One thing you must understand.

Fire The Dome Garden Domes are rented out as self-catering units with wood burning stoves for heating water & space and fire pits for cooking over open fires.
Whilst we will give you every assistance to make your wood-fired adventures as safe and successful as possible, there are limits. If you do not feel comfortable controlling either a fire, yourself, your children or your fellow companions please book into the Eden Lodge itself where you can experience almost everything that the domes have to offer but without the fires. Either that or at least refrain from lighting the fires.
We can take NO responsibility for any accidents incurred as a result of careless use of stoves and fire pits. You MUST look after your children who may not be accustomed to fires. You must not light fires after excessive amounts of alcohol or drugs (well, other than aspirin!)
If you have any questions about this then please call and we will talk you through it.

1. Bookings and payments. All bookings are dealt with by email. For clarity, and to avoid confusion or doubt, booking emails will be prepared according to the details submitted by you via email. So, please check your booking email carefully to ensure you are coming to the right accommodation on the right day.
A non-refundable, initial payment of around 50% of the total cost of your stay must be made within 3 days of the date on your booking email. Failure to transfer funds will result in your accommodation being re-let.
Once you have paid your Non-Refundable booking deposit, your accommodation will be taken off the list and the remaining payment must be settled at least 8 weeks before your stay. If you don’t cough up then again your accommodation will be put up to be re-let and there will be no refund of your deposit. We will send you a reminder and try to get it out of you one way or another - and we are very reasonable - but there do have to be limits.
Obviously, in the case of a stay booked within 8 weeks the whole amount becomes due at the time of booking to confirm your stay.
We do reserve the right to refuse a booking for any reason that we won’t necessarily disclose (but in practice it will only be if we have good reason to think you might behave badly!)

2. Early Parole for Bad Behaviour. Please be nice when you are here. We will - and we expect our guests to return the compliment. Anything less and the risk of early release from The Dome Garden, with no refund, looms darkly over your head.

3. Cancellations. The booking payment is non refundable which means what it says on the tin. If you pay for your stay but don’t turn up we won't give you your money back either. (Harsh but fair we think.) Further down the line we might do a cancellation fund where you pay a small percentage of your stay to cover possible cancellation under strict terms… but then again it all sounds a bit complicated!

4. Group bookings Well-behaved small groups of up to around a dozen are always welcome at the Dome Garden but there are a couple of ground rules. And this section has got bigger following a busy season with lots of groups... so here goes

• a. Do not come if you want to make a lot of noise. Is that clear enough?
• The site is not very big so please think about how you might impact on a family sleeping in the nearby domes before you decide to book.
• b. If you are a very big group – i.e. over 20 - you will need to book the whole site, otherwise other guests will feel swamped.
• c. Hen nights and Stag nights. We don’t have anything against these per se, but whilst there is lots to do during the day there are no big city attractions for hen or stag nights late into the evening.
• The site works well for the “busy, active day followed by quiet glass of wine around the fire” type of hen weekend but absolutely not the right place for the “get drunk, start singing and run about late at night!” stag (or hen) night.
• d. No decorating, daubing nor dragging along anything inappropriate or inflatable. You might think it's awfuly funny but....
• e. There is a planning restriction on amplified music across the site. I think we've been a bit unclear about this in the past. This means no amplified music across the site… (sounds obvious but...)

• f. At night noise travels far enough to disturb our neighbours (about 200 metres away through the woods). You will therefore need to be quiet outside from 11.00 pm - and behave like mice, inside the domes, before midnight. (which doesn't mean chew on the curtains)
• g. You need to respect the domes and treat them properly.
• h. Bring your Mum. Or at least imagine you have done. It might give you some perspective on how to behave.
• j. Make sure you're all up for it and tell people what they're letting themselves in for. If the idea of lighting a fire to make a cup of tea in the morning fills all your pals with horror, you're not going to have any fun are you?

