GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS

 

 

Those who book a service through us with our written confirmation are bound to be with the following as this constitutes full acceptance of these general terms and conditions by both our company and our esteemed guests.

 

Our Tours and Rates:

On our price lists there are two different rates as “regular / seat-in-coach” and “private” ones. The main difference between these two is that there might be some other participants as well in a regular tour whereas private tours are made without any others rather than the clients who have booked it. Though private tours are relatively more expensive they are more convenient and flexible for the people who are keen on their privacy. Due to the fact that our regular tours can be booked until the very last moment we can never give you the exact number of the tour participants when asked in advance. It is also nature of the regular tours to combine some different tours having the same itineraries and therefore the guides and vehicles may be replaced with others at the time of touring.

 

On the price lists, the first column refers to “regular” rates while the rest are based on “private” ones and they are given on per person basis depending on the number of the participants. One person private rates do not include the single supplement fee and therefore is to be additionally charged.

 

Our private rates are given for up to 10 persons and if there become 10 or more participants a special rate will be given.

 

All the regular tours are made solely in English in accordance with the given program. Private tours are made in the required languages.

 

All the rates are given net and commission free in American dollars and valid between 01.01.2008 - 31.12.2008. (To make it easier for our esteemed colleagues, our retail rates have also been quoted)

 

All the tour rates include guidance, air-conditioned transportation, admission fees as specified on the itinerary, hotel service and all the related taxes if otherwise noted. Depending on the situation we can use a guide who can also drive at the same time or a separate guide and a chauffeur. Parasol Holidays reserves the right to make decision in this respect without informing the other parties unless there is a specific commitment between the related parties.

 

The included meals on our tours are identified by letter codes in the tour descriptions as shown below;

(B) = Breakfast    (L)= Lunch            (D)= Dinner

 

All our private tour rates are exclusive of lunches while they are inclusive to our minimum one full day tours

 

All the minimum 2 day tour rates include accommodation at the quoted hotels on the specified basis unless otherwise is noted below the related rates

 

At regular tours pick up time on the tour commencement day is 09.00 at the airport and 10.00 at the city. Those who arrive at the airport before 09.00 should wait until the pick-up time. Those who arrive in train station should also wait until 10.00 for the other participants of the group.

 

The earliest drop-off time is 16.30 at the city and 17.30 at the airport.

 

In our tours, no breakfast on the first day and no dinner on the last day are served.

 

For all the accommodation included tours there will be 2 % discount for the third person who shares the same room with other two persons.

 

Daily tours' rates do not include airport pick-up and drop-off fees while two day or longer ones cover pick-ups and drop-offs from/at the airports. (However, no surcharge for the private tours except the in-city tours)

 

Timings given for the daily tours are approximate ones and they are all subject to change. Pick-up times may vary depending on the number of the participants and hotel locations.

 

Guarenteed Tours Policy:

Our guarantees are given only for the bookings requested by 48 hours ago prior to the commencement of the services though we will also do our best to carry out all the requirements even if they are forwarded to us at the last moment.

 

Guaranteed departures are valid in case the guests join the tour on the very first day of the tour. Demands for joining to these tours at a different date and location are needed to be confirmed by us as a private rate will be applied if there become no other participants on these tours. However, further to our confirmation, if the already available participants cancel the tour and consequently no more people join the regular tour then Parasol Holidays keeps the right to cancel the arrangements for the clients who will join the tour at a different stage rather than the original commencement date or to charge on private basis.

 

Availability Issues:

We are asked from time to time whether there is any availability on a certain date at a certain hotel. Unless we make reservation with regards to this request availability can never be guaranteed. When we ask to the hotel about availability and they say the rooms are available this is valid only for that very moment. The rooms can be imminent to any others right away. Therefore, we strongly recommend to ask for reservation to guarantee the room as otherwise the availability at that moment does not guarantee the room even for the requests to be made in the following few hours.

 

Children Policy:

25 % discount is made for children between 03-10 years old while 00-02 years old ones are free on all the tours even if these tours are daily ones. (The discounts apply if the child shares the same room with their parents as the third person on the minimum two day lasting tours. If a twin room is booked for children at the hotels then no child discount is applied)

 

Smoking Policy:

Smoking is strictly prohibited in the tour vehicles. However, frequent stops are made , such that smoking breaks may be taken outside the vehicles.

 

Booking Requirements:

We will sincerely appreciate whether a non-smoking room and a twin bedded or a French bed room are preferred is advised at the time of the initial booking. The further requests in these regards might cause the hotels to overlook these details. Despite the fact that we will do our best to accommodate our guests accordingly we do not assume responsibility about these problems since some hotels may not offer these conveniences.

 

The Sequence of the Visits:

Though our guides show the utmost care to follow the itineraries in the same sequence there might be alterations in the sequence of the visits to the scheduled sites and no refund can be demanded for that reason unless any sites or museums are missed.

