Terms & conditions
INTRODUCTION
With any booking of holiday accommodation, inevitably, comes the chapter of accepting the Terms & Conditions. And it is more than just a box you need to tick in order to send the booking form through. It outlines what you can reasonably expect and what not.
As a private villa owner, we adopted the Terms & Conditions widely used in the travel industry, but adjusted them where applicable. Because, actually, we do not always like what we read when 'Terms & Conditions' are nothing more than a disclaimer for everything that might go wrong. Actually, the Terms & Conditions of large travel organisations that rent out hundreds of apartments, can read like an endless list of excuses, listing all the misery you 'possibly' could endure and 'must' accept as integral part of your booking. From beds that don't fit tall people to kitchen utensils that are not up to your 'at-home-standards' or are ‘not common’ at your destination.
Well, that's not us. We cannot resurface bumpy roads in Bulgaria (although we did for OUR access road 😊), but we do know that in and at Villa Magdalen everything is exactly as described and up to high standards. The British owners of the villa would not settle for less when they themselves spend their holidays at Villa Magdalen.
THE BARE MINIMUM
So we stripped back these T&C's and kept only the bare minimum, such as the usual Terms & Conditions for payments and to describe what happens should you cancel. Please have a read, and do not hesitate to come back to us if there is anything that you would like to discuss first.
CONFIRMING YOUR RESERVATION
We will confirm the availability of Villa Magdalen for your chosen dates as soon as your bookings request is received. Usually, you will receive this response within one or two hours (but this will depend on the time of the day/night). The email will confirm the price for your intended stay and any applicable discounts, as published on our website.
When you book online on our website, you will automatically receive the confirmation of your booking and login details to access your reservation to make a payment. If you made a payment instantly when you booked online, then you will also receive a confirmation of your payment and you are all set!
Even if you didn’t pay, we can keep the villa reserved for you for 24 hours (counted from confirming availability to you, or counting from your online booking). This is a gesture, courtesy of Villa Magdalen, to make it safer for you if you want to book flights and your accommodation simultaneously. You now can book flights (which usually involves instant non-refundable payment online), knowing the villa is reserved for you. Should you run into any trouble with the flight bookings, then you can notify us within 24 hours that you will not proceed with your reservation for the villa.
PAYMENT
When you book online, or ask us to do enter the reservation for you, you will receive the confirmation of your provisional reservation with an overview of the costs (e.g. if you added transportation from the airport) and an email with a link and access details to make a payment. The invoice will indicate the amount of your deposit (30% of the total amount) and will indicate when we will send you the invoice for your balance payment (due 10 weeks before arrival).
After 24 hours, payment of your deposit (or the full balance if your arrival is within 10 weeks) is required to keep your reservation. Your payment will turn your provisional reservation into a confirmed reservation. You now have a binding short-term holiday rental agreement, that gives you the certainty that we cannot cancel your booking (UNLIKE e.g. a booking on Airbnb, where owners can change their mind if they like, we are legally bound to honour the reservation).
If we do not receive your deposit within 24 hours, we will contact you to sort things out, but we reserve the right to accept bookings from other clients for your chosen dates and cancel your reservation if we do not receive payment.
The full amount of your reservation needs to be paid 10 weeks before your date of arrival at the villa. You will receive a reminder with the link to make your payment. Our online payment system also allows you to make payments whenever it suits you, to an amount you can choose, in the time between your first payment and the due date of your final payment. This way you can spread the costs if you prefer. If we do not receive full payment on or before the balance due date, 10 weeks prior to your arrival date, we will consider it a cancellation, in which case the Terms and Conditions regarding cancellations will apply.
PAY SAFELY, PayPal protected
Who hasn’t heard of scammers who try to get hold of your money with non-existing holiday homes, fabricating a website or Facebook page with stolen pictures of holiday homes they don’t own. It’s easy to stay clear of scams when you never pay directly to the owner’s personal account or pay with Paypal “to family and friends”. Our payments are processed by PayPal for business. This offers you a full guarantee that your payment is safe. Paypal guarantees to refund you if your holiday would not be delivered. And even better: Paypal doesn’t take that risk and gives this guarantee only after doing a thorough investigation of the business that they deal with! We have passed this verification of ownership, registration, and authenticity of this website.
