1. The closing of a travel-contract
2. Payment
3. Benefits
4. Benefit Changes
5. Withdrawal of the customer, Booking changes: lengthening of the trip or extra trips
6. The withdrawal and cancellation of the travel organizers
7. The cancellation through unseen or unpredictable circumstances
8. Liabilities of the travel agent
9. Liabilities and responsibilities restrictions
10. The responsibilities of the Traveler
11. Exemptions from claims and limitations
12. Insurance
13. Event trips and additional arrangements
14. Jurisdiction
15. Ineffectualness of the individual provisions

The closing of a travel-contract

1. The closing of a travel- contract
With the written, spoken or telephone agree-upon booking of a trip, the traveler submits to the travel agent a binding travel-contract. This applies to the traveler as well as all other participants who are represented by the traveler who, with the agreement on the travel-contract, accepts the corresponding liabilities declared by the contract on behalf of the other participants he or she is representing in the closing of the travel-contract. The acceptance of the travel-contract by the travel agent will follow directly after the contract closing through the handing over of the Travel confirmation. If the content of the travel confirmation differs from the content of the initial booking, the travel organizer has 10 days to amend the content and notify the customer of any changes.

Payment

2. Payment
2.1 In all following cases it is effective for the maturity of customer payments:
Payments for the amount of the trip are only to be made against sending of the confirmation slip for payment (customer-paid policy) in the meaning of § 651 k BGB.
If the customer does not book at least 2 single services (main services like transportation and accommodation), does the travel not take more than 24 hours and does not include an overnight stay, or does the amount of travel not exceed EUR 75,-, the travel agency is in the position to ask for full payment of the invoice without sending a customer-paid policy.
2.2 After the closing of the travel-contract, the invoice amount is fully due within 21 days after receipt of the invoice.
2.3 A contract closing within the 30 days before the beginning of the trip requires that the person traveling pay the entire price for the trip immediately after the delivery of the customer-paid policy in meaning of the § 651 k BGB (when ordering travel packages such as bus- train-, or flight-packages)

Benefits

3. Benefits
3.1 The contracted benefits act in accordance with the binding benefits-descriptions in the travel brochure or catalog, as well as the trip- information, and especially the trip registration and the trip confirmation.
3.2 Additional agreements, special arrangements, or specially arranged wishes of the traveler must be made known at the time of the travel registration and especially at the time of the travel confirmation.

Benefit Changes

4. Benefit Changes
4.1 The necessary changes made to specific travel benefits before the closing of the travel contract, which, after the closing of the contract, necessary are and are not contradictory for the travel agency, will be permitted as long as the changes are not extensive and will not disrupt the rest of the trip
4.2 A change in the fundamental and agreed upon (through the closing of the contract) travel benefits between the travel-organizer and the traveler must be communicated to the customer.
4.3 If there is a change in the fundamental, agreed upon travel benefits, the traveler reserves the right to withdraw from the planned trip with no further charges or rebook his or herself for another trip of equal price. This is only allowed when the travel agency agrees to offer this option to the customers.

Withdrawal of the customer, Booking changes: lengthening of the trip or extra trips

