Terms and Conditions
Cloud 9 Adventure Ltd Terms & Conditions
Your contract with us
1. Booking conditions, legal jurisdiction and contractual responsibility
By booking with Cloud 9 Adventure you accept to be bound by the terms and conditions outlined herein. Where an individual makes a booking on behalf of a group, all participants within the group agree to be bound by these terms and conditions.
All booking arrangements are made with Cloud 9 Adventure Ltd, The Park, Waresley, Sandy, Beds SG19 3BS. Company Number 08360252, registered with Companies House in England and Wales.
All terms and conditions between clients and Cloud 9 Adventure Ltd are to be governed by and held under the jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.
2. Payment
When you make a booking with us you must pay a non-refundable deposit. For private trips, this is 30% of the holiday price. For group trips, the amount varies according to the trip, and the applicable deposit is listed on our website. On occasion, full payment for a service such as day-guiding may be required, and is non-refundable.
Final balance payment is due 10 weeks before the start of your trip. In the case of non-payment of the balance by the due date, we reserve the right to cancel your booking without refunding your deposit.
3. Insurance
It is compulsory that you take out adequate travel insurance, and it is a condition of booking with us that your insurance covers the following as a minimum: medical expenses, injury, illness, death, repatriation, personal accident, mountain rescue including helicopter evacuation, along with cancellation and curtailment. Your insurance must be valid for the duration of your tour.
On trips where there is a leader, it is the right of the leader to make a decision to call for a helicopter rescue, without consultation with or permission from your insurance company, and any costs relating to this will be your responsibility. Any subsequent costs incurred for expenses, including but not limited to, extra hotels, food and transport shall be borne by you, the client.
On self-guided trips, a hotelier, hut gardien or one of our other suppliers may need to call the rescue services on your behalf, and you accept responsibility for the cost that this may incur. It is worth noting that if you do not arrive at your mountain accommodation before early evening, the rescue services may be called, and you would be liable for any related costs.
You are responsible for ensuring that your insurance is adequate for the particular needs of your chosen activity, and to ensure that your insurance covers you to the maximum altitude stated on your trip itinerary - we do not check insurance policies. We reserve the right to cancel your booking at any time, with no refund, if we are not satisfied that you have adequate insurance in place. You should bring your insurance documents and carry them with you at all times on the trip.
All baggage and personal effects, including bicycles, are at all times taken at your own risk. We will not be responsible for any loss, damage or accident to any luggage or property, however incurred.
We recommend that you arrange your travel insurance at the time of booking: if something happens to you before the trip and you cannot take your holiday, we are unable to refund your deposit (or balance payment, depending on the time at which you notify us), and you must claim through your insurance if you wish to be reimbursed for this.
4. Minimum numbers & our partners
In order for our trips to be priced competitively, we need to attain a minimum number of participants before the trip can be guaranteed to run. This is usually 4 or 5 people, but can be lower if the participants agree to pay a small supplement in order for the trip to guarantee earlier. We reserve the right to cancel trips or activities where the minimum number of participants has not been reached, and would normally do so if the minimum number has not been reached 6 weeks before the trip start date.
In order to increase the probability that a trip will run, we have developed partnerships with a small number of other well-established travel companies. This constitutes a standard practice in the travel industry, and we only work with partners who have the same ethos and standards as ourselves. Our current partners are Tracks and Trails Ltd, KE Adventure Travel Ltd, Col de Lavacchio and Adventure Base Ltd.
For private trips, our quoted trip price is based on the number of people you have told us will travel. If the trip ends up with fewer people than we quoted for, then the price per person would increase accordingly and we alter the final invoice to reflect the number of people on the trip.
5. Travel arrangements
All of our holidays are sold on a land-only basis, which means that you will need to make your own travel arrangements. For our group trips, you must receive written confirmation from us that your chosen holiday has reached the minimum number required, and is guaranteed to run BEFORE booking any flights or any non-refundable travel arrangements. Occasionally a trip may state “guaranteed” on our website, as has acquired the minimum number, but the accommodation may not be confirmed: so do note that we will contact you individually when your trip is confirmed.
