All bookings are made with Five Star Bridge Tours. Your signature, or that of your authorised agent, on the booking form will be taken as your and your party's acceptance of the following conditions. The expression "the client" may be used in these conditions not only to apply to you, but to all other members of your party on whose behalf you have signed:

1. BOOKING
A deposit of £125 for most European holidays (£150 for Caribbean holidays and holidays further afield), must be paid for each person including each child, on making your booking. No contract with Five Star Bridge Tours will exist until we have received these amounts and the booking form duly signed, and we have issued our confirmation invoice confirming your booking except in the case of bookings made within six weeks of departure, when our Late Booking procedures shall apply. Should you later cancel, cancellation charges will become payable in accordance with paragraph 4. We reserve the right to refuse a booking, without giving any reason.

2. PAYMENT OF THE BALANCE
The balance must be paid at least ten weeks prior to departure. If the balance is not received by us. we shall be entitled to cancel your booking. retain your deposit. and apply the cancellation charges set out in paragraph 4 below. For bookings made within ten weeks of the departure date, you will be required to pay the full cost of your holiday at the time of booking.

3. LATE BOOKINGS
Late bookings are those made within six weeks of departure. Once details have been confirmed to you over the telephone. a verbal contract shall be deemed to exist between you and Five Star Bridge Tours and all booking conditions, including cancellation charges, shall apply. Full payment will be due immediately.

4. CANCELLATION BY YOU
It is agreed between us that should you wish to cancel all, or any part, of your booking, or that the booking be cancelled by us due to non-payment, then we shall be entitled to the following percentages of the holiday cost. (NB insurance premiums are NOT refundable).
Cancellation must be received in writing by us, signed by the person who signed the booking form or the duly authorized agent and quoting the holiday reference number. Any cancellation charges which then apply will be calculated from the date upon which we receive your written notice of cancellation. It is therefore in your interests to let us know as soon as possible of your intention to cancel.

Period before scheduled departure within which written instructions are received by us
56 days, or over . . . . . . . . . . . . .Loss of deposit
55 to 29 days . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50%
28 to 15 days . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75%
14 days, or under . . . . . . . . . . . .100%
Charges (% of total holiday costs, less insurance premium)
In addition to the above charges. it may be necessary to add under-occupancy or single room supplements to other members of a party where member(s) of that party cancel. Cancellation charges of 100% will apply on scheduled service tickets if you have to cancel or amend your flights once the tickets have been issued. Tickets are valid only for the flight issued and cannot be changed after issue. If the reasons for cancellation fall under the terms of your Travel Insurance Policy you may be able to reclaim the cost from the insurers.

5. ALTERATION BY YOU
In the event of you wishing to alter the details of a confirmed booking there will be an amendment fee of £15 per person listed on the booking form (maximum £45 per booking) in addition to the increase, if any, in the cost of the revised arrangements.
Amendments made to flight or accommodation 56 days or less before departure will be treated as a cancellation of the original booking, and you will be liable to pay the relevant charge us shown in paragraph 4. All amendments must be confirmed to us in writing.

6. ALTERATION BY US
We plan your holiday arrangements many months in advance and though it is unlikely that we will have to make any changes to confirmed arrangements, occasionally changes may be made. We reserve the right to do so at any time. Most changes are of a very minor nature and we will advise you at the earliest possible date.
Flight timings are always subject to change. The scheduling of departure times may he varied by Airport Authorities or other factors beyond our control after our brochure is printed, and the details given are for your guidance only. We will advise you immediately any such change is known to us which involves a flight time alteration exceeding two hours, but please check your tickets as soon as you receive them.
If a major change occurs. we will inform you as soon as is reasonably possible if there is time before your departure. A major change is one that includes changing your airports) (except between Gatwick and Heathrow or between alternative airports within the same overseas city), time of departure or return by more than twelve hours, or offering accommodation of a lower standard. In such cases you have the choice of either accepting the renewed arrangements as notified to you, or cancelling your holiday with full refund of money paid.
For all of these alternatives we will pay compensation on the scale shown below (plus a full refund of all money paid if you choose to cancel):
More than 56 days  Nil  
43 - 56 days          £10
29 - 42 days          £15
15 - 28 days          £25
0 - 14 days            £30

Infants are not eligible for compensation payments.
Important Note: Compensation payments do not apply to any changes caused by aspects of your holiday affected by matters over which we have no control. These include war or threats of war, riots and civil strife, terrorist activity, natural or nuclear disaster, weather conditions, fire, flood, drought, industrial disputes, government action, airport regulations and closures, or technical transportation problems which may affect the service of hotels or the scheduling of aircraft or other transport or other circumstances amounting to Force Majeure.

