Travel By Ellie Client Travel Planning Agreement
Hours:
- Monday – Friday from 9:00am – 5:00pm CST
- When traveling, documents will provide emergency contact information.
- For after-hours non-emergency inquiries and questions, expect a response within two business days.
Communication:
- Phone calls should be scheduled to make sure we aren’t playing phone tag 🙂
- Communication over email is important to keep trip components organized. Texts regarding your trip may not be completed because our email is the priority to-do list.
Fees:
Each trip is custom, and each client is unique so it is impossible to pre-determine fees that cover every situation. As a result, Travel By Ellie reserves the right to vary the fee based on the specific situation, or as it becomes apparent the needs are different than initially anticipated. However, this fee structure below serves as a general guideline.
- Hotel-Only Booking – Complimentary: We’ll book your chosen hotel or resort and provide access to partner perks whenever possible.
- Disclaimer: Hotels below 4 stars can be wonderful options but if Travel By Ellie, our colleagues or partners do not have a relationship with a hotel, we do not add any value to our clients.
- Research + Hotel Booking – Starting at $150/household: You pick the general destination, and we’ll provide recommendations and book the accommodation, providing access to our preferred partner amenities.
- Full-Service Travel Planning – Starting at $350/week of travel/household: we’ll handle the full trip—hotels, tours, transport, dinner reservations, destination support and access to exclusive experiences and partner amenities.
A change in destination will incur a new planning fee. For last-minute custom-tailored requests (60 days prior to travel), if we can accept the request, we will charge $600 per household. Itinerary changes within 14 days of travel will incur a fee of $50 per change. All changes are subject to availability.
Fees cover research and advice on destinations, accommodations, experiences, designing a custom itinerary, providing access to our preferred partner amenities where available, and trip management for approximately 10 hours of work per week of travel. Fees will be charged prior to proposal delivery, and is non-refundable. The #1 goal is to make your trip a success, to take the planning weight off your shoulders and to make the process fun!
Planning & Research fee charges will appear on your statement as Brownell Travel, Travel By Ellie’s host agency.
Dining Reservations:
We have discovered that the most efficient approach for our clients is to allow the hotel’s concierge to make and manage your dining reservations. We will put you in touch with the Concierge to book dining, spa, golf, etc. With the constant ebb and flow of restaurants and the possibility that there can be a variety of changes, your luxury hotel’s concierge has the pulse on the current dining scene. In addition, they can manage last minute requests and cancellations in the time zone you are travelling. However, we often do have personal recommendations that we are happy to share!
Cancellations:
We understand cancellations occur. Therefore, we highly recommend travel insurance and will provide a quote for all services booked upon request. Travel By Ellie will incur a $250 per person cancellation fee for multi-component trips (i.e. not just a hotel booking) This is in addition to cancellation penalties incurred by our partners. This will be included in your insurance quote.
Travel Insurance
Should travelers decline travel insurance, they will be required to sign a waiver. Travel insurance or a signed waiver is required in order to receive final documents.
Travel By Ellie and our affiliated parent agency, Brownell Travel, cannot be responsible for cancellation, emergency evacuation, accidents abroad, illness, lost baggage, flight mishaps, trip interruptions and/or travel supplier default, and thus strongly encourages the purchase of travel insurance. I understand that Travel By Ellie strongly recommends I purchase travel insurance to cover certain risks inherent in travel such as supplier bankruptcy and the inability to travel due to a medical or personal emergency. Without appropriate travel insurance, Customer understands and agrees that if Customer cancels or interrupts Customer’s travel for any reason, portions of the trip/tour may not be refunded and Travel By Ellie’s and travel supplier’s cancellation penalties will apply resulting in the loss of monies up to the full cost of Customer’s travel booking and related costs. The purchase of travel insurance is not required in order to purchase any other product or service offered by Travel By Ellie. Employees of Travel By Ellie are not qualified or authorized to: answer technical questions about benefits, exclusions, and conditions of any of the insurance offered, nor evaluate the adequacy of the prospective insured’s existing insurance coverage. An additional charge applies for travel insurance selected.
Passports
If traveling internationally, clients must have a passport valid for at least 6 months from the trip return date. Ruby Rosen Travel must have copies of all traveler’s passports before booking an international flights or other travel. No reservations will be made until passports are received.
Note to Client: Passport and visa information may be obtained by contacting the Travel Advisory Section of the U.S. State Department at 202.647.5225 or by visiting the State Department’s Web site at www.state.gov. Non-U.S. passport holders should be sure to contact the embassies of their destination and transit countries to obtain entrance requirements. To obtain medical information, you may contact the Centers for Disease Control at 404.332.4559 or visit the CDC’s Web site at www.cdc.gov.
Cost Breakdowns
Some of the suppliers we work with do not break down costs into line items for each aspect of the trip. They often have access to exclusive services and pricing and due to confidentiality agreements with their providers they cannot release this information to us. This has become increasingly common in the travel industry but we will only use suppliers we feel would be the best fit for the trip and we have trusted relationships with many all over the world.
