Terms and Conditions

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

Bookings

All bookings must be accompanied by your deposit of £250. 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 8 weeks before the course or retreat starts. If we do not receive your 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 for the first 7 days after we have confirmed your booking in writing.

Following this initial 7 day period, cancellations of bookings will be accepted up to 8 weeks before the course or retreat begins and your deposit (or any amount above this level which you have paid) will be returned less a £50 cancellation charge.

If you cancel your booking less than eight 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 eight weeks but more than six weeks before the course/retreat begins, we will retain your 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 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 £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 solely at our discretion.

At our discretion, you may be able to transfer your booking to another course or retreat, subject to availability and payment of any difference in the fees due. We will normally accept transfers up to eight weeks before your course or retreat begins, and all of the fee paid will be allocated to the new course or retreat. If we receive a request to transfer a booking after this time, we will do so only if we have already received the full course fee from you. If this condition is not met, we regret we are unable to transfer the booking. Our standard cancellation terms (see above) will apply to the new booking. 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. 

Cancellations by Seabournes Studios

Should we need to cancel a workshop, we will offer you an alternative course or return all of the fee paid. 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 us is limited to the course fee you have paid.

Conduct and safety on site

Our workshops 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 artists and help foster an atmosphere conducive to creativity. We reserve  the right to refuse a place and / or to exclude from a course or retreat any artist who 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.

We  reserve the right to ask a workshop or retreat participant to leave the course or retreat if w judge 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 Seabournes Studios.

Damage and cleaning

Our 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 studio, grounds or house, or for excessive cleaning required as a result of your stay.

Pets

Please note that pets are not permitted.

Smoking

Smoking is not permitted anywhere inside our buildings.

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 Seabournes Studios. Please note that you are not permitted to have guests or visitors on site during your stay without permission from Seabournes Studios.

Privacy and data

By booking, you agree that we may collect and store personal information about you and your interactions with Seabournes Studios. 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 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 tutors of your fellow students whilst attending the course without their permission.

Loss

Seabournes Studios 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 Seabournes Studios 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

Seabournes Studios 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 as if in your own home.  If you have specific needs, it is important that you discuss these with us before booking, to establish whether your needs can be met.  A reasonable degree of fitness is necessary to fully access the garden.  The studio has 5 steps up to it and sadly we currently have no wheelchair access.

Comments and complaints

Seabournes Studios will make every effort to maintain high standards and provide high-quality experiences for all.  You may want to offer comments or make a 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.