Frequently Asked Questions

Financial Failure Cover
Prepayments for your holiday are protected with The Golf Travel People.

For your financial peace of mind your booking with The Golf Travel People is secured by Towergate Chapman Stevens through HCCI International Insurance Company PLC in line with the UK Package Travel Regulations.

The Golf Travel People are an IAGTO golf tour operator, we are committed to offering customers financial security in the booking of their breaks, the highest level of service, the best in golf holidays and value for money.

IAGTO MEMBERSHIP

The International Association of Golf Tour Operators is the leading world-wide industry body for golf & travel companies.

As an IAGTO golf tour operator, we are committed to offering customers financial security in the booking of their breaks, the highest level of service, the best in golf holidays and value for money.

IAGTO (International Association of Golf Tour Operators) is the global trade organisation for the golf tourism industry. Established in 1997, IAGTOs membership comprises 1813 accredited golf tour operators, golf resorts, hotels, golf courses, receptive operators, airlines, tourist boards, approved media and business partners in 90 countries including, at its core, 426 specialist golf tour operators in 59 countries. It is estimated that IAGTO’s operators control over 85% of golf holiday packages sold worldwide and turnover more than €1 billion per year.

The Golf Travel People IAGTO Membership No: 3433

SINGLE POINT OF CONTACT

Unlike many other travel companies here at The Golf Travel People we guarantee a single point of contact within our offices for your holiday booking process.

From initial quote to post-trip queries we will always have your personal travel consultant available to speak to if you wish.  Although we cannot guarantee that this will happen immediately on receipt of your phone call for obvious reasons, we will always get the relevant person to call you back within 24 hours if that is your wish.

Clearly your personal travel consultant will not always be the one who answers your call, but if you wish to speak to them rather than anyone else please do feel free to ask for them by name – they are keen to speak with you and to fully understand your specific requirements!

NO CREDIT CARD PAYMENT FEES

Simple as that – we do not charge for credit or debit card payments!  How refreshing!

ONLINE PAYMENTS – SAFE & SECURE

We are partnered with Optimal Payments/NETBANX who are one of the world’s largest providers of online credit card transaction facilities and as such any payment links that we issue for your golf holiday are protected and secured by SSL.

Optimal Payments is fully compliant with Level 1 of the PCI DSS.

The Golf Travel People (formerly Golf de la Luz) began in February 2004 as a result of a brief golfing holiday in the Costa de la Luz (Huelva region) in late 2003 where an opportunity arose to develop a destination-specific golf travel company for that region in particular. At that time, prior to the economic downturn, huge investment in the travel industry – and especially golf – was still taking place in the Huelva, Cadiz and Eastern Algarve regions and we saw the chance to develop a specialist golf travel brand focussed primarily on the area.

Since then we have sold only accommodation and golf courses that we have stayed and played at throughout the Costa de la Luz, Seville, Algarve, Lisbon and Turkish golfing areas and this experience-led proposition has proved to be successful and popular with our ever-growing client base.

Run by golfers, for golfers, and with an unrivalled and comprehensive knowledge of the regions, we are confident you will find The Golf Travel People to be the only real choice for your vacation in these areas. We have personal relationships with all the hotels and accommodation suppliers, golf courses and car rental companies we offer, which gives us in-depth knowledge and the ability to create truly flexible packages for every need.

Many golf resort hotels do now include Half Board or All Inclusive options with their packages, but if not included in the price we can always add these options on to your package with a supplementary cost.

Most hotels do charge a single supplement.  However, the cost of this can vary between 20% – 100% of the standard twin/double room rate.  On occasion a hotel may agree to waive the single supplement if they are promoting a special offer for single room occupancy – but this is very rare!  If you require single rooms we can advise which hotels offer the most cost-effective single room rates.

Twin and double rooms are usually priced exactly the same and there may not be a differentiation between the 2 noted on your itinerary.  However, please advise if you are travelling as part of a couple requiring a double bed or require a room with twin beds as we can certainly request this to our hotel partners.

European citizens do not require a visa for any of the destinations we offer.  Non-European citizens may require visas for some of the destinations we offer.  Please check with your local authorities or airline for further info.

Club hire is available at all courses for a fee.  Please advise if you wish us to reserve clubs for payment directly to the pro-shop on the days of play.
Buggies are available at all courses and we do have buggy-included prices available at certain times of the year on most courses.  Where buggy inclusive rates are not available we will be pleased to reserve buggies for you for payment directly to the pro-shop the day of play at the prevailing rate.
All courses will have manual pull trolleys available for hire.
Some courses do offer electric trolleys for hire; please let us know if you wish to reserve electric trolleys.
In the Huelva, Cadiz, Malaga and Algarve regions our partners at Blue Sky Golf Rental will be pleased to deliver rental clubs and electric trolleys to your accommodation for use during your trip.  This is generally a better value option than renting at the golf course.

