Terms, Conditions & Operating Procedures of Great Rivers Co Limited



1. Rates:

i. Hotel rates are based on Great Rivers clients selling only to the leisure market. Should any guest on arrival be found to be a corporate client, the hotel has every right to waive the booking and charge the guest direct at the full rack rate. We cannot accept any responsibility if the client is not on a leisure trip, the hotel refuses to honour the Great Rivers booking and charges the client direct at rack rate.
ii. Reservation requests will be invoiced according to our tariff current at the time the booking is confirmed to you.
iii. We reserve the right to vary our quoted rates at any time on notice to you after bookings have been made and confirmed as a result of trade fairs changes in government taxes or other matters outside our control, such as currency fluctuations. These changes may be sent by fax, diskette or electronically. Any increase in rates as a result of currency fluctuations in respect of existing bookings shall only be made where the currency fluctuation exceeds 3%.
iv. Bookings may be confirmed with a commissionable rate meaning they are based on rack rates.

2. Trade Fair Reservations:

i. For some trade fairs our prices may be above rack rates. Should any fair dates change or new fair rates apply, we will notify you of such changes and invoice you at the revised rate. Such revised rates may be applied to all bookings, including those made prior to the fair change. You must therefore check with your client that they will pay the higher price and, if not, you should cancel or amend the dates.
ii. We may request full prepayment which, if not received by the due date, will result in the automatic cancellation of the booking without further reference to you.

3. Hotel Confirmation (Vouchers):

i. You must provide your clients with their confirmation slip/voucher which must indicate that the room (with or without breakfast) is payable by Great Rivers (or another supplier if so advised in our confirmation) and includes the Great Rivers or other supplier booking reference number. All extras incurred by your clients must be paid directly to the hotel before their departure. We will not pay hotels for client»s personal hotel charges.
ii. If a client arrives at a hotel and you failed to make a booking, or made a booking and later cancelled, we will still pay the hotel providing they send us your voucher with their invoice. We will then invoice you and our invoice must be paid.
iii. If we receive an invoice with your voucher and it is for more nights or services than you reserved, we will invoice you based on your voucher.

4. Non Arrivals:

i. If we invoice a non-arrival but the hotel later confirms the client did stay we will raise a supplementary invoice which must be paid.
ii. Other clauses concerning non-arrival can be found in the following section on Cancellations and in the Operating Procedures document.


5. Cancellations:

i. Bookings during trade fairs cannot be cancelled after you have reconfirmed, or after the cancellation deadline has passed, without incurring cancellation charges.
ii. We will charge by way of a cancellation fee a minimum of one night for non-arrival and late cancellation. Any urgent cancellation you need to make at a time when the Great Rivers office is closed must be sent direct to the hotel and copied to the Great Rivers office.
iii. If a client or agent claims to have cancelled a reservation directly with a hotel, a minimum of one night»s charge will be levied if the hotel later charges us.
iv. We reserve the right to be indemnified by you in full against all loss, costs, damages, charges and expenses incurred by us as a result of any cancellation for any reason.

6. General Information:

i. Our systems are for booking FIT»s (bookings of 9 or fewer pax) only. If you abuse them by splitting groups to make them appear as FIT»s, hotels will be within their rights to levy group cancellation, and possibly other charges, and you will have to pay these in full. Booking requests for more than 9 people must be sent to us by fax or email. We may cancel bookings you have added to our system, if they appear to us to be group bookings and not genuine FIT bookings.
ii. You must read any documentation accompanying your bookings and ensure in particular, that your staff action the points noted as being the specific responsibility of the client.
iii. Bookings may be made only for bona fide reservations. We may cancel bookings when they appear to us to have been made with the intention simply to hold space.
iv. Rates provided are for sale in your home market only. You are not permitted to supply our rates via your own systems or any third party systems such that they can be viewed outside your home market nor can you take reservations from outside your home market and pass them on to us.
v. All information (written and pictorial) displayed on any site run by Great Rivers or any company it owns, remains the property of Great Rivers. No information of any sort can be copied from any Great Rivers site to any of your own sites or those of any third parties for any purposes whatsoever.
vi. No software, or means of access to any Great Rivers systems, may be passed to any third party, without the written permission of Great Rivers. No Great Rivers systems may be accessed for any reasons whatsoever should you cease to be a client of Great Rivers.
vii. All our hotel information and reports are as accurate as possible however we shall not be liable in any way to you or to any third parties should any such information or reports prove to be incorrect or incomplete in any way.
viii. We shall not be liable for and shall be indemnified by you in respect of any loss (direct, indirect or consequential) or third party claims (including any cancellation fees) suffered as a result of any incorrect or incomplete details in your booking.
ix. Our Operating Procedures form an integral part of our Business Terms & Conditions.
x. You must read any documentation accompanying your bookings and ensure your staff action the points noted as being the specific responsibility of the client.
xi. If you add any clients as web users, you will need to advise us in advance so that we can stop your clients seeing our rates. We may also confirm bookings with prices as remarks and this information is intended for you. You will need to explain to your client that you will charge them a higher price. Additionally, please ensure that the following is adhered to:-
- It is your responsibility to train your agents and to provide technical and operational support for them.
- We will not accept direct communication from your agents, neither by phone nor by fax or email. We will immediately refer them back to you if this occurs.
- You will be fully responsible for payment of all bookings your agents have made through our web reservation system.
xii. Ryokans are traditional style Japanese hotels based on traditional architecture. Local Japanese customs (such as wearing a Kimono and not wearing shoes) will be required, meals are Japanese and staff may have poor knowledge of any language other than Japanese.


