Midlifechic Escapes
Cancellation & Refund Policy
If anything in this policy isn’t clear, please reach out before booking – we’d much rather answer a question first than work through a refund later.
1. About this policy
Midlifechic Escapes are intentionally small events – usually 20-24 guests – and we make commitments to hotels, restaurants and other suppliers well in advance of each trip. Once those commitments are in place, the costs are largely fixed, whether or not every place is filled.
That means our refund terms can’t be quite as flexible as a typical online purchase. We’ve tried to make them as fair and transparent as possible, and they mirror the cancellation tiers our suppliers operate to.
2. If you need to cancel
We genuinely understand that life gets in the way sometimes. If you can no longer attend, please email us as soon as you know – the earlier you let us know, the more likely we are to be able to refund or transfer your place.
The refund you’ll receive depends on how far in advance you cancel.
3. Transferring your place
If you can’t attend, you’re welcome to transfer your place to another Midlifechic reader at any time, free of charge.
Please email us with:
- Your name and original booking reference
- The name and email address of the person taking your place
- Any dietary requirements or special requests they’d like us to know about
We’ll confirm the transfer in writing and update the booking. The replacement guest agrees to be bound by these terms.
We can’t transfer a place to someone Midlifechic has previously had to remove from an event or who has otherwise been excluded from our community.
4. If we need to cancel or change the event
It’s very rare, but on occasion we may need to cancel, postpone or significantly change an event – for example if the venue becomes unavailable, if Nikki is unable to host, or if circumstances beyond our control prevent the event going ahead safely.
If this happens:
- If we cancel the event entirely, you’ll receive a full refund of your ticket price within 14 working days. The £15 administration fee does not apply in this case.
- If we need to postpone the event to a new date, we’ll offer you the choice of transferring your booking to the new date or receiving a full refund.
- If we need to make a significant change (for example, a change of city or hotel), we’ll let you know as soon as we can and offer you a full refund if the new arrangements no longer work for you.
We don’t cover knock-on costs – for example, non-refundable train tickets – so if you’re booking travel separately, please consider travel insurance (see below).
5. Circumstances beyond our control
There are some situations where neither side is at fault but the event still can’t go ahead in the way we’d planned. These can include:
- Severe weather or natural disasters
- Strikes or transport disruption
- Public health restrictions or government guidance
- Acts of terrorism, war or civil disturbance
- Failure of essential utilities at the venue
- Any other event genuinely outside our reasonable control
In these situations we’ll do everything we can to find a sensible outcome – usually that means rescheduling to a workable date and giving you the choice between attending the new date or receiving a refund of any amount we’re able to recover from suppliers. We can’t guarantee a full refund where the underlying costs have been lost, but we’ll always be transparent about what we’re able to return and why.
6. Travel insurance
We strongly recommend taking out travel insurance as soon as you book – particularly if you’re travelling a long distance or making non-refundable arrangements around the event.
A standard UK travel insurance policy will typically cover non-refundable costs if you have to cancel for reasons such as illness, family emergencies, or transport disruption. The cost is usually small relative to the protection it offers.
If you’re not sure where to start, your bank or building society may offer travel insurance as part of a packaged account.
7. How to cancel
To cancel your booking, please email accounts@midlifechic.co.uk with:
- Your full name
- The event you’re booked onto (e.g. Midlifechic Escape – Bristol, 22 August 2026)
- Your booking confirmation reference (from the email you received when you paid)
- A short note about why you need to cancel (no detail required – it just helps us understand the situation)
We’ll reply within 2 working days to acknowledge your cancellation and confirm the next steps.
The date of cancellation is the date we receive your email – not the date the email was sent – so please send it from an address you check regularly in case we need to come back to you.
8. How refunds are processed
Where you’re due a refund, it will be issued to the original payment method (the card or account used for the original booking).
- Refunds are processed through Stripe, our payment provider
- Once we’ve confirmed the refund, it typically lands in your account within 5 to 10 working days
- The refund amount will appear as a separate transaction; the original payment is not reversed
If you don’t see the refund within 10 working days of our confirmation, please email us and we’ll investigate with Stripe.
9. Changes to event details
The core experience of any Midlifechic Escape – the company, the conversation, the time set aside – is what readers come for, and that won’t change. Smaller details may need to flex from time to time:
- Times, room layouts and the order of the evening may shift slightly to suit the venue
- The supplier of a particular element (for example, a florist or photographer) may change
- Menu items are subject to seasonal availability and the kitchen’s discretion
These kinds of changes are part of running events well and don’t entitle you to a refund. If a change is significant enough to materially affect what you’ve booked, we’ll always contact you directly.
10. Personal information
When you book, we collect your name, email address, dietary requirements and any special requests. This information is used solely for the purposes of running the event you’ve booked onto and contacting you about it.
We don’t share booking information with anyone outside Midlifechic and our event suppliers (where dietary or accessibility information needs to be passed on to the kitchen, for example).
If you’d like to know more about how we handle personal data, our full privacy policy is available at midlifechic.com/privacy-policy.
11. Your statutory rights
Nothing in this policy affects your statutory rights as a consumer.
Under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, contracts for events on a specific date or within a specific period (which is what a Midlifechic Escape is) are not subject to the standard 14-day cooling-off period that applies to many other distance purchases. The cancellation tiers above are the terms that apply instead.
Where you have grounds to consider that an event was not provided as described, we’ll deal with the situation in line with the Consumer Rights Act 2015 – that may include a partial refund or other remedy depending on the circumstances. Please raise any concerns with us first so we have the chance to put things right.
12. Questions
If anything here is unclear, or if you’d like to talk through your situation before booking or cancelling, please email us at accounts@midlifechic.co.uk. We’re a small team and we’ll always come back to you personally.
13. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The terms that apply to your booking are the ones in force on the date you booked, which we’ll send you a copy of in your booking confirmation email. We’ll never apply a less favourable version of the terms retrospectively.