BOOKING TERMS & CONDITIONS

The Writing Well: Booking Terms & Conditions – Workshops & Retreats

In making a booking with The Writing Well online, by phone or by post for a Writing Well workshop you agree to the following terms and conditions:

Bookings

All bookings must be accompanied by full payment of the fees (unless you are applying for a grant). You should not consider your booking as definite until we have confirmed it in writing (usually by email). The balance of your fee is payable no later than six weeks before the course or retreat starts. If we do not receive your fee or balance when it’s due, we reserve the right to treat this as a cancellation by you and offer the place to someone else.

Travel insurance

We cannot reimburse travel costs or other losses incurred by you in the event of cancellation by us or you. You are strongly advised to take out travel insurance to cover potential loss arising from cancellation or other eventuality affecting your booking, including course fees and travel or other consequential costs. You should check that any policy you purchase meets your needs.

Cancellations

You may cancel your booking and have all fees paid returned to you 30 days or more before the (first) day of the workshop (except where the course or retreat begins within this period).

Cancellations of bookings will be accepted 30 days or more before the course or retreat begins and the fees (or any amount you have paid) will be returned less a £50 cancellation charge.

If you cancel your booking less than 30 days before the course or retreat begins (but before the first day of the course or retreat), the following cancellation conditions apply:

If you cancel less than 30 days but more than two weeks before the course/retreat begins, we will retain your 50% of the course fees and return to you any amount above this level which you have paid.

If you cancel less than two weeks before the start of the course/retreat, 80% of your full fee will be payable to The Writing Well and we will return to you any amount above this level which you have paid.

In exceptional circumstances we may be able to fill your place in which case a refund minus administration costs may be available, therefore, if following your cancellation all available places on the course/retreat are ultimately sold (so that the course/retreat is fully occupied), then after the course/retreat has taken place we will refund to you all fees paid less a £50 cancellation charge.

Please note that if you leave the course or retreat after it has begun or if you fail to attend all or any part of the course (without reasonable cause such as illness, bereavement or family emergency), no refund will be made and we will retain 100% of your fee. Any refunds made in these circumstances due to illness, bereavement, family emergency or similar events will be at the sole discretion of The Writing Well.

Transfers

At our discretion, you may be able to transfer your booking to another Writing Well course or retreat. Please note that we can only transfer a booking to a course or retreat within the same calendar year, and that once a booking is transferred we are unable to offer further transfers.

Changes to the programme

The Writing Well reserves the right to make changes to the advertised programme and tutors. As we plan the programme in advance, changes will inevitably occur to some courses, and occasionally the original tutors are unavailable. We always endeavour to replace tutors with someone of similar experience, and to give you as much notice as possible. On rare occasions we may need to cancel a course; in this case we will offer you an alternative course or return all of the fee paid. Please note that where we have to change tutors, you do not have additional rights of cancellation and our standard terms still apply. We cannot reimburse travel or other costs, which you may however be able to reclaim from your travel insurance policy, and our liability to you in case of a cancellation by The Writing Well is limited to the course fee you have paid.

Conduct and safety on site

The Writing Well courses and retreats rely on a supportive environment that depends on tolerance and understanding of all participants and tutors and their creative work. We therefore ask that you are thoughtful and respectful of the other writers and help foster an atmosphere conducive to creativity. The Writing Well reserves the right to refuse a place and / or to exclude from a course or retreat any writer who, in the judgement of the Director (or, in the absence of the Director, of the responsible member of The Writing Well staff on site) behaves in an abusive or disruptive manner or engages in any discriminatory conduct. No refund will be given if exclusion is made for these reasons.

The Writing Well reserves the right to ask a writer to leave the course or retreat if the Director (or, in the absence of the Director, of the responsible member of The Writing Well staff on site) judges that it would not be in the interests of the participant or others in the group, or that it would be otherwise unsafe for that person to remain on site as a result of their mental or physical health, behaviour or apparent state of mind. Any refunds made in these circumstances will be at the sole discretion of The Writing Well.

Damage and cleaning

The Writing Well’s writing locations are there to welcome you while you carve out your own time for your writing; please treat them with care and respect. You agree to reimburse us promptly on demand for all reasonable costs incurred by us as a result of any damage caused by you to the location or excessive cleaning required as a result of your participation.

Pets

Please note that with the exception of assistance dogs, pets are not permitted anywhere at The Writing Well.

Guests

A place on a course or retreat may be used only by the participant named in the booking. It may not be transferred to another person without agreement in advance from The Writing Well. Please note that you are not permitted to have guests or visitors while you are in our locations.

Under-18s

The Writing Well’s public courses and retreats are only open to people aged 18 and over. By booking on a course you confirm that the participant named in the booking is aged 18 or over.

Privacy and data

By booking, you agree that we may collect and store personal information about you and your interactions with The Writing Well. This includes: your personal contact details; gender; details of your booking and booking history, including any access and dietary needs you have told us about; records of payments (not including credit/debit cards numbers, etc.); details of any grant applications, any correspondence and any other information we need to keep in order to administer your booking. All personal information is kept securely on electronic systems. We do not store payment card details. We will use this information to communicate with you about your booking and we may, unless you tell us otherwise, communicate with you occasionally about our work and other courses and support for writers that we offer. We never share or sell information about our course participants with any third party, either in aggregate or in individual form. Our full privacy policy is available to read on our website.

Confidentiality

You agree to keep confidential during and after the course any information and/or material which is divulged by other students on the course as a result of group exercises or discussions (either oral or written). All discussion on the course is private and confidential.

You agree not to make any audio or visual recordings of the sessions, the work of the tutor, guest speakers or of your fellow students whilst attending the course.

Loss

The Writing Well cannot accept responsibility for any loss, damage or expense sustained by participants on courses and retreats as a result of an event or circumstance whether arising from natural cause, human agency, or beyond its control otherwise. Where The Writing Well is unable to provide a course or retreat place to you for any reason, our liability is limited to return of the fees paid.

Participation and access

The Writing Well is committed to providing a supportive and welcoming environment to all, while leaving you to work with as few interruptions as possible. During your stay, you will be expected to live and work independently, as if in your own home, including (on most courses and retreats) basic domestic duties such as washing up and cooking. The Writing Well staff will provide limited general support. We will always aim to accommodate a personal care assistant provided a suitable room remains available on the relevant course and you give us sufficient advance notice. (Please note that a care assistant will not be able to take part in the course except to give you direct assistance.) While we offer some accessible facilities, our centres do vary considerably and we regret we may not be able to accommodate some requirements. If you have specific needs, it is important that you discuss these with centre staff before booking, to establish whether your needs can be met.

Comments and complaints

While The Writing Well makes every effort to maintain high standards and provide high-quality experiences for all writers, you may want to offer comments or make a complaint. At the end of every The Writing Well stay we give you the opportunity to provide feedback through our evaluation form, but if you feel this is not sufficient, you may wish to make a formal complaint. Note that all complaints should be made in writing, and we ask that you notify us within ten working days of the end of your course or retreat.

English law

The contract between you and The Writing Well is governed by English law.