The first decision is not the month or the hotel. It is whether this is a mosque trip at all.
Why that comes first
Because a trip organised by the mosque and a trip organised by somebody who prays there are different things, and the difference matters for the people on the committee.
What changes
If the mosque runs it, takes the money and puts its name to it, that is potentially an activity of the organisation, with everything that follows for trustees, accounts, insurance and safeguarding.
If individuals book direct with an operator and the mosque simply lets people know it is happening, most of that does not arise.
What we would suggest
The second. Individual bookings, paid direct, with the mosque as the place people heard about it rather than the party arranging it.
It is simpler, it is cleaner for the trustees, and the travellers get the same trip at the same price.
And the necessary caveat
We are a travel company. Nothing on this page is legal advice, and a committee with questions about its own obligations should speak to the Charity Commission or to its own advisers.
The short version Decide first whether this is a mosque activity or a private trip advertised at the mosque. Everything else follows from it. Individual bookings paid direct keep the mosque out of the middle and protect the committee. Safeguarding applies if under-eighteens travel without a parent or vulnerable adults travel at all. Check the mosque’s insurance before putting its name to anything. Nothing here is legal advice. Speak to the Charity Commission or your own advisers. |
Ask us how a committee booking works
The two structures
| | A mosque trip | A trip advertised at the mosque |
|---|
Who arranges it | The mosque or its committee | An operator, direct with each traveller |
Who holds the money | The mosque | The operator |
Whose name is on it | The mosque | The operator |
Trustee exposure | Something to consider | Minimal |
Accounting | Potentially through the accounts | Not the mosque’s money |
Insurance question | Does the policy cover it | Each traveller insures themselves |
What the traveller gets | The same trip | The same trip |
The point of that table
The right hand column gives the community exactly the same trip at exactly the same price, with considerably less for the committee to carry.
What the mosque still does
- Announces that a trip is happening
- Puts a notice up and mentions it at Jummah
- Nominates somebody to lead the group, if it wants to
- Answers questions about who is going
What it does not do
Take money, hold bookings, enter contracts with an operator, or carry the responsibility if something goes wrong.
Why we recommend it
Not because we prefer it commercially. It makes no difference to us who pays, and individual payments are more administration on our side rather than less.
We recommend it because a committee that has thought about this properly almost always arrives at the same conclusion, and it saves a difficult conversation later.
When a mosque trip is the right structure
Some mosques run trips deliberately as an organisational activity, with proper governance, budget approval and insurance in place.
That is entirely legitimate. It is a decision to take with your own advisers rather than one to arrive at by accident because somebody started collecting money.
What trustees should think about
Considerations rather than advice. Nothing here is a legal opinion and a committee should take its own.
Whether it is charity activity
If the mosque is a registered charity, activities carried out in its name generally need to sit within its objects and be properly authorised.
The question to ask
Does organising travel fall within what this organisation exists to do, and has the committee actually decided that it does?
Whether the money is charity income
If the mosque receives payments from travellers and pays an operator, that money has passed through the organisation and generally needs to be accounted for.
What that means practically
Bank records, receipts, and a line in the accounts. If the treasurer has not been told, that is a problem before it is anything else.
Whether trustees are exposed
Trustees have duties to the organisation and can carry responsibility for what it does. A trip that goes wrong, financially or otherwise, is something the committee has put its name to.
The honest framing
We are not going to tell you what the exposure is because we are not qualified to. We are telling you that it is a question worth asking before rather than after.
Whether the constitution allows it
Most mosque constitutions were written for running a place of worship rather than for organising travel. Worth reading before assuming.
Whether it needs a formal decision
If the committee is going to do this, it should be a minuted decision with a named person responsible, rather than something that happened because somebody volunteered.
Where to get proper guidance
The Charity Commission publishes extensive guidance for trustees, and your own accountant or solicitor will know your specific constitution.
Ask them. It costs very little and it is what they are for.
And the shortcut
Most of this does not arise if individuals book direct. That is the practical reason we recommend it rather than a legal one.
Safeguarding
The section nobody in this market has written, and a committee that has not thought about it should.
When it applies
If the trip includes under-eighteens travelling without a parent or guardian, or adults who may be vulnerable, that engages the mosque’s own safeguarding policy.
Why it matters here
Because a group trip abroad involves shared accommodation, adults supervising young people, and a week away from home. Those are exactly the circumstances a safeguarding policy exists for.
The questions to ask
- Are any travellers under eighteen without a parent? If so, who is responsible for them?
