How this works

These terms cover using this website and working with us on a trip. We've kept them short and plain.

Miles & Lux is Daniel and Jackie. We are travel advisors, and the reservations we place go through our host agency, Fora, which is the agency of record for them.

What we write is our opinion

Everything we write about a hotel on this site is firsthand and unsponsored. We paid to stay, or we say so. It is also just our view on a particular week, in a particular room, and a hotel can change. Nothing here is a guarantee of what you will find.

What we do

You tell us what you are planning. We come back with a short list, priced all in, with the cancellation terms spelled out. You choose one, and we place the reservation. Before you travel we write to the hotel with your details.

We advise and we book. We are not the hotel. The stay itself (the room, the service, the safety of the property) is the hotel's to provide, and its own terms govern it. Where a supplier's terms and ours disagree about the stay, theirs apply.

What a quote is, and is not

• A quote is live until it is booked. Rates and availability move, and a price we sent yesterday may be gone today. We will always tell you before anything is booked at a different price.
• Choosing an option on the link we send you costs nothing, takes no card, and commits you to nothing. It tells us to go and get it.
• The cancellation terms we quote come from the supplier. Once booked, those terms apply, including any deadline and any penalty.
• Some rates we quote are negotiated rates that aren't available to the public. They can come with their own conditions, such as a minimum stay or a deposit, and we spell those out with the option.
• Amenities such as an upgrade, breakfast or a property credit come from our agency relationship and vary by property and by season. We tell you what a given hotel is offering before you choose it. An upgrade is subject to availability at check-in, which means it is genuinely not guaranteed.
• Live rates shown by our chat assistant come from our booking partner, at the public price, as they stood when you asked. They are not a quote, they don't include our partner perks, and they can change until booked. Sending your trip to us from the chat is a request, not a booking.

Flights, transfers and chauffeur service

When we plan flights, trains, transfers or cars as part of a trip, each is provided by its own airline or operator under its own terms, the same way a hotel's terms govern the stay. Complimentary chauffeur service is offered at select properties and on qualifying rates only. We will tell you whether a booking includes it before you confirm, and it is subject to the property's and operator's availability.

Gifts from us

Every booking placed with us comes with a gift or extra from Miles & Lux. What it is depends on the trip and is our choice, from a bottle of champagne or spirits to a driver by the hour, and we'll tell you what to expect before you travel. Alcohol is only given to guests of legal drinking age, and only where local law allows it. Gifts have no cash value and can't be exchanged or carried over to another booking.

Points and loyalty programs

Each hotel's loyalty program awards its own points and elite night credits, under its own rules. Bookings we place are normally eligible, as they would be if you booked direct. Bonus points, such as double points, come from the hotel's own promotions or from deals we have negotiated. When one applies to your stay, we will tell you, and help you sign up for it where that's needed.

When we help you use credit card points or airline miles, award availability, transfer ratios, and taxes and fees are set by each airline, hotel and card program, and can change until the booking is made. Moving points from a card program to an airline or hotel usually can't be undone, so we will always confirm with you before you transfer anything.

Minimum booking

Our minimum booking is $3,000. For long-term clients, we may accept smaller bookings at our discretion.

How we are paid

On hotel bookings, you pay us nothing. The hotel pays our commission out of the room rate, normally only after you have stayed. We charge no planning fee on them, and we do not mark hotel rates up. We will tell you if that ever changes for a particular trip, before you agree to anything.

What we need from you

• Names exactly as they appear on the passport or ID you will travel with. A misspelled name is the most common reason a reservation fails, and correcting one after booking is sometimes impossible.
• Passports, visas, permits and entry requirements are yours to arrange and yours to check. We will flag what we know; we cannot be responsible for it.
• Travel insurance. We strongly recommend it, and we recommend buying it when you book rather than later. Many of the rates worth having are not fully refundable.

Canceling and changing

Tell us as early as you can and we will do what the supplier's terms allow. Where a booking is refundable and the deadline has not passed, that usually costs nothing. Past the deadline, or on a non-refundable rate, the penalty is the supplier's and it falls to you. We will always tell you plainly what it is before we act.

Where our responsibility ends

We take care with the advice we give and the bookings we place, and we will fix our own mistakes. We are not liable for what a supplier does or fails to do, or for things outside anyone's control, such as weather, strikes, closures, illness or a canceled flight. Nothing here limits any liability that cannot lawfully be limited, including for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud.

Seller of Travel

Several US states require anyone selling travel to register, including California, Florida, Washington, Hawaii and Iowa. Reservations are placed through Fora as agency of record, and the applicable registration details will be published here once confirmed with them.

This website

The writing and photographs here are ours, except where a photograph is credited to someone else; those are used under their own licenses and the credit names the source. Please don't republish our writing wholesale. Quote a paragraph and link back, and we'll be glad.

Do not use the inquiry form to send us anything unlawful, and do not try to break the site. We may decline to work with anyone.

Privacy

What we collect and what we do with it is set out in our privacy policy, which forms part of these terms.

Changes, and the law that applies

We will change this page as the business changes, and move the date at the top. The governing law and venue for any dispute will be stated here once confirmed. In the meantime, talk to us first at daniel.laskowski@fora.travel. Almost everything is fixable that way.

This is written to be accurate and readable, and it is not legal advice. It has not been reviewed by a lawyer, and two sections above are deliberately unfinished pending facts only Fora can confirm.