 

Minimum Person Requirement:

Some tours are subject to minimum person requirement. They need to be confirmed by us in advance. However, after the further confirmation if the rest of the participants cancel the trip at a later time and consequently there becomes less participants than the guaranteed number, Parasol Holidays reserves the right to cancel any tour. On the other hand, if a guaranteed departure is restricted to minimum 2 persons and there is only one single participating person then this tour is made only with private rates. Even if payment is made for total 2 persons in lieu of 1 single person this is not acceptable.

 

Missed Connected Flights:

If the guests miss the connected domestic flights due to the late arrival of the international ones no responsibility is taken and all the extra costs are charged from the guests. Therefore short connection intervals between the international and domestic flights are at the risk of our guests.

 

The Validity of the Prices:

While all care has been taken to ensure that all the quoted prices are correct, circumstances beyond the control of Parasol Holidays may necessitate a change in the prices quoted. Parasol Holidays reserves the right to adjust the price of any travel arrangements at any time due to the increases in the cost of airfares, tours, exchange rate fluctuations, fuel surcharges, value added tax, etc. However, the quoted prices are guaranteed upon the receipt of full payment. Any further taxes to be imposed by the government further to the release of this Confidential Tariff may also cause the rates to change.  When the updated tariff is released the previous versions expire.

 

Hotel Rates List:

We give the utmost care to provide our colleagues with the most updated and current hotel rates list. However, the hotels may apply different rates on some certain periods and this can be notified by the hotels at the time of booking request. Therefore, Parasol Holidays keeps the right to revise the quoted hotel rates list at the time of booking. However, once the bookings are confirmed with their specific rates, no further charges are applied.

 

Payments:

The payments can be made through the following methods:

 

1- Wire transfer to one of our account numbers the details of which can be obtained on request.

All bank charges and fees need to be debited to the sender.

 

2- By a credit card through VISA, MasterCard or American Express. You may be billed in Turkish Lira at the current exchange rate and therefore the USD amount you authorize might be slightly different than quoted by you on your credit card statement report due to fluctuations on the currency rates and the conversion commissions that may be charged by your bank. 

 

The Disputes:

Should the tour participants have any complaints about any of the tour arrangements, these should be immediately brought to the attention of us, in order to remedy the problem momentarily. Furthermore, any such complaints about our tours must be submitted to us in writing, within 30 days after the completion of the services.

 

Exclusions on Our Services:

Our rates do not include passport and visa charges, travel and medical health insurance (This is recommended to be obtained in the origin country), excess baggage, all items not specifically mentioned as being included, and all items of personal nature such as laundry, telephone and other communication costs, all the beverages also including bottled water, tea and coffee, meals not detailed in the itinerary, and gratuities. Tips to the guides and drivers are customary and are left to the discretion of the guests.  

 

Passport and Visas:

All the participants must have a valid passport for at least three (3) months with the appropriate tourist visa for the destination and/or transit country. It is the responsibility of the passenger to have the necessary documentation in their possession before travelling. Consult the appropriate consulate(s) for information on passport requirements. If the participant is unable to be on the trip or its part due to the absence of the documents required, he/she is obliged to cover any costs involved at his own expense.

 

Airport Arrival Issues:

Due to the delays emerging from lost luggage problems in the planes or passport problems at the Customs Parasol Holidays cannot be held responsible and the guests can be waited up to maximum 30 minutes on the regular tours if some other participants are already awaiting in the tour vehicle. However, if there are no other participants awaiting or it is a private tour then our team will do their best to assist the problem to be settled.

 

All the visa formalities at the arrived airports should be processed by our guests on their own since our staff is not allowed to access this point.

 

Those who have lost luggage problems sometimes do not get through the Customs and inform our staff promptly about the case by just waiting inside for quite some time. Our staff is not allowed to get inside by the Customs authorities and therefore there is no chance for them to look for our guests. That there is nobody out could make our staff think that our guests were not in the plane as all the other passengers of the same plane were already out. Therefore we kindly ask our guests to go out of the Customs and inform our staff that they are still awaiting inside due to the luggage problem before inquiring the issue as otherwise our staff can leave the terminal after having waited 30 minutes further to the leave of the last passenger of the same plane and no refund is given on such a case.

 

As our transfer staff is not allowed to the point beyond the Customs our guests are supposed to deal with the luggage handling on their own. Once they proceed to the terminal meeting point they will be assisted properly. For the groups with more than 10 participants the portage will be paid by our transfer staff while individual travelers should settle this on their own.

