Booking Terms

The following terms and conditions apply to all tours and events operated by Akeman Tours Ltd. (a company registered in England and Wales, reg. no. 11796983). This document sets out the terms by which Akeman Tours Ltd. (‘Us’, ‘We’, or ‘Our’) provides a tour or event for the person or parties (‘you’, ‘your’, or ‘the group’) booking the tour.

You acknowledge and agree that by accessing our website, and by requesting and/or completing payment for a service we offer, you will be bound by these terms and conditions as written.

• On requesting our services we will build an itinerary for you after discussing your requests, to ensure our service provision suits your requirement.
• Any services described at this stage are unconfirmed.
• Once you tell us you are happy to proceed with booking the services we have described, we will provide you with a comprehensive quote including pricing. Any services described in our quote are only booked provisionally at this stage and are not confirmed until you have completed payment.

• Unless otherwise specified in our quote to you, we require full payment for all services, either by bank transfer or via our secure online card payment portal to which will provide the link in your invoice (if we are able to offer you this payment option).
• Payment must be completed by the end of a holding period (or ‘due date’) which we will specify in our invoice (normally a max of 1 week).
• If we have not received your payment by the end of the holding period, we will cancel without notice, any services we are holding for you, and cannot guarantee availability or the same price at a later time.
• If you subsequently, complete payment after our defined holding period has expired, we may not be able to fulfil the service as specified, and we will refund your payment minus our admin and processing costs.
• On receipt of your payment we will provide a confirmation or receipt to you, and confirm all services with our providers. Your booking is then subject to our cancellation terms below.

In the event of cancellation, exchange or postponement of a service, for any reason, clients should expect to pay the following charges:

For Tour Guide services:

• More than 10 days prior to service: full refund, for cancellation less £15 per service (e.g. if you have booked 1 x half day service, the fee is £15, but if you have booked 2 x half day tours, the fee is £30).
• 10 – 5 days days prior to service: 50% of total cost.
• 4 days (96 hours) prior to service: 100% of total cost.

For Tour Management (i.e. multi-day services, without Tour Guiding):

• More than 1 month prior to start date of service: £20 per day of service
• Less than 1 month prior to start date of service: 50% of total cost
• 10 days or less, prior to start date of service: 100% of total cost
• All out-of-pocket expenses incurred (e.g. guide transportation or accommodation costs booked in advance) are non-refundable.

Transportation, accommodation, or attraction visits:

• Refunds are subject to the providers’ terms and are often non-refundable and non-exchangeable after confirmation.
• If you need details of terms for any of these services (i.e. anything other than a Tour Guide or Tour Manager) please ask for details in each case, when considering our quote and before completing your payment.

Exchanges (or postponed services):

• Exchanges are subject to availability and if we are not able to provide a service on the date you wish to exchange to, your booking is subject to our cancellation terms above.
• Exchanges will only be considered on provision of a new date at the point of request – if you do not provide a new date at this point or within the timescale we define to you, your booking is subject to our cancellation terms above.

If you require our Guide or Tour Manager to provide a service to you on a vehicle which we have not booked for you, please note the following:

• Our guides, will not provide tours on vehicles which are not privately chauffeured, i.e. the driver and vehicle must be adequately licensed, privately hired, and cannot be driven by a member of your party.
• Our guides will not provide tours on self-drive vehicles, but we may occasionally provide driver-guiding services. In these cases, our driver-guide will be appropriately licensed and qualified, and will provide their own appropriately licensed vehicle for the service.
• If you are providing a coach (i.e. 10 seats or more) through your own 3rd party provider, for the purposes of the service, there must be a seat provided for our Guide or Tour Manager, with a safety belt, and a working microphone and PA system in all cases.
• If there is no working microphone / PA system provided, the Guide will inform us and they/we will work with you to consider options on how to proceed. This may be cancellation of the service for which we offer no refund.
• If the tour continues without a working microphone in these circumstances, the guide is entitled to adjust and/or reduce the tour format and duration according to their best judgement and discretion – we will offer no refunds for any loss of service in these circumstances.

• Children joining services provided by us must be accompanied by a responsible adult at all times.
• We require adult accompaniment of children to the following ratios:
  – ages up to 5: 1 adult to 2 children
  – ages 6-8: 1 adult to 3 children
  – ages 9-12: 1 adult to 5 children
  – ages 13-16: 1 adult to 7 children
  – ages 17-18: 1 adult to 10 children
• If you intend to any children under the age of 18 on your tour with us, please tell us so that we can ensure we match your group to the best guide.
• If you intend to bring a baby or toddler with you, we will not guarantee adequate facilities (e.g. accommodation for strollers, or child-safe vehicle facilities), without being told prior to payment for your service.

• We will not be held responsible for the loss or damage of any personal items, or personal injury incurred while participating in any services we provide.
• All persons attending our tours/events are required to behave in a respectful manner towards each other, and towards our staff and suppliers.
• The lead customer named on any booking, is responsible for the behaviour of all participants for whom they have booked, during their time with us.
• If anyone participating in any service we have booked for you, appears to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or if your behaviour is deemed inappropriate at any point by our staff or suppliers, we reserve the right to terminate or refuse your participation in the service, without refund.
• We are not responsible for any damage done to our suppliers, their property, or any injury incurred as a result of your behavior. Should you be responsible for loss, damage or injury while participating in our services, you are liable for any charges due.

• Our services proceed regardless of weather conditions and if you choose to cancel due to inclement weather, your booking is subject to the cancellation terms above.
• On the very rare occasions we are forced to cancel a service due to extreme weather conditions, we will contact you as soon as a decision regarding cancellation is made, to offer a refund equivalent to the remaining portion of the service.
• On the very rare occasions we are forced to cancel a service due to extreme weather conditions, we will contact you as soon as a decision regarding cancellation is made, to offer a refund equivalent to the remaining portion of the service.

• All personal data shall be processed in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
• Photographs and video footage may be taken during our tours for promotional or editorial purposes only. These images may be used in online or printed matter.
• Our staff and suppliers reserve the right to decline to be filmed, videoed or recorded during their work. We will always ask your permission before we take any photos or video, in which an image of you or your clients may be included.
• If you do not want images of you, and/or your clients/group to be used by us, we respect this and will not do so if you tell us when we ask you.
• If we have used your image in marketing material and you subsequently decide that you no longer wish us to use your image in this or any other way, please let us know immediately by emailing letstalk@akemantours.co.uk. We will then remove your image as soon as is reasonably possible.  However, as the image(s) will have been in the public domain, we take no responsibility for copies used elsewhere or distributed by third parties without our permission.

• Should you have a complaint about any aspect of the service provided by us or by our suppliers, please speak to our member of staff providing the service who will do their best to rectify the problem.
• If they are not able to resolve your complaint at the time, or if you prefer not to discuss the issue with our member of staff, please email us at letstalk@akemantours.co.uk, as soon as possible. We will respond to you within 48 hours.

These terms were last updated on Friday 8th March 2024. Your booking is subject to the terms which appear on this page on the date you made/make your booking, as shown on your receipt which we will email to you following payment. All previous versions of these terms are archived to show the dates between which they are valid. If you would like to see previous versions of these terms, please contact us with the relevant date, and we will reply to you within 14 days maximum.