booking conditions

Thank you for visiting www.blacktomato.com This Site is owned and operated by Black Tomato. For purposes of these package holiday terms and conditions of booking, references to “we,” “our,” and “us” mean Black Tomato. References to “you” and “your” mean the lead and contracting member of the booking party. For the avoidance of doubt, the lead and contracting member of the booking party is the person who books the package holiday arrangements (“experience”) with Black Tomato, arranges payment to Black Tomato (whether or not that payment is made by the lead and contracting member of the party) and receives Black Tomato’s booking confirmation invoice and/or any other documentation relating to the experience contract.

1. Contract

These are the terms on which we make a booking for your travel or holiday requirements. For all experience bookings your contract is with Black Tomato a trading division of Hays Travel Ltd at 40-42 Scrutton Street, EC2A 3PP, London (”Black Tomato”) ATOL 10531.

Before a booking is made all details will be advised to to you. Once you have confirmed these details we will proceed to confirm the booking. Please check that all names are the same as the relevant passport, dates and timings are correct.

A binding contract is only entered into after we have received payment from you, in cleared funds, of either the required deposit or the full experience price (depending on when the booking is made relative to the intended departure date), and we have issued a written confirmation invoice via email or letter. By making the booking you accept that you have the authority to bind all members of your party to these terms and conditions of booking. It is essential that upon receipt of our confirmation invoice, you check the experience details we have made and confirm and/or inform us immediately of any errors. Where this is not done, and there is an unreasonable delay in notifying any apparent discrepancies in the confirmed arrangements, we will not be responsible for any charges that may arise as a result of alterations that have to be made to the experience booking.

The booking information that you provide to us will be passed on only to the relevant suppliers of your travel or other persons necessary for the provision of your travel arrangements. The information may therefore be provided to public authorities such as customs or immigration if required by them, or as required by law. This applies to any sensitive information that you give to us such as details of any disabilities, or dietary and religious requirements. Certain information may be passed on to security or credit checking companies.

If you are travelling to the US, the US Customs and Border Protection will receive this information for the purposes of preventing and combating terrorism and other transnational serious crimes. International travelers who are seeking to travel to the US under the Visa Waiver Programme (VWP) are now subject to enhanced security requirements and will be required to complete an ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorisation) 72 hours before departure and pay an administrative fee. This can be completed on the following website: https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/

If you travel outside the European Economic Area, controls on data protection may not be as strong as the legal requirements in this country. If we cannot pass this information to the relevant suppliers, whether in the EEA or not, we will be unable to provide your booking. In making this booking, you consent to this information being passed on to the relevant persons.

All bookings are subject to externally supplied product availability.

2. Payment for your experience

In all cases, in order to make a booking, a deposit will be required. The deposit is variable and will be confirmed at time of booking. Where experience bookings include flights with airlines that require full payment in advance of booking, the full price of the flight(s) will be included in the booking deposit and will be chargeable in the event of cancellation (see below). The balance payment is due 12 weeks in advance of the intended departure date. If the booking is made less than 12 weeks before departure, the full experience price will be payable on booking. If, following the payment of a deposit at the time of booking, any balance remains unpaid within 12 weeks of the intended departure date, travel documentation will not be issued and we will reserve the right to treat your booking as cancelled. In such circumstances cancellation charges will be applied as set out below. Payment must be made in the currency of the invoice and you will be responsible for any bank charges that may be incurred.

Payment for your experience can be made by cheque, bank transfer, debit or credit card. In all cases, a booking will not be confirmed until we are in receipt of cleared funds. Where payment is made by credit card, we reserve the right to pass on the appropriate bank processing charge (between 0%-3percent) when your deposit and balance payments are made. For your peace of mind, our site is protected by Thawte and all card payments are encrypted using the internationally accepted security system, SSL.

Prices quoted are based on daily currency conversion rates. All payments taken on debit or credit card will be taken in GBP sterling and any subsequent exchange rates that are applied will be specified by your card provider – as such we are unable to guarantee the exact amount that will be paid in your local currency. If you are a customer whose payment card is not denominated in GBP, the final price will be calculated in accordance with the applicable exchange rate on the day your card issuer processes the transaction. To avoid this we can accept payment in GBP, EUR and USD by bank transfer and can specify the exact amount required for payment in the specified currency.

