Mercury Holidays 2021-2023 Brochure

210 www.mercuryholidays.co.uk • 0800 298 9865 Due to space constraints the following Booking Conditions are an edited summary of our full Booking Conditions which can be found online at www.mercuryholidays.co.uk or on request from us. Our full Booking Conditions as may be amended and/or supplemented by any ‘Covid Promise’ or similar document which may be found on our website at the time together with our privacy policy, the ‘For you to know’ and ‘Holiday Insurance’ sections form the basis of your contract with Sunspot Tours Ltd trading as Mercury Holidays. Please read them carefully. By asking us to confirm your booking, we are entitled to assume you have read and agree to them. Mercury Holidays respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. Our privacy notice will inform you as to how we look after your personal data when you visit our website (regardless of where you visit it from) or when you otherwise provide personal data to us via other means (such as over the telephone) and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you. Please visit our website www.mercuryholidays.co.uk/info/privacy-policy for full details. The information and prices shown in this brochure may have changed by the time you come to book your arrangements. Although we make every effort to ensure the accuracy of the brochure information and prices at the time of printing, regrettably errors do occasionally occur. You must therefore ensure you check the price and all other details of your chosen arrangements with us at the time of booking. Services provided by other parties We will not accept responsibility for services or facilities which do not form part of our agreement with you, i.e. where they are not detailed on your booking confirmation or where they are not advertised in our brochure or on our website. For example, we are not responsible for any pre-departure car parking, hotel, taxis, any other personal travel arrangements or airport lounge facility except where they have been booked through us and form part of your contracted arrangements with us (in which case they will be detailed on your booking confirmation). In resort we are not responsible for any excursion, service or facility which your hotel or any other supplier agrees to provide for you while you are away. All queries and claims in relation to such services should be directed to the provider of that service. 1. Booking and Payments Subject to availability, the holidays in this brochure can be booked by telephone or via our website. The first named person making the booking must be over 18 and resident in the United Kingdom 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. The first named person making the booking agrees on behalf of all persons detailed on the booking that (a) he/she consents to our use of personal data in accordance with our Privacy Statement and is authorised on behalf of all persons named on the booking to disclose their personal details to us, including where applicable special categories of data (such as information on health conditions or disabilities and dietary requirements) (please see our website); (b) guarantees that they have authority to accept and does accept on behalf of all persons named on the booking, these booking conditions and agrees to be bound by them including the financial responsibility for payment of the booking. The first named person making the booking guarantees payment to us of the total cost of the holiday booked. A deposit from £250pp, (or full payment if booking within ten weeks of departure) is payable at the time of booking. Please note the deposit may be increased depending on the airline and/or country you are travelling to. You will be advised of the amount of the deposit payable at the time of booking, however those who have made bookings on the website may be contacted up to 72 hours after the booking has been made and advised of any increases. The balance of the cost of your arrangements (including any applicable surcharge) is due by the balance due date notified to you. This will normally be ten weeks before departure, (may be sooner for River Cruise bookings) please check your confirmation. If the deposit or balance is not received by us in full by the applicable due date, we reserve the right to treat the booking as cancelled by you in which case we shall retain your deposit. We do not send reminders of monies owing. Your booking is confirmed and a binding contract between us and you comes into existence when we have received payment of the deposit or the full cost of your booking (where applicable) and we issue you with a booking confirmation confirming the details of your booking (which will be sent to you or your travel agent). If your confirmed arrangements include a flight, we (or if you booked via an authorised agent of ours, that agent) will issue you with an ATOL Certificate in addition to the booking confirmation. Contact us immediately (and no later than ten days of receipt) if any information which appears on the booking confirmation or ATOL certificate or any other document is incorrect or incomplete so that the error can be investigated. 