- Has that person been through the mosque’s usual checks? Whatever your policy requires.
- Who is the designated safeguarding lead and have they been told about the trip?
- What is the rooming arrangement for young people, and who signed it off?
- Are there vulnerable adults travelling, and what support have they been asked about?
- What is the reporting route if a concern arises while the group is away?
The simplest answer
Under-eighteens travel with a parent or guardian. That removes almost all of it and it is what most groups do anyway.
If that is not possible
Then it needs handling properly, through the mosque’s own policy and its designated lead, before the booking rather than after.
On vulnerable adults
Somebody with a significant health condition, a disability, or who needs support to travel is not a safeguarding problem. They are a traveller who needs the trip built around them.
Tell us at the enquiry and we will do that. Detail in our elderly and disabled guide.
And what we do
We are a travel company rather than a safeguarding authority. We can tell you what the rooming and supervision options are, and we cannot tell you whether your arrangements satisfy your policy.
That question belongs with your designated lead.
Insurance
The three separate questions
Question | Who it covers | Who arranges it |
|---|
Travel insurance | Each traveller | The traveller |
The mosque’s own policy | The organisation and its activities | The committee |
The operator’s protection | The booking itself | The operator |
Travel insurance
Every traveller needs their own, and it should declare all pre-existing conditions. An undeclared condition is the commonest reason a claim fails.
What a committee should do
Tell everybody it is their responsibility, in writing, and make it a condition of joining the group. Do not arrange it for them.
The mosque’s own policy
If the mosque is putting its name to the trip, the committee should check whether its existing policy covers organised travel.
The likely answer
Frequently not. Public liability and buildings cover for a place of worship is not the same as cover for organising a trip abroad.
What to do
Ask your broker before you announce anything, not after somebody asks the question at a committee meeting.
The operator’s financial protection
Ask any operator what protection applies to the booking and ask for the licence or membership number. Then check it yourself against the register of whichever body issued it.
Do not accept a logo
A badge on a website is not evidence. The number is, and checking it takes five minutes.
Why this matters more for a committee
Because thirty people are trusting the committee’s judgement rather than doing their own research, and if something goes wrong they will ask what was checked.
And the structural point again
If individuals book direct, each traveller has their own contract with the operator and their own protection. The mosque is not in the middle of any of it.
Getting it through the committee
The practical process, because a good idea that never gets approved is not a trip.
Do the work before the meeting
A committee cannot approve something vague. Arrive with dates, a price, a structure and an answer to the obvious questions.
What to bring
- Two or three possible windows with prices, because the month is worth more than anything else
- The proposed structure, which we would suggest is individual bookings direct
- Who is leading the group and what that involves
- The safeguarding position
- The insurance position
- A commitment deadline
The decision to ask for
Not approval to organise a trip. Permission to announce that a trip is available and to nominate a leader. That is a much smaller ask and it is usually the right one.
Get it minuted
Whatever is decided, minute it. What was approved, who is responsible, and what structure was agreed.
Committees turn over and a minuted decision survives a change of membership in a way a conversation does not.
Name one person
Who owns the trip from start to finish regardless of who is on the committee at any point.
Why that matters
A trip planned by one committee and delivered by another is where things get dropped, and it is a common failure in community organisations.
Set the deadline at the same time
Announce the trip and the commitment deadline together. Announcing first and setting a deadline later is why most community trips run late.
And decide the month before you announce
The month is worth up to £700 per person. Ask us what is cheapest across your possible windows, then announce a date you have already checked.
Announcing a date and pricing it afterwards is doing it backwards.
The structure we would recommend
Plainly, so a committee can adopt it as written.
The arrangement
- The mosque announces that a trip is available on specific dates, with a named leader.
- Each traveller books individually with the operator and pays their own £99 deposit.
- Each traveller pays their own balance direct, by instalments if they want them.
- The operator holds the rooms together so the group stays in one hotel on the same flights.
- The leader has a single point of contact at the operator who can see the whole booking.
- The mosque holds no money and enters no contract.
What the committee gets
A trip for its community, a leader it nominated, and no financial exposure, no accounting question and no contract.
What the leader gets
Oversight of the whole group without collecting a penny from anybody, and somebody at the operator who knows the booking.
What the travellers get
Their own booking, their own confirmation, their own protection, and the ability to pay monthly if that helps.
Why the last one matters
Because £40 a month is affordable for a great many people who could not find £499 in one payment, and it widens who from your community can come.
What we get
More administration than a single group payment would be, which is a fair trade for a structure that works properly.