CANCELLATIONS
You can cancel your booking request without any obligation within the first 24 hours after you receive the confirmation of your provisional reservation.
This 24-hour grace period is a unique gesture of Villa Magdalen, to make organising your holiday easier. After these 24 hours, and unless you notify us otherwise, you have formally made your reservation and entered a short-term rental agreement to rent holiday accommodation.
• If you cancel your reservation after our grace period of 24 hours has passed, we must charge you an administration fee of €50.
• If you confirmed your reservation with your deposit and cancel more than 10 weeks before your planned arrival date, you will lose your 30% deposit.
• If you cancel your reservation less than 10 weeks but more than 3 weeks before your planned arrival date, you will be liable to pay 70% of the total rental rate.
• If you cancel your reservation less than 3 weeks before arrival, you will have to pay the full amount of the rental agreement.
Of course, we will always be helpful if any unforeseen events prevent you from going on a holiday, e.g. we will accept a 'swop' if you find another family to take your place, and they formally accept the reservation and our terms & conditions.
Please note that travel insurance covers the risk of unforeseen cancellations. We strongly advise taking travel insurance immediately when you make your reservation and not to leave this until your holiday is close. It will cost you nothing extra to do this in an early stage, and it protects you from losing your money in case unforeseen events prevent you from travelling.
no risk of CANCELLATION by us
Your booking with Villa Magdalen is fully secure and guaranteed. Our bookings system is registering bookings in real-time without any risk of double bookings. And we cannot simply change our mind (like all too often happens if you don’t have a proper contract) and cancel your reservations when another client pops up who offers to pay us more. As soon as we accept and confirm your booking we commit ourselves to a legally binding short-term holiday rental agreement with you, so you never have to fear that your planned holiday will be cancelled by us. Getting your money refunded, like happens with e.g. Airbnb bookings that are cancelled by the property owner, is not much consolation if you have already spent your money on non-refundable holiday flights and you are about to pack your suitcases. Indeed - your money is safe on Airbnb or Tripadvisor, but not your booking, as owners can find their way out easily! We on the contrary assure you that our bookings system is 100% secure and that we will never cancel your booking*! (*except, of course, in case of a natural disaster that destroyed the property or similar events)
TRAVEL INSURANCE
We strongly recommend taking out travel insurance as soon as you book your holiday. It not only covers your expenses should accidents, injuries or loss of possessions happen while you are on your holiday, but the insurance also covers you when you have to cancel your booking (or curtail your holiday) due to unexpected events (but not if you just change your mind). That way, an unhappy event does not also cost you your holiday money. Usually, the insurance covers the loss of your payment in case you can not reach your destination because of extreme weather conditions and road closures, or when you have to cancel your holiday due to injury or illness/hospitalisation (of you or a close relative), bereavement, redundancy or other disasters in your life (like your house being flooded, e.g.).
Travel insurance comes in all shapes and qualities with different rules, conditions and prices, so check what is covered and what isn’t. Travel insurance is widely available online or with your own financial advisers. You will find up-to-date tips on where to look on comparison websites such as www.moneysavingexpert.com.
Please note: we will always apply our Terms & Conditions for cancellations, no matter what your reason for cancellation is (it’s always a sad story). It is your own responsibility to protect yourself by taking insurance, preferably as soon as you have made your reservation.
TRAVEL DOCUMENTS
Villa Magdalen cannot take responsibility for your travel documents. If you are a British citizen and hold a UK passport, or if you are a citizen of EU country, you will only need a valid passport (Bulgaria is part of the EU). If your situation differs, or if you are in any doubt about which travel documents you will need, please check the information from the Bulgarian Department for Tourism.
We will not refund your holiday if you have to cancel your reservation or cannot reach your destination because you do not have the required travel documents. It is your own responsibility that you travel with the right travel documents. UK citizens can check the UK government website regarding travel information for Bulgaria.
