Responsible Travel terms and conditions of partnership

The appearance of your company's products on Responsible Travel or agreed associated sites constitutes your agreement to the following terms and conditions of membership to Responsible Travel. Please read carefully.

Overview of operators' responsibilities
We're sure you understand that our business and our ability to continue delivering more and more business to you requires that a number of key responsibilities are adhered to:

• Ensuring accuracy of information shown on your pages of the Responsible Travel website(s).
• Responding swiftly to inquiries made to you through our website(s), at the very latest within two working days.
• Declare to us all bookings made by inquirers promptly.
• Not adding any additional cost to vacations for customers coming through Responsible Travel or any associated sites.
• Paying invoices within seven working days of receipt.
• For commercial reasons partners' names are not to be mentioned on the vacation pages

We aim to maintain a constant dialogue with our partners and resolve any issues promptly. If any partners are not fulfilling their obligations then this may result in their pages being removed from the site until any problems are rectified.

These responsibilities are outlined in detail below:

Declaring Bookings – Commissions Due

1. Partners agree to declare in full, details of all bookings made with them by persons who have inquired about their vacations through the Responsible Travel website and any websites owned and operated by Responsible Travel.
2. For commission paying operators and accommodation owners, commission is due.
   • On all bookings arising as a result of leads generated, where Responsible Travel (or associated sites) was the first point of contact, whether this person books directly or via an agent, in cases where sales staff have not been able to close the sale. We are happy to discuss any individual exceptional cases on request
   • We encourage cross selling, in many instances the customer may book an entirely different trip.
   • Commission is due even in instances where subsequently they have also contacted you direct, which can happen as your name is revealed to them once they have sent an inquiry to you.
   • Commission is due in cases where that person is on your database, if that person is making a new inquiry through Responsible Travel (or associated sites).
   • Commission is still due on the booking value in cases when a client cancels (i.e. late in your booking process) and you have retained their funds.
3. Partners agree to declare the total value, the date of departure, the number of guests in the party and the number of nights booked using the Responsible Travel console system.
4. These should preferably be declared at the time a booking is made or at least by the last working day of every month.
5. We are committed to assisting you in every way to complete the console on time, however partners agree that failure to declare bookings as above on a persistent basis will result in their product being removed from the site and forfeiture of their membership fee. We also reserve the right to charge the partner any anticipated but undeclared commissions. This may be calculated using the site average conversion rate and site average booking value which may be considerably higher than your member specific rates. There may also be an admin fee levied.
6. Please note that Responsible Travel contacts all site visitors who make an inquiry as a routine check on booking status.

Ensuring the information on your pages is accurate

It is the responsibility of all partners to check that the details on their pages are accurate and up to date throughout the period of their membership.

Responding to Inquiries

1. Inquiries can be time sensitive, people enquiring through the internet have expectations of receiving a speedy response. We strongly recommend at least a same day response to any inquiries we send to you. We do ask that partners respond within a maximum time of two working days.
2. Please note that we occasionally carry out mystery shopper surveys to determine best practices that we can share with other members.
3. We are committed to working with you to achieve a high level of service. In the event of any complaints of the responses provided we will try to find a solution with you.

However if response time and quality continue to fall below the above timing and acceptable quality (as outlined in our best practice document) despite our working together to rectify any issues, partners agree that we reserve the right to remove their pages from the site and that in this event they will forfeit the annual membership fee. We reserve the right to remove an operator when their conversion rate falls below 4% once they have received 100 inquiries.

Bonding

It is a condition of membership that each operator gives us details of how they protect their customers money in the event that they cease trading. If the operator is based in the UK or EU the involves how they adhere to this 1992 EU package vacation directive. If the bonding details change during the membership period the new details must be forwarded to Responsible Travel.

International Flights and International Rail Travel

Under no circumstances are local operators (ie tour operators not based in the UK) to book international flights for our clients, or take money from them for international flights and use a local travel agent. This adds a large financial risk to a booking. The same goes for international rail tickets, that are normally even more expensive than flights.

Product Quality

1. As part of your membership you have developed and committed to a responsible travel policy. We encourage feedback from all those who book a vacation having found it on the Responsible Travel site(s), to ensure that those high standards are maintained.
2. In the event of a complaint made to us, we commit to discussing the issues raised fully with the partner concerned to determine whether the complaint was justified and to determine if the policies to which each partner has committed are being adhered to.
3. Partners agree that if product quality and adherence to responsible travel policies are not maintained, then we reserve the right to remove that partner's pages or particular page from the site and in this event members will forfeit their annual membership.
4. Customer should not pay more for vacations if they book via Responsible Travel.

Liability

1. Partners accept all responsibility and liability for their vacations and for their customers and agree that Responsible Travel has no liability.
2. Responsible Travel accepts no liability for any activity or behaviour of any persons who have made an inquiry through the site or for any behaviour or activity of persons booking and staying with members.
3. Responsible Travel accepts no liability for any of the information supplied to us by partners for publishing on the site(s).

Invoicing and Payment

• Membership invoices will be issued once your Responsible Tourism policy has been passed and you agree to join and are payable once the partners product appears on the site.
• Commission is calculated automatically when bookings are declared via the console and invoices will be raised in the month of departure.

Please note:

• All invoices will be raised in pounds sterling and will have UK VAT added where applicable.
• All invoices are payable in pounds sterling.
• All invoices are payable within 7 days of receipt.
• Please arrange the best method of payment to ensure that these payment terms are achieved.
• When paying by bank transfer, partners agree to cover the cost of their own bank charges where applicable.
• Partners agree that failure to pay invoices within this time period, may result in their product being removed from the site and forfeiture of their membership fee.
• We reserve the right to charge interest on overdue invoices. Any interest charged will be at the statutory rate.

Images, Video and Photography Usage

1. Partners are asked to provide photographic images and videos for use in promoting their product. It is the partners' responsibility to ensure that the images they provide are an accurate representation of their product and that they have all relevant licenses in place for the reproduction of such. Partners agree that if we receive any infringement notices or complaints regarding copyright issues these will be passed on to you the partner for you to resolve directly.
2. Responsible Travel may wish to use these photographic images or videos for other uses in marketing a partners product other than just on the Responsible Travel website. Partners agree that all images or videos provided can be used in other forms of marketing on Responsible Travel, but outside Responsible Travel only when expressly connected to the partner's product, without prior approval.