3. Insurance

It is essential, and a condition of booking with Black Tomato, that you take out a comprehensive travel insurance policy to cover you before, during and after your experience. Acceptance of your booking is conditional on adequate insurance being arranged. We will not be responsible for any costs incurred by you or any member of your party before, during or after your experience as a consequence of inappropriate or insufficient travel insurance being purchased. Please ask our staff for details of insurance providers if you do not already have cover in place.

4. Passports, visas and health requirements

We will, upon request, provide general information relating to passport, visa and health requirements, relevant to EU citizens, for the destinations we feature. This may be limited to providing contact details for the relevant embassy or consulate. Most countries now require passports to be valid for at least 6 months after your return. Please take special note that for all air travel within the British Isles, airlines require photographic identification of a specific type. Please ask us for details. Ultimately, it is your responsibility to ensure that you and your party will be able to obtain, and will be in possession of, all necessary travel documents/visas in advance of travel. It will also be your responsibility to ensure that you and all members of your party will be able to comply with all health requirements for the destination concerned. We will not accept liability if you or any member of your party is refused entry onto any transport or into any country due to failure on your/their part to carry correct documentation or to comply with relevant health requirements.

5. Information

Whilst we make every effort to ensure that the information on our website is accurate and not misleading, it is published many months before your experience takes place and may be subject to change. We reserve the right to make changes to the website and any information it contains at any time. Where material changes are made to website content after your experience has been booked, every effort will be made to inform of such changes prior to travel.

Our normal office hours are 9am until 10pm weekdays (10am until 4pm on Saturdays).

6. Amendment and cancellation by you

Any cancellation or amendment request must be sent us in writing and will not take effect until received by us.

(a) Amendment

We will do our best to assist you in amending your experience arrangements after booking, but cannot guarantee that this will be possible. You will be responsible for any charges (whether made by us or the suppliers of the various experience components) that result from such amendment.
We reserve the right to treat any amendment notified less than 8 weeks prior to the date of departure as a cancellation and in such circumstances, will apply cancellation charges as set out below. If you or any member of your party is prevented from taking your experience for reasons beyond your control, you/they have the right to request the transfer of your/their booking to another person, subject to our prior approval. Such person will be bound by these terms and conditions of booking. Where you, as the lead and contracting member of your party, are unable to travel, and your place is taken by another person, that person will assume the role of lead and contracting member of the party, unless you notify us to the contrary. In all cases where a member or members of the booking party are substituted with others, we reserve the right to charge an administration fee of £70 per name change, this in addition to any charges that may be applied by the suppliers of the experience components. Please note that in many cases, scheduled airlines apply 100% cancellation charges and will not permit name changes or other booking alterations to be made. If you and/or any member of your party are considering altering your booking in any way, please contact our staff, who will notify the applicable charges.

In addition to amendment and cancellation charges applied by us and/or the suppliers of experience components, you will be responsible for any increased charges arising from changes to accommodation arrangements and/or room occupancy levels.

(b) Cancellation

You, or any member of your party, may cancel your travel arrangements at any time. The cancellation will take effect from the date that we receive written notification of cancellation from you. We will accept notification of cancellation by email, on the understanding that you agree and accept that where you are shown as the sender of the email, we will be entitled to assume that such email has been sent by you. Booking cancellations will incur cancellation charges applied by us and the suppliers of the experience components. If you cancel more than 12 weeks before your intended departure date, this charge is likely to be the amount of your deposit (including any increased deposit payable as a result of the booking of scheduled flights, see above) although it could be more. If the cancellation charge exceeds the deposit, you will be required to pay us any additional amount due. Charges for cancellation after the balance due date will vary due to the complex nature of our travel itineraries. Please ask for confirmation of the amount of any cancellation charge before cancellation. You should be aware that this charge is likely to increase the closer to departure date that the cancellation is made and may well be up to 100% of the total price of your booking. Please note that if the reason for your cancellation is covered under the terms of your insurance policy, you may be able to reclaim some or all of the cancellation charges.
In all cases, where cancellation results in a refund payment, such payment will be made to you as the lead and contracting member of your party, or any substitute lead and contracting member of the party (see above). This will be the case regardless of which member(s) of the party make(s) the deposit and/or balance payments for the booked experience arrangements.