Standard British handicap limits apply for most courses (28 for men and 36 for ladies), although many courses do allow golfers using other European handicap limits to play.  If you don’t have an official handicap, don’t worry – if challenged the procedure may be to demonstrate your golfing proficiency on the range prior to your round but we are yet to hear of any of our clients who have had the misfortune to have to go through this!
If you have a handicap certificate from your club or society it is worth taking it with you on your trip, but they are very rarely requested – if ever.

Yes, the vast majority of our golf packages and golf-only bookings include pre-confirmed tee times as close as possible to your requested tee times.  On very rare occasions hotel & golf offers may offer golf bookings without pre-confirmed tee times and subject to availability, but we will advise if this is the case when quoting for your golf bookings.
If your tee times are confirmed significantly differently from your requests we will contact you to discuss amending the running order of play for your golf or looking at other golf options.

Please advise if you have any non-golfers in your group and we will be pleased to offer a reduced price (if available) for them.  We can also advise on activities for non-golfers if required.  Please note that on occasion the golf-inclusive packages can be lower cost than rates that do not include golf so we may sometimes quote a golf-included package rate for non-golfers.

Yes, no problem.  Just let us know if you wish to book a holiday without golf included.  We have access to a huge range of non-golf hotels as well as the many golf resorts we offer.

In accordance with “The Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992” all passengers booking with The Golf Travel People are fully protected for the initial deposit and subsequently the balance of all monies paid to us, including repatriation if required, arising from cancellation or curtailment of your travel arrangements due to the insolvency of The Golf Travel People.
There is no requirement for Financial Protection of day trips (including golf-only bookings), and none is provided. This insurance is only valid for packages booked that DO NOT include flights.

We accept all Visa and MasterCard credit and debit cards and American Express and we do not charge any processing fees for card payments of any type.

Payment in full at the time of booking will be requested for all bookings travelling within 10 weeks.  We will request final payments for any bookings where a deposit has previously been paid at 10 weeks prior to travel unless an individual payment schedule has been agreed previously.

If you are travelling more than 10 weeks from now our standard deposit terms are £50pp at the time of booking, although we can arrange more flexible payment schedules with you on a case by case basis.  With larger groups we usually agree a small initial holding deposit with the group leader, with a further interim deposit of £50pp a few weeks later to enable the group leader to collect payments in a phased way.

No, if you are a single travelling golfer or a group of 200 from your golf club then we have the tools to build an itinerary to suit. Our record group size to date was 280 to El Rompido a few years ago, so we are quite used to working with larger groups. However, groups larger than 16 people will usually need to be quoted by our groups department and the pricing may vary from the standard advertised package offers at many of our resorts.

Yes, no problem.All our advertised packages have some flexibility built-in to allow extra golf, extra nights etc etc. If your requirements don’t fit exactly with a standard package then we can tailor your itinerary to suit. Please do let us know.

Usual check in time is in the early afternoon – after 1400 is standard, but can be arranged earlier – on request – if required.  Usual check out times are between 1000 and 1100 in the morning, but can be arranged later – on request – if required.  Please advise if your travel arrangements necessitate an early arrival or late departure from your accommodation and we will do all possible to help to confirm this for you.  However, the only way to 100% guarantee an early arrival or late departure is of course to book an extra nights accommodation.  We can quote for this at the best available rate if you wish.

Yes, don’t travel without it is our recommendation!  If you need assistance in sourcing travel insurance please do let us know.

Our golf confirmations only show the first confirmed tee time and number of players for your group if you are all teeing off consecutively.  If there are any “gaps” in your groups’ tee times the vouchers will show all the confirmed start times on separate sections of your voucher and indicate how many players are teeing off at what time.

Most golf courses only allow soft spikes these days on the course.  If you do prefer to use metal spikes then please let us know and we will check whether this will be permitted prior to your booking so as to prevent any potential issues on arrival at the golf course.

If buggy-inclusive pricing is not available then we can usually reserve buggies for you for payment direct to the pro-shop on the days of your golf bookings.  If you have a medical requirement for a buggy then please let us know as soon as possible and we will do our best to arrange this for you, but bear in mind that you may need to present a medical certificate to this effect when checking in at the golf club.

Buggies are only included where explicitly shown on your itinerary.  However, if you have not booked golf including buggies and you do require them please do let us know and where possible we will add them to your itinerary.

