General Terms & Conditions
The use of the portal available under the Internet domain www.welcomebeyond.com (hereafter referred to as the ‘Portal’) and any services offered through the Portal by Welcome Beyond GmbH (hereafter referred to as ‘Welcome Beyond’), is subject to the following Terms & Conditions (T&C).
Section 1 – Portal content and purpose
(1) With the Portal, Welcome Beyond operates a website on which various holiday properties („Properties“) are presented and advertised. Properties may be, for example, apartments, houses, houseboats, pensions, hotels and other accommodations offered for the short-term letting.
(2) The Portal’s purpose is to inform individual travelers about interesting destinations and accommodation options and to offer reservations of selected properties. The data in the Portal is provided exclusively to inform the interested traveler („User“).
(3) Any other use requires the consent of Welcome Beyond. Without such consent, reproduction of information from the Portal elsewhere, such as on other websites or in databases, is not permitted.
(4) Visiting the portal is free of charge and possible for anyone without prior registration. Users cannot claim the portal being available permanently and uninterruptedly.
Section 2 – Booking; Contracting parties; Responsibility for object descriptions
(1) Welcome Beyond only reflects the information submitted by the Provider. The Provider is exclusively responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the information on a Property, in particular regarding location, size, equipment, price and availability; this also applies to photos, videos and other files or media.
(2) Provider of a Property listed by the Portal is not Welcome Beyond, but the respective landlord of the Property (hereinafter referred to as „Provider“). When booking a Property, the contract is concluded exclusively between the User and the Provider. Welcome Beyond does not offer accommodation or travel services in its own name.
(3) Some Properties can be booked directly on the Portal („Instant Booking“), or a binding booking request can be made for them („Booking Request“). In any case, a message can be sent to the provider via the portal („Contact Request“), on the basis of which the Provider can submit an individual offer to the User.
Section 3 – Immediate booking via the Portal („Instant Booking“)
(1) If the Provider offers immediate booking via the Portal („Instant Booking“), the User can enter the details of his desired stay in the Portal’s „Book“ section. The „Proceed to book“ button takes the User to a page on which all the data entered, the essential features of the selected service and the total price of the offer are displayed in an overview. At this point, the user has the opportunity to check the data for possible input errors and, if necessary, to correct or complete the details or to cancel the process altogether.
(2) By clicking the „Book now“ button, the User accepts the Provider’s offer in a legally binding manner.
(3) If necessary to confirm the User’s identity, he is requested to verify his mobile phone number with a pin code.
(4) The Provider confirms the booking immediately by e-mail (contract confirmation).
Section 4 – Booking requests via the Portal („Booking Requests“)
(1) If the Provider accepts booking requests by the User via the portal („Booking Requests“), the User can enter the details of his desired stay in the Portal’s „Book“ section. The „Proceed to book“ button takes the User to a page on which all the data entered, the essential features of the selected service and the total price of the offer are displayed in an overview. At this point, the user has the opportunity to check the data for possible input errors and, if necessary, to correct or complete the details or to cancel the process altogether.
(2) By clicking the „Request to book“ button, the User transmits a legally binding booking offer to the Provider.
(3) If necessary to confirm the User’s identity, he is requested to verify his mobile phone number with a pin code.
(4) The User is bound to his offer for 24 hours beginning with the transmission. During this time, the Provider may check the conditions requested, especially the availability of the Property. If the Provider accepts the User‘s offer within the commitment period, he confirms the booking immediately by e-mail (contract confirmation); otherwise the User receives an e-mail about the rejection of the booking request.
Section 5 – Contact Requests and individual offers
(1) Alternatively, the User may request an offer from the Provider using a contact form on the Portal. The Provider can then submit an individual offer to the User.
(2) The User can review the individual offer in his user account on Portal. If the User wishes to make changes, he can inform the Provider via the platform, whereupon the Provider can adapt his offer.
(3) When the offer meets the User’s expectations, he can accept it in a legally binding way with the „Book now“ button.
