Booking & cancellation
We hold 42 keys. A cancellation is not an inconvenience to be absorbed by a large inventory — it is a room that stays empty. The terms below are our attempt to be fair about that in both directions. They are the same rules the booking engine applies, and the terms of your own rate are shown again before you pay.
Payment at booking
Cancelling
Free cancellation to 14 days — Room Only, Bed & Breakfast, Breakfast & Dinner (MAP), All Meals (AP)
Wellness programmes — Wellness Package
When we waive the terms
Road closures, snow, landslides, a bereavement, or a medical event with a note. In those cases we move the booking rather than charge for it, and the credit is valid eighteen months. This is not a clause you have to argue for; a host will offer it.
If we cancel
If we cannot honour a confirmed booking for any reason within our control, you receive a full refund plus the cost of your travel to and from the estate. We have not had to do this, and the commitment stands anyway.
Changing dates
Free once, more than fourteen days out, subject to availability and any rate difference. Beyond that the cancellation terms apply to the original booking.
Groups and whole-estate bookings
Weddings, offsites and exclusive use are contracted separately, with their own deposit schedule written into the agreement.
Refunds & payments
How refunds are made
Always to the instrument you paid with, in the currency you paid. Card refunds typically clear in seven to ten working days depending on your issuer; UPI and bank transfers are usually faster. We do not issue vouchers in place of money unless you ask for one.
What you pay at booking
What is included in the rate
Currency
Rates are set in Indian rupees. The site can display other currencies for convenience at the day's indicative rate; the amount charged is the rupee amount.
Taxes
GST is charged at the prevailing rate and shown separately on the invoice. For corporate bookings we need your GSTIN before the invoice is raised, not after.
Terms of stay
Arrival and departure
Earlier arrival is welcome if the room is ready — we will hold your luggage and feed you either way. Late check-out is complimentary when the room is not resold; we will tell you honestly whether it is.
Children
Children of every age are welcome. Under-12s eat from the same kitchen at an earlier sitting, and the chair practice is open to them. On the rate, children are charged by age:
The house
Silence is kept from the evening bell until breakfast. Phones are not confiscated, but there is no signal in the practice hall and we do not apologise for that. Photography of other guests requires their consent — several come here precisely to be unobserved.
Wellness services are not medical treatment
Our practitioners are qualified and our protocols are peer-reviewed, but a stay here is not a substitute for medical care. We ask for your physician's note before certain therapies, and we will decline a treatment where the contraindications are clear — including where a guest insists. Nothing on this site should be read as a diagnosis, a cure, or a promise of outcome.
Damage and liability
We do not take a damage deposit. Genuine accidents are ours to absorb; deliberate damage will be charged at cost. Guests are responsible for their own valuables — every room has a safe, and we cannot insure what is left outside it.
Privacy
What we collect
What we do with it
Deliver the stay, remember your preferences for the next one, and — only if you opted in — send you the seasonal letter. We do not sell, rent or trade personal data, and we do not run advertising audiences built from guest lists.
Who else sees it
Our payment processor, our booking engine, and the email service that sends the letter. Each is contracted to process only, never to reuse. Health information is shared with nobody outside the clinical team.
How long we keep it
Booking records for eight years, as required for tax. Clinical notes for seven years, as required by practice standards. Marketing consent until you withdraw it. Everything else for two years.
Your rights
Ask us what we hold, correct it, take a copy, or have it deleted — email stay@usshmaa.com and we will act within thirty days. Deletion requests are honoured even where we would rather keep the record, except where tax law requires us to retain it.
Accessibility
The estate
The property is built on a hillside, and we will not pretend otherwise: some paths are steep and the orchard rows are uneven. What we have done is make the essential route work.
This website
We target WCAG 2.2 AA: keyboard navigation throughout, visible focus, text that scales, alternative text on meaningful images, and captions on film.
Tell us
Write before you arrive and we will plan the stay around what you need rather than improvising on the day. Nothing you disclose is shared beyond the team looking after you.
Questions guests ask before booking
Is there mobile signal and Wi-Fi?
Fibre reaches the main house, the pavilion and every suite. There is deliberately none in the orchard, the meditation hall or the spa.
What is your cancellation policy?
Full refund more than fourteen days before arrival, including the deposit. From fourteen to seven days we keep the 30% deposit; inside seven days the first night is charged; a no-show or same-day cancellation is charged the full stay. If the reason is medical or the road is closed, call us: we move the booking rather than charge for it.
Can my parents come? They are in their seventies.
Yes. Chair practice runs daily, therapies are adapted at consultation, and there are two step-free rooms. We ask for a physician's note where there is hypertension, a recent surgery or anticoagulant medication — not to refuse, but so the therapists know the ceiling.
Do you serve meat or alcohol?
Neither. The kitchen is vegetarian and nothing on the menu pretends to be meat. We do not stock alcohol and ask guests not to bring it into the public rooms.
What is the food like if I am vegan or gluten-free?
Straightforward — most of the menu already is. Tell us at booking and the kitchen plans around it rather than substituting on the day. Kinnauri red rice, valley greens, dal, walnuts and curd from the village do most of the work.
Is there phone signal and wi-fi?
Wi-fi in the rooms and public areas, and mobile signal almost everywhere on the estate. There is none in the practice hall, deliberately. Guests on the digital-detox programmes hand their phones in and get them back whenever they ask.
Do you take children?
Every age. Under-12s eat from the same kitchen at an earlier sitting, and there is plenty to do in four acres. During silent programmes we will tell you honestly which weeks suit families and which do not.
What happens if I need to cancel?
Full refund more than fourteen days out, including the deposit. Inside that, see the booking policy — and if the reason is medical or the road is closed, call us; we move the booking rather than charge for it.
