Welcome To Travel
Booking Terms & Conditions
Last Updated: 23 October 2023
Important to Note
Please read these booking conditions carefully, they form an important part of the contract for your holiday.
All services advertised on our website are provided by Welcome to Travel. In these terms and conditions, ‘Welcome to Travel’, ‘the company’, ’we’, ‘us’ or ‘our’ will refer to To. Travel Australia Pty. Ltd., an Australian limited company headquartered at:
812b George St
Haymarket
NSW
2000
Australia
The services are sold subject to the following Booking Terms and Conditions, which shall be valid as an agreement between you and the company.
Insurance
We highly recommend that you take out travel insurance for your trip to Australia, to cover you in any unforeseen or emergency situations. World Nomads are a well regarded and globally reputable company to purchase through. Here is a link to a travel insurance calculator.
Visa and Passport
It is your responsibility to ensure that you have the correct passport and visa(s) to gain access to any country/region included in the travel arrangements which you purchase from us including, but not limited to, ensuring that your passport has the required period of validity left on it.
For more information please visit: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-finder
Flight Booking
Please note that Welcome to Travel does not sell flight tickets and cannot purchase these on your behalf. The company provides a range of services related to traveling in Australia, but we are not an airline. It is your responsibility, whether as an agent or customer, to book your client’s or your own transportation to Australia.
1. How to Book Welcome To Travel
1.1. Lead passenger. Bookings should be made online via our website welcometo.travel. The person making the booking (the ‘lead passenger’) must be 18 years old or over and possess the legal capacity and authority to make the booking and accept these booking conditions on behalf of everyone in their party.Â
All those taking part in the activities organised by Welcome To Travel must be between 18 and 39 years old. Whether you book alone or as a group, we will deal with the lead name and anyone else who adds their email to the booking confirmation in all subsequent correspondence, including changes, amendments and cancellations.
However, the lead name is responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the personal details. If any other information is supplied, it will be directed to all persons travelling on such booking, including but not limited to information on schedule changes or copies of booking confirmations.
1.2. Deposit & payment. If you are looking to confirm your place on a tour date, a deposit will be required at the time of booking. If you place a deposit to secure your place (instead of paying the full amount up front), you will be sent a payment request to pay the balance.
Different tours have different deposit amounts but all final payment requirements are the same:
All tours are required to be paid 42 days before the start date to avoid cancellation.
Full payment will be required at the time of booking if you make your initial booking within the final payment dates.
56 Days: Full payment requested.
49 Days: Full payment requested.
42 Days: Final notice before cancellation.
EG If you’re booking on to the Welcome to Melbourne within 56 days, you will be expected to pay the full amount.
If the tour balance is not paid within 42 days of the tour start date, we reserve the right to cancel the booking.
1.3. Confirmation Invoice. If we accept your booking, we will send a confirmation email to the email used for the booking. A contract will exist between you, the customer, and us, the company, from the date we issue this confirmation. When you receive the confirmation email, please check the details carefully and inform us immediately if anything is incorrect. Names on travel documents must exactly match those in your passports. The contract will be subject exclusively to these terms and conditions.
1.4. Medical conditions and analogous. Your personal safety is of paramount importance to us and therefore it is imperative that you advise us at the time of booking of any conditions, medical or otherwise, as well as dietary restrictions that you may have and/or that might affect you or other passengers during the tour. You will have the opportunity to disclose this information when we send out a form close to your departure date, but you can contact us at [email protected] beforehand if you prefer.
1.5 Open Dated Tickets When you are ready to confirm your open dated tour, you need to contact [email protected] with your booking reference number and desired date.
It is highly recommended that in order to avoid disappointment, you should contact us with your preferred date three months before your desired travel date. We find that most tours book out six weeks in advance.
Once your date is booked, the changes and cancellation terms from point 3.3 will apply.
2. How to Book Welcome To Travel
Prices displayed on our website at the moment of finalising the booking process will be definitive, and will be subject to no variation. However, please note that we reserve the right to change prices displayed on the website at any given moment.
Prices will be also displayed in the confirmation email we will send you upon our confirmation of your booking.