The one thing to agree in advance
What happens if somebody drops out. Rooms are configured in fours and a dropout changes the configuration, so a reserve list of two or three people solves it in a day.
Full detail in our mosque groups post.
What we do for committees
Hold rooms while you decide
On a provisional basis and within reason, so you can announce with confidence rather than pricing after the fact. Tell us early what you are considering.
Price the windows
Give us two or three possible sets of dates and we will tell you what each costs before you take it to the committee.
Take individual payments
From every traveller, with individual deposits and individual instalments, so no money passes through the mosque or the leader.
A single point of contact
Somebody who can see the whole group and answer a question about any traveller in it, rather than a general enquiry line.
Keep the group together
Same hotel, same flights, and same floors where the property allows it.
Build around the party
Older travellers closer in, families in their own quads, and any specific needs accommodated if you tell us at the enquiry.
Answer the questions in writing
Property names, distances in metres, gate names, flight numbers, inclusions and exclusions, and cancellation terms. All of it before you announce anything, so the committee is approving something specific.
And tell you honestly when something will not work
If we cannot get your group into the hotels you want on the dates you want, we will say so rather than promising and adjusting later.
For a committee putting its name to a trip, that matters more than the price does.
The month, and why it decides the budget
The range
The same seven night trip runs from £499 to £1,199 per person depending entirely on when it is.
Window | Per person | A group of 24 pays |
|---|
January, November, October | From £499 | From £11,976 |
Ramadan, first ten nights | From £749 | From £17,976 |
Christmas | From £799 | From £19,176 |
Ramadan, last ten nights | From £1,199 | From £28,776 |
What that shows
The same group in the same rooms pays £16,800 more in the last ten nights of Ramadan than in January.
The committee decision
If your community is flexible on dates, that is the single biggest lever available and it dwarfs everything else on this page.
If Ramadan is the point
The first ten nights at £749 rather than the last ten at £1,199. The reward is widely understood to apply across the whole month, and it is £450 per person less with a better hotel.
For a group with older members
November or January. Comfortable walking at every hour, the longest nights of the year, and the quietest Haram in the calendar.
And for a first-time group
The same two months. A quiet Haram is a much better place for twenty people who have never done this to learn the rites.
The full comparison
Every month on price, weather and crowds is in our best time guide.
Group prices
Group size | Configuration | Per person | Total |
|---|
12 | Three quads | From £499 | From £5,988 |
16 | Four quads | From £499 | From £7,984 |
20 | Five quads | From £499 | From £9,980 |
24 | Six quads | From £499 | From £11,976 |
40 | Ten quads | From £499 | From £19,960 |
Seven nights, adult rates, off-peak, quad sharing. Children two to eleven pay a reduced rate. Includes return flights, both hotels named in writing with the distance in metres and the nearest gate, the Saudi Umrah visa, all three transfers and guided Ziyarat in both cities. Held with a £99 deposit per person, paid individually.
There is no volume discount
Forty people pay the same per person as four, because the quad rate is what a room costs divided by four. Any operator offering a group discount is discounting from a higher starting price.
Multiples of four
A group of twenty-four pays £499 each. A group of twenty-one pays £520 each, because the twenty-first person opens a room.
The practical point for a committee
Getting from twenty-one to twenty-four is worth £441 across the group, and it means three more people from your community go.
Longer trips
Ten nights at £545, fourteen at £625 and twenty-one days at £789. For a group with older members, ten nights allows a slower pace than seven.
The deposits
£99 per person, paid individually. A group of twenty-four is £2,376 in total and none of it passes through the mosque.
The instalments
Interest free across the months to eight weeks before departure, when booked four or more months ahead. Around £40 a month on a £499 package booked ten months out.
How we price
We check comparable UK packages every month and sit £20 under the lowest we can find for the same nights and the same hotel tier.
What to do now
- Decide the structure first. A mosque trip or a trip advertised at the mosque. Everything follows from that one decision.
- Take advice if you are unsure. The Charity Commission publishes trustee guidance and your own accountant knows your constitution.
- Check the insurance position before putting the mosque’s name to anything.
- Ask the safeguarding questions if any under-eighteens are travelling without a parent.
- Price two or three windows before you announce. The month is worth up to £700 per person.
- Get it minuted, with one named person responsible from start to finish.
- Announce the trip and the deadline together, not one and then the other.
The one that matters most
The first. Almost every difficulty on this page disappears if individuals book direct and the mosque simply announces that the trip exists.
