1.1 To make a booking, you must complete our booking form. This must be signed and confirmed by the first named person on the booking ("party leader"). The party leader must be authorized to make the booking on the basis of these booking conditions by all persons named on the booking and by their parent or guardian for all party members who are under 18 when the booking is made. By signing the booking form, the party leader confirms that he/she is so authorized. The party leader is responsible for making all payments due to us. The party leader must be at least 18 when the booking is made.
1.2 The completed signed booking form must then be sent to us together with the payments referred to the tour arrangement. 1.3 Subject to the availability of your chosen arrangements, we will confirm your holiday by issuing a booking receipt. This receipt will be sent to the party leader. Please check this receipt carefully as soon as you receive it. Contact us immediately if any information which appears on the confirmation or any other document appears to be incorrect or incomplete as it may not be possible to make changes later. We regret we cannot accept any liability if we are not notified of any inaccuracies (for which we are responsible) in any document within ten days of our sending it out (five days for tickets). We will do our best to rectify any mistake notified to us outside these time limits but you must meet any costs involved in doing so. 1.4 We will communicate with you by e-mail in relation to your booking. You must accordingly check your e-mails on a regular basis. We may also contact you by telephone and/or post if we cannot, for whatever reason, contact you by e-mail. References in these booking conditions to "send" and "in writing" include communication by e-mail. 1.5 If booking online, any acknowledgement of your booking request we send you is not a confirmation of your booking. This will come once the booking has been confirmed in the form of either a booking receipt or confirmation invoice.2.2 If we do not receive all payments due (including any surcharge where applicable) in full and on time, we are entitled to assume that you wish to cancel your booking. In this case, we will be entitled to keep all monies paid or due at that date. If we do not cancel straight away because you have promised to make payment, you must pay according to our the cancellation charges in clause 9 depending on the date we reasonably treat your booking as cancelled.
Where 10 people or more are booked on the same reservation, you will be required to make deposit payments as set out below:
- 30 % deposit payment due when the booking is created
- Full payment due 35 days before travel
2.5 In the case of international payments you should ensure that the full invoice amount, is received by us after all bank charges have been levied.
3.2 However requirements may change and you must check passport and visa requirements with the embassy or consulate of the country(ies) to or through which you are intending to travel.
Please note we do not check insurance policies. If you choose to travel without adequate insurance cover, we will not be liable for any losses howsoever arising, in respect of which insurance cover would otherwise have been available.
Please be aware that the booking conditions of the supplier will normally state that your holiday arrangements can be terminated, with no refund, if the behaviour of your party falls below an acceptable standard. Suppliers will also often require you to pay for any damage you cause to the accommodation or services in resort. We are under no obligation to you if any event such as this occurs. You agree to indemnify us for the full amount of any claim (including all legal costs) made against us by the supplier or any third party as a result of your conduct.
6.2 For tours not operated by us, where we sell as Agent, at the time of printing all tours are guaranteed to operate but please note that the Principal operators in Azerbaijan and Armenia reserve the right to change this without prior notification. Under these circumstances an alternative tour of comparable standard or a full refund of monies paid will be offered.
7.2 Our age recommendation acts as a guide only.
8. Safety Standards
9.1 Should you or any member of your party need to cancel your holiday once you have received your booking confirmation, the party leader must immediately advise us in writing. Your notice of cancellation will only be effective when it is received in writing by us at our offices. As we incur costs from the time we confirm your booking, the following cancellation charges will be payable. Where the cancellation charge is shown as a percentage, this is calculated on the basis of the total cost payable by the person(s) cancelling excluding amendment charges. Amendment charges are not refundable in the event of cancellation.
10. If You Cancel
10.2 Please note that certain arrangements may not be amended after they have been confirmed and any alteration or cancellation could incur a cancellation charge of up to 100 % of that part of the arrangements, in addition to the charge above.
11.1 It is unlikely that we will have to make any changes to your booking, 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. Most of these changes will be minor and we will advise you of them at the earliest possible date. We also reserve the right in any circumstances to cancel your booking. However, we will not cancel your travel arrangements less than 45 days before your departure date, except for reasons of force majeure or failure by you to pay the final balance. Most alterations will be minor and while we will do our best to notify you of any changes as soon as reasonably possible if there is time before your departure, we will have no other liability to you.