ARRIVAL TIME AND DEPARTURE TIME
The villa will be ready for your arrival from 16.00 pm. Shortly before you travel, we will make sure that you can get in touch with the villa manager about your arrival time, so she can welcome you to the villa. On your departure day, we will have to ask you to leave by 10.00 am, so the villa can be prepared for the next guests. The villa manager will arrange a suitable time with you to check you out.
NUMBER OF GUESTS
The villa can take a maximum of 10 guests, children included. There are 4 bedrooms, sleeping 8 people in total, and 2 additional sleeping sofas in the living room. On request, it is possible to stay with 12 people if you also convert the sleeping sofa in the master bedroom into 2 extra sleeping spaces. We only allow 12 people if this has been previously discussed with us, and will only allow this for families. And please be aware that - for example - you will have to share only 8 luxury sunbeds at the pool because most of the inventory at the villa is calculated for 8-10 people. Bringing more than 10 people, if we allow this, will require some flexibility!
NO VISITORS allowed
It is not allowed to invite more or other people to the property (including the grounds) than the people mentioned on your reservation. If you want to invite friends or family for a daytime visit, then you have to add them to the list of guests on your reservation. Therefore, this is only possible when the total number of guests and visitors stays within the limit of the maximum occupancy of the villa.
DAMAGE DEPOSIT
You will have to pay a damage deposit that will be returned immediately if you leave the villa in good order. You can choose to pay it in cash (in Euros) to the villa manager when you arrive, and she will hand it back to you at check-out. Another possibility is to pay it through Paypal just before your holiday, and we will return it on your departure day (or on Monday if you leave on a weekend day), as soon as we receive the message from the villa manager that everything is okay. The amount for the damage deposit is £300 or €350 for families (up to 8 people) and £400 or €500 for groups of 8 people or more or groups under the age of 30.
CLEANING
Although the villa will be cleaned by a professional team as soon as you leave, we still expect you to tidy up and leave the villa in good order, without the dirty dishes still in the sink or the sun loungers all over the gardens. You are expected to put things back where you found them, empty the dishwasher, clean the bbq after use, and put the garbage in the garbage disposal (and we advise you to do this regularly during your stay too, not leaving it in the bins for more than a day in the hot climate). If you stay two weeks or longer, the villa will be cleaned after every week of your stay.
TOWELS AND BED LINEN
Bed linen, bath towels and kitchen towels will be provided for the number of guests in your reservation. We will also provide towels to be used at the pool and with the sun loungers (please leave the white bathroom towels indoors and use the pool towels outside). If you stay two weeks or longer, your towels and linen will be changed after every week of your stay.
MAINTENANCE OF POOL AND GARDEN
Please allow the gardener and pool maintenance to enter the premises to do their job. They are very discreet and unobtrusive and will do their duties with minimal interference to your holiday pleasures. Please note that a lawn in the hot summers of Bulgaria will not be the perfect 'English lawn'. Please be aware that unusual weather conditions can make a pool temporarily appear cloudy, even when properly maintained. This does not affect the water quality or safety.
24-HOURS ASSISTANCE
Your villa manager will assist you throughout your stay and leave a mobile number. Please note that you should not use that number during nighttime (22.00 pm-07.00 am) unless you have an emergency.
Please report any damage, any appliance not working properly, or any other problem with the facilities to the villa manager, even if it does not bother you (but it might be important to the next guests), so it can be repaired or exchanged as soon as possible.
COMPLAINTS
In the unlikely event that anything during your stay at the villa is not to your satisfaction and not as it was described, you should as soon as possible contact your local villa manager and our bookings manager in the UK (email to info@villamagdalen.com) and allow us to rectify, repair or supply a replacement within a reasonable time. If you fail to inform us or deny us the possibility to correct the situation, you lose any possible right to compensation. Any disputes will be reviewed under English law.
OTHER
For any other issues or events not mentioned in our Terms and Conditions, we will adhere to the customs, regulations and trading standards that are predominantly used in the travel industry in general and for villa rental in particular.