Terms of Service

Who You Book With

Chicago Airport Black Car is a booking website of Royal Carriage Limousine LLC, the Illinois company that performs and bills your trip. This page summarizes our Terms of Service and Cancellation & Service Agreement (PDF). Where this summary and those documents differ, those documents control.

How You Accept These Terms

You accept these terms when you accept the terms box in our online booking form, pay a quote, invoice or payment link we send you, confirm a booking by phone, text or email after we send you a link to these terms, or ride in a vehicle dispatched for your reservation. The person who books accepts for every passenger in the party and confirms they are 18 or older and authorized to use the payment card.

Quotes, Pricing & Availability

• A quote is an estimate, not a reservation. Every quote is subject to our review and to vehicle and chauffeur availability until we confirm the trip with a confirmation number.
• A quote is valid for 7 days, or until the vehicle is booked by someone else, whichever comes first.
• If a quote or confirmation contains a pricing error, or the vehicle becomes unavailable before your trip, we offer the corrected price or a vehicle of the same class. If you decline, or we can offer neither, we cancel and refund 100% of what you paid for that trip.
• Once confirmed, the price changes only if you change the trip (date, time, route, hours, stops, passengers or vehicle).
• Your quote shows the total before you pay, including any date premium (Saturdays, holidays and peak dates), taxes, fees and optional extras you add. Tolls, parking and airport fees incurred on your trip are billed at cost.
• We never charge or add a gratuity.

Cancellation Policy

Cancellation windows depend on the vehicle and are measured back from the scheduled pickup time, Chicago time. A cancellation takes effect when we receive it by phone at (224) 801-3090, by email or by reply to your confirmation, and we confirm it in writing.

Sedans & SUVs

• 72 hours or more before pickup: full refund
• At least 24 but less than 72 hours: 50% charge
• Less than 24 hours or no-show: full fare

Stretch Limousines, Sprinters, Party Buses, Trolleys & Coaches

• 14 days or more before pickup: full refund
• At least 7 but less than 14 days: 50% refund
• At least 72 hours but less than 7 days: 25% refund
• Less than 72 hours or no-show: full fare

Weddings, Corporate Events & Multi-Vehicle Bookings

• 30% non-refundable deposit at booking; final balance due 14 days before the event
• 30 days or more before the event: deposit kept, the rest refunded
• At least 14 but less than 30 days: deposit plus 50% of the remaining balance
• Less than 14 days or no-show: full event total

Cancellation fees are waived in full when the National Weather Service has issued a Blizzard, Ice Storm or Tornado Warning for your pickup time and county, when a government authority closes the roads on your route or orders people not to travel, or when your airline cancels your flight. Delayed flights are not cancellations: we track arrivals and adjust pickup at no change fee. Other weather, traffic, or a third party cancelling your event are not waiver events.

Wait Time & Extra Time

• Airport pickups: 60 minutes complimentary wait after the chauffeur arrives
• All other pickups: 15 minutes complimentary after the scheduled pickup or chauffeur arrival, whichever is later
• After that, wait is $1 per minute for sedans and SUVs and $2 per minute for larger vehicles
• Hourly trips: the booked hours are the minimum; extra time is billed in 15-minute increments at the hourly rate

Vehicle Breakdowns & Substitutions

Vehicles are machines and can break down despite scheduled maintenance. If a vehicle has a mechanical problem, we contact you as soon as reasonably possible and try to provide a substitute of the same class and marque. If we can offer only a lower class, you may refuse it for a full refund or accept it and get the price difference back. If your reservation named a specific vehicle and we cannot provide it or one of the same class and marque, we refund the full fare on request. If no vehicle arrives within 30 minutes of the scheduled pickup time because of us, you may cancel for a full refund. If we cannot perform part of the service, we refund the unperformed portion. We may cancel a confirmed trip for safety or when we cannot provide a vehicle, and we then refund 100% of what you paid for that trip.