7. Amendment and cancellation by us

(a) Amendment

It is occasionally necessary for us to make changes to booked arrangements as described in Clause 5 above. In exceptional circumstances, we may have to change your experience arrangements after your booking has been confirmed. If the change is minor, we will do our best to notify you in advance of departure but we are not obliged to do so and no compensation will be payable. If the change is material (including, but not limited to, a change of flight time by more than 12 hours, change of experience destination or change of accommodation to one with a lower official rating), we will notify you as soon as practically possible and offer you the choice of (i) accepting alternative arrangements; (ii) arranging an alternative experience with us; or (iii) cancelling your experience. Regardless of the option you choose, we will pay you compensation for material changes as set out in the table below, unless such change has been caused by Force Majeure or insufficient bookings:

No. of calendar days notice prior to date of departure Compensation per person (excluding infants):

More than 70 days Nil
69 – 43 days £10
42 – 28 days £20
27 -14 days £40
Less than 14 days £50

(b) Amendments during the experience

If we are unable to provide a significant proportion of your experience whilst you are away, suitable alternative arrangements will be made for you at no extra cost or, you will be given the option to return to your point of departure (subject to flight/transport availability) and given a pro-rata/proportionate refund for any part of the experience not received. This does not apply to minor changes in your accommodation, itinerary or transportation arrangements.

(c) Cancellation

Whilst we hope we will never have to cancel your experience, this is very occasionally necessary and we reserve the right to do so. We will do our best to offer alternative arrangements of a comparable or better standard with any appropriate refund, or will give you a full and prompt refund of the experience price.

(d) Force majeure

Compensation will not be payable in any cases where an amendment, change or cancellation is due to an unusual or unforeseeable event or circumstance beyond our reasonable control (’Force Majeure’). Such events include, but are not limited to, war, threat of war, riot, civil disturbance or strife, terrorist activity (actual or threatened), industrial disputes, technical or maintenance problems with transport, machinery or equipment, power failure, natural or nuclear disaster, fire, flood, drought, adverse weather conditions, levels of water in rivers, acts of god, closure of airports, changes of schedules or operational decisions of transport providers.

(e) Travel delays

We have included in many of our experiences the services of major international airlines and whilst these airlines’ flights are rarely subject to lengthy delays, there are occasions when such delays do occur. We cannot accept responsibility for such events and do not provide for meals, overnight accommodation or any other costs resulting from such delays.

8. Prices

All advertised prices or prices quoted by our staff before booking confirmation are for guidance only and may be subject to change prior to the booking being confirmed. We reserve the right to increase (surcharge) the price of your experience after your booking has been made. Such price increases will be limited to those resulting from increases in transportation costs (including fuel and airfares), dues, taxes (including VAT), fees chargeable for services (including landing taxes and embarkation and disembarkation and security fees at airports), Government action or exchange rate variation. In the event that a surcharge increases the price of your experience by 10% or more, you may cancel your experience and receive a full refund. We will, in any event, absorb the first 2% of any price increase, and no surcharges will be made within 30 days of departure. As we have a diverse range of products purchased at different times, we will inform you of the purchasing exchange rate if any surcharge is due to adverse currency fluctuation.

9. Our responsibilities to you

We take care to ensure that we use all reasonable skill and care in our selection of the parties involved in the preparation and supply of your experience. Please remember that the appropriate standards will be those prevalent in your experience destination. We undertake the following responsibilities in connection with your experience:(a) To pay reasonable compensation (subject to (c) below) if the product or service supplied to you is not of the standard described or contracted for by you, apart from in cases where such sub-standard product or service results from an event that we and/or the suppliers of the experience components, could neither foresee nor prevent, even with all due care. This compensation will be limited (except in the case of death, illness, injury and lost/delayed baggage) to no more than twice the price of your experience; (b) We accept no liability to you for (i) any circumstance arising from fault on your part or the part of any member of your party, (ii) any circumstance arising from fault on the part of someone not connected with the provision of the booked experience and/or its various components, (iii) any circumstance which arises due to unusual or unexpected circumstances beyond our reasonable control which could not have been avoided, or (iv) any circumstance which arises due to an event which we or the supplier of any service could not anticipate, expect or reasonably prevent; and, (c) any acceptance of liability is subject to you agreeing to assign to us your rights against any third party responsible for the events leading to your claim and to you affording us all necessary assistance in pursuing that claim.