5. Prices The pricing policy at the Dome Garden is to make prices comparable to those of our competitors in the Glamping Fraternity! Which means all the better Yurt Villages and some other specialist outdoor campsites. The only thing we’ve done is add a little premium for the ensuite facilities that we think are worth every penny.
Our prices are, to all intents and purposes, inclusive so they include:

• a. your dome.
• b. reasonable amounts of firewood for stoves and fires. Based on a fair use policy.
• c. bed linen (but not towels) for the maximum number of people specified per dome,
• d. eggs from chickens and quails. Again on a fair use policy – and only if they’re laying and only if you can find them, and only if the kids in the other tent haven't nicked them all at 5am! Although there are less chickens than guests most of the time... (luckily!)
• e. booking fees
• f. late arrival fees (yes Some people do charge for being stuck in traffic!)
• g. making your bed fee (that's the best one - £5 a head in one place we know of)
• h. per person add ons and alteration fees, (what?)
• i. personal visitor charges (stop it)
• j. any other sneaky little charges that you suddenly end up with elsewhere.
• k. Anything else we can think of from time to time – or you might even suggest - which might make your stay better and that we can provide without much cost – like baby changing facilities and sterilisers or baby monitors and phone chargers.

6. Not included

• Cleaning. We do expect you to leave your accommodation in a good state when you leave. It will still be cleaned by our staff when you go but we will levy a cleaning charge if you leave an excessively dirty dome.
• Damage. If you break things we do expect you to pay for them. Sorry! So please tell us if anything goes wrong. If we think it is our fault we’ll pay – if it’s yours we’ll expect you to fork out!
• Towels. Oh how many people forgot towels this year? Next year we will have supplies of towels and t-towels to buy so it wont be so bad. But do try and remember them - it makes much more sense.

7. Extras Whilst we want to include as much as possible we also want you to be able to get other things you need. So, these can all be added directly to you bill and charged to your card when you leave:

• a. Breakfast is available to dome bookers. Preferably with some notice but also on the day if you are feeling peckish and we have room - and food.
• b. Pizzas from our fabulous pizza oven which you can make yourself (pizzas that is not the oven). Two days of the week if there are enough people – currently Thursday and Saturday. They're not free but not dear either.
• c. Wine tasting with a selection of local and soemtimes surprising and bizarre wines during midweek nights. There's not normally enough time to do it over the weekends... unless youre desperate. (Minimum 6 people)
• d. Unspecified Things from the Handee Shopee. And yes for 2012 it will be more real than it was virtual this year! So we hope to be adding milk and bread and even home made frozen meals - as well as sugar lumps and toothpaste we had this year.

8. Cash We hate cash. So when you arrive we will ask to swipe a credit or debit card to cover any incidental costs along the way. You can then use this for anything from internet shopping, to cuddly toys or a bottle of Dome Perignon. It covers more regular stuff like breakfast too.
That way you don’t have to keep producing a card or a wallet every five minutes and you might actually feel like you are on holiday!

9. American Express? Nope, too expensive as it costs us a fortune. Or so we thought! SO yes DOnt leave home without it - but like all credit card payments here we'll stick you for the coommission 3% on normal cards and a whopping 4% on AmEx. Debit card anyone?

10. Pets Pets love chickens and are even more partial to quail – some even like munching little kids. So, sadly, no dogs! Honestly so please dont be cross with us. Every dog that's ever made it past the gate goes for the chickens.

11. Alteration costs If, after confirmation of the booking, you would like to make some alterations, we’ll do our best to accommodate whatever you have in mind. If it’s less than you originally booked we might be reluctant to give you anything back as it might fall into the cancellation bracket. Whatever it is, talk to us. There’s normally a solution.

12. Where are we? Head West ‘til sunset – as it says on the website. We accept this is not really very helpful – especially if you are in Wales. But we're a bit cagey about where we are for everyone's benefit. Mile End will get yoiu close but everyone gets directions with the booking so as with the AMex Card "dont leave home..." etc etc

If your coming from the East the best way is via Gloucester and then Huntley (on the A40) which avoids a toll on the Severn bridge and is the prettiest route.
From the West you come up through Monmouth where turn right up into the Forest of Dean past Coleford and then do a bit of a shimmy. From the North. M50 and Ross is the route. Proper details can be found here.

