Rules & Regulations

Terms and Conditions

This information is part of the Taking Bookings topic.
This topic covers:

• Taking bookings
• Terms and conditions
• Cancellations, no shows, amendments, refunds and compensation
• Guest registration

Terms and conditions

Exactly what's in your terms and conditions (T&Cs) is dependent on the type of business you run, and any rules or restrictions you put on your customers. If you aren't sure what to put in your T&Cs use our guidelines below and view our sample terms and conditions. Also search on the internet for businesses similar to yours, and take a look at theirs.

You can use your T&Cs to limit or control some things but no matter what you say, you cannot take away your legal obligation to deliver your products and services with some degree of expertise and to the best of your ability, nor can you limit your liability in the event of death or personal injury through your or your staff's fault.

Use natural, plain English

The worst terms and conditions are in horrible legalese or overly formal English. Use natural, plain English. Don't worry that if it goes to court it will go against you because you didn't say 'whereupon' or 'dependent on the aforesaid'. The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations (UTCCRs) actually requires you, by law, to use plain English. Under the regulations, a term in a contract is deemed to be unfair, and therefore invalid, if its meaning is not clear, even if that meaning could have been worked out by a solicitor. If a claim by you or a customer does ever go to court, the court will be looking to see if your terms and conditions are clear, reasonable, whether the customer was made aware of them by you and whether you or the customer was ever in breach of them.

What to include

Whatever your business, your terms and conditions should cover, if they apply to you:

1. Contract - who it is between: your business name and contact details and any VAT or company registration number. It is usual to state that whoever is making the booking has the authority to do so for the whole party and is liable for the total booking value. Also, if necessary, state how the booking can be made, eg email, in person, by returning a form etc and anything that must happen for the booking to be confirmed, like a deposit or a response from you.
2. Price, deposit - how its calculated, when it must be paid by, payment methods any surcharges for credit cards etc, if it is refundable.
3. Price, full payment - when it must be paid for, payment methods any surcharges for credit cards etc.
4. Price, extras - anything that must be paid for in addition or could be paid for in addition and how this must be paid for, eg in advance, on arrival, after departure etc.
5. Special conditions and access - This is your opportunity to add in the detail that is relevant to your business eg arrival time, departure time, pets, children, linen, heating, breakfast etc for an accommodation business, or when a party has to turn up by, what happens if they are late for a performance, any age restrictions for certain performances etc for an event.
6. Customer obligations - anything the customer must do, eg leave accommodation clean and tidy, not be drunk, abusive, noisy, behave dangerously etc and what the penalties may be eg, loss of cleaning cost from deposit, ejection from event etc etc.
7. Your obligations - anything you are undertaking to do, how you'll provide the product or service etc.
8. Customer transference , alterations or cancellation - what they can and can't do in terms of transferring their booking (eg giving their tickets to someone else), making alterations to any of the details (eg change the date or party) or cancelling it, how they go about doing this and what the penalties are (could be a sliding scale depending on how close to the booking commencement it is).
9. Your transference, alterations or cancellation - what conditions might cause you to change or cancel what you are offering, how this would happen and what the compensation might be (eg full refund, an alternative booked, costs covered etc).
10. Liability - could be as simple as saying you take no liability for any loss or damage except where through the negligence of you or your staff, or you could go into more detail about what you will and won't accept responsibility for and any compensation you might make.
11. Supplemental: any additional policies eg your data policies (how you'll treat your customer's data and what you might do with it in terms of marketing - and any opt out opportunities), any environmental policy you want customers to abide by or travelling policies you want to encourage etc.

Click here to see sample serviced accommodation terms and conditions.
Click here to see sample
self-catering terms and conditions.
Click here to see sample
ticket and function booking terms and conditions.
Click here to see sample
equipment hire terms and conditions.

Also in this topic:

• Taking bookings
• Cancellations, no shows, amendments, refunds and compensation
• Guest registration