3. If You Change or Cancel Your Booking
3.1 Change. If, after our confirmation has been issued, you (i) make a change to your existing booking or (ii) wish to change to a different tour or departure date, we will try to approve the changes providing that the change is made by the passenger in writing. Notice of change will be effective upon receipt by us of your written communication to [email protected]. Changes made on any other mediums will not be accepted. EG A message on Instagram asking to change will not be treated as an official request. Changes will be made subject to availability and the terms outlined in 3.3.
3.2. Cancellation. You, or any member of your party, may cancel your travel at any time providing that the cancellation is made by the passenger in writing. Notice of cancellation will be effective upon receipt by us of your written communication to [email protected].
Cancellations made on any other mediums will not be accepted. EG A message on Instagram asking to cancel/change will not be treated as an official request.
Any charges incurred are based on how many days prior to your departure date we received your cancellation notice. These charges are a percentage of the total cost of your booking. These charges are outlined in 3.3.
3.3 Cancellation and Date Change Terms Effective 1 July 2023
- 56 or more days before booked date: Free tour date change or no cancellation fee.
- 55 – 43 days: Free tour date change or 10% cancellation fee (of full RRP) .
- 42 – 15 days before booked date: $200 tour date change or 50% cancellation fee (of full RRP)
- Within 14 days: No Tour Date Change or 100% cancellation fee**
If cancelling a Road Trip Add On (Great Ocean Road Trip, Blue Mountains Road Trip) you have until 12pm on day 6 of your Welcome Tour to cancel. A 25% cancellation fee will apply if you wish to cancel.
Pre booked extra nights fall into the same terms and conditions as above.
**If, within 14 days you’re unable to travel to Australia due to:
- A form of travel ban (home country, transiting country or a country you’ve recently travelled to)
- Government advice from your country stating that you shouldn’t travel to Australia
- Australia border closures
We will permit a date change for $200AUD at any time, even within 28 days of departure. The alternative option is a 75% refund.
Any refunds will be paid minus any booking fees and credit card fees that existed in the initial booking process. Upon booking, we may have waived this credit card fee for you and therefore, this amount cannot be refunded.
Any possible future cancellations will bear fees applied based on the timeframe of the initial booking. See below example:
Example
Traveller A is booked on the Welcome to Melbourne tour March 13th 2022.
On March 4th 2022 Traveller A asks Welcome to Travel to change to September 18th 2022, due to a form of travel ban from their home country.
Welcome to Travel grants this request for free as per the terms.
On May 30th 2021, Traveller A cancels, despite the travel ban no longer applying.
The refund will be 75%, as that’s what was eligible under the cancellation policy from the initial booking date.
3.4 Notices. All communications relating to this contract (in particular any requests to cancel or amend your holiday arrangements) must be from the confirmed passenger(s) in writing by email to [email protected].
4.0. If We Change or Cancel Your Booking
4.1. Cancellation. As a general rule, we reserve the right to cancel your booking or change any of the facilities, services or prices described on our website. We will endeavour to advise you of any changes known at the time of booking.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, for the time being Welcome to Travel will apply a policy that outlines that in the case of the company being forced to cancel the service prior to its commencement, the customer(s) will receive a full refund*
*Any refunds will be paid minus any booking fees and credit card fees that existed in the initial booking process. Upon booking, we may have waived this credit card fee for you and therefore, this amount cannot be refunded.
If we have to cancel the service once the service has already begun, for reasons NOT in relation to a pandemic, we will issue a refund on a pro rata basis, by dividing the number of days that the service was not provided by the total number of days for which the service was originally scheduled. If a trip has to be cancelled by the company for reasons that are out of our control, such as natural disasters or bad weather, we will arrange for a new service in similar conditions to the one cancelled as soon as possible, but no refund will be provided.
4.2. Change. We plan the arrangements for your trip many weeks in advance and may occasionally have to make changes, most of which are minor, such as changes in accommodation or in the scheduled activities. Such changes will not give rise to a right to a refund or cancellation on your part, but we will make our effort to minimise their impact on your travelling experience.