13. Coming and going If all has gone to plan we will be expecting you, so no vouchers or tickets or anything like that. If there is a problem we can identify it very quickly. You will need to produce a credit card/ debit card or in extreme cases a wedge of cash (£250) as a security deposit. If the Dome’s ready then anytime after lunch should be ok but as a rule aim for 3pm. Either way let us know your plans before you arrive and we’ll clairfy the position. The worst case will be you can go off and explore for an hour or two while we sort things out.
On the way out 10.30 is reasonable – lunchtime is pushing it – especially if we have lots of other people coming in.

14. Bring your guitar? There’s a very nice fire pit in the middle of the garden just below the pizza oven and we are huge supporters of acoustic music. So if you have an instrument and want to play - either to yourself or for the benefit of others - then you’re welcome to bring it along. There’s definitely a free glass of wine in it for you (or a slice of pizza if you're lucky enough to be under age) – two if you’re any good!

Singing doesnt happen every week, far from it, but when it does we love it and it can go on until 11pm. So, if you hate music and chatting and stuff like that - or you believe your children should be protected from it at all costs - just ask for the far domes when you book. Either that or think about a week in a monastery.

15. Force majeure We don’t really like this bit but it has to be in here! If the implementation of the agreement is entirely or partially, temporarily or permanently, prevented due to circumstances beyond the control of Dome Garden, including but not limited to threat of war, staff strikes, blockades, fire, floods and other disruptions or events then you don’t get anything back and you can't complain! If that happens anyway we’ll be having a worse time than you anyway!

If it was within our control then we will say sorry and give you your money back. If at all possible we'll also try and fix whatever it was that went wrong in some way - although we're guessing about what that might be now aren't we?

16. Liability We accept no liability for theft, loss or damage, of whatever nature, during or as a result of a stay at Dome Garden.
This is particularly important relating to bikes – You must bring a proper lock for your bike and you must use it all over the forest. There are thousands of bikes here and if yours is particularly tempting then you need to protect it.
We are in the process of building bike safe bars but in the meantime you must take responsibility for them – especially if they are hired from someone else.

17. Complaints If, despite all our best efforts, you have a complaint you must talk to the duty manager immediately who will bend over backwards to solve the problem – if that’s not far enough then you can address the management through jonny@domegarden.co.uk and we (I) will take the matter up personally.

18. Assumption of Risks. Remember that you will be lighting fires and staying in the heart of a big forest with many potential risks (and delights, it has to be said) so you must take care of yourself and your companions. If you are cycling, climbing trees or just wandering in the forest be careful, keep aware and don’t get lost.
It is your responsibility to supervise any children. You might consider taking out travel insurance against the risk of accidents and your stay being cut short. Especially if you are not a UK resident…

19. Day visitors Your'e welcome to bring the odd person in to admire your Dome but you must let the Manager know of their presence and they must leave at the end of the day. If they don’t we will charge them an overnight fee. (Oooh!)

20. All here? There may occasionally be things that, through no fault of our own, we can’t provide that we said we would. We will therefore not guarantee that everything on the website will always be here. Most practically that means the chickens have been eaten by foxes or, in times of extreme drought in the woods, outside fires will be temporarily suspended.

21. Where's everybody gone? Just occasioanlly, despite our best efforts at 100% occupancy, it may be quiet here. In fact you and your companions may be the only humans in the garden. It doesn't happen in the holidays but in odd midweek just off the peak seasons there are often little islands of calm. We love it like that and if you do too try asking when you book and we'll be able to tell you when it most likely to happen! No guarantees but it's worth a go.

22. Lastly As with our sister company Simply Yurts there is a final condition of booking that all our guests do their utmost to have the nicest time possible in this unique and beautiful spot.

Jonny Clothier
Dome Garden