Booking terms, including the uncomfortable parts

Who this contract is between

This contract is between demo_legal_entity_name, international tour operator licence demo_tour_operator_licence_no ("we") and the person who makes the booking ("you"). The lead traveller is responsible for everyone in the party, including passing on what is in this document.

These terms take effect when you pay a deposit. Read them before you transfer money rather than afterwards.

How a booking is made, and when it binds

1. You receive a quotation and an itinerary. A quotation holds nothing.
2. You confirm and we issue a 30% deposit invoice.
3. A contract exists when the deposit reaches our account and we send written confirmation. From that moment the confirmed itinerary is the operative document.
4. The balance is due no later than 30 days before arrival.

The confirmed itinerary issued with your invoice is the only version that counts. Email exchanges, drafts and the pages of this website do not replace it.

Prices, and what sits outside them

Your price is fixed in writing before the deposit and does not change afterwards, with three exceptions: you change the programme; a government tax or fee changes; or the party size differs from the one the price was built on.

Unless your itinerary says otherwise the price does not include international flights, visa fees, travel insurance, meals not listed by name, drinks, laundry, personal spending or tips.

If you change the trip

• Minor changes more than 30 days out: normally free.
• Changing the departure date: treated as a cancellation and rebooking under the bands below.
• Changing a traveller's name: possible where the domestic airline allows it. Vietnamese low-cost carriers usually do not permit name changes.
• Reducing the party size: the per-person price rises, because the vehicle and guide are divided among fewer people. We requote in writing first.

Any change with a cost is confirmed in writing before it is incurred, including while you are travelling.

If we change the trip

We may have to change an itinerary. Two categories:

• Minor changes — a same-category hotel, a reordering of days, a different time for a site visit. We tell you; no compensation is due.
• Major changes — removing a principal destination, downgrading hotel category, or moving the departure by more than 24 hours. You may accept the alternative, or cancel and receive a full refund of everything paid to us.

A set departure that does not reach 4 travellers is cancelled with 45 days notice.

If you cancel

Cancellations must be in writing. The band is set by the date we receive it, not the date you decided.

Force majeure — weather and everything else nobody controls

Typhoons, flooding, a provincial order suspending bay sailings, airport closures, epidemics, strikes and conflict are outside the control of both parties.

In those situations we rebuild the affected days on the ground and refund the difference on any service that could not run. We do not refund days that took place, and we do not carry your costs outside the programme — that is what travel insurance is for.

We reserve the right to cancel a day's activity on safety grounds even if you want to go. That call belongs to the guide on the ground and is not negotiable.

Insurance, passports, visas and health

• Travel insurance is mandatory. We require written confirmation that you hold it before final documents are issued. We do not sell insurance, because selling it would put us on the wrong side of your claim.
• Passports and visas are your responsibility. We check and advise for your nationality, but a traveller refused entry on a passport with under six months validity is not refunded.
• Medical conditions and mobility limits must be declared at booking. Undeclared conditions that make part of the programme impossible are not refunded.
• Severe food allergies must be declared. In some cases we will decline a street-food-heavy itinerary, because it is a risk we cannot control in a stall kitchen.

Conduct during the trip

A guide may end a traveller's participation where their behaviour endangers others, harasses anyone, or breaks Vietnamese law. No refund is due and repatriation costs are the traveller's own.

This clause is almost never used. It exists because the other eleven people in the group have also paid.

Limits of our liability

We are responsible for arranging and delivering the services in your confirmed itinerary, and for reasonable care in choosing suppliers.

We are not responsible for third-party acts outside the programme, loss of personal property, airline schedule changes, medical costs, or indirect losses. Our liability in any circumstance is limited to the amount you paid for the trip.

Complaints

1. On the ground, during the trip. Tell your guide or call the 24-hour number. Most problems can only be fixed while you are still there.
2. In writing within 28 days of the trip ending, to the address on our contact page.
3. We reply within 5 working days and tell you plainly where we think we were wrong and where we do not.

Data, governing law and language

• How we handle personal data is set out in our privacy policy.
• This contract is governed by the law of Vietnam.
• The English text is the operative version; translations are for convenience.
• Effective from demo_effective_date.

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