Booking
The Date: Faith Tours are conducted on Tuesdays & Wednesdays of term-time only, with two booking slots only for each of these days. Please first find a colour-shaded available Tour slot in our calendar below and then submit a booking request for that date.
This online calendar only displays bookings up to a year in advance. Although not visible to you, there may be bookings beyond this. If you would like to book more than a year ahead, and you find that there is no ‘available’ box on the date you wish to request, then please email us before completing the booking form to ensure that your preferred date is available.
The Cost: Although Faith Tour guides themselves are mostly volunteers, we do need to charge for Faith Tours, to cover energy costs in the places of worship as well as the cost of Faith Tours booking and administration. The Faith Tour fee is therefore split equally between the three places of worship and ‘Faith in Queen’s Park’ (to cover Faith Tours administration costs).
We are glad to have been mostly able to absorb the rising costs until recently, to keep the tour fees stable for hundreds of schools and organisations over many years. However, in order to maintain our service and cover our costs it is now necessary to apply a small increase for the year 2024/25 onwards.
Faith Tours taking place in from September 2024 will be charged at the new rate of £200 per tour, (for up to 60/65 children).
However, Schools which are Local Authority Maintained Schools within Bedford Borough are eligible to pay a reduced fee (of £150 from September 2024), as Bedford’s SACRE (Standing Advisory Committee on Religious Education) subsidises these tours, hoping to encourage local schools to visit this jewel on their doorstep!
‘Faith in Queens Park’ itself also subsidises other schools within Queens Park with a reduced fee.
The first question on our new Booking Form will show a list containing the names of all those schools eligible for the reduced fee. If your school is not listed, then please select ‘Other’.
More information on payment can be found below.
Payment Details: An invoice will be emailed to you just after your booking is confirmed.
Please pay in advance following confirmation of your booking, ideally within 30 days of receiving your invoice, (if this is really difficult, then by arrangement, payment may be made later, but no later than 6 weeks prior to your tour date – see our Cancellation Policy below).
Payment by Electronic Transfer is preferred, using the details in the invoice which will follow the Confirmation of Booking email. Please quote your invoice number as your payment reference.
Please mention in the Booking Form if you will need to pay by Cheque.
With our agreement, cheques, made payable to ‘Faith in Queen’s Park’ should be posted, (to arrive no later than six weeks prior to the Tour date) to ‘Faith in Queens Park’, c/o All Saints Parish Church, Westbourne Road, Queens Park, Bedford, MK40 4LD. We cannot accept hand carried cheques on the day of the tour.
If you require us to complete a “New Supplier form” or “Outside Provider form” before being able to set up payment, then we would be grateful if you could send this upon confirmation of your booking, so that you have sufficient time to complete your formalities and will still be able to pay for the Tour by six weeks prior to the date.
Very Important Note: cancellation policy
It is necessary to pay, at the latest, by six weeks in advance of the tour.
Please be aware that the successful delivery of Faith tours involves large numbers of people, often volunteers, from several places of worship and organisations. The tour schedule for the month is finalised in the middle of the preceding month. It is then sent out to the teams of volunteer guides; it is difficult to alter after this.
Late payments and cancellations create problems for everyone, as well as blocking dates which others could book. So please ensure that you make the necessary arrangements for your Faith Tours in plenty of time, to avoid Late Cancellation.
We would therefore respectfully suggest that tour leaders should check the viability of their booked tours at least 7or 8 weeks before the actual tour date, and contact us immediately if you find that your tour arrangements need to be changed.
Reluctantly, late cancellations (i.e. within six weeks of your confirmed Faith Tour booking date) will incur an Administrative charge of £50 per booking.
Changes to this policy are at the discretion of the Faith Tours Bookings Administrator and the Trustees of Faith in Queen’s Park.
1 You are consenting to be contacted using the contact details provided in relation to the faith tour only. We will not store or process contact information after your faith tour. If you have any concerns about this then please only provide institutional contact information, not personal contact information, although this will complicate communications on the day in the event of any issues.