TRAVEL AGENT'S INFORMATION PAGE

This page has been designed to answer your queries about booking and prepaying for your clients accommodation. Click on one of the following topics for more information:

• HOW TO BOOK
• HOW TO PAY
• MY CLIENT DOESN'T WISH TO PREPAY
• CANCELLATION
• EARLY CHECK INS
• LATE CHECK OUTS
• LONG TERM LUGGAGE STORAGE
• WINTER RATES
• 2007 RATES
• TRAVEL AGENTS BROCHURE REQUEST FORM
• CONTACT US

1) HOW TO BOOK

Simply send us an email detailing the required dates, room type, client name and any special requests. We make a provisional booking immediately for your client and reply within 24 hours. The reply will detail the total gross cost of the accommodation, the commission (10% on prepaid bookings), the net amount payable and the due date. Remember that prepaid bookings should be made 28 days in advance, however we will accept last minute bookings where payments are made by credit card.

Special requests are best advised at the time of booking. Note that we do not have a lift and ground floor rooms are usually booked 2-3 months in advance. We now have 21 non-smoking rooms, and all family rooms are non-smoking. For clients requiring particularly quiet rooms we suggest a back facing room - as there is no street noise at the back of the hotel. Rooms with garden views fill up fastest.

Always include your travel agency name and address on all emails! We receive many emails simply signed "Bob" - but in an email it is difficult to tell the difference between Bob the client and Bob the travel agent!

There are 2 easy ways to prepay for your clients accommodation:

1. Prepay using your Visa or Mastercard. We will process the transaction on the same day charging the net amount to your card and forward a confirmation voucher by email. Note we do not accept AmEx or Diners.
2. Sterling Bank Draft - please make sure the draft is for the net amount, most drafts reach us 5-7 working days after they are posted from Australia or New Zealand. We will email a confirmation voucher as soon as we have received the draft.

We no longer accept bank transfers or cheques in Australian dollars as the bank charges are extremely high.

Bookings not paid for by the due date will be cancelled and we greatly appreciate it when agents let us know when bookings are no longer required

Confirmation vouchers are forwarded as soon as we receive payment and we request that you check all details carefully. If your client is travelling and you cannot forward the confirmation voucher to them don't worry - the booking is held under their surname and we will let them in without the voucher! If possible advising them of the booking reference number is helpful.

We require their Visa or Mastercard (not AmEx or Diners) number as a guarantee of arrival and will forward a booking confirmation upon receipt of this. We cannot hold rooms without either prepayment or a credit card number as guarantee. Note that commission is offered only on those bookings that are prepaid, as we are unable to forward commission cheques.

Prior to the booking being prepaid you can alter the booking as much as you wish without charge - we understand that clients and tour companies often change their minds!

Once the booking has been prepaid then we require 72 hours notice of any cancellation. Where more than 72 hours notice of cancellation is given the amount will be refunded less an admin charge of £10. If less than 72 hours notice is given then we regret no refund can be offered and we would always recommend that clients take out travel insurance to cover unforeseen circumstances.

There are a dozen flights a day coming into Heathrow Airport prior to 6am most from Australia via Asia. We do understand how exhausted your clients are when they arrive on our doorstep by 6:30am having sped into Paddington on the Heathrow Express.

Unfortunately the guest of the previous night is usually still asleep and may remain in the room until 10:30am.

Suggestions for Early Arrivals:

• For those clients adamant they require a room at 6:30am the only way to guarantee this is by booking and paying for the night before.
• We will endeavour to check clients into those rooms which were unoccupied the night before - this will only happen in about 10% of cases. This is extremely unlikely on a Sunday morning as Saturday nights are always fully booked.
• We will clean your clients rooms as a priority if you advise us of the arrival time; this means that some rooms will be ready by 11:30am
• All early arrivals are welcome to join us for breakfast on their arrival day, between 7am and 9am, this is free of charge
• Luggage storage on day of arrival or departure is free of charge and we are open 24 hours

Please always let your clients know that we cannot guarantee check in prior to midday and don't forget to tell us your client's arrival time.

Check out time is 10:30am and luggage storage is available free of charge beyond this time. Clients wishing to stay in a room longer can pay a half day rate to stay until 5pm or a full night if they wish to stay later than this. Late check out must be booked in advance and is subject to availability. (We may not be able to accommodate requests for late check out if we are expecting an early arrival!!)

We have a small space for storing luggage items overnight. The charge is £1 per item per day and we cannot take large suitcases (cases wider than 50cm) only small to medium sized suitcases can be accommodated.

We offer our very special winter rates to Australian and New Zealand Agents who prepay as so many of you requested . All rates are gross and 10% commission applies.

All rates include VAT and full English breakfast

The winter rates are strictly for the dates specified:

16 December 2007 until *13 February 2008

All rates are per room per night and include VAT and full English breakfast.

Current rates valid until 31 March 2008

Bed configurations: Triple room contains 1 double and 1 single bed and a family room contains 1 double and 2 single beds - 3 adult clients requiring a 3 bedded room will need to book a family room.

Thank you for reading this far. If you have any further queries or feedback we would love to hear from you.

Look forward to working with you.

Debbie Davies
Manager
Debbie@cardiff-hotel.com

Andrew Davies
Proprietor
Andrew@cardiff-hotel.com

CARDIFF HOTEL
5,7,9 Norfolk Square
London
W2 1RU
stay@cardiff-hotel.com
www.cardiff-hotel.com
Fax +44 (0)20 74022342
Tel +44 (0)20 77239068