7. Visa/Invitation Letter Requests:

We charge for providing these and all invoices for such letters must be paid in full even if the booking cancels and regardless of the reason for the cancellation.



8. Contract:

i. Reservation requests shall be treated as offers to enter into formal legally binding contracts which hall be deemed to have been accepted by us only when we have transmitted to you our confirmation of the reservations. All contracts with us are subject to these terms and conditions.
ii. All contracts between us will be governed by English law. On receipt of your reservation request we shall imply your consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts in all matters regarding each contract except to the extent that we invoke the jurisdiction of the courts of any other country.
iii. Booking land arrangements with us is an acknowledgement of acceptance of the terms and conditions set out herein.

9. Confidentiality:

i. In no circumstances may you disclose Great Rivers published rates or any information relating to them or these terms and conditions to anyone who is not a member/or employee of your agency. We reserve the right to cancel all reservations and terminate with immediate effect all contracts without notice to you, should you be in breach of this condition.
ii. We do not permit any of our clients, without prior written agreement from us, to use the Great Rivers name or logo or any Great Rivers symbols on their sites, letterhead, business cards, invoices or any merchandising. Nor do we permit the use of the Great Rivers name in any way such that it could be construed that the business of the client is in some way a part of the Great Rivers organisation.


10. Day Let Bookings:

Day let rates cannot be used for overnight stay bookings and are all exclusive of breakfast. If you give a voucher to your client stating breakfast is included; you will be responsible for payment of the breakfast directly to the hotel. Hotels may charge rack rate on departure if a client stays overnight.


11. Liability:

We act only as an intermediary in making arrangements for hotels, transportation or any other services. As such we are not liable for personal injury, illness, property damage or other loss of expense of any nature whatsoever arising directly or indirectly out of any actions of hotels, transportation company or other company or person providing or rendering services reserved through us.

12. Payment:

i. Payment is due within the number of days specified in the Credit Agreement (see Section 15) after the date of issue of our invoice and must be made in the quoted currency by banker»s draft or bank transfer to one of the corresponding accounts as follows. Company cheques and credit cards are not an acceptable form of payment.
ii. We may, from time to time, raise invoices in a currency other than that shown in our tariff should it become impossible for us to obtain payment within 28 days of the banking of the draft or receipt of a transfer. Such invoices must be settled in the invoice currency and not the tariff currency.


Sterling Payments

HSBC, London Bridge,
Borough High Street, London SE1 1YB
International Bank Account Number: GB20MIDL40062121535803
Account No: 21535803 Sort Code: 40-06-21
Swift Code: MIDLGB22



13. Invoice Disputes:

i. All invoices are due and payable without discount, set-off or other claim you may have against us. If there is any item of dispute arising out of or in connection with any invoice full details of the dispute must be made known to us in writing within 21 days of the date of issue of the disputed invoice(s). Failure to bring to our attention full details of any dispute concerning any of our invoices within 21 days of the date of their issue may result in you being precluded from seeking any discount, set off or other claim against us at all.
ii. If a client leaves a hotel early you will be invoiced in full unless we are advised prior to raising our invoice. If we are so advised we will check with the hotel and invoice according to the hotel»s invoice to us. Some hotels, particularly in USA/Canada, will charge for all nights booked even if the client departs early.
iii. This may result in charges for additional nights. In order to avoid disputes the client must always obtain from the hotel a written confirmation of the departure date and time, if leaving before the confirmed departure date.
iv. We will not accept as a reason for not paying an invoice, that your client claimed to have seen a rate inside or outside the hotel, which is lower than the price in our tariff.
v. Invoice queries must be in writing and sent to us within 21 days of receiving an invoice. All items not in query must be paid by the due date.