7. CANCELLATION BY US
We will not cancel your holiday within 6 weeks of your departure,  unless caused by events beyond our control (as set out under “Important Note” in Clause 6 above),  or unless you have not paid the final balance. Given that the holidays we run are all Bridge holidays, it may be that there will be occasions when the number of persons booked is insufficient to that required for the proper organisation of a duplicate bridge tournament. Should this be the case, we reserve the right to cancel the holiday, and return all monies paid.  It will usually be the case that we would not cancel a holiday for this reason unless the number of persons booked was below 20. Cancellation for this reason would be no later than eight weeks prior to departure.

8. GENERAL CONDITIONS
Special Requests regarding car hire, hotel accommodation (complimentary sea views, rooms near to other specified members of the party, rooms on, above, or below a certain floor, etc.) wheelchair provision at airports, and/or hotel, or any other aspects of your holiday, should be made in the relevant section of the booking form. Such requests will be noted on your invoice, but confirmation cannot be guaranteed. Even when a supplier advises that a request is accepted, we regret that we cannot accept liability for subsequent failure on their part to comply with such requests. For this reason we regret that we do not accept conditional bookings.

9. OUR PRICE GUARANTEE
Our prices are accurate at the time we publish our brochure, but we reserve the right to change any of those prices should something happen that is beyond our control. Prices can go up or down. We reserve the right to increase the price of your holiday after you have booked, but no later than 30 days before the departure date stipulated and will forward an Amendment Invoice reflecting any changes made. After a Confirmation Invoice has been sent to you, any increase in your holiday price will be as a result of changes in our costs of supplying your holiday resulting from transportation charges (fuel, airport charges, scheduled air fares and other transport charges which form part of our contract with the transport provider), currency fluctuations, and government action.
If the increase would be 2% or less of the holiday price shown on your Confirmation Invoice, then we will absorb the changes in our costs and will only pass on any increase above that level. If any changes in our costs would cause a reduction in your holiday price, we will not make any refunds of amounts less than 2% of your holiday price but we will refund in full amounts exceeding 2%. If the increase is more than 10% of the holiday price, then:

  1. You may cancel your holiday within 14 days of the Amendment Invoice date and receive a refund of all monies paid to us except any amendment charges. Should you cancel we will not be liable for the refund of any insurance premiums.

  2. the increase will be considered a Major change as described in section 6 and unless you choose to cancel you will be entitled to compensation in accordance with the scale outlined in section 6.
The price quoted on the last amendment invoice is guaranteed, unless you change your holiday booking. Any increase in costs after the last Amendment invoice will be bome by us. Should you instruct your credit/debit card company to "charge back" any payment(s) properly due from you in respect of your booking, we will charge you an administration fee of £10 per incident and associated costs. We further reserve the right to cancel your booking and/or take legal action against you for all outstanding payment(s).

10. YOUR SECURITY
Five Star Bridge Tours has been organising Bridge holidays to many  European countries, and the Caribbean, for over 25 years.  Our expertise and experience in this area has earned our reputation as one of the leading bridge holiday organisers. During those years. we have worked with many of the leading tour operators such as Amathus Holidays, The Magic of Italy, and Kuoni Travel. We have our own ATOL license (ATOL3850) and under the terms of that we pay contributions to the CAA protection fund.  All bookings which include flights booked through us are thus fully protected by the Civil Aviation Authority.

11. GENERAL INFORMATION
Passports and Visas: For the latest details of any travel restrictions, entry and stay requirements, visa and travel requirements to your particular destination, visit the Foreign Office website at www.fco.gov.uk/travel or call 0845 850 2829 and visit the Passport Office website at www.passport.gov.uk for passport information before booking or travelling. Holders of non-UK passports should always check with their embassy, high commission or consulate before booking. If we know of any requirements beyond that of holding a normal UK passport then we will inform you.