 

While our team is already awaiting at the airport, some guests may have difficulties from time to time in meeting them on arrival to the airports due to the extreme crowd despite their names are written on the boards that are held by our staff and  also due to the early landings of the planes. If the guests take a taxi to their hotel without extensively looking for our staff and calling our office promptly no refund will be given in case our staff is still at the airport. Similarly all the guests who arrive at the airport earlier than the scheduled time are supposed to contact our office as our staff arrives to the airport 15 minutes ago prior to the scheduled landing time of the planes. For the delayed flights our staff can wait up to maximum 2 hours. For further delays our guests are expected to take a taxi to their hotel without any refund from our side. However, if the delays are advised to us in advance then there is no problem at all as our transfer service will be amended accordingly.

 

Right to Refuse:

We reserve the right, upon reasonable grounds, to refuse any passenger any part of the tour services, the right to decline to accept or retain any person as a tour participant, should such person’ s health, mental or physical condition (or the person’s general conduct) impede the operation of the tour and/or the rights, welfare or enjoyment of other tour participants. In such cases, our (or our agents’) responsibility, if any, will be limited to the refund of costs for any unused tour services.

 

Lost and Left Items

Parasol Holidays assumes no responsibility for the lost and left items at the time of the tours. However, if anything is returned to us by the hotels and the other related parties we can ship these items on to the required addresses. Then, the full shipment fee is charged by us prior to the shipment of the item. For the credit card payments, a convenience fee of 2.5% of the shipment fee is added on to the total charges . We regretfully do not accept payments on the destination.

 

Responsibility:

Parasol Holidays regrets, but cannot be responsible for any damage or injury to participants however this may have occurred including cases of damages caused by the wrong execution of the travel agreement if the shortcoming is caused by the participant.

 

Neither does Parasol Holidays accept any liability for lost, stolen or damaged personal property (including money), losses or expenses due to delay or changes in schedules, hotel overbooking or defaults, sickness, epidemics, weather conditions, strikes, war, quarantine, force major, acts of God, or any other causes beyond the direct control of Parasol Holidays, nor carriers' or hotel owners' liability is governed by applicable laws or international conventions. In such cases all additional expenses have to be covered by the participant. If participant arrives too late at the port of embarkation and the ship has sailed then all consequences and costs that may occur will be borne by the participant.

 

Cancellation Policy:

The notice of cancellations by participants should be given in writing, and all such cancellations will be effective on the date the written notification is received.

 

In the event of cancellation by a participant sharing same accommodation, the rate charged to the remaining participant will have to be increased to the “Single Occupancy” rate, unless we can arrange for a Shared Accommodation.

 

Cancellation fees / charges are agreed to be “Liquidated Damages”, and not a penalty. Deposit towards a tour constitutes full acceptance of these “General Terms & Conditions” and to the Cancellation Policy.

 

The Cancellation Fees, in addition to any applicable Airline Penalties, are as follows:

·         If a booking is cancelled more than 30 days prior to the scheduled departure, full payment (less $25 per person cancellation processing fee) shall be refunded upon receipt of the cancellation notice.

·         If cancelled 21 to 30 days prior to departure, the cancellation fee shall be 10% of the total cost

·         If cancelled 11 to 20 days prior to departure, the cancellation fee shall be 25% of the total cost

·         If cancelled 2 to 10 days prior to departure, or thereafter, the cancellation fee shall be 50% of the total cost

·         Since tour rates are based on group participation / or minimum person requirements, NO REFUNDS can be made for any services or any part of the program not used, after the commencement of the tour.

·         If the cancellations are made due to the obligatory reasons like force-majeure situations beyond the control of the participants our company can be flexible on this issue as to charge only the expenses imposed on to us by the third parties or may waive any of the cancellation charges depending on the situation.

 

Last Minute Service Changes:

Last minutes changes just prior to the service commencement date or at the time of implementation stage cause a lot of problems and extra expenses for us. However, we always do our best to assist  to our esteemed clients to comply with their last minute requests. Any extra costs for such requests should be settled right away while any refunds can only be worked out at the conclusion of the services - 15 days later after the completion of the overall services.

 

Closures:

The museums and historical sites that are under the control of the Ministry of Culture are closed during the first morning of the religious holidays while shopping malls and other stores can be closed during the entire official holiday. The museums like Green Mausoleum in Bursa that are governed by the other institutions rather than the Ministry of Culture and some historical shopping malls like Covered Bazaar and Egyptian Bazaar are closed during the whole public holiday period. Below are the official holiday dates that are current for the year 2008.

 

Please note that we take no responsibility for any kind of inconvenience that may emerge due to the closures.

 

01 January                               New Year’s Day

23 April                                               National Independence & Children’s Day

19 May                                     Youth Sports Day

30 August                                           Victory Day

29 October                                        Republic Day (Anniversary of the declaration of the Turkish Republic)

30 September, 01, 02 October     Ramadan Feast

08, 09, 10, 11 December                Feast of Sacrifice (Feast of Adha)

 

Beyond these specific closures the routine closure days are denoted at the related itinerary to avoid any potential problem in this respect.

 

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