Terms and conditions for booking The Birches

1.1   These Terms and Conditions (the “Conditions”) form the whole of our ‘Agreement’ with you.

1.2   In these Conditions ‘we’ and ‘us’ means the Construction Industry Training Board (Registered Charity Number 264289) known as CITB; ‘you’ means the individual or organisation who makes a Booking under these Conditions; ‘Additional Item’ means food, drink and any other item for consumption or use in connection with Venue Hire; ‘Accommodation’ means accommodation at our Bircham Newton premises; ‘Booking’ means a request by you to book Accommodation, and/or Venue Hire and/or order Additional Items from us; ‘Date’ means the date of arrival and/or hire; ‘Guest’ means an individual who is your guest; ‘Equality and Diversity Policy’ means our policy to ensure that no individual receives less favourable treatment than any other on the grounds of gender, race, colour, nationality, ethnic origin, religion/belief, age, marital or civil partnership status, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, political belief, disability, pregnancy and maternity, irrelevant offending background or for any other reason which cannot be objectively justified; ‘Price’ means the Accommodation and/or Venue Hire and/or Additional Item price (as applicable); ‘Venue Hire’ means the hire of a function room at our Bircham Newton premises.

1.3   These Conditions replace all other terms and conditions previously applicable and shall apply to any Booking to the exclusion of any other terms and conditions.

2.1   You may make a Booking in person or by telephone.

2.2   A Booking shall be regarded as an offer by you to book Accommodation and/or, Venue Hire and/or Additional Items under these Conditions.

2.3   As soon as reasonably practicable you shall provide us with any special requirements you and/or your Guests may require particularly with regard to diet, mobility and access.

3.1   Acceptance of your offer will take place on sending you written confirmation of your Booking. Our acceptance of your Booking brings into existence a legally binding Agreement between us.

4.1   You and/or your Guest(s) may check in at any time from midday on the day of arrival. If you and/or your Guest(s) have not checked in by 4.00 pm, we are entitled to relet the room unless you have notified us beforehand that you and/or your Guest(s) will be arriving late. On departure, you and/or your Guests must vacate the room(s) and check-out by no later than 10.00am. Failure to do so will entitle us to charge for an additional night.

5.1   Should you wish to use the services of an external contractor for electrical and audio-visual equipment:

5.1.1   All such equipment must be maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair and comply with the applicable legal and regulatory safety standards in force on the Date;

5.1.2   You may be asked to provide evidence that such equipment has been tested and inspected in accordance with legal and regulatory requirements immediately on request;

5.1.3   We may, at our sole discretion, prohibit the use of any such equipment, and if we think fit, order such equipment removed from our premises; and

5.1.4   You shall pay for all reasonable claims, costs, expenses, losses, damage or liability arising due to the act or omission of any such external contractor or use of such equipment on our premises.

6.1   Prices are available on request and if not specified, is inclusive of Value Added Tax.

6.2   Value Added Tax will be added to all taxable supplies at the current rate.

6.3   We reserve the right to alter Prices at any time and without notice up to the time of Booking or where your Booking is made in a different calendar year to the year of the Accommodation and/or Venue Hire Date. After such time Prices may only be altered to reflect a change in the rate of Value Added Tax or any other tax or for any other reason outside our control. In such an event, the revised changes will be notified to you in writing and you will be given the option to cancel the Booking without cost or to accept the revised charge.

6.4   For the avoidance of doubt, We shall not pay or be liable to pay commission (in any form) in relation to a Booking made by You.

7.1   Other than where we agree to payment being made through an active pre-arranged credit account with CITB, payment for Accommodation must be made in full by credit/debit card at the time of Booking.

7.2   Where payment is to be made through a credit account, a purchase order must be provided promptly to CITB (and no later than 14 days before the start of the Booking) and payment should be made within 30 days of the date of the invoice.

7.3   Without prejudice to any other right or remedy available to us if payment is not received when due we shall be entitled to cancel the Agreement and retain the Deposit if applicable.

7.4   No payment shall be deemed to have been received until we have received cleared funds.

7.5   All outstanding charges must be paid on departure.

7.6   All cheques are to be made payable to the Construction Industry Training Board.

8.1   If you wish to cancel the Booking for Accommodation and/or Venue Hire then you must do so in writing. Your cancellation shall be effective from the date we receive such notification and the cancellation charges set out in clause 8.2 below shall apply and be due immediately.

8.2   If you wish to cancel a Booking and your cancellation is received:

8.2.1   More than 14 days before the Date, a full refund will be given;

8.2.2   Between 14 and 7 days before the Date a cancellation charge equal to 50% of the Accommodation Booking Price shall apply;

8.2.3   Less than 7 days before the Date a cancellation charge equal to 100% of the Accommodation Booking Price shall apply.

8.3   Where you have already provided or do provide us with details of your valid debit or credit card, you irrevocably authorise us to charge such card with the applicable cancellation charge as calculated in accordance with clause 8.2

9.1   We reserve the right at any time to vary or cancel your Booking for Venue Hire. In such an event you have the right to accept any alternative arrangements that we may offer you or cancel the Booking and receive a full refund.