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). We will do our best to rectify any mistake or omission notified to us within the time limits specified above if the error was our fault, but you must meet any costs involved in our doing so if the error was as a result of your fault. If we are notified of inaccuracies or errors more than 10 days after you have received your confirmation, any costs to amend the booking will be your responsibility. We reserve the right to return your deposit and decline to issue a booking confirmation at our absolute discretion. Any money paid to an authorised agent of ours in respect of a booking covered by our ATOL is held by that agent on behalf of and for the benefit of the Trustees of the Air Travel Trust at all times, but subject to the agent’s obligation to pay it to us for so long as we do not fail financially. If we do fail financially, any money held at that time by the agent or subsequently accepted from the consumer by the agent, is and continues to be held by that agent on behalf of and for the benefit of the Trustees of the Air Travel Trust without any obligation to pay that money to us. Credit and Debit Cards : You may make payment by debit or credit card. Please note we cannot take AMEX cards. 2. Our price policy The prices shown in this brochure are per person in £’s sterling. Our brochure prices are accurate at the time of publication, but you should only use them as a guide. The prices we give are the best value available at the time of pricing and generally are selected from dates outside of the high season. The price you pay will depend on when you are travelling and prices may go up and down throughout the season. The brochure price is based on the standard occupancy for the room type included in the package so the price will change if the room is occupied by a different number of guests. Please note some special offers cannot be combined. The final price of your holiday will be confirmed at time of booking. We reserve the right to amend the price of unsold holidays at any time and correct errors in the prices of confirmed holidays. Please consider that the prices in this brochure are based on the lowest airfares available at the time of going to print. Please see our full Booking Conditions for further details. 3. If you change your booking and transfers of booking Requests to change your booking after confirmation (e.g transferring to a different hotel, departure date or airport) must be made in writing as soon as possible by the first named person on the booking. Whilst we will do our best to assist we are not bound to comply with such requests. If additional people are added to your booking, they are added on the understanding that they have also accepted these booking conditions and you or they will pay any additional costs. Where we can meet a request for a change to your holiday we will issue a revised holiday invoice to confirm this. To avoid incurring booking service charges at a later date, please remember to book all additional items when you confirm your holiday. All amendments/alterations more than 10 weeks before the original departure will incur the following charges: (A) An amendment fee from £30 per person for all destinations will be payable together with any costs incurred by ourselves and any costs or charges incurred or imposed by any of our suppliers. If you amend your booking in any way (subject to (B) below) less than ten weeks before your original departure date we will advise you of the cost of making such amendment. Please note that it may be the case that some costs payable in respect of the booking are non-refundable and, where you do not wish to proceed with the original booking (or with the amended booking) we will treat this as a cancellation by you and the cancellation charges shown in clause 6 below will apply. Where we are unable to assist you and you do not wish to proceed with the original booking, we will treat this as a cancellation by you and a fee may be payable in accordance with clause 6. Any new arrangements you request will be treated as an entirely new booking. (B) Transfer of Booking: If you or any member of your party is prevented from travelling, that person(s) may transfer their place to someone else, subject to the following conditions: a) that person is introduced by you and satisfies all the conditions applicable to the holiday; b) we are notified not less than 7 days before departure; c) you pay any outstanding balance payment, an amendment fee of £30 per person transferring, as well as any additional fees, charges or other costs arising from the transfer; and d) the transferee agrees to these booking conditions and all other terms of the contract between us. You and the transferee remain jointly and severally liable for payment of all sums. If you are unable to find a replacement, cancellation charges as set out in clause 6 will apply in order to cover our estimated costs. Otherwise, no refunds will be given for passengers not travelling or for unused services. IMPORTANT NOTE. Certain arrangements (e.g. flights) 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. In some cases any changes made may mean you have to pay for the cancelled arrangements and have to purchase new ones at full cost. 4. Cancellation by you prior to departure Should you or any member of your party need to cancel your booking or any part of it, once it has been confirmed, you must notify us as soon as possible. You can notify us by phone, email or in writing. Your notice of cancellation will only take effect when it is received by us and will be effective from the date on which we receive it. The charges which we will impose are set out below, and their level will depend on when we receive notification of cancellation. Any amendment fees, insurance premiums, airport taxes or higher level deposit paid cannot be refunded and are payable in full. Since we incur costs in cancelling your arrangements, you will have to pay the cancellation charges as follows: Period before departure within which notification of cancellation is received by us: Cancellation charge per person