Terms & booking conditions

What you send through the website is a provisional booking, not a confirmed one — though you'll usually already know we're free before you get that far, since checking a date tells you instantly. Where the diary is plainly clear we confirm the slot straight away and email you a payment link; otherwise Mark looks at it himself and comes back to you, usually within a few hours. Your booking reference ends in a P until payment lands, and the P disappears when it does.

Either way we hold your date and time for 72 hours while you pay — no rush, and we'll nudge you so it can't slip your mind. If someone else asks about your date in the meantime we'll tell you, and you keep first refusal. If payment doesn't come through by the end of the window the hold is released and the date goes back up for grabs — so if you need longer, just tell us and we'll sort something out.

You choose: pay in full and there is nothing left to pay for the party itself, or pay a £100 deposit and settle the balance in cash on the day. Either one locks the date in for good — the deposit is not a lesser booking.

Any extras you choose afterwards are also paid in cash on the day. Which ones you can add depends on the party you booked — your booking page offers you the ones that aren't already included with it, and nothing is added unless you pick it. That page always shows the exact figure to have ready, and so does your confirmation the Monday before.

Card payments are handled by a secure payment provider — no account needed, just a card. We never see or store your card details.

Booking takes five questions. Everything else — the exact venue, whose party it is, anything we should know, and any extras — is added on your own booking page, which is open at any hour and needs no password: we email you a link.

We confirm everything with you on the Monday before your party, and that is the deadline for adding extras. Mark buys in and packs for the week from that list, so anything decided after it we genuinely may not have with us. The venue we'll take right up to the day if we have to — but the earlier the better, because it decides the travel.

Free, always, at any notice. If your child is poorly or something else comes up, get in touch and we'll move you to any date we have free — you won't pay a penny more and you won't lose what you've paid. If something has gone wrong, please ask about moving before you cancel, as you'll almost always be better off.

• Cancel more than 28 days before the party and you get a full refund.
• Between 7 and 28 days, we refund everything except a £100 cancellation fee.
• Inside 7 days we can't refund, as it's too late to fill the date.
• If we ever have to cancel on you, you get everything back — no exceptions.
• Moving the date is always free. Whatever the notice, if we're available on your new date we'll honour it — no fee, no lost money. If something's gone wrong, ask us about moving before you cancel.

Refunds are of what you've actually paid us — the full price if you paid in full, the deposit if that's all that's gone through. Cancel and there is nothing further to pay: the cash balance and any extras simply never happen.

The reason we can't refund at short notice is simply that we'll have turned other work away for your date, and there isn't time to fill it again.

Your party runs for the length you've booked, from the time you've booked — so your confirmation gives you a start time and a finish time, and both are on your booking page and your reminder.

Mark arrives early to set up and is ready to go at the start time. If the birthday child or the guests are running late, he'll make the most of whatever time is left — but he can't run past the finish time, because there is usually another party to get to that afternoon.

If you know in advance that you'll be starting late, tell us as early as you can. We may be able to move you to a later slot — but that is never automatic, and asking doesn't make it happen. It depends entirely on what else is booked that day, and it is Mark's decision. When there is room, the answer is yes and it costs you nothing.

One thing worth planning around: food is best kept until after the party. Only the longest party (2 hours) has a break in it; the shorter ones run straight through. The party has a better chance of success without the distraction of food — Mark would much rather run it properly and then hand them back to you for the food.

• A referral earns £20 once the party booked through your link has actually taken place and been paid for. Nothing is credited the moment somebody books: a party can still move or be cancelled.
• Your friend gets £20 off that first party, whenever they book it.
• The credit is yours rather than the booking's. There is no expiry, nothing to claim, and it stacks — three referrals is £60.
• It can be spent on any future party with us, on any date. Anything left over stays on your name for next time.
• The one thing it cannot be is your own booking — a link used on a party of your own earns nothing.

We collect your name, email address, phone number and whereabouts the party is — and, if you tell us, the birthday child's first name and age — purely so we can run your booking and make the party theirs. We don't sell your details to anyone or pass them on for marketing. There's more detail in our privacy policy.

After your party we keep the booking itself for as long as our accounts need it — about six years, which is what HMRC expects. Anything beyond that we'll delete on request: just ask, and there's more detail in our privacy policy.

We carry £5 million public liability insurance, and our cover includes the use of our bouncy castle. Plenty of venues and schools ask to see this before they let a party go ahead — download our certificate here.

All our electrical equipment is PAT tested. Mark is a qualified PAT tester, so the lighting, sound and everything else that plugs in gets checked by him directly rather than whenever a third party gets round to it.

Mark has a DBS check, and we're more than happy to share the certificate on request.

Just space and power— a room big enough for the kids to run about in and a normal mains socket. We bring everything else: sound, lighting, props, games and prizes. If you're not sure whether your venue is suitable, send us a photo or the venue name and we'll tell you straight away.

We have never cancelled a booking, and we don't intend to start. But if something ever did stop us getting to you — illness, an accident, a vehicle breakdown — you get every penny you have paid us back, whatever the notice, and any invoice is cancelled. We'll also do our best to find you someone else who can cover the date.

Email mark@surreykidsparties.co.uk or call 07891 159018. You can also check or change your booking any time on your My Booking page.