9.2   In the unlikely event that we do not, for any reason, have the required number and types of rooms available in accordance with the confirmed Accommodation Booking, we reserve the right to relocate you to an alternative hotel of a similar standard in the same locality. The extra and reasonable accommodation expenses incurred for equivalent accommodation (only for each night that We are unable to provide the confirmed booked accommodation) shall be recompensed by us. The acceptance of this obligation (which will not release you of the obligation to pay us the relevant Price) shall be in lieu of all other liabilities or obligations, which are hereby expressly excluded.

10.1   It is your responsibility to bring these Conditions to the attention of your Guests.

10.2   You agree to pay us for any loss, damage or injury caused to the property belonging to us, our employees or any third party by the conduct, act or omission of you and/or (a) Guest(s).

10.3   You and your Guests shall be required to comply with all rules, policies and procedures in place at our premises including but not limited to statutory requirements as to registration, health and safety and security procedures and our Equality Diversity Policy.

10.4   We reserve the right to refuse you and/or (a) Guest(s) entry to our premises if, we reasonably consider that you and/or (a) Guest(s) is/are under the influence of drink or drugs, is/are unsuitably dressed or is/are behaving in a threatening, abusive or otherwise unacceptable manner.

10.5   We reserve the right to require you and/or (a) Guest(s) to leave if a member of the group is causing a disturbance, annoying other guests or our staff or is behaving in a manner we reasonably deem to be unacceptable.

10.6   Where the behaviour of you and/or (a) Guest(s) is likely to cause offence to other guests, our staff, our neighbours or to any member of the general public you and/or your Guest must comply with all requests to modify such behaviour. If you and/or your Guest(s) fail to comply with such requests we may terminate the Agreement with immediate effect and you and your Guests shall be required to leave our premises immediately. We shall not be liable for any refund or compensation in such circumstances.

10.7   Dogs are not allowed on our premises unless they are assistance dogs and are registered for that purpose.

10.8   Children under 17 years of age must be supervised by an adult at all times.

10.9   You and your Guest(s) are not allowed to bring food or alcohol on to our premises without our prior written consent.

11.1   Nothing in this Agreement is intended to limit liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence.

11.2   Subject to clause 11.1 we shall not be liable to you:

11.2.1   For any indirect, special or consequential loss of any nature whatsoever; or

11.2.2   For any loss of profits, business, contracts, revenue, goodwill, anticipated savings or for any administrative inconvenience or disappointment.

11.3   Subject to clause 11.1, our liability to you in contract, tort or otherwise is limited to the total Booking Price.

11.4   We accept no liability for any reliance placed upon the contents of our literature or advertisements. Although every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information contained within such literature and advertisements, we do not accept responsibility for any errors or omissions and reserve the right at our sole discretion to alter, amend, vary, supplement or cancel any of the information or offers featured in our literature and advertisements at any time.

11.5   We shall not be liable for any loss or damage caused to your or a Guest's vehicle on our premises unless caused by our wilful misconduct.

11.6   We shall not be liable to you and/or (a) Guest(s) for any loss or damage to property caused by an event outside our reasonable control (including the misconduct or negligence of another guest) or where you and/or a Guest remains in exclusive charge of the property concerned. You and your Guests are recommended to have insurance to cover cancellation, amendment, curtailment and loss, damage or theft of baggage, personal effects and money.

11.7   We shall not be liable to you for any delay or for the consequences of any delay in performing our obligations under this Agreement if such delay is due to any cause or circumstance beyond our reasonable control (including without limitation strikes and other industrial disputes, breakdown of systems or network access, failure of power or machinery, failure of or interruption in externally provided services and utilities, flood, fire, explosion or accident) and we shall be entitled to a reasonable extension of time for performing such obligations.

12.1   By making a Booking you consent to our processing the personal data you provide for the purposes set out in clause 12.3.

12.2   Where you provide us with an individual’s personal data you warrant and represent that you do so with their consent and that you have informed them of our identity and the purposes set out in clause 12.3 for which their personal data will be processed.

12.3   We may use the personal data you provide for the purposes of administration; statistical analysis and to provide customer services.

12.4   We may also disclose personal data in order to comply with a legal obligation.

13.1   Without prejudice to any of our other rights, we may setoff any and all monies owed by us to you against any and all monies owed by you to us under this or any other contract.

13.2   A person who is not a party to this Agreement has no right under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce any term of this contract but this does not affect any right or remedy of a third party that exists or is available apart from that Act.

13.3   The headings in this Agreement shall not affect its interpretation.

13.4   If any part of this Agreement is held to be illegal or unenforceable (including any provision in which we exclude our liability to you) the validity and enforceability of any other part of the Agreement will not be affected.

13.5   The Agreement between us shall be governed by and interpreted in accordance with English and Welsh law and the English and Welsh courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction to resolve any disputes between us.

14.1   Should you have any comments or complaints in respect of your booking, please bring them to our attention during your stay in order that any matters can be resolved quickly and directly.

14.2   You can contact us by telephone on 0800 2800 343; by fax on 01485 577588; by post to The Birches, Construction Industry Training  Board, Bircham Newton, King's Lynn, Norfolk PE31 6RH. (registered charity number England and Wales 264289, Scotland SC044875 and VAT registered number GB 218580164); or by email to: the.birches@citb.co.uk 

Our reception hours are 0800 - 1700 Monday to Thursday and 0800 - 1600 Friday, excluding public holidays (in England and Wales).