4.3. Minimum Numbers. Our tours require the following minimum numbers to run:
- Welcome Tours (Melbourne & Sydney): 4 people
- Mini Pack Tours (Melbourne & Sydney): 1 person
- Add Ons (Great Ocean Road and Blue Mountains): 4 people
- East Coast Tour: 4 people
If these numbers are not met, alternative/refund options will be proposed and we will try to find the best solution for you. We will contact you no later than 28 days before your scheduled tour date.
Any refunds will be paid minus any booking fees and credit card fees that existed in the initial booking process. Upon booking, we may have waived this credit card fee for you and therefore, this amount cannot be refunded.
5. Our Liability
Our obligations, and those of our suppliers of service or facility included on your tour, are to take reasonable skill and care when arranging for the provision of such services and facilities.Â
You must show that reasonable skill and care has not been used if you wish to make any claim. Standards of, for example, safety, hygiene and quality vary across the various modes of transport or accommodation facilities and throughout the different destinations involved in your tour. Sometimes these standards may be lower than those which would be expected in your home country. The suppliers of the services and facilities included in your tour should comply with standards that are applicable and acceptable to the local areas within which these services are provided.Â
Our maximum liability shall be limited to the cost of your travel arrangements with Welcome to Travel.
We shall have no liability where the cause of the failure to provide or failure in your tour or of any personal injury or harm you may suffer is not due to any fault on our part or that of our agents or partners.Â
This implies that the cause is either attributable to you, or attributable to someone unconnected with your tour and is unforeseeable or unavoidable, or is attributable to our employees, agents, subcontractors and suppliers and their staff whilst acting outside the scope of their employment, or is due to information, however obtained, from outside sources such as independent third party websites, or is due to unusual or unforeseeable circumstances beyond our control, the consequences of which could not have been avoided even if all due care had been exercised, or an event which neither we, nor our agents or suppliers could have foreseen.
Changes in itinerary may be caused by mechanical breakdown, weather, sickness, or other unforeseeable circumstances.
Please take note that we take no responsibility for the actions of service providers introduced by us to you, when the service is directly contracted by you without our intervention (i.e. when the applicable fees are directly paid by you to the service provider).
6. Privacy Policy and Personal Data Protection
Welcome to Travel’s Privacy Policy sets out what information we collect, how we collect it and what we do with it. Our Privacy Policy applies to you and is available on our website and through other channels. In all your dealings with us you must ensure that others you represent are aware of the content of our Privacy Policy and consent to your acting on their behalf. You will find our privacy policy on the below link:
7. Guide Authority & Behaviour
On our tours it is necessary that you abide by the guidance and authority of the tour guide, who represents the company. If you commit any illegal act when on tour or if you engage in behaviour that is disruptive, threatening, abusive or causes unnecessary inconvenience, damage to property, distress, danger disturbance or annoyance to others or puts any other traveller or staff members at risk or danger, we may terminate your travel arrangements without any liability on our part. This disturbance can be verbal or physical, on the telephone or in person, or in writing. If this occurs, no refund will be provided.
8. Your Accommodation
Any accommodation we arrange for you must only be used by the people named on your booking confirmation. You are not allowed to share the accommodation or let anyone else stay there. You are responsible for the cost of any damage caused to your accommodation or its contents during your stay. These charges must be met by you and may have to be paid locally.
If possible, we will let you upgrade to a specific type of accommodation in your booking order, such as a private room, at an extra cost. We will strive to provide that accommodation to you but it will be based on the service provider’s availability at the time. In the event that this is not possible, such failure will not entitle you to cancel your booking or the service, but we will provide you with a refund in the case that such special accommodation had an added cost.
9. Special Requests
We will consider special requests such as dietary requirements or specific rooming arrangements when you book. We will tell you whether there is a charge for the request. We can only guarantee requests for which there is a charge, or those that are confirmed in writing. It is your responsibility to advise us of any special requirements.
10. Participation Requirements
Prior to booking, all customers are expected to deem themselves fit and able to complete the itinerary of their chosen tour as described on our website. By confirming your booking, you accept that the company’s tour guides have the authority to prevent you from participating in any part of a tour should they have concerns about (a) your ability to safely partake in an activity or (b) your physical ability to complete an activity in the required timescale. In the event the guide deems such a decision is necessary, we will endeavour to make alternative arrangements, but we will not be liable to provide any refunds for missed activities and you may be liable for additional costs incurred.
