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Frequently Asked Questions
Booking Your Holiday
Booking
Preparing for your holiday
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HF Holidays are fully compliant with the EC Package Travel,
Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992. In accordance
with these regulations all clients booking with HF Holidays
(except for accommodation holidays) are fully protected for the initial deposit and subsequent
prepayments, including repatriation if required arising from
cancellation or curtailment of your holiday due to the insolvency
of HF Holidays. WE have over 90 years experience and you may book your holiday with confidence.
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Once you have chosen your tour, there are two ways you can
book your holiday:
- Visit the respective pages where you will find a link
to a secure online booking procedure.
- Telephone us on +44 (0) 20 8732 1250 with your
holiday requirements.
Cheques should be made payable to 'HF Holidays'.
Payment can also be made by debit or credit card. We accept
Switch, Mastercard, Visa debit and credit cards. Overseas clients
should pay with a credit card.
For your convenience, when you pay your deposit by debit or credit card we will automatically take the balance when it is due. For this reason, we will only accept a card payment from one person per booking. Where payments are made by credit or debit card, any refund will be made through the cardholder's account and not by cheque.
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You should take out holiday insurance to cover cancellation,
personal accident, illness and loss / theft of personal possessions
and / or money. If you require insurance you can book it through us. See the Insuance link when making your booking and add the premium to your deposit payment.
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The single supplement is an additional charge made by hoteliers for a
single room or single occupancy of a twin or double room.
For our own Country House accommodation there is no extra charge
for a single room. (Early booking of these rooms is recommended).
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Up to 6 weeks before the starting date of your tour it is
possible to change your starting dates, although we will have
to charge an administration fee of up to £20 per person
per amendment to cover the considerable amount of work involved
in cancelling and then re-booking your accommodation. Requests
for changes to your starting dates made less than 42 days
before the start of your tour will be treated as a cancellation
of your original booking.
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If you have to cancel your tour please inform us in writing.
You can send it to us by mail, fax or email. The date from
which we receive your cancellation is the date from which
cancellation fees will be calculated. See also Insurance.
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Our board has reluctantly decided that, as a non-profit seeking society, trading mutually, we will not implement the temporary VAT reduction announced by the Chancellor on 24 November.
The reason for this is that as tour operators our VAT rules are different from those of retailers or suppliers of goods and so the whole 2.5% reduction that applies to those organizations will not apply to us. We pay VAT only on the margin of our holidays and only on certain holidays. Worldwide holidays (outside the EU) have never included VAT so there is no reduction on our standard brochure price. In Europe and non-HF Country House holidays in the UK the sum is approximately £3.00 on a £600 holiday. On holidays in our own UK Country Houses the saving would be about £10.00 for a £600 holiday. There is also no VAT on insurance.
As you can appreciate the administrative cost in terms of time and money, of implementing the changes will be relatively high in relation to the amount by which each guest would benefit.
We sincerely hope that you will appreciate the reason behind this decision and as a non-profit seeking society we can assure you that any savings will be re-invested in the business.
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An update on Air Passenger Duty Tax
Chancellor Gordon Brown said at his 10th report to parliament in December 2006 that he would double taxes on air travel as a move in his pre-budget report towards combating climate change. The basic levy on return short haul flights will rise to £5 and long haul to £20 for travel from 1 February 2007.
For HF Holidays this means that there will be an additional £5 for European flights which will increase costs for European holidays by £5 per person and £20 for Worldwide holidays. The payment will not be mandatory however bookers will be requested to add this amount to their holiday payment at the time of booking to help to off set the considerable cost to HF Holidays that this additional levy will cause. Please do ask at the time of booking if you are unsure whether this will affect your holiday for 2007.
Any booking made before the end of December 2006 will not be asked to pay the additional taxes.
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| Preparing
for your holiday |
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To get the maximum enjoyment out of your walking tour you
should be in good shape and accustomed to walking the distances
described for the tour you have chosen. The best (and most
pleasurable) way to ensure this is to go for a few walks in
the weeks leading up to your tour. You should also ensure
that your footwear is comfortable. If you are going to wear
boots you've had for some time, make sure that they will last
the tour out - you don't want smooth soles on a walking holiday. If you are going to buy new boots for the
tour make sure that you have worn them on several walks before
the tour - nothing spoils a walking tour more than blisters.
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An equipment list covering suitable clothing is in the information
pack you receive on booking.
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Detailed travel instructions on how to get to the start of
your tour from either your point of entry into the UK (overseas
clients) or the nearest railway station to your home (UK clients)
are sent to you on booking. All our tours can be easily
reached by train or coach, although it may be necessary to
make a short bus or taxi journey from the station to the hotel.
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