14. Default/Interest:

If payment is not received upon the due date in accordance with these conditions, we reserve the right to:-

Disconnect access to any of our electronic systems.
Cease making reservations sent to us.
Terminate with immediate effect any or all contracts with you at our discretion
Demand prepayment for existing bookings as a condition of their not being cancelled
Cancel any space being held on your behalf.
If you cease, or threaten to cease, to carry on business or if you make a voluntary arrangement with your creditors, become bankrupt, go into liquidation or if any encumbrancer takes possession, or a receiver is appointed, of any of your property or assets we shall be entitled without prejudice to any other remedies open to us, immediately to cancel any contracts between us and to demand the immediate payment of all sums due to us with interest.
Charge interest on a daily basis at a rate of ten percent per annum calculated on the total amount of each outstanding invoice from the date of issue, until the date of payment (together with all costs (legal or otherwise) and expenses incurred by us or on our behalf in the collection of any overdue amount.



FIT Operating Procedures


1. Making Bookings:

i. Bookings must be made using the Great Rivers Web Site other than for suites and apartments which must be requested by fax or email.
ii. From time to time hotels cannot accept confirmed bookings. We will always do our best to avoid that problem and where it happens seek to provide a suitable alternative. We are not able to guarantee in all cases that alternative accommodation booked will be of the same standard or in the same location.
iii. We will always try your requested hotel first. If we cannot confirm it we will, whenever possible, confirm an alternative. It is your responsibility to cancel or amend such alternatives if you do not approve them. Failure to cancel an alternative that is not acceptable will result in non-arrival charges. We will only confirm an alternative if your requested hotel is not available. We will not confirm an alternative if you have told us you will only accept your requested hotel.
iv. We will not action any requests made over the phone.
v. Should it be necessary for you to send a reminder or chaser it must be clearly marked as such, otherwise we may make a new booking and you will be responsible for any non-arrival charges incurred.
vi. Special requests to hotels such as non-smoking, adjoining or interconnecting rooms, will be passed on but cannot always be confirmed or guaranteed.
vii. Disabled rooms usually have wheelchair access but do not necessarily include features for the seriously disabled.
viii. We require at least one name for each room. We will not action any request for the USA or Canada, unless we have a surname and initial for each room at the time of the request.
ix. If you ask us to book extra space on a confirmed booking but we cannot do so, we will cancel the rooms held and make a new booking for the full reservation at a new hotel, unless you tell us you will not accept another hotel. In this case we would reject the request for extra space.
x. When additional nights are required for bookings already confirmed to you, it is very important that you modify the original booking – do not book the extra nights as a new item. If you do not follow this procedure, any resulting problems will be your responsibility.
xi. Please be aware that hotels are under renovation from time to time. Hotels take all possible steps to limit disruption to their guests. We will not accept complaints, or requests for refunds, if a hotel is carrying out renovations whilst a guest is resident.
xii. If we specifically advise of renovation work, dates may be provided but it is important to remember that these may be subject to change and we are not always notified. We will not, therefore, be held accountable for complaints concerning renovations that extend beyond the date originally advised.
xiii. In most hotels the normal earliest check in time is 14:00 but in some, especially in the USA, it is not until 15:00 or even 16:00.
xiv. We guarantee only the first night of a booking (apart from fairs or if otherwise advised at time of confirmation) and hotels can release rooms if the client has not arrived by 05.00 (local time).
xv. Triple and quad rooms may consist of twin or double bed/s plus extra bed, or two double beds. Most hotels do not have one full size bed for each guest in their triple or quad rooms.
xvi. In USA and Canada twin/double is the opposite of the European definition. Double or twin rooms may contain one bed. Passengers may request separate beds upon reservation, however, separate beds are not guaranteed. Triple and quad rooms usually contain two double beds. Most hotels cannot add additional beds to make a triple or quad but rollaway beds may be available for an additional charge.
xvii. Bookings must not be made with fictitious names for you to hold space. If you do not book with the correct name you may receive non-arrival charges.
xviii. In the event that you make a double booking and wish to correct this, please ensure that you follow the guidelines supplied in the web help to avoid a double charge and to guarantee a smooth check-in for your clients.