In all cases, and where appropriate, our liability to you and your party is limited in accordance with, and as if we were a hotel, airline or other transportation provider governed by various international conventions. This limitation of liability applies to claims for, but not limited to, death, injury, illness, and loss, damage, delay in the transportation of luggage and personal belongings. Copies of applicable conventions will be provided upon request. Some of those that apply are:

a) The 1929 Warsaw Convention (as amended by the 1955 Hague Protocol and 1975 Montreal Protocol of 1975),
b) The 1999 Montreal Convention,
c) The 1961 Berne Convention,
d) The 1973 Geneva Convention,
e) The 1974 Athens Convention,
f) The 1962 Paris Convention.

In all cases our liability will be limited also in accordance with the relevant supplier’s conditions of carriage, copies of which will be provided upon request.

Denied boarding

Please ensure that all your travel, passport, visa and insurance documents are in order and that you arrive in plenty of time for checking in at the airport. It may be necessary to reconfirm your flight with the airline prior to your departure. Please ask us for at least 72 hours before your outbound flight. You should take note of any reference number or contact name when reconfirming. If you fail to reconfirm you may be refused permission to board the aircraft and you are unlikely to receive any refund. Where a flight is changed, delayed or cancelled or you are denied boarding of an aircraft for any other reason which would provide entitlement to compensation under Regulation (EC) 261/2004, you are obliged to claim compensation from the relevant carrier. We are not an air carrier and will have no liability to you in relation to the above Regulation.

10. If you have a complaint

If you have any complaint or problem whilst away, you must inform us, our representatives or the relevant supplier as soon as possible to give us the maximum opportunity to rectify it. Any unresolved complaints must be notified to us in writing within 30 days of your return. If you do not notify your complaint at the earliest opportunity and/or formalise your complaint in writing within 30 days of your return, our ability to investigate your complaint will be affected and your right to compensation may be reduced or lost. Any incident of illness or injury arising from an incident connected with your experience should be brought to the attention of the local supplier immediately. You will see the name and address plus contact details in any confirmation documents we send you. We will of course assist you with this if you wish – please contact your Sales Consultant. If the matter cannot be resolved and it involves us or another ABTA Member then it can be referred to the arbitration scheme arranged by ABTA, see www.abta.com.

11. Special requests

Whilst we will endeavor to comply with any special requests we receive (for such things as specific airline seating, dietary requirements or specific rooms), we are unable to guarantee compliance with such requests or that it is possible for us to comply with those requests. We will pass any special requests to the relevant supplier but will not be liable for any loss suffered in the event of such requests not being met.

12. Excursions and activities

Where excursions and/or activities are booked and paid for in advance, and detailed on our confirmation invoice, these will form part of the experience package. We undertake to use all reasonable skill and care in our selection of excursion and activity suppliers. Any excursions and/or activities purchased in the experience destination will not form part of the experience package and your contract for such excursions/activities will be made with the relevant supplier, even where the excursion/activity is booked via, and/or payment is made to, our representatives or local agency staff.

13. Event tickets

Cancellation or curtailment of a major event or sporting fixture is an unusual occurrence and we accept no responsibility to refund or compensate where changes to an event are made for reasons beyond our control. Every effort will be made to offer alternative arrangements and in the unlikely event of cancellation any refund obtained will be passed on to you.

14. Jurisdiction

This contract is governed by English Law and is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

15. Documentation

Your tickets, hotel vouchers and information regarding your experience will be sent to you approximately 2 weeks prior to departure either by First Class post or e mail. Once documents leave our offices we will not be responsible for their loss unless such loss is due to our negligence. If tickets or other documents need to be reissued all costs must be paid by you.

16. Your financial protection

When you buy an ATOL protected air holiday package from us (or authorized agent of Hays Travel Ltd) you will receive a confirmation invoice confirming your arrangements and your protection under our Air Travel Organiser’s Licence number 5534.

In the unlikely event of our insolvency, the CAA will ensure that you are not stranded abroad and will arrange to refund any money you have paid to us for an advance booking. For further information visit the ATOL website at www.atol.org.uk.

Black Tomato is a trading division of Hays Travel Ltd, who are Members of ABTA (ABTA number L6722). For more information on ABTA please visit www.abta.com.