5. Withdrawal of the customer, Booking changes: lengthening of the trip or extra trips
5.1 The traveler reserves the right to withdraw from the travel-contract at any time before the start of the trip. The cancellation or withdrawal from a trip must be submitted in writing to the travel agency. The travel agency reserve the right to charge a surcharge for the cancellation, withdrawal of a trip:
travel packages
up to 90 days before the start of the trip 40 % of the overall travel costs
up to 60 days before the start of the trip 60 % of the overall travel costs
up to 31 days before the start of the trip 80 % of the overall travel costs
from day 31 before the start of the trip 90 % of the overall travel costs
The traveller has the possibility to prove that a claim or a decrease in value does not exist or that it is significantly lower than the requested allowance.
tickets
tickets for concerts and festivals, theatre and sport events are to be paid to 100 % in case of cancellation. If the travel agency can sell the tickets to other customers, the cancellation costs will be refunded (against a service charge of 30 %). If the travel agency arranges tickets in the name of the trip, it uses a third party service provider and is not responsible for those services provided. Therefore, the travel agency is not liable for the realization of these events.
5.2 With the extension of trips, changes or rebooking for trips, for which there is already a closed contract, the travel agent reserves the right to charge an additional fee of € 25-. If the compensation for the changes of a trip are higher than the above listed price, the travel agent can charge a higher fee in regards to the price of the changes.
5.3 The traveler can give up his reserved place in a trip to a third party as long as the substitution of the third party does not violate the agree-upon terms and conditions of the travel-contract, and the third party is aware of the legalities, and does not hinder the trip in any way. This regulation is not valid for a third party, if the travel agency has booked flight tickets for the customer which are non-refundable according to the terms and conditions of the corresponding airline. If the tickets are refundable, the customer or the third party will be charged the costs of booking changes.
5.3.1 The traveler and the third party agree to the travel agent to pay the entire price of the trip
5.3.2 The traveler and the third party agree to pay the additional cost of € 15- to the travel agent as a result of the substitution of the traveler for the third party person for the trip.

The withdrawal and cancellation of the travel organizers

6. The withdrawal and cancellation of the travel organizers
The travel agency reserves the right to withdraw from a travel contract before the beginning of a trip because of the following reasons:
6.1 When the minimal number of persons for a trip; 25 people for personal arrivals, bus and boats trips, or when the minimal amount of people required for a trip, as determined previous to the start of a trip, do not confirm their participation for the trip or cancel their participation in the trip resulting in less people registered for a trip than the required minimal number. This applies to short trips with a length of up to 3 days - 3 days before the beginning of the trip, and with trips that have a length of 4 days - up to 14 days before the beginning of the trip. Up until these deadlines the price of the trip will be refunded in full.
6.2 The minimal number of persons for a special train trip is 450 persons. In case that this number is not reached until 4 weeks prior to the determined train departure, Cool-Tours reserves the right to cancel the train trip. In case of train cancellation all amounts paid will immediately be refunded to the customer.
6.3 Without compliance to the time-period, when the traveler, nonetheless with dissuasion, further disrupts the trips, so that other participants and/or the travel agent trip participants are not therefore responsible. This is valid as well, when the traveler does not comply to the agreed- upon indications. The travel agency is entitled in this case to the price of the trip, as long as there are no extravagant expenditure and advantages of a ulterior usage. Damage claims remain un-disturbed.

The cancellation through unseen or unpredictable circumstances

7. The cancellation through unseen or unpredictable circumstances.
7.1 Restriction, danger, or the interference of unpredictable circumstances like war, civil disputes, epidemics, commands from a higher-power (the withdrawal of a governmental body, or the closing of a boarder), natural catastrophes, disasters, the destruction of buildings, or the occurrence of equally disruptive circumstances will result in the cancellation of travels.
7.2 In the case of the cancellation of travels by the travel agent for the work or cited benefits included in the § 471 BGB, the measured work will be compensated.
7.3 The travel agent is, in the case of a cancellation, required to convey the information if it is required of him in the contract. In every case he must complete the tasks required of him.
7.4 The additional costs of the return portage or travel, as stated in the contract, will be divided into half and paid for by the individual parties. The left over costs will be paid for by the travelers of the trip.

Liabilities of the travel agent

8. Liabilities of the travel agent
8.1The travel agent is responsible in regards to his due diligence as a businessperson for:
a) the knowledgeable preparation of travel
b) the choosing and watching over of travel participants
c) the content and accuracy of the benefits descriptions;
d) the orderly execution of the terms and conditions of the travel benefits
8.2 The travel agent is responsible for the default of the persons responsible for the service provisions.

Liabilities and responsibilities restrictions

9. Liabilities and responsibilities restrictions
9.1 The responsibility of the travel agent for damages is limited to three-times the cost of the trip;
a) as long as the damages of the traveler were not carried out in malice;
b) when the travel agent is alone responsible for the damages occurred to the provider of the trip;
9.2 The travel agent is not responsible for the disturbance of services that occur because of a third party’s defaults. For example, sporting events, theater performances, etc. The travel agent is not responsible for the defaults of the third parties which are described in travel catalogue as third party services.
9.3 In the cases where the travel agent uses the services of a third party airline, the rules and regulations of the airline, in accordance with international standards from Warschau, the Haag, and Guadalajara, are valid. The airline is then responsible for the death, or bodily harm that may come to participants as well as the damage or loss of luggage that may occur under the time of service of the airline.