More than 69 days Deposit only (including both initial deposits and, where applicable, and further deposits)* 69 - 43 days 70%* 42 - 29 days 80%* 28 - 15 days 90%* 14 days or less 100% The cancellation charges above have been calculated as a genuine pre-estimate of the losses we would incur in the event you cancelled your holiday within the stipulated time period, taking into account the charges we will incur from our suppliers (some of which will be up to 100%) and the expected cost savings and income from alternative deployment of the travel services (if possible) calculated as an average charge over a period of time. *Certain arrangements may not be amended after they have been confirmed and any alteration or cancellation could incur cancellation charges from your suppliers (up to 100% of booking value) in addition to the charge above. Please note that any services booked through us and supplied by ‘Holiday Extras’ are cancelled in accordance with Holiday Extras’ own terms and conditions, and could be non-refundable. Therefore in the event of cancellation, it is possible that no refund will be given to you on that part of your booking. Note: cancellation charges above are shown as a percentage of holiday cost (excluding amendment fees). Please ensure that you are in receipt of written confirmation from us of your cancellation. Depending on the reason for cancellation, you may be able to reclaim these cancellation charges (less any applicable excess) under the terms of your insurance policy. Claims must be made directly to the insurance company concerned. We will deduct the cancellation charge(s) from any monies you have already paid to us. Important note : Airport taxes are not refundable if your holiday is cancelled. Please be advised that if you pay a higher deposit at the time of booking, e.g 50% of the cost of your holiday then this is a non-refundable deposit, because it relates to a non- refundable element of the booking as per our supplier’s terms. For flight inclusive bookings, you must in addition pay the charges levied by the airline concerned. As most airlines do not permit name changes after tickets have been issued for any reason, these charges are likely to be the full cost of the flight. Please see our full Booking Conditions for further information on the cancellation charges that apply to ‘Holiday Extras’ products. 5. Cancellation by you due to unavoidable and Extraordinary Circumstances You have the right to cancel your confirmed holiday before departure without paying a cancellation charge in the event of “unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances” occurring at your holiday destination or its immediate vicinity and significantly affecting the performance of the holiday or significantly affecting the transport arrangements to the destination. In these circumstances, we shall provide you with a full refund of the monies you have paid but we will not be liable to pay you any additional compensation. Please note that your right to cancel in these circumstances will only apply where the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office advises against travel to your destination or its immediate vicinity. For the purposes of this clause, “unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances” means warfare, acts of terrorism, significant risks to human health such as the outbreak of serious disease at the travel destination or natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes or weather conditions which make it impossible to travel safely to the travel destination. This clause 6 outlines the rights you have if you wish to cancel your booking. Please note that there is no automatic statutory right of cancellation under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/3134). 6. If we change or cancel your holiday Occasionally, we have to make changes to and correct errors in the brochure and other details both before and after bookings have been confirmed, and cancel confirmed bookings (which for the avoidance of doubt expressly include any extension booked by you and which are part of the package and your confirmed booking), which we must reserve the right to do. Please see our full Booking Conditions for details of the options that may be offered to you if we make a significant change or cancellation to your tour and there is time to do so before departure. Compensation will be payable where appropriate subject to applicable exclusions. 7. Our liability to you We will accept responsibility for the arrangements we agree to provide or arrange for you as an ‘organiser’ under the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018, as amended as set out below and as such, we are responsible for the proper provision of all travel services included in your package, as set out in your confirmation invoice. Subject to these Booking Conditions, if we or our suppliers perform or arrange those services and we don’t remedy or resolve your complaint within a reasonable period of time and this has affected the enjoyment of your holiday you may be entitled to an appropriate price reduction or compensation or both. You must inform us without undue delay of any failure to perform or improper performance of the travel services included in this package. The level of any such price reduction or compensation will be calculated taking into consideration all relevant factors such as but not limited to: following the complaints procedure as described in these Booking Conditions and the extent to which ours or our employees’ or suppliers’ negligence affected the overall enjoyment of your holiday. Please note that it is your responsibility to show that we or our supplier(s) have been negligent if you wish to make a claim against us. (2) 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; or (b) the act(s) and/or omission(s) of a third party unconnected with the provision of the services contracted for and which were unavoidable and extraordinary; or (c) Force Majeure (as defined in clause 8). (3) 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 is £25 per person in total because you are required 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 is up to three times 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 holiday. (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 these Booking Conditions. 