In making a booking online, by phone or by post for a Green Cat Books residential course or retreat, you agree to the following terms and conditions:

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Bookings

All bookings must be accompanied by your deposit of £200. You should not consider your booking as definite until we have confirmed it in writing (usually by email). 

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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.

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Cancellations

You may cancel your booking and have all fees paid returned to you for the first 14 days after we have confirmed your booking in writing (except where the course or retreat begins within this period, in which case we can only offer a complete refund of fees up until two days before the start of the course or retreat).

Following this initial 14-day period, cancellations of bookings will be accepted up to six weeks before the course or retreat begins and your deposit (or any amount above this level which you have paid) will be returned less the £200 deposit.

If you cancel your booking less than six weeks 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 six weeks but more than two weeks before the course/retreat begins, we will retain your £200 deposit 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 Arvon and we will return to you any amount above this level which you have paid.

• However, 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 £200 deposit.

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 Green Cat Books.

 

Conduct and safety on site

Green Cat Books' 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. Green Cat Books reserves the right to refuse a place and / or to exclude from a course or retreat any writer who, in the judgement of the Green Cat Books' staff 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.

Green Cat Books reserves the right to ask a writer to leave the course or retreat if their staff 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. 

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Damage and cleaning

The retreat's buildings and grounds are your home during your stay; 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 writing house or excessive cleaning required as a result of your stay.

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Smoking

Smoking is not permitted anywhere inside the buildings, and only in designated smoking areas outside.

 

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 Green Cat Books. Please note that you are not permitted to have guests or visitors on site during your stay.

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Under-18s

Green Cat Books' retreats are only open to people aged 18 and over. By booking on a retreat you confirm that the participant named in the booking is aged 18 or over. 

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Privacy and data

By booking, you agree that we may collect and store personal information about you and your interactions with Green Cat Books. 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.); 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.

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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.

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Loss

Green Cat Books 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. 

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Participation and access

Green Cat Books 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. Green Cat Books 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 retreats 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 house staff before booking, to establish whether your needs can be met.

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English law

The contract between you and Green Cat Books is governed by English law.