Last Updated: April 04, 2022
This Guest Refund Policy governs HopLocal’s policy for Guest refunds and the Host obligations associated with this Policy. It applies in addition to HopLocal’s Terms of Service and Conditions and Payments Terms and is available to guests who book an Experience through the HopLocal Platform and suffer a Travel Issue.
By using the HopLocal Platform as an Experience Host or Guest, you are indicating that you have read and that you understand and agree to be bound by this Guest Refund Policy.
Eligible Travel Issues and Refund Policy
The following situations are “Travel Issues” that are eligible for a refund under the Guest Refund Policy:
- The Host fails to carry out the booked Experience or arrives more than 30 minutes past the stated start time, causing the Guest to abandon the Experience.
- The Host makes significant changes to the Experience after booking.
- The Experience contains a safety or health hazard that would be reasonably expected to adversely affect the Guest’s participation in the Experience.
- For Experiences that take place online, the guest cannot attend or a Host cannot lead the Experience because of technical difficulties, including audio or visual issues.
If HopLocal determines that a Guest experienced a Travel Issue, HopLocal will, at its discretion, provide the Guest with a refund up to a maximum of the Total Pricing the Guest paid for the Experience in accordance with this Policy. The amount of any refund will depend on the nature of the Travel Issue suffered.
Minimum Quality Standards, Host Responsibilities, and Reimbursement to Guest
As a Host, you are responsible for ensuring that the Experience you list on the HopLocal Platform is safe and complies with the local law and does not present a Guest with Travel Issues. Before and during the Experience, Hosts should be available, or make a third-party available, in order to try, in good faith, to resolve any Guest issues.
If (i) HopLocal determines that a Guest has suffered a Travel Issue related to your Experience and (ii) HopLocal reimburses that Guest (up to their Total Price), you agree to reimburse HopLocal up to the amount paid by HopLocal within 30 days of HopLocal’s request. You authorize HopLocal Payments to collect any amounts owed to HopLocal by reducing your Payout or as otherwise permitted pursuant to the Payments Terms.
As a Host, you understand that the rights of Guests under this Experiences Guest Refund Policy will supersede the cancellation policy mentioned below. If you dispute the Travel Issue, you may notify us in writing or via telephone and provide us with information (including photographs or other evidence) disputing the claims regarding the Travel Issue, provided you used reasonable and good faith efforts to try to remedy the Travel Issue with the Guest prior to disputing the Travel Issue claim.
General Provisions
If your booking was cancelled by your local host
If your booking was cancelled by your host or HopLocal, you have been automatically issued a full refund. Keep in mind, it may take up to 10 working days from the cancelled date for the refund to reach your account, depending on the processing time between banks and regions.
If my booking request is rejected/ withdrawn/ expired before confirmation
If your booking request is rejected or not confirmed within 24 hours by the host, or when you withdraw the request before it was confirmed, you will receive a full refund. The refund process might take up to 10 working days, depending on the processing time between banks and regions.
Please note that any referral credits/ discount/ promotion codes applied to the payment will not be refunded.
This Guest Refund Policy does not:
- constitute an offer to insure
- constitute insurance or an insurance contract
- take the place of insurance obtained or obtainable by the Guest
Furthermore, the Guest has not paid any premium in respect of the Experiences Guest Refund Policy. The benefits provided under this Guest Refund Policy are not assignable or transferable by a Guest.
All determinations of HopLocal with respect to the Guest Refund Policy shall be at HopLocal’s discretion, and final and binding on the Guests and Hosts.
HopLocal reserves the right to modify or terminate this Guest Refund Policy, at any time, in its sole discretion. If HopLocal modifies this Experiences Guest Refund Policy, we will post the modification on the HopLocal Platform (including the HopLocal Help Center) or provide you with notice of the modification. HopLocal will continue to process all claims for Travel Issues made prior to the effective date of the modification.
Cancellation or Rescheduling Policy
Have your plans changed? Our standard cancellation policy is that you can get a full refund for any experience if you cancel at least 48 hours before the experience is scheduled to start.
Get 50% refund if the cancellation is made within 48 hours of the start time of experience. Easy enough!
If you want to reschedule the date and time of your experience (or change the number of guests), you can do that within 24 hours of booking, and up to 48 hours before the experience starts.
Have an emergency and need to cancel? Check out our Extenuating Circumstances Policy below to make sure you qualify. A good thing to know: you may need to provide documentation.
Reducing number of guests from an active booking
- Inform and agree the host about reduced group sizevia HopLocal chatbox.
- Decline existing active booking.
- Make a new booking request with updated number of guests.
If you have agreed with the host and made a new booking for the reduced group size, then it’s all good. However, in case of no update/information to the host about reduced group size then unfortunately, there won’t be any refund for the members who didn’t join the event.
In some cases, the host has a condition of minimum group size to accept a booking request. You can’t reduce the participants number under that minimum requirement.
Please note: You can make changes to your active booking up to 48 hours prior to the event date. Afterwards, it’s depends on the host decision to accept the reduce group size request or not.
Extenuating Circumstances Policy
Overview
This Extenuating Circumstances Policy explains how cancellations are handled when unforeseen events beyond your control arise after booking and make it impracticable or illegal to complete your booking.
When this policy allows for cancellation, it controls and takes precedence over the booking’s cancelation policy guests that are impacted by an event covered by this policy can cancel their reservation and receive, depending on the circumstances, a cash refund, travel credit, and/or other consideration.
What events are covered
This Policy uses the term “Event” to refer to the following situations that occur after booking, are unforeseen at the time of booking, and prevent or legally prohibit completion of the booking.
Changes to government travel requirements. Unexpected changes to visa or passport requirements imposed by a governmental agency that prevent travel to the destination. This doesn’t include lost or expired travel documents or other personal circumstances relating to a guest’s authorization to travel.
Declared emergencies and epidemics. Government declared local or national emergencies, epidemics, pandemics, and public health emergencies. This does not include diseases that are endemic or commonly associated with an area—for example, malaria in Thailand or dengue fever in Hawaii.
Government travel restrictions. Travel restrictions imposed by a governmental agency that prevent or prohibit traveling to, staying at, or returning from the Listing location. This does not include non-binding travel advisories and similar government guidance.
Military actions and other hostilities. Acts of war, hostilities, invasions, civil war, terrorism, explosions, bombings, rebellions, riots, insurrection, civil disorder, and civil unrest.
Natural disasters. Natural disasters, acts of God, large-scale outages of essential utilities, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and other severe and abnormal weather events. This does not include weather or natural conditions that are common enough to be foreseeable in that location.
What is not covered
Everything else. This Policy only allows for cancellations for the Events described above. Everything else is excluded. Examples of situations that this Policy does not allow cancellations for include: unexpected disease, illness, or injury; government obligations like jury duty, court appearances or military duties; travel advisories or other government guidance (that fall short of a travel ban or prohibition); cancellation or rescheduling of an event for which the reservation was made; and transportation disruptions unrelated to a covered Event like road closures, as well as flight, train, bus and ferry cancellations. If you cancel a reservation in these cases, the amount refunded will be determined by the cancellation policy that applies to the booking.
What to do next
If we notify you or publish information confirming that this Policy applies to your booking, please follow the cancellation instructions that we provide. When we have notified you or published information about how this policy applies, you should have the option to cancel under this Policy by going to your ‘enteries’ page and canceling the impacted booking. If you believe this Policy applies to your reservation, but we have not notified you or published information about the Event, please contact us to cancel your reservation. In all cases, you should be prepared to provide documentation that shows how the Event has impacted you or your booking.
If you have questions, please contact us at hello@hoplocal.co.