What happens when a booking changes or is cancelled

1. How to cancel

Open your booking and use the cancellation request form, which shows an estimated refund for today's date before you send anything. Sending a request does not cancel the booking. A member of our team reviews it, calculates the exact figure and writes to you. Nothing is cancelled and no refund is issued until you accept that figure.

2. What you get back when you cancel

The refund is what you have paid, less the non-refundable amount for the band, less the administration fee. Where you have paid only a deposit and the band's non-refundable amount exceeds it, nothing further is owed by you.

3. You cancelling, and us cancelling

4. Local and international journeys

5. Cancelling one traveller

Usually possible. Only that traveller's costs are assessed against the bands. Removing somebody can change the room price for whoever remains — a twin becoming a single, for instance — and we tell you that figure before anything is agreed.

6. Transferring your place

Where the airline and the accommodation permit a name change, another person may travel in your place. You pay the supplier's charges plus the administration fee. Some airlines do not permit name changes at all, and we will tell you which applies to your booking.

7. No-show

Not arriving at the joining point without telling us is treated as a cancellation on the day and is not refundable. If something has gone wrong on the morning, telephone us — a missed pickup and a genuine emergency are different, and we treat them differently.

8. How long a refund takes

We issue an agreed refund within five working days. Your bank then takes its own time, usually a further three to five. Refunds go back to the card or account the payment came from — a rule of the card schemes rather than a preference of ours.