And the one committees skip
The third. Public liability cover for a place of worship is not cover for organising travel, and it is a question worth asking a broker before it becomes a question at a meeting.
The summary
Decide the structure before anything else
A mosque trip and a trip advertised at the mosque are different things, and the difference matters for the people on the committee.
Individual bookings keep the mosque out of the middle
No money held, no contract entered, no accounting question, and the travellers get exactly the same trip at the same price.
Safeguarding applies and nobody mentions it
If under-eighteens travel without a parent, or vulnerable adults travel at all, that engages the mosque’s own policy and its designated lead.
Check the insurance before you announce
The mosque’s existing policy frequently does not cover organised travel, and the operator’s financial protection needs verifying against the register rather than accepting a logo.
And the month is the budget
The same group pays £11,976 in January and £28,776 in the last ten nights of Ramadan. Price the windows before you announce a date.
Ask us to price your windows
Related reading
Come to us before the meeting
Give us two or three possible sets of dates and a rough number, and we will tell you what each costs and what we can hold.
Then the committee is approving something specific rather than an idea, and you are announcing a date you have already checked rather than one you have to price afterwards.
Packages Umrah WhatsApp or call: +44 7737 144 335 Office: 7 Huxley Avenue, Manchester, M8 0SJ English and Urdu. Same-day quotes. From £499pp on quad sharing. Individual £99 deposits, so no money passes through the mosque. Trading name of Uraan Travel Ltd. |
Ask us to price your windows
For committees: 63 questions answered
Grouped by topic. Direct answer first. Nothing here is legal advice and a committee with questions about its own obligations should take its own.
The structure
What is the first decision?
Whether this is a mosque trip or a trip advertised at the mosque. Everything else follows from it.
What is the difference?
Whether the mosque arranges it, holds the money and puts its name to it, or whether individuals book direct and the mosque simply announces it.
Which do you recommend?
Individual bookings paid direct. Simpler, cleaner for the trustees, and the travellers get the same trip at the same price.
Does it cost the travellers more?
Not a penny. Same trip, same price, same hotels, same flights.
What does the mosque still do?
Announces the trip, puts a notice up, nominates a leader if it wants to, and answers questions about who is going.
What does it not do?
Take money, hold bookings, enter contracts, or carry the responsibility if something goes wrong.
Is a mosque trip ever the right structure?
Some mosques run trips deliberately with proper governance, budget approval and insurance. That is legitimate and it is a decision to take deliberately rather than arrive at by accident.
Do you prefer individual payments commercially?
No. It is more administration on our side. We recommend it because committees that think it through arrive there anyway.
Trustee considerations
Is a trip charity activity?
If the mosque is a registered charity, activities in its name generally need to sit within its objects and be properly authorised. Ask your own advisers.
Is the money charity income?
If the mosque receives payments and pays an operator, that money has passed through the organisation and generally needs accounting for.
What does that mean practically?
Bank records, receipts and a line in the accounts. If the treasurer has not been told, that is a problem before it is anything else.
Are trustees exposed?
Trustees have duties and can carry responsibility for what the organisation does. We are not qualified to tell you the extent, only that it is worth asking.
Does the constitution allow it?
Most mosque constitutions were written for running a place of worship rather than organising travel. Worth reading before assuming.
Should there be a formal decision?
If the committee is doing this, it should be a minuted decision with a named person responsible.
Where do we get proper guidance?
The Charity Commission publishes trustee guidance, and your own accountant or solicitor knows your specific constitution.
Is this page legal advice?
No. We are a travel company describing what a committee should think about.
What is the shortcut?
Most of it does not arise if individuals book direct.
Safeguarding
When does safeguarding apply?
If under-eighteens travel without a parent or guardian, or if adults who may be vulnerable travel.
Why does it apply on a trip?
Shared accommodation, adults supervising young people, and a week away from home are exactly the circumstances a policy exists for.
What should we ask?
Who is responsible for any under-eighteens, whether they have been through your usual checks, who the designated lead is, and what the reporting route is while away.
What is the simplest answer?
Under-eighteens travel with a parent or guardian. That removes almost all of it and it is what most groups do anyway.
And if that is not possible?
It needs handling through the mosque’s own policy and its designated lead, before the booking rather than after.
Is a vulnerable adult a safeguarding problem?
No. They are a traveller who needs the trip built around them. Tell us at the enquiry and we will do that.
Can you advise on our arrangements?
We can tell you the rooming and supervision options. We cannot tell you whether they satisfy your policy, and that belongs with your designated lead.
Insurance
What insurance is involved?