Anyone suffering from mobility impairment, illness or disability or undergoing treatment for any physical or medical condition, including dietary restrictions, must declare the true nature of such condition at the time of booking and make arrangements for the provision of any medication or other treatment which may be required during the tour.
11. Media Release
On tour we will be capturing videos and photos, which may then be distributed through our social channels, website, agent network and also print media. On confirmation of your booking you agree that content captured by To. Travel Australia Pty. Ltd. featuring yourself or anyone of your travel party may be used for promotional purposes, unless stated via email to [email protected] prior to your tour departure.
12. Extra Costs
Any meals not included in our tours will be at your own personal extra costs. In the same sense, any extra nights accommodation outside of the tour inclusion nights will be at your own extra cost.
13. Miscellaneous
13.1. Severability. If any provision of these terms and conditions is unenforceable, such provision will be changed and interpreted to accomplish the objectives of such provision to the greatest extent possible under applicable law and the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect.
13.2. Force Majeure. It is possible that unforeseen circumstances can affect a tour.
Australia is prone to unpredictable weather conditions including floods, fire and other such environmental conditions. This would be an example of Force Majeure.
With this in mind, it may be that for some reason that we as a group are unable to make it to the next destination due to some unforeseen circumstances.
If this is the case then we will aim to re-arrange the schedule and still visit these places/experiences. If this occurs, it may be that extra costs are incurred due to staying extra, unscheduled nights in accommodation.
If this occurs, we will issue a travel insurance letter for you to claim this money back.
It may be that we cannot rearrange the schedule due to operational constraints that are out of our hands. This could be availability on that tour, accommodation or transport. If unable to do this we will aim to make up for this with a similar experience at a similar value.
We will also offer a travel insurance letter if for some reason an experience (tour) is missed and we’re not able to provide a similar experience at a similar value.
If Welcome to Travel are required to cancel or make significant changes to a tour because of force majeure we will not be liable to refund monies or pay any compensation to you.
Other examples of Force Majeure include airline strikes, war, terrorism closed borders or any other similar event outside of our control.
13.3. Amendments. Welcome to Travel may modify these terms and conditions at any given moment. It is the responsibility of the customer to check these terms periodically to see what terms are currently in force.
13.4. Law and jurisdiction. This contract, and any other claim or dispute arising from or related to this contract, will be governed by Australian law and the courts of Australia, shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any claim arising out of it.
14. Special Road Trip Add On Product Terms
These terms are specifically for our Road Trip Add On Products, Great Ocean Road Trip and Blue Mountains Road Trip
14.1. Road Traffic Accident. Any costs that are incurred as a result of a road traffic accident are not the fault/responsibility of Welcome to Travel.
Any extra costs incurred are to be claimed on travel insurance.
Here are a couple of examples.
A) Vehicle is a road traffic accident and a taxi/Uber is required to get to your next accommodation. The Taxi/Uber should be paid by the occupants of the car, then claimed via travel insurance
B) A vehicle is unable to be repaired and your hirer (eg Jucy) are able to replace the vehicle, but it is required to be picked up from the depot.
- Option 1: Travel to the depot to pick up the spare vehicle. Any travel to the depot, would be claimed on travel insurance
- Option 2: Extra vehicle needs to be towed to get to you. Welcome to Travel can help with this process, but the payment would be organised by you (and your group) and then claimed back on travel insurance.
14. Special Road Trip Add On Product Terms
14.2 Vehicle Breakdown. Any costs that are incurred as a result of a breakdown/vehicle malfunction will be covered by Welcome to Travel
Here are a couple of examples.
C) Vehicle breaks down and a taxi/Uber is required to get to your next accommodation. The Taxi/Uber should be paid by the occupants of the car, then claimed via travel insurance
B) A vehicle is unable to be repaired and your hirer (eg Jucy) are able to replace the vehicle, but it is required to be picked up from the depot.
- Option 1: Travel to the depot to pick up the spare vehicle. Suitable travel to the depot would be organised and paid by Welcome to Travel.
- Option 2: Extra vehicle needs to be towed to get to you. Welcome to Travel can help with this process, but the payment would be organised by Welcome to Travel.