Single players, 2 and 3-balls always have the possibility of being teamed up with other golfers subject to tee sheet requirements at any course and we have no control over this.  This can and does happen on occasion – especially during the high season periods.

Standard dress requirements for golf apply at all our partner courses, but these are often more relaxed than you will find at many UK venues.  However if you apply the following common sense guidelines then you won’t have any problems: wear a shirt with a collar, if wearing shorts then they need to be tailored shorts and not beach/swim wear, no football/rugby shirts, wear golf shoes whilst on the golf course.

If you have an official club handicap or a “non-official” society handicap it is worth taking proof of this with you on your trip.  If you don’t have an official handicap then don’t worry – proof of your handicap is very rarely, if ever, requested by any of our golf courses.  If you were asked to show a handicap certificate and you couldn’t provide this then the normal procedure would just be to hit a few balls on the range just to demonstrate that you have some proficiency at the game of golf!

Again, please refer to the standard terms and conditions as displayed on our website.

You can cancel any time up to the date of travel, but again the terms of the cancellation are subject to the standard terms and conditions as displayed on our website.  If you need to cancel any of your individual tee time bookings during your trip these is best done by direct discussion with the golf desk in your hotel or the pro-shop in the golf club, but if this is not possible then do contact us and we will be able to action this on your behalf.

Cancellations are possible and are subject to the standard terms and conditions as displayed on our website.  We will always work to try and mitigate any potential financial losses due to your need to cancel by way of re-booking for another date.  If this is not possible we always try to improve the terms of the cancellation so that your financial loss is reduced as far as possible.  If you need to make a travel insurance claim in respect of financial losses suffered as a result of your cancellation we will be happy to assist with any documentation required by your insurer.

Your booking pack will be issued once all final payments have been made and received by The Golf Travel People.  This is usually done by email, but we can post vouchers to you if you prefer.  You will receive a pack of vouchers for each of the services you have booked (usually car hire or airport transfers, accommodation and golf – as appropriate) plus a confirmation invoice.  You will need to print these and take them with you on your trip for submission to the suppliers included on your itinerary (car hire or transfers company, hotels and golf courses).  Most often the golf vouchers for a hotel and golf package itinerary will be termed “Accommodation Golf Vouchers” and will be submitted to the hotel front desk in exchange for their own golf voucher system.

Balances are due approx 10 weeks before your travel date, or at another date by prior arrangement with The Golf Travel People.  We will contact you at that time by email with a reminder and request for the final payment to be sent.

In the very unlikely instance of your round of golf being cancelled due to bad weather and you have been unable to re-arrange this directly with the golf course at a mutually acceptable time during the remainder of your holiday please contact us to discuss a credit, refund or re-booking.  Whilst we cannot 100% guarantee that all these options will be available to you in a particular case, we will always work with you and the golf course concerned to agree a mutually acceptable solution to this rare occurrence.
Most courses tend to stay open for play unless they are flooded or if a prolonged electrical storm is in the area, so it is very rare that you would not be able to continue your round or re-book.

In the unlikely event of a problem during your holiday that cannot be resolved locally please contact us here at The Golf Travel People in the UK using our standard phone numbers.  If you require urgent out of hours assistance we have an emergency number on our out of hours answerphone message at evenings, weekends and public holidays.  However, most issues should be able to be resolved locally by speaking with your hotel, golf course, car hire or transfers provider.

If your issue is regarding something that is affecting the enjoyment of your holiday whilst you are on the trip then please in the fist instance raise this with the car hire, transfers, hotel or golf course management as they will be best placed to resolve the matter in situ.  If this is not done to your satisfaction and the issue is not resolved successfully then please contact The Golf Travel People using any of our available contact methods and we will investigate and take up the matter with the relevant persons and work towards a mutually acceptable resolution of the issue on your behalf.
If the issue is regarding ourselves here at The Golf Travel People then please, please do let us know as we welcome all feedback – positive or negative!

Unfortunately if you have not informed us that you will not be using any services that you have pre-booked and pre-paid we will be unable in any circumstance to offer a refund.
If you do inform us in advance that you will not be able to use any of the services you have booked then please do inform us about this at the earliest opportunity as we may be able to negotiate a full or partial refund, a credit note or an immediate re-booking in some cases.  As we have to treat each case individually this cannot be guaranteed, but we will always endeavour to provide a suitable option for you if we are informed of the circumstances and your request at the earliest opportunity.  Unfortunately we cannot consider any requests in this regard if they are only informed to us in retrospect.