The responsibilities of the Traveler

10. The Responsibilities of the Traveler
10.1 If the traveler does not hold within his or her possession the required traveling documents before the beginning of the trip, he or she must inform the travel agent.
10.2 If there were to be a default in the service during the trip, the traveler must inform his or her local travel agent of the defaulted services. The informed travel agent must then see to the correction or substitution of services if possible. If a local travel agent or travel agency is not available or can not correct the situation, the central travel agency must then be contacted and informed of the problem. The local travel agent holds a decision making power only in cases relating to the specifics of solving the problem and does not hold any decision making power relating to the law and contract of the trip.

Exemptions from claims and limitations

11. Exemptions from claims and limitations
11.1 Complaints against incompetent travel agents, situations following the trip and relating to the trip, and injuries of the traveler must be filed within one month of the end of the trip. If complaints are filed after the given one-month time period, complaints will only then be accepted when the traveler within the one-month allotted time period could not file his complaint at an earlier date because of personal circumstances.
11.2 Complaints of travelers in regards to incompetent travel agents, can be filed up to 24 months after the contracted end of a trip.
11.3 The power of the traveler, after the contracted end of the trip, is valid one month and limited to only one month or until the travel agent/agencies removes this power from the traveler in writing.

Insurance

12. insurance
Customer-paid policy
12.1 The travel agency is only in the position to ask for payment of the customer, when it guarantees that the customer will get compensation for the costs of the travel and the necessary expenses for a return home trip in case of insolvency or bankruptcy of the travel agency (in the meaning of § 651 BGB). Therefore, the travel agency has insurance for the risk of insolvency at the R & V Allgemeinen Versicherungs AG in Wiesbaden / Germany with the following policy number: 979058942. The confirmation slip for payment, which is the document that guarantees the claim of the customer against the insurance company in case of insolvency of the travel agency, will be send to the customer at the latest together with the travel documents, but more commonly together with the travel confirmation / invoice.
travel insurance
12.2 In general, the prices in the travel invitations of the travel agency are quoted without travel insurance. It is also possible, that the travel insurance is already integrated in the travel invitation of travel packages only (bus-, train-, or flight packages). In this case, the customer is insured if the trip has to be cancelled. The travel agency recommends to order travel insurance for travel packages (if not already included), as well as for single services. An insurance contract is only valid after the payment of the insurance policy.

Event trips and additional arrangements

13. Event trips and additional arrangements
13.1 Tickets for the events will first be available to the traveler at the entrance to the event, at the earliest with the full-payment for the trip. If the travel agent decides it is necessary to acquire tickets in another category, the difference in price will be passed on to the traveler.

Jurisdiction

14. Jurisdiction
14.1 The Traveler can sue the travel agent / agency for the following reasons
14.2 For proceedings of the travel agent / agency verses the traveler, the residency of the traveler determines the jurisdiction of the case, if in Germany, that the prosecutor’s case is directed towards the Peoplespurchasingpeople, which after the closing of the contract if the prosecutors‘ residency or place of employment is outside of Germany at the time of the initial suing, the proceedings are not acknowledged. In this case, the address of the travel agency is used to determine the jurisdiction of the case.

Ineffectualness of the individual provisions

15. Ineffectualness of the individual provisions
The ineffectualness of the individual provisions does not carry over to the ineffectualness of the travel contract. The same goes for the pre-approved travel benefits.

We generally suggest the closing of a travelers insurance!

September 2010

Cool-Tours Festivalreisen
managing director: Stefan Sendelbach
Jagststr. 43
70376 Stuttgart-Münster
GERMANY

Phone: +49 (0) 711 550422-466
Fax: +49 (0) 711 550422-499
e-mail: travelling@cool-tours.de