Terms and Conditions
Please ensure that you read the following booking conditions carefully before making a booking with us. All Strel Swimming Adventures (“SSA”) holidays and vacations are operated by Strel Team LLC and Strel Team Ltd. These booking conditions are applicable to the contract between you and Strel Team Ltd (European tours) and Strel Team LLC (North American tours). The terms “we”, “us” and “our” as used in these terms and conditions mean Strel Team Ltd or Strel Team LLC. References to “you”, “your” or “guest” mean all persons named on the booking.
1. Booking and payment
1.1. Online and telephone bookings
All bookings are subject to availability. Bookings can be made either online at www.strel-swimming.com or by telephone on +41 79 680 2038 or +44 77 0006 1236. Bookings must be made by persons aged 18 or above. We welcome guests from the age of 16. All guests aged below 18 must be accompanied by an adult.
A binding contract comes into existence once we have received from you all payments applicable at the time of booking and we have sent our booking confirmation to you. It is your responsibility to check your booking confirmation upon receipt. Please inform us immediately if any information appears to be incorrect as it may not be possible to make any changes subsequently.
1.2. Payment terms
At the time of booking, you must either pay (i) the total published holiday price or (ii) a deposit of 20% of the published holiday price (the "Deposit"), with the balance of the published holiday price payable 60 days before the start of your SSA holiday (the “Due Date”). For all bookings made less than 60 days before the start of your SSA holiday, you must pay the published holiday price at the time of booking. If we do not receive payment by the Due Date, we reserve the right to cancel your booking immediately and you will forfeit your Deposit. We may agree to extend the Due Date at your request. If, however, you subsequently fail to pay the balance we shall consider the booking cancelled and you will be liable to pay the applicable cancellation charges. These set out below at section 4 (“Cancellation by you”).
1.3. Method of payment
You must pay the Deposit for your SSA holiday by credit card at the time of booking. We accept the following credit/debit cards: Visa, Visa-Electron, MasterCard, American Express, Maestro and Activa. Please note that all payments made by credit or debit card (whether deposits, part payments or final balances) will be subject to a 2.50% surcharge. All bookings made less than 60 days before the start of your SSA holiday must also be paid by credit card at the time of booking.
You may pay the balance of the published holiday price, payable 60 days before the start of your SSA holiday, by credit card, bank transfer or cheque. Full details will be provided on SSA payment request.
All online booking payments and transactions are made via secure payment gateways (USA-Authorize.Net, Europe-Intesa Sanpaolo Card) and settled at our partner banks, Chase Bank in the USA and Banka Koper d.d., Europe. We do not store any credit or debit card information. To make a payment you will be redirected to bank´s Payment Gateway which is a secure website (SSL-Secure Socket Layer) dedicated to our booking system.
Credit Card Processing
2. Published SSA holiday information
2.1. Price
You will be advised of the current holiday price at the time of booking and before your booking is confirmed. We reserve the right to alter the published holiday price at any time before your booking is confirmed. Any special offers may be offered, altered or withdrawn at any time and without prior notification.
2.2. SSA holiday description
All information published on our website and in our promotional literature is correct at the time of publishing. All descriptions of accommodation, facilities and other services are based on information obtained from our third party suppliers. Please bear in mind that occasionally some facilities or services may be withdrawn by our third party suppliers due to circumstances beyond our control, for example weather conditions or lack of demand. Where changes are significant we will endeavour to inform you as soon as possible (see section 5 “Cancellation by SSA” below).
2.3. Accommodation preferences
We will use all reasonable efforts to ensure that the all accommodation preferences supplied at the time of booking are fulfilled. Occasionally, however, our third party accommodation suppliers may be unable fulfil all requests due to circumstances beyond our control. All accommodation preferences stipulated at the time of booking and thereafter are strictly subject to availability.
2.4. Itinerary
We reserve the right to change the published itinerary at any time. Your safety is of utmost importance to us. Open water swimming requires a certain degree of flexibility and we may need to adapt our itinerary in the event of adverse weather conditions or any other circumstances beyond our control at any of our swimming locations. Our team always includes at least one local guide or boat pilot who knows the area well enough to ensure we swim in the finest and safest places to swim.
3. Medical conditions
SSA holidays are active adventure holidays. We welcome guests of all ages (over 16) and swimming abilities. However, if you have any medical condition or disability which might affect your SSA holiday, please contact us before making your booking so that we can advise as to the suitability of your arrangements. If we reasonably consider that we are unable properly to accommodate your particular needs, we reserve the right to decline your booking or, if full details are not given at the time of booking, cancel your booking once we become aware of those details
4. Cancellation by you
If you wish to cancel your booking, you must provide us with written notice as soon as possible. Cancellation will take effect from the date of receipt of your written notice. In all cases of cancellation you will forfeit your Deposit.
If you cancel your booking 60 days or less before your SSA holiday is due to start, a cancellation fee will be immediately payable to us. Cancellation fees are expressed as a percentage of the total holiday cost (as published at the time of booking), as follows:
Receipt of cancellation notice before departure || | Cancellation charge payable |
more than 60 days | Deposit |
31-59 days | 70% |
30 days | 100% |
If, after our booking confirmation has been issued, you wish to make any changes to your booking, you must send us a written request. All changes are subject to a EUR 25 ($30 USD) administration fee per person. If you wish to transfer to another SSA holiday or change your departure date, you must send us a written request at least 60 days before the start of your booked SSA holiday. We will endeavour to accommodate your request, subject to availability. If the published holiday price of the SSA holiday or date that you wish to change to is more expensive than your original booking (as at the date of receipt of your request), you must also pay the difference in price. Your new booking must be taken within the same calendar year.