In the case of a private or self-guided tour, please do not book flights or make any non-refundable travel arrangements before we have confirmed that all of the accommodation is available and that all our logistical arrangements are in place.
We cannot be held liable for any losses incurred for any travel arrangements you make.
6. If you cancel your holiday
You, or any member of your party, may cancel your holiday at any time, and this must be done via email to our office. The following cancellation charges will apply:
More than 70 days before the start of the trip – loss of deposit plus any other non-refundable items we have paid for on your behalf such as hotels, flights or guides
31-70 days before the start of the trip - 50% of the total trip cost plus any other non-refundable items we have paid for on your behalf such as hotels, flights or guides
30 days or less before the start of the trip - 100% of the total trip cost
7. Your holiday price and exchange rate fluctuation
Cloud 9 Adventure reserves the right to adjust the pricing of the products and services displayed on our website. If the Bank of England's exchange rate drops below £1= €1.05, £1= CHF 1.15 or £1=10 NOK for trips to the EU, Switzerland and Norway respectively, then we reserve the right to levy a surcharge to the trip price to accommodation incurred costs due directly to the movement in the exchange rate. If you choose to pay your balance in full at the time of booking then you will not be affected by this as we would purchase the necessary currency at the time of booking, provided the trip was guaranteed.
8. Fitness & difficulty of trip
All of our trips have a description of the level of difficulty and fitness required. It is very difficult to give a generic description of these trips, because each person is unique and some people will find trips harder than others. We have given our descriptions in good faith, borne of many years’ experience running these trips, and we require you to make a judgement as to your suitability for the trip based on our description. If in any doubt at all, please ask us. If you are unable to walk at a steady pace or keep up with the group, our leader may ask you to miss out any days which they do not deem you capable of walking without disrupting the group. Any costs such as transport or extra accommodation will be your responsibility in this event.
9. Personal risk
Cloud 9 Adventure maintains high professional standards of client care and safety. We take due care and diligence and only choose good quality accommodation, transport companies and local suppliers, and we only use guides who are qualified and legal to work in the countries where we organise trips. In choosing to undertake activities in a mountain environment you accept that these activities may pose a danger of personal injury and even death. All clients must be aware of and accept these risks and be responsible for their own actions and involvement in such activities.
In the case of self-guided trips, you, the client, are fully responsible for your decision-making in the mountains. We provide detailed route notes but these are not a substitute for map reading and use of compass. Our route notes are well-researched, regularly updated and are written in good faith - but Cloud 9 Adventure will not be liable for any route choices you make whilst on the mountain. If in any doubt about your ability to do so, then we recommend that you book a guided trip.
10. Your Financial Protection
In accordance with the 2018 EU Package Travel Directive, your funds are protected in a Trust Account. All payments for package holidays are placed in this account and we do not access these funds until after your trip has finished. In the unlikely event of our insolvency before the start of your trip, all monies paid will be refunded to you.
This Trust Account is only valid for funds paid to us, and DOES NOT include flights.
11. Transferring to another holiday - Guided Group Trips
If you wish to transfer to another holiday, we will do our utmost to arrange this but it may not always be possible: there are various factors depending on whether the trip has achievered minimum numbers and whether your cancellation affects others. You would need to cover any costs incurred. The fee to transfer, if this is possible, is £100 per person. If you do wish to transfer, you need to request a transfer via email to our office a minimum of 12 weeks before the start of your trip.
12. Transferring to another holiday - Private or Self-Guided Trips
It is not usually possible to change dates or swap holidays once you have booked a private or self-guided trip. On popular tours where multiple consecutive nights' accommodation has been booked, it is often impossible to alter it, so cancelling, postponing or changing dates would usually incur loss of deposit. It is often worth asking as we will always try to find a solution for you.
13. Data Protection
You give us permission to give any personal information you supply to our office staff, guides and suppliers in order for them to be able to provide an appropriate level of service for your holiday. We do not share this data with any other 3rd party.