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. (4) 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 Booking Conditions. (5) 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. (6) 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 losses. (7) 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. (8) Where it is impossible for you to return to your departure point as per the agreed return date of your package, due to “unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances”, we shall provide you with any necessary accommodation (where possible, of a comparable standard) for a period not exceeding three nights per person. Please note that the 3 night cap does not apply to persons with reduced mobility, pregnant women or unaccompanied minors, nor to persons needing specific medical assistance, provided we have been notified of these particular needs in advance. For the purposes of this clause, Шunavoidable and extraordinary circumstancesЩ mean warfare, acts of terrorism, significant risks to human health such as the outbreak of serious disease at the travel destination or natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes or weather conditions which make it impossible to travel safely back to your departure point. 8. Force Majeure Except where otherwise expressly stated in these Booking Conditions, we regret we cannot accept liability or pay any compensation where the performance or prompt performance of our contractual obligations is prevented or affected by “unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances”, meaning any event beyond our control, the consequences of which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken. Examples include warfare and acts of terrorism (and threat thereof), civil strife, significant risks to human health such as the outbreak of serious disease at the travel destination (including the on-going effects of Covid-19) or natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes or weather conditions which make it impossible to travel safely to the travel destination or remain at the travel destination, government )local or national) action or guidance; industrial dispute; lock closure; natural or other disaster; nuclear incident; terrorist activity; chemical or biological disaster; closure of airports; fire; flood; drought; re-scheduling; or cancellation of flights or alteration of the airline; or aircraft type by an airline and unavoidable technical problems and all similar events outside our or the supplier(s) concerned control. 9. If you have a complaint Should you wish to complain about any aspect of your holiday, you must notify our local representative immediately and inform the relevant supplier (e.g. hotel). You should follow this up by writing to our Customer Relations Department within 28 days of your return from holiday, quoting your booking number and detailing the circumstances of your complaint. If you fail to follow this simple procedure we will then have been deprived of the opportunity to investigate and rectify your complaint whilst you were in resort which may affect your rights under these Booking Conditions. We offer an Alternative Dispute Resolution service, through our ABTA membership, for dealing with any complaint that you may have. Please see our full Booking Conditions. 10. Holiday Sickness Claims We take reports of sickness and illness very seriously and thoroughly investigate such claims. Due a recent influx of fraudulent holiday sickness claims we take a very stringent approach to ensuring the legitimacy of sickness claims. If you make a fraudulent holiday sickness claim, you are committing a criminal offence which may result in a criminal record and/or fine. In addition to committing an offence in Ireland, it is also illegal to pursue a fraudulent claim in many countries overseas. As such, you may find that you are faced with criminal charges in more than one jurisdiction. Should there be a reasonable belief that your claim is not genuine, it may be the case that the accommodation provider will commence legal proceedings against you. In which case, we reserve the right to assist the accommodation provider in said proceedings. It may also be the case that, should you be found to have made a false or exaggerated claim of sickness, we will forward our own concerns to the relevant authorities and may commence legal proceedings against you. Should you have legitimately suffered an illness as a result of your stay with one of our suppliers, we encourage you to follow the complaints procedure above so that we may assist you as soon as practicable. 11. ABTA We are a Member of ABTA, membership number V0211. We are obliged to maintain a high standard of service to you by ABTA’s Code of Conduct. We can also offer you ABTA’s arbitration scheme (which is approved by the Chartered Trading Standards) for the resolution of disputes arising out of this contract. If we can’t resolve your complaint, go to www.abta. com to use ABTA’s simple procedure. Further information on the Code and ABTA’s assistance in resolving disputes can be found on www.abta.com . 