Delays & Events Beyond Our Control

We are not liable for delay or failure caused by events outside our reasonable control, including severe weather, traffic, road closures, accidents, police or government action, airport restrictions, strikes, public-health orders and network or utility outages. If such an event stops the trip, we refund the unperformed portion.

Limitation of Liability

Our liability for a delay, breakdown, substitution or cancellation is limited to a refund of the fare collected for the affected trip. We are not liable for indirect or consequential losses, such as a missed flight, event or ceremony, or third-party costs like photography, venue or ticket fees. Nothing here limits liability that Illinois law does not permit us to limit, including for personal injury caused by our negligence.

Passenger Conduct & Charges After the Trip

Passengers are expected to treat vehicles and chauffeurs with respect. Smoking and vaping are prohibited in all vehicles, and no one under 21 may drink alcohol aboard. The chauffeur may end a trip for unsafe, illegal or abusive behavior, without refund of the unused time, after letting the party out at a safe, lit public place. Cleaning, damage, smoking, extra time and extra stops are charged to the card on file; we send an itemized notice (with photos for cleaning or damage) within 48 hours of the trip, and you may dispute it with us within 7 days of that notice.

Illinois Law & Which Terms Control

Illinois law governs these terms. Venue is the state or federal courts in Cook County, Illinois, except that either party may bring a claim in small-claims court where it qualifies. A verbal statement does not change these terms unless we confirm it in writing. The version in effect when you book governs that booking. If any part of these terms is unenforceable, the rest still applies.

Problems, Disputes & Reviews

If anything is wrong during the trip (a late or wrong vehicle, a cleanliness, comfort or conduct issue), tell the chauffeur or call (224) 801-3090 right away. Most problems can only be fixed while they are happening, and a problem we were not told about when we could have fixed it is harder to verify and correct. After the trip, email us within 7 days after the scheduled drop-off with the reservation number, the trip date and what happened; this written notice, and a fair chance to make it right, is a condition of any service-quality refund or credit. We acknowledge within 1 business day and answer in writing within 5 business days. This does not limit any right the law (including the federal Fair Credit Billing Act) or your card network gives you.

Please contact us before disputing a charge; we can usually fix it faster. For a trip performed as booked we send the card issuer the booking agreement, your acceptance record, receipts, messages, the dispatch stamps and, where available, the vehicle's GPS record. If the issuer decides in our favor the charge stands, we may decline future bookings from an account that disputes trips it received, and an amount still owed may be pursued through lawful collection. If we find we made a mistake, we refund it without waiting for the dispute to finish.

We welcome honest reviews on any site, positive or negative. If something went wrong, we ask (but do not require) that you contact us first so we can put it right. Nothing in these terms restricts or penalizes an honest review, no fee ever applies because of a review, and we never make a refund or credit conditional on removing or changing one.

Safety, Trip Details & Payment

You are responsible for an accurate pickup address and time, flight number, passenger count, luggage and a phone number that works on the day of travel; if wrong information causes a late or missed pickup, the cancellation and no-show terms apply. If the party is late to the vehicle, adds stops, or chooses a pickup time later than we recommend, we are not responsible for a missed flight or event. The chauffeur may refuse passengers over the booked count or the vehicle's seated capacity, or a passenger so intoxicated that they are a safety risk. Passengers under 18 travel with a responsible adult unless we agree otherwise in writing. Service animals ride with their handler at no charge; other pets need our approval in advance. Vehicles may have cameras that record video and GPS location for safety and dispute resolution; we do not record audio of private conversations without consent. If anyone is hurt or the vehicle is in an accident, tell the chauffeur, call us and seek medical care.

The person or company that books is responsible for all charges. We may ask the cardholder to confirm a booking before we dispatch, and if we cannot verify the payment we cancel and refund the card in full. We keep found items for 30 days for free pickup by appointment; except where the law says otherwise, we are not responsible for items left in a vehicle. At times we arrange a trip with a licensed and insured partner operator in a vehicle of the class you booked; these terms still apply, and you deal with us about the booking.

Contact

Questions about these terms? Call (224) 801-3090 or email info@royalcarriagelimo.com.