Fuel prices drop, so currency surcharge imposed !!!

We realise that being asked to pay a surcharge after you have confirmed your place on the trip and paid a deposit is very frustrating, and we regret that we have had to do this. Many of our clients have been affected by the currency changes in the past year, and we are happy to explain why we have had to surcharge and the reasons for doing it now rather than earlier.For the majority of our trips that appear in our brochures we set the prices just before the brochures are published based on the exchange rates available at the time. This can be more than a year in advance of some trips departing. To offer the best protection for our clients from any major exchange rate fluctuations we “hedge”, or forward buy key currencies at the time we set the prices. Unfortunately this is only practical for around a 10-12 month period because of the way the money markets work. When costing trips for our 2009 brochures the UK£ stood at £1 = $1.98 (published in our booking conditions), whereas it currently is trading around £1 = $1.55 to 1.60 making the cost of some holidays considerably more expensive.  During the year we monitor the exchange rates and where possible would forward buy more currency as we get nearer to the departure date. However in the last 12 months the £ slid dramatically against the US$ and was consistently trading at £1 = $1.40 or lower. We therefore held off until our new brochures were being costed and have fortuitously obtained a better rate.  As you are aware we have now been able to inform clients of this. It was unfortunate that this happened to be quite soon after you had confirmed your place and we apologise for the timing. We do make every effort to keep our website up-to-date with the latest prices, however around 200 trips were affected and it does take some time to work through them all. As with any surcharge, we operate to strict ABTA guidelines and have absorbed the first 2% increase in cost caused by the exchange rates. It should also be noted that these guidelines and the Package Holiday regulations are designed to protect the customer. Any downward revision in price is always passed on to the client, and there is also the stipulation that where increases are over and above 10% of the original holiday price, we must offer passengers the option to cancel free of charge. However in this instance the increase is below the 10% threshold.  We wish to assure you that this is not a new way for us to increase our revenue, indeed by absorbing some of the increase our profit margins are considerably reduced. It is also a very necessary re-evaluation of our prices inline with changes to exchange rates. If we were not to do so, Exodus and virtually all other travel companies, would find it almost impossible to research, market and operate the holidays we do.   For 36 years Exodus has prided itself on providing exciting and adventurous activities for a fair price and this is still very important to us. We never surcharge unless it is absolutely necessary and we absorb as much of this as we can before contacting our clients. We hope that this answers all the points you raised but please do let us know if you have any other questions.