12. Insolvency Protection The Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018, as amended require us to provide security for the monies that you pay for the package holidays booked from this brochure and for your repatriation in the event of our insolvency. We provide this security by way of a bond held by the Civil Aviation Authority of CAA House, 45-59 Kingsway, London WC2B 6TE, claimsӄcaa.co.uk under ATOL number 1631. When you buy an ATOL protected flight or flight inclusive holiday from us you will receive an ATOL Certificate from us (or via our authorised agent through which you booked). This lists what is financially protected, where you can get in-formation on what this means for you and who to contact if things go wrong. For further information, visit the ATOL website at www.atol.org.uk. We, or the suppliers identified on your ATOL Certificate, will provide you with the services listed on the ATOL Certificate (or a suitable alternative). In some cases, where neither we nor the supplier are able to do so for reasons of insolvency, an alternative ATOL holder may provide you with the services you have bought (at no extra cost to you). You agree to accept that in those circumstances the alternative ATOL holder will perform those obligations and you agree to pay any money outstanding to be paid by you under your contract to that alternative ATOL holder. However, you also agree that in some cases it will not be possible to appoint an alternative ATOL holder, in which case you will be entitled to make a claim under the ATOL Scheme (or your credit card issuer where applicable). If we, or the suppliers identified on your ATOL certificate, are unable to provide the services listed (or a suit-able alternative, through an alternative ATOL holder or otherwise) for reasons of insolvency, the Trustees of the Air Travel Trust may make a payment to (or confer a benefit on) you under the ATOL scheme. You agree that in return for such a payment or benefit you assign absolutely to those Trustees any claims which you have or may have arising out of or relating to the non-provision of the services, including any claim against us, the travel agent (or your credit card issuer where applicable). You also agree that any such claims may be re-assigned to another body, if that other body has paid sums you have claimed under the ATOL scheme. The price of our flight inclusive arrangements includes the amount of Ѡ2.50 per person as part of the ATOL Protection Contribution (APC) we pay to the CAA. This charge is included in our advertised prices. Not all holiday or travel services offered and sold by us will be protected by the ATOL Scheme. ATOL protection extends primarily to customers who book and pay in the United Kingdom. Please ask us to confirm what protection may apply to your booking. We provide financial security for holidays not including flights by way of a bond held with ABTA of 30 Park Street, London, SE1 9EQ, No. V0211. If your pack-age holiday does not include flights, ABTA will financially protect your holiday in the same way. If you book arrangements other than a package holiday from this brochure, the financial protection referred to above does not apply so your monies will not be financially protected. Please ask us for further details. A package holiday is defined as more than one of the following when they are booked and paid for at an inclusive price: flights, accommodation plus any other tourist services that are not ancillary to transport or accommodation. 13. Website and Brochure Disclaimer Information posted on our website and detailed in our brochure is published in good faith and is updated regularly. However, we cannot guarantee the completeness and accuracy of this information. We published our latest brochures in August 2021. Our prices and information in those brochures were accurate on that date but they may have changed since then. Please see our full Booking Conditions for further information. 14. Guest Behaviour All guests are expected to conduct themselves in an orderly and acceptable manner and not to disrupt the enjoyment of others. If in our opinion or in the opinion of any hotel manager or any other person in authority, your behaviour or that of any member of your party is causing or is likely to cause distress, danger or annoyance to any of our other guests or any third party or damage to property, or to cause a delay or diversion to transportation, we reserve the right to terminate your booking arrangements with us immediately. In the event of such termination our liability to you and/or your party will cease and you and/or your party will be required to leave your accommodation or other service immediately. We will have no further obligations to you and/or your party. No refunds for lost accommodation or any other arrangements will be made and we will not pay any expenses or costs incurred as a result of termination. You and/or your party may also be required to pay for loss and/or damage caused by your actions and we will hold you and each member of your party jointly and individually liable for any damage or losses caused by you or any member of your party. Full payment for any such damage or losses must be paid directly to the hotel manager or other supplier prior to departure from the hotel. If you fail to make payment, you will be responsible for meeting any claims (including legal costs) subsequently made against us as a result of your actions together with all costs we incur in pursuing any Booking Conditions