2. Rates:

i. All quoted rates are per room (with private bath or shower unless shown as otherwise on the web) and include; breakfast (or room only) as shown, service charges and government taxes. The applicable currency is displayed. Where different prices are charged for different days of the week, the days on which rates apply are shown against each rate period.
ii. Occasionally bookings may have a price confirmed which is higher than the rate in the tariff or that displayed on our Web site. This is usually due to a hotel charging a supplement because of a difficult period. The rate on the booking confirmation will supersede the rate on the tariff or web.
iii. Trade fair prices shown in our tariff always supersede prices outside trade fairs.
iv. Certain periods (e.g., religious holidays in Israel, Easter, New Year, major sporting events and others) may attract high prices in some cities. These are not strictly trade fairs but during these periods our rates may be close to or even above rack, and they should be treated in the same way as trade fairs.
v. If the child supplement shows as N/A, bookings should be made for a triple room and will be charged at the full rate for three adults. Child supplements can only be added to the twin rate to obtain the price for a room with two adults and one child. The supplements will apply to children between the ages of 2-12 years (unless a different age range is specified). They only apply in twin or double rooms. Child supplements will not be available if the child age is not specified at the time of booking and we will charge for three adults in a triple room if this information is not supplied. Cots/cribs for babies are only suitable for those under 2 years.
vi. Prices for twin or double rooms for sole occupancy, whether requested by you or confirmed as an alternative by us, will be given on our confirmation.
vii. Some hotels offer different rates (in singles for example) depending on the total number of guests staying.
viii. In some hotels no additional bedding is provided for a child where the child is either free or at a reduced price and breakfast may be charged for the child on departure. If a child requires a bed of its own you must request a triple and no child discount will apply.
ix. If you book a bed for a child there will be charges where the tariff states Free, but where it also indicates this only applies when the child shares existing bedding (does not have its own bed).
x. If a price changes affecting the tariff we will advise you of the hotel concerned. You must check the web to obtain the new price.
xi. We will not honour any rate you claim we have given to you over the phone.
xii. If a hotel levies a local telephone service charge (to allow clients to make unlimited local calls from their room) it must be paid by the client when departing from the hotel.
xiii. Any offers based on stay for a certain number of nights and pay for another number of nights do not apply during fair periods.

3. Trade Fair Reservations:

i. For some trade fairs our prices may be above rack rates. Should any fair dates change or new fair rates apply, we will notify you of such changes and invoice you at the revised rate. Such revised rates may be applied to all bookings, including those made prior to the fair change. You must therefore check with your client that they will pay the higher price and, if not, you should cancel or amend the dates.
ii. Accommodation at some hotels must be sold for the full duration of the fair. We will advise full details at the time of booking. When a reservation request is made for a trade fair period, the reservations of the rooms may have a reconfirmation advised at the time of confirmation. If you reconfirm your request, you will be totally committed for all nights and no refunds will be given. Cancellations received after we have received your reconfirmation will incur full charges.
iii. We may request full prepayment which, if not received by the due date, will result in the automatic cancellation of the booking without further reference to you.
iv. In some hotels, supplements during trade fairs may be advised at the time of confirmation.
v. You may be given cancellation deadlines and we cannot check these. The responsibility for cancelling by the specified date will be yours. If you do not cancel in time you will be liable for full charges in accordance with these conditions.


4. Confirmation Slip/Vouchers:

i. For some non UK hotels the confirmation slip/voucher must state that payment is by our local agent, where our confirmation indicates the handling agent»s name, together with the handling agent»s own reference number which will also be in our confirmation.
ii. All hotels are advised that clients may arrive without a confirmation slip/voucher and that we will pay them based on our confirmation. Hotels are asked not to send us any confirmation slips/voucher received on check in so we are not able to return them to you.

5. Cancellations:

i. Cancellations, not during trade fairs, must be received in the office to which you send your requests by fax, email before 12pm the day prior to arrival of the reservation for Europe, and not less than 12pm two days prior to arrival for destinations outside Europe. For bookings outside the UK, arriving on a Sunday or Monday, we must receive cancellations by 16.30 (London time) on a Thursday.
ii. When a booking, not made via the Internet, is cancelled at your request by Great Rivers, we will send a confirmation of cancellation. You must advise us if no such confirmation is received and, if not advised, we will charge as a non-arrival.
iii. Some hotels require a longer period of cancellation (than shown in point i) to avoid charges and such periods will be shown in the tariff or on the booking. In all cases the longest cancellation period indicated, either on the tariff or as a remark in the booking, will have priority.


6. General Information:

The type of breakfast included in the rates for each hotel is indicated by a letter code as follows:

CB Continental FEB Full English

Continental - A cold breakfast usually served at the table. Minimum requirement is bread and jam with a hot drink. It may include ham, cheese or fruit
Full English – The variety of fried meat (sausage, bacon), with optional accompaniment as fried beans, fried egg, fried tomato, fried bread, toasts with preserves, hot drink.

The above information is given only as a guide and can vary considerably from hotel to hotel.

7. Complaints:

Complaints must be reported to the hotel on the spot. We will not be liable for any compensation for a problem which could have been rectified during the clients stay, had the hotel been made aware of it. We will not deal with any complaint received more than four weeks after the client checked out of the hotel.