Three separate things. Each traveller’s own travel insurance, the mosque’s own policy, and the operator’s financial protection.
Who arranges travel insurance?
Each traveller. Tell everybody it is their responsibility in writing and make it a condition of joining.
Should the committee arrange it?
No. Individual policies, individually declared, with all pre-existing conditions disclosed.
Does the mosque policy cover a trip?
Frequently not. Public liability and buildings cover for a place of worship is not cover for organising travel abroad.
What should we do?
Ask your broker before you announce anything, not after somebody raises it at a meeting.
How do we check the operator?
Ask what protection applies and ask for the licence or membership number, then check it against the register of the issuing body.
Is a logo on a website enough?
No. The number is, and checking it takes five minutes.
Why does it matter more for a committee?
Because your community is trusting the committee’s judgement rather than doing its own research.
Getting it approved
What should we bring to the meeting?
Two or three windows with prices, the proposed structure, who is leading, the safeguarding position, the insurance position, and a commitment deadline.
What decision should we ask for?
Not approval to organise a trip. Permission to announce that a trip is available and to nominate a leader. A much smaller ask.
Should it be minuted?
Always. What was approved, who is responsible, and what structure was agreed.
Why does that matter?
Committees turn over and a minuted decision survives a change of membership in a way a conversation does not.
Who should own it?
One named person from start to finish, regardless of who is on the committee at any point.
What is the common failure?
A trip planned by one committee and delivered by another. The handover is where things get dropped.
When should we set the deadline?
At the same time as announcing the trip. Announcing first and setting a deadline later is why most community trips run late.
When should we decide the month?
Before announcing anything. The month is worth up to £700 per person.
The recommended structure
What is the arrangement?
The mosque announces, each traveller books individually and pays their own deposit and balance direct, and we hold the rooms together.
What does the committee get?
A trip for its community, a leader it nominated, and no financial exposure, accounting question or contract.
What does the leader get?
Oversight of the whole group without collecting a penny, and a contact at the operator who knows the booking.
What do travellers get?
Their own booking, their own confirmation, their own protection, and the ability to pay monthly.
Why do instalments matter?
Because £40 a month is affordable for people who could not find £499 in one payment, and it widens who from your community can come.
What should we agree in advance?
What happens if somebody drops out. A reserve list of two or three people solves it in a day.
Why do dropouts matter?
Rooms are configured in fours and a dropout changes the configuration for that room.
What we do
Will you hold rooms while we decide?
On a provisional basis and within reason. Tell us early what you are considering.
Will you price several windows?
Give us two or three sets of dates and we will tell you what each costs before you take it to the committee.
Will you take individual payments?
From every traveller, so no money passes through the mosque or the leader.
Do we get a single contact?
Somebody who can see the whole group and answer a question about any traveller in it.
Will the group stay together?
Same hotel, same flights, and same floors where the property allows it.
Can you accommodate specific needs?
Older travellers closer in, families in their own quads, and anything else if you tell us at the enquiry.
What will you put in writing?
Property names, distances in metres, gate names, flight numbers, inclusions and exclusions, and cancellation terms.
Will you tell us if something will not work?
Rather than promising and adjusting later. For a committee putting its name to a trip that matters more than the price.
Prices
Is there a group discount?
No. Forty people pay the same per person as four.
What does a group of twenty-four cost?
From £499 each, so from £11,976 for seven nights at three star.
Why multiples of four?
Twenty-four pays £499 each and twenty-one pays £520 each, because the twenty-first person opens a room.
What is that worth?
£441 across the group, and it means three more people from your community go.
How much does the month change it?
A group of twenty-four pays £11,976 in January and £28,776 in the last ten nights of Ramadan.
What if Ramadan is the point?
The first ten nights at £749 rather than the last ten at £1,199.
What about older members?
November or January, and ten nights rather than seven to allow a slower pace.
What are the deposits?
£99 per person paid individually. A group of twenty-four is £2,376 and none of it passes through the mosque.
Related reading
Come to us before the meeting
Give us two or three possible sets of dates and a rough number, and we will tell you what each costs and what we can hold.
Then the committee is approving something specific rather than an idea, and you are announcing a date you have already checked rather than one you have to price afterwards.
Packages Umrah WhatsApp or call: +44 7737 144 335 Office: 7 Huxley Avenue, Manchester, M8 0SJ English and Urdu. Same-day quotes. From £499pp on quad sharing. Individual £99 deposits, so no money passes through the mosque. Trading name of Uraan Travel Ltd. |
Ask us to price your windows
