TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Introduction

At Responsible Travel (responsibletravel.com Ltd), our aim is to help you find great trips that do good. Every vacation supports conservation and local communities, giving you a more enjoyable vacation as you get closer to both.

Our services

We don’t manage or operate the vacations ourselves. This is done by our partners – tour operators and accommodation providers. To make things easier for you – and as they design and run these trips on the ground - we put you directly in contact with them.

So when you book a vacation, your contract is only with them and you pay them directly.

Liabilities for referral service

Because of the service we provide and how we provide it, it’s important for you to understand the limitations of our liability. We’ve detailed these below. By reading these or using the site you are agreeing to these limitations in full and accept the application of English law to govern any matters that may arise between Responsible Travel and yourself.

a) Your vacation

We are not and do not act as a tour operator, travel arranger or organiser or as an agent for operators and accommodation owners. We make information about the operators and organisers available to you so that you can choose the right trip for you and so that you can liaise directly with them to book.

We do not take your money on their behalf or act as go between in any issues relating to your vacation. Your contract will be with them only and they are fully liable for every aspect of their vacation/accommodation that you buy, according to their own terms and conditions. So we strongly urge you to check these carefully in full before booking.

If the tour operator cancels your vacation they will refund you. There are also a variety of other ways you can protect your money, including taking out good travel insurance that includes supplier failure or travel organiser insolvency and paying with a credit card or Paypal. The tour operator may also have a bond in place to repay you if they cease trading – see below.

Responsible Travel does not accept any liability for or guarantee the quality and/or standard of any of the vacations or accommodations that you are sold by the tour operators/vacation providers that are featured on our website.

Responsible Travel makes every effort to ensure that the vacation and accommodation providers featured on our website comply with certain standards. But Responsible Travel is not liable in any way for the way these providers deliver your vacation or accommodation to you -this is governed solely by your contract with that specific tour operator or accommodation provider. Without limiting this general statement, Responsible Travel is not liable for any injury and/or damage to persons or property occurring during or because of any vacation or accommodation stay taken as a result of inquiries made through this website.

We will, however, support you in the very unlikely event that you are not completely satisfied with your vacation. Your contract is with the provider directly as they run the trip on the ground. So if there is a problem we firstly recommend talking to them at the earliest opportunity, preferably while still on vacation.

b) Your vacation protection

All vacations on Responsible Travel provided by a UK or EU based tour operator should either be formally bonded or operate a system of separate client accounts with external signatories (trust account), to provide you with financial security in the unlikely event that they should cease to trade. It is your responsibility to check this before you book with them. We strongly recommend that you speak to our partner about how they protect your money before you book with them.

Some of the vacations are provided by vacation operators based outside the UK or EU. As the protection of customers and monies paid to those vacation companies are different in each country we strongly encourage you to ensure you are happy and fully aware about how your money is protected directly with the company you are booking with. In any event we strongly recommend that you take out the best personal travel insurance you can afford, and one that covers supplier failure or for the insolvency of your travel provider.

When booking hotels and accommodation it is usual to pay after the completion of your stay or to only pay a small deposit before arrival. Payment via a credit card is often a good option as this may offer additional financial protection – it does under UK consumer credit laws. Please check if you receive additional protection via your method of payment where you are based.

c) Vacation partner responsible tourism practices

Vacations are made available on our website by hundreds of tour operators around the world. We vet them by their ability to fulfil a set of sustainability criteria, developed by us in accordance with leading worldwide responsible tourism practices and using the experience of our own highly qualified staff.

Again, we do our best to ensure that all our vacation partners abide by the policies they claim to follow. But we are not able to guarantee they always do. If we are alerted to bad practice by any of our vacation/accommodation partners, we will immediately investigate the matter and take appropriate action in advising them to correct these or removing them from the site.

d) Information on the site

We also rely on the information about our tour operator partners as supplied by them to use on our website. This includes all wording, content, and imagery. We are not able to assume responsibility for this information and we must disclaim all liability in respect of such information. Please check the information fully with the provider before you make any booking with them, including details of the proposed vacation/accommodation. And please note that prices shown on our site are for guidance only and prices quoted by our partner are relevant at the time of booking with them.

Responsible Travel is not liable for any injury and/or damage to persons or property caused by any actual or alleged libelous statements, infringements of intellectual property or privacy rights, or product liability, whether resulting from negligence or otherwise, including without limitation, from any use or operation of any ideas, instructions, procedures, products, or methods contained in the material published on the site. Responsible Travel is also not liable for any copyright infringements.

Recommendations

All recommendations by Responsible Travel regarding trips, properties and/or destinations are intended for the purpose of information and guidance only and all details should be checked with our partner before you make a booking with them. Whilst we may recommend some vacations for a specific purpose e.g., baby/child friendly products, none of the trips or properties is guaranteed as fully suitable for that purpose e.g. fully child safe or baby friendly, by Responsible Travel.

Featured tour operators

Although all information displayed on our site about our partners is expected to conform to the appropriate advertising standards, inclusion of such material on this site does not constitute a guarantee or endorsement of the quality or value of any providers or of the claims made by them. Users are advised to verify information with our partner prior to making any booking.

Copyright policy

The copyright in this website belongs to Responsible Travel except for content uploaded by vacation/accommodation providers which belong to those partners. All intellectual property rights are reserved. You may not modify copy, distribute, transmit, display, perform, reproduce, publish, license, create derivative works from, transfer or sell any information obtained from this website, except in the specific case of photographs sourced under the ShareAlike Creative Commons license. You may only download to your own personal computer for viewing purposes and print out pages from this website for your own personal use.

e) Health Advice

Any general health, passport, visa, insurance, Foreign & Commonwealth Office (in the UK) or other travel advice is not intended to be, nor is it to be treated as a substitute for, professional medical advice relative to a specific medical question or condition, or for checking the relevant entry requirements, passport, visa or other travel requirements applicable to the destination that you are intending visiting. ALWAYS seek the advice of your doctor for any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or requirements before considering a vacation or before traveling.

ALWAYS check the relevant entry requirements, passport, visa, health and travel requirements for the specific destination you intend traveling to, within good time before you travel.

Accessibility

We are unable to assume responsibility that your vacation is suitable for your requirements. Please speak to the tour operator or accommodation owner directly. For other advice please see our accessibility guide.

Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions and privacy policy.