11.2.2 A change of accommodation to another of the same standard or classification.
11.2.5 A change of accommodation to that of a lower standard or classification for the whole or a significant part of your time away.
11.3 If we have to make a major change or cancel, we will tell you as soon as possible via email and if there is time to do so before departure, we will offer you the choice of (for major changes):
- accepting the changed arrangements;
- having a refund of all monies paid; or
- accepting an offer of alternative travel arrangements of comparable standard from us, if available (we will refund any price difference if the alternative is of a lower value).
11.5 Period before departure within which notice of Cancellation or major change is notified to you Compensation payable per person booking
- 45 days or more – free
- 34 -21 days – 20 "
- Less than 20 days " 40 "
11.8 We will not pay you compensation and the above options will not be available if we make a minor change or cancel as a result of your failure to make full payment on time or where the change(s) or cancellation by us arises out of alterations to the confirmed booking requested by you.
12. Changes by You
12.3 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. A cancellation fee will be payable. If you are prevented from traveling it may be possible to transfer your booking to another suitable person provided that written notice is given. An administration fee will be charged, details available upon request.
13.1 Where you have booked a package holiday with us or a single-element booking where we are acting as principal, please inform your Tour Leader about any queries or concerns immediately or contact us via the contact numbers listed on our website. If your complaint is not resolved locally, please follow this up within 14 days of your return home by writing to us giving your booking reference and all other relevant information. It is strongly recommended that you communicate any complaint to the supplier of the services in question without delay whilst on tour. If you fail to follow this procedure we will have been deprived of the opportunity to investigate and rectify your complaint whilst you were on tour and this may affect your rights under this contract.
14. Force Majeure
These terms and conditions are governed by Georgian law and any dispute arising between the parties is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the court of Georgia.
Many of the services which make up your holiday are provided by independent suppliers. Those suppliers provide these services in accordance with their own terms and conditions which will form part of your contract with us. Some of these terms and conditions may limit or exclude the supplier's liability to you, usually in accordance with applicable International Conventions. Copies of the relevant parts of these terms and conditions are available on request from us or the supplier concerned.
17.1 We reserve the right to amend the price of unsold holidays at any time and correct errors in the prices of confirmed holidays. The price of your confirmed booking is subject at all times to changes in transport costs such as fuel, any other cost changes which are part of our contracts with operators and any other transport providers; changes in the currency exchange used to calculate your arrangements and to rates, dues, taxes or fees chargeable for services such as embarkation or disembarkation fees at ports any or all of which may result in a variation of your holiday price.
Our a cancellation charge of up to 100% of that part of the arrangements.
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:
- the act(s) and/or omission(s) of the person(s) affected;
- the act(s) and/or omission(s) of a third party unconnected with the provision of the services contracted for and which were unforeseeable or unavoidable; or
- unusual or unforeseeable circumstances beyond ours or our supplier(s) control, the consequences of which could not have been avoided even if all due care had been exercised; or
- an event which either ourselves or suppliers could not, even with all due care, have foreseen or forestalled.
The maximum amount we will have to pay you in respect of these claims is 25 – per person in total because you are assumed to have adequate insurance in place to cover any losses of this kind.
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.
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.
18.8 Extra activities will be available on all tours, that will enhance your travel experience, but you have a choice as to whether or not to participate. Please note these are not part of your tour, these excursions are not operated by Step In Georgia - IRC LTD, nor do they form part of your contract with us. Whilst we may arrange the activity, where we do so we act as an agent of the local supplier. Should you participate in any extra activities your contract will be with the local supplier and their conditions will apply.
19.2 Our tours run to a schedule and if you, or any member of your party is late during the tour, you may be left behind. If this occurs, please contact your tour leader and they will provide you with assistance to help you travel to the next destination, please note that any costs incurred will be at your own expense. The departure times during the tour are set by the tour leader and driver and will be notified to you at each stop.It is your responsibility to be on time, failure to be on time can cause delays to the tour itinerary.
21. Excursions/Activities:
