concerned. If a ground service provided by SMR. is omitted by a client (e.g. transfer, tour etc.) due to last- minute illness, flight cancellation
etc. this is considered “no-show” and no refund will be made. The same rule applies if a client decides to leave the holiday before its end. We will issue all required documents, verifying the cancellation, which you can use for your insurance company. In case the payment is made by payment card, reimbursements are going to be made via refund order to the card used for payment within 30 days.
- Cancellations by SMR.
In the unlikely event we needs to change significantly or cancel a certain reservations, the client will be given the choice to: 1) accept the changed arrangements; 2) order an alternative holiday (if a cheaper holiday is chosen the price difference will be refunded to the client; if it is a more expensive one, the difference should be paid extra by the client); 3) cancel or accept the cancellations by SMR. (full refund will be obtained). SMR is not responsible for any incidental expenses that a client may has incurred as a result of the booking such as visas, vaccinations or non-refundable flights.
- Force-majeure
Shanti Shanti Ltd. shall not be held liable in cases of “force majeure” circumstances, herewith described as events which we or our subcontractors cannot predict or avoid, such as: terrorist activity, strike, war or threat of war, riot, civil strife, natural or nuclear disaster, adverse weather conditions, fire etc.
- Handling of complaints
Should our clients experience problems during their holidays, which cannot be resolved on spot by the local company representative (or if there is no such person – the hotelier, carrier or the local agent), they must inform in written the head office of SMR Ltd. with an email sent to info@shantimountainretreats.com. Please make sure to include with full details of the case mentioned inside so that we can take proper measures in order to have this problem resolved as soon as possible. Any complaints brought to our attention after the end of the holiday could only be regarded but we regret in advance that no efforts could really be made at this later stage which would have made your holiday more enjoyable.
- Texts and prices accuracy
We endeavour to present the information in our websites and brochures as accurate as possible but some errors may occur during the time of publishing or meant amendments afterwards. We kindly ask you to make sure that the information and price at the time of booking is correct, as well as the information published later on in your invoice and voucher(s).
- Photos and testimonials
Images taken during our holidays may be used by SMR Ltd. without charge in all media for marketing or advertising purposes (i.e. websites, brochures, slideshows etc.). Written feedback and images sent to the company by clients are also subject of the same conditions and can be used without special permission by their authors.
- Travel insurance, health and immigration
Please note that no travel insurance is included in our packages and we suggest that at the time of booking all clients consider purchasing a policy of their choice. Clients are also fully responsible for all visa, passport, immigration, quarantine, customs, health and other requirements of the countries visited or transited. Avalid passport must be carried by each person. SMR is not responsible if a client fails to ensure that they comply with these requirements.
- Privacy Policy
We are aware that you may have concerns over disclosing information about yourself to us. This privacy policy explains, amongst other things, what information we collect about you on this website and the reasons for this. Our primary aim in collecting personal information is to provide you with a customised experience on our website – aiming to show you information that is relevant to you. We also collect information for statistical purposes and to offer you future products and services that may be of interest to you.
Information we collect:
Log file information, including IP addresses. You can visit public areas of the site without identifying yourself or providing any personal information Tracking IP addresses (the computer’s internet address): Monitoring how long a user spends on the site and which pages he/she visits – this helps us evaluate the use of different parts of the website. As a rule, we don’t link IP addresses to anything that can identify you personally, ensuring you can remain anonymous. Nevertheless, we will attempt to use IP addresses to identify a user when we feel it is necessary to protect our services and other users.
Personal data:
Any personal data relating to you gathered by us in the registration process or during your use of the service will be recorded and only be used in accordance with our Data Protection Policy. The website uses various order and registration forms to enable you to request information, products and services. When you register for the secure sections of our website you will need to provide us with information such as your name, date of birth, e-mail address and password. Any personal data we collect during registration is designed to allow us to personalize the site for you and give you access the right kinds of information. If you register, request further information or contact us we may keep a record of that correspondence and incorporate the information it contains into our database(s).
Internet security:
The webserver that hosts this site is not used to store personal information of any kind. Any personal information that you do provide is stored on a separate and secure database server. There is no direct link between this database server and the internet and access is strictly limited. We do not directly track or record your usage of this website. This privacy policy may not apply to you if we believe you are misusing the website or if we are required to disclose information by a court of law or other relevant body.
Third party sites:
Please be aware that some of the websites to which we provide links may collect personally identifiable information about you. We do not control these sites and are not responsible for the content or practices of third party websites. This privacy policy does not cover such sites.