(4) If necessary to confirm the User’s identity, he is requested to verify his mobile phone number with a pin code.
(5) The Provider confirms the booking immediately by e-mail (contract confirmation).
Section 6 – Available languages; Storage of contract texts
(1) Functions for the conclusion and execution of contracts are provided exclusively in English.
(2) After conclusion of a contract, the User receives the content of the contract concluded (contract text) by e-mail; this e-mail will be sent by the Portal on behalf of the Provider. At the same time, the Provider stores the contract text electronically; since the User has no access to it, it is the User’s responsibility to print out the e-mail with the contract text in his own interest or to store it in another suitable way.
(3) At the same time, the Portal stores the data entered by the User at the time of booking together with the essential features of the booked Property in the User’s customer account. The User can review this data anytime as long as the User account exists.
Section 7 – Payment
(1) Prices quoted by the Providers include VAT, insofar as VAT is levied.
(2) When booking or making a booking enquiry, the User may be asked to provide his credit card details. With the credit card details, the Provider’s future payment claim will be secured.
(3) Details of the due date of the payment for the booked Property are determined by the respective Provider.
(4) It is the User’s responsibility to submit credit card details or other information on payment cards and accounts exclusively in the forms provided for this purpose within the booking process on the Portal. Any other disclosure of such data to a Provider or to a third party – e.g. by e-mail or phone – constitutes a risk of misuse for which Welcome Beyond assumes no liability.
Section 8 – User accounts
(1) Prior to using the Portal’s functions for saving preferred Properties, for Instant Booking, for Booking Requests and Contact Request, a User needs to set up a user account with the Portal.
(2) In order to set up a user account, the User must provide his/her first name, surname, e-mail address and a self-chosen password. If the User logs in with his Facebook or Google account, Welcome Beyond transfers the first name, surname and e-mail address from there to the Portal’s user account.
(3) The platform sets up a user account with an indefinite term. Termination of the user account is possible in text form (e.g. by e-mail). The User is advised to always save booking confirmations outside the user account in order to be able to access them even if his account no longer exists.
Section 9 – No consumers’ right of withdrawal
(1) There is no consumers’ right of withdrawal for the offered accommodation services.
(2) However, a Provider may have an individual cancellation policy. Their conditions, if applicable, depend on the respective offer details.
Section 10 – Availability of the Portal; Warranty (Liability for defects)
(1) Welcome Beyond provides its portal with an availability of 99% on average per calendar month.
(2) Warranty claims (Liability claims for defects) apply according to the statutory conditions.
(3) Claims based on deficiencies of a booked Property shall be based on the respective Provider’s contractual provisions and must be asserted directly against the Provider.
Section 11 – Out-of-court dispute resolution
(1) For the out-of-court settlement of disputes arising from a distance contract with a consumer, the EU Commission has set up an online dispute resolution platform („ODR platform“) available at https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr.
(2) In addition to the ODR platform, consumers can address complaints to the following conciliation body: Zentrum für Schlichtung e.V., Straßburger Straße 8, 77694 Kehl am Rhein, www.verbraucher-schlichter.de, e-mail: mail@verbraucher-schlichter.de, telephone (07851) 7957940.
(3) However, Welcome Beyond is neither obliged nor willing to participate in an out-of-court consumer dispute resolution procedure.
Section 12 – Final provisions
(1) Between the User and Welcome Beyond, the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany shall apply. However, German law shall not apply to consumers having their permanent residence abroad to the extent the national laws applicable to those consumers set out provisions that cannot be contracted out to the detriment of the consumers.
(2) Paragraph 1 does not apply in the relationship of the User towards a Provider with regard to the Provider’s accommodation services.
(3) Should individual provisions of these General Terms and Conditions prove to be invalid or unenforceable, this shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions.
(4) If the user is a merchant according to the German Commercial Code (HGB), the parties agree that the place of performance and the exclusive place of jurisdiction shall be at the registered office of Welcome Beyond.