17. Trading office

U.K: Black Tomato, 40-42 Scrutton Street, London EC2A 3PP

US: Black Tomato, 221 West 17th Street 4FL, New York, NY 10011

Terms and conditions for the use of this website

1. General

The following are the terms and conditions applicable to access to and/or use of the Black Tomato website (the “Site”). By gaining access to and/or using the Site, you agree to comply with these terms and conditions and all applicable laws, rules and regulations governing use of the Site. The Site is owned and operated by Black Tomato a trading division of Hays Travel Ltd “Black Tomato”, trading from 40-42 Scrutton Street, London EC2A 3PP. We reserve the right to change these terms and conditions at any time by posting a new version on the Site, so please check this page of the Site regularly.

2. Restrictions on use

The information and materials on the Site (Information) are provided for the personal use of customers or potential customers of Black Tomato (the ‘Customer’ or ‘You’) to review information on events and promotions and to buy tickets. Customers are authorised to visit, view and keep copies of pages on the Site for their own personal use only.

3. Commercial use of the site

Any commercial use of the Site or of any of the Information, in any way, is strictly prohibited unless under licence and with the prior written consent of Black Tomato, the copyright holders. In addition, you must not: copy, download, publish or distribute any Information for any purpose not authorised by these terms and conditions, modify any of the information, use any of the information for public display, performance, sale or rental transfer, remove, modify or alter any copyright, trade mark or other proprietary notice, transfer any information to any other person, link any web-site to the Site or use the Site on its own or in conjunction with other web-sites to sell or re-sell tickets.

4. Black Tomato property

The Site and all Information and other content on the Site (including, but without limitation, text, graphics, videos, music, sound and links) is the property of Black Tomato and/or is used under licence from its suppliers and is protected under international treaty provisions and world-wide copyright laws.
Except as expressly permitted by these terms and conditions, none of the Information nor any such content may be reproduced, copied, edited, published, transmitted or downloaded in any way without the prior written consent of Black Tomato. Nor does Black Tomato grant any express or implied right to you under any of its trademarks, copyrights or other proprietary rights.
Black Tomato logos or any other image bearing the Black Tomato name that is found on the Site are trademarks of Black Tomato. They may not be used without the prior written consent of Black Tomato.

5. External links

You may from time to time be provided with links to other websites through use of the Site. These sites are not controlled by Black Tomato in any way and Black Tomato is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, legality or any other aspect of these other sites including any content provided on them.

6. Termination

Failure to comply with these terms and conditions may result in the termination of your right of access to the Site by us (without refund or further notice to you), including your right to use the Site in the future, along with any other rights which you may have acquired. Furthermore we may require you to destroy any information downloaded, printed or otherwise copied from the Site and may cancel any orders placed by you.

7. Disclaimer

(a) Accuracy of Information

The Information is provided on an ‘as is’ and ‘as available’ basis. All express or implied warranties of any kind (including warranties of merchantability, fitness for purpose and non-infringement of the intellectual property of a third party) are excluded to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law. Black Tomato makes no representation or assurance of uninterrupted or error free service, or that the Site will provide any specific search results. Black Tomato may change the Information from time to time without notice and makes no commitment to keep the Information up-to-date nor any representation or warranty as to the currency, accuracy or completeness of the Information.

(b) Use of the Site

Use of the Site is at your own risk. While Black Tomato endeavors to ensure that the site is secure we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information, nor that the Site (or any site to which you may be linked) is free from viruses or similar matters that may damage your website, computer or systems. Black Tomato excludes to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law all liability for any loss, expenses or damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages for loss of profits, business interruption, loss of additional revenue or other consequential or economic losses) directly or indirectly arising out of the use or inability to use the Site or the Information. Black Tomato is not responsible for the acts or omissions of any Customers, other users of the Site, advertisers on the Site or other third parties connected with the Site nor for the events, services or products of any event organiser, venue, promoter, producer or other third party connected with any event or product sold on the Site.
The Site is controlled and operated by Black Tomato from its offices in England. Black Tomato does not represent or warrant that the Information is appropriate or available for use in other jurisdictions and access to the Information from jurisdictions where its contents are illegal is prohibited. You may only use this Site for lawful purposes and in accordance with these terms and conditions.

7. Governing law

These terms and conditions are to be governed by and construed in accordance with English law and any dispute or question in connection with them will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of England and Wales.
This document was last revised on August 2011.