5. Cancellation by SSA
We always try to avoid cancelling bookings or making changes to our published itineraries. However, arrangements for SSA holidays are made many months in advance and it may be necessary in exceptional circumstances for us to cancel or make changes to your booking. Subject to section 6 below (“Force majeure”), if we cancel or make a significant change to your booking, we will endeavour to provide you with reasonable notice of such cancellation or change and we will offer you (at your request) an alternative SSA holiday, subject to availability and except where such cancellation or significant change is beyond our control (see “force majeure” below). You will not be required to make any additional payment if the alternative SSA holiday is more expensive than your original booking.
Subject to section 6 below (“Force majeure”), if we cancel your booking up to 26 days before the start of your SSA holiday, you will be entitled to a full refund of all monies received from you to date. If we cancel your booking 25 days or less before the start of your SSA holiday, you will be entitled to a full refund of all monies received from you to date plus minimum compensation of EUR 50 ($70 USD) per person.
6. Force majeure
We regret that we are unable to accept liability or pay compensation where our failure to perform our obligations under this contract is caused by or affected by, or you otherwise suffer any damage, loss or expense of any nature arising out of, circumstances beyond our control. For the purposes of these booking conditions, circumstances beyond our control, or "force majeure", means any event which we or the supplier of the service(s) in question could not, even with all due care, foresee or avoid. Such events are likely to include: war, civil strife, riot, industrial dispute, terrorist activity, natural or nuclear disaster, fire, technical problems with transport, closure or congestion or restriction of airports, national parks, monuments, roads, ports or airspace, adverse weather conditions, volcanic eruption, airport, port or airspace closures, and all similar events outside our control.
7. Communications with us
All bookings made online will be confirmed by e-mail, and all subsequent communications will be made via e-mail. Telephone bookings will also be confirmed by e-mail unless otherwise advised at the time of booking. You must inform us at the time of booking if you wish to be contacted by post. All references in these booking conditions to “send” include both e-mail and post, as appropriate.
8. Before you travel
8.1. Insurance
It is a condition of your booking and your responsibility to ensure that you have suitable insurance cover for the travel arrangements and activities that you have booked with us. You must hold a valid comprehensive insurance cover for an adventure sport activity including "open water swimming". Your policy must includes medical expenses (including transportation), emergency repatriation, travel illness and personal accident on the tour. You will be asked to provide us with your insurance details (company name, policy number and 24-hour contact) before undertaking any swimming activities.
8.2. Passport and visa requirements
It is your responsibility to check up to date travel and visa requirements and to ensure that you have any visa required for entry into your country of destination.
9. Data protection policy
We will collect certain personal information from you at the time of booking in order to process your booking. This information includes, where applicable, your e-mail, name and address, payment details, hotel room type preferences, medical conditions and dietary requirements (which may disclose your religious beliefs). By making your booking, you agree that we may use or disclose this information for the purposes of processing your booking. It may be necessary to pass some of this information onto third party suppliers, such as hoteliers, and by making your booking you accept that this may involve us sending information to countries that do not have an equal level of privacy legislation to that in the UK. This information may also be provided to government or public authorities as required by law.
We would also like to store and use this information for future marketing purposes. Only your name and contact details will be used for this purpose. Please inform us in writing if you do not wish your details to be used in this way.
You are entitled to make a written request about which of your personal information we are currently holding or processing, for what purpose and to whom it may be or has been disclosed. We will charge a fee to respond to such a request, but aim do so within 45 days of receipt. In certain limited circumstances we are entitled to refuse your request.
Please contact us immediately if you believe that any of your personal details which we are processing are inaccurate or incorrect.
10. Photography & Testimonials
Any likeness or image of you secured or taken on any SSA holiday may be used by us without charge in all media (whether now existing or in the future invented) for promotional or marketing purposes, including but not limited to promotional materials of any kind such as brochures, video, photos or websites. Any written feedback supplied to the company may also be used for promotional purposes as detailed above.
11. Complaints
We want you to have an enjoyable and relaxing holiday with us. However, if you are not satisfied with any aspect of your SSA holiday, please report your complaint to a SSA staff member as soon as you can. SSA staff will do everything reasonably possible to rectify the issue during your SSA holiday. If you are still not satisfied and want to make a complaint when you return home, please write us at the address below within 28 days of the end of your SSA holiday:
Email.
12. Limitation of Liability
We are not liable to you for any dissatisfaction, loss of enjoyment, loss, injury or damage which results from your SSA holiday unless caused by our negligence. We take all reasonable care in arranging your SSA holiday. However, we are sometimes dependent on other organisations, which we do not own or operate, for the provision of accommodation and certain travel. Consequently we shall not be liable for loss, damage, inconvenience, death or personal injury due to neglect, act or omission of any other company or caused by an event beyond reasonable control.
We also have no liability to you for any consequential loss which you may suffer in relation to any arrangements which you book to coincide with your SSA holiday, including travel and accommodation arrangements.
If any International Convention applies to or governs any of the services or facilities arranged or provided by us, or provided by any of our third party suppliers, and you make a claim against us of any nature arising out of death, injury, loss or damage suffered during or as a result of the provision of those services or facilities, our liability to pay you compensation and/or the amount (if any) of compensation payable to you by us will be limited in accordance with and/or in an identical manner to that provided for by the International Convention concerned (in each case including in respect of the conditions of liability, the time for bringing any claim and the type and amount of any damages that can be awarded).
13. Law and Jurisdiction
This contract is governed by English Law. In the unlikely event that any dispute arising out of or in connection with this contract cannot be settled amicably between us, it shall be referred to ad hoc arbitration. The seat of the arbitration is to be in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and the language to be used in the arbitration is English.
Published on October 20, 2011, version 1.1