Terms and conditions of travel by the company, Radweg-Reisen

The following provisions relate, in as far as they have been effectively agreed, to the travel contract concluded between Radweg-Trips GmbH, referred to in the following as „RWR“ and the customer. The supplement and complete the statutory regulations of §§ 651 a-y of the BGB [German Civil Code] and articles 250 and 252 of the EBGBG (Introductory Law of the German Civil Code). Please read these travel conditions carefully before you make your booking!
The German version of the terms and conditions is legally binding, the English version is provided for information purposes only.

1. Conclusion of package holiday contract, obligations of the customer

1.1. The following applies to all types of booking:
a) The basis of the offer by RWR and the booking by the customer is this trip description and the supplementary information provided by RWR for the respective trip in as far as this is present at the time at which the customer makes the booking.
b) Travel agents and booking agents are not authorised by RWR to make agreements, provide information or promises that change the agreed content of the package holiday contract or the trip description or that go beyond or contradict the services promised in the contract by RWR.
c) Information in hotel guides or similar directories that are not published by RWR are not binding for RWR or RWR‘s obligation to provide a service in as far as they have not been explicitly agreed by RWR as part of the content of the service obligation with the customer.
d) If the content of the travel confirmation deviates from the content of the booking, this shall constitute a new offer by RWR. The contract is concluded based on this new offer in as far as RWR has pointed out the change in this new offer and has fulfilled the precontractual obligation to inform and the customer has given their approval within the commitment period either by declaring their acceptance or paying the deposit.
e) The precontractual information provided by RWR about the essential elements of the travel services, the cost of travel and all additional costs, the payment methods, minimum number of participants and the cancellation fee (as per Article 250 § 3 number 1, 3 to 5 and 7 of the Introductory Law of the German Civil Code (EGBGB) will only be not considered a part of this package holiday contract if this is expressly agreed between the parties.
d) The customer completing the booking is liable for the contractual obligations of those travelling with him for whom he completes the booking, and for his own, to the extent that he has assumed a corresponding obligation through expressed and separate declaration.
1.2. The following applies for bookings that are completed orally, by telephone, in writing, by e-mail or by telefax:
a) Placement of the booking constitutes the customer‘s binding offer to RWR to conclude the package holiday contract.
b) The contract is concluded upon provision of the travel confirmation (declaration of acceptance) by RWR. At conclusion of the contract or immediately after, RWR will prepare the customer a confirmation of travel, the content of which adheres to statutory regulations, and send it on a durable medium (enabling the customer to keep or save the confirmation, which will be accessible for a suitable period of time, e.g. on paper or by email) in as far as the traveller does not have claim to the travel confirmation being a paper document as per Art. 250 § 6 para (1) sentence 2 of the Introductory Law of the German Civil Code (EGBGB) because the contract is concluded when both parties are physically present or outside of the business offices.
1.3. In the event of bookings made electronically (e.g. internet, app, telemedia) the following shall apply to the conclusion of the contract:
a) The procedure of the electronic booking in the relevant application is explained to the customer by RWR.
b) The customer will be able to correct his information, delete it or reset the entire online booking form; instructions on use will be provided.
c) The languages of the contract for completion of the online booking procedure will be indicated clearly. The German language is of consequence in terms of legal authority.
d) To the extent that the contract text is stored by RWR in the online booking system, the customer will be informed of this fact and the option of downloading the contract text later.
e) By clicking the button (switch area) “book and pay”, the customer offers RWR the conclusion of a binding package holiday contract. The customer is bound to this contract offer three working days following the dispatch of the electronic declaration.
f) The receipt of this booking will be sent to the customer immediately electronically.
g) Transmission of the booking by clicking the button “book and pay” does not establish a legal claim on the part of the customer to the establishment of a package holiday contract conforming to his booking information. RWR is entitled to decide freely whether or not to accept the customer‘s offer of an agreement.
h) The contract takes effect with receipt of the travel confirmation from RWR by the customer.
i) If the confirmation of travel is sent immediately after the customer has placed his booking by clicking the button „book and lay“ via a respective direct display of the travel confirmation on the screen (booking in real time), then the package holiday contract shall be concluded upon receipt by the customer and display of the travel confirmation on the screen without an interim statement confirming receipt of the book as per f) being necessary, in as far as the customer is offered the opportunity to save the travel confirmation on a durable medium and print it out. The binding nature of the package holiday contract does not, however, depend on the customer actually utilising the opportunity to save or print out the travel confirmation. RWR will, in addition, send a copy of the travel confirmation in the form of text.
1.4. RWR points out that as per the statutory regulations (§§ 312 para 7, 312g para 2 sentence 1 no. 9 of the German Civil Code (BGB) governing package holiday contracts as per § 651a and § 651c of the German Civil Code that are concluded remotely (by letter, catalogue, phone call, fax, email or text messages (SMS), also radio, telemedia and online services), the right of revocation does not exist, merely the statutory rights of withdrawal and cancellation, in particular the rights of withdrawal as per § 651h of the German Civil Code (see also no. 5). The right of revocation does exist if the contract governing the travel services as per § 651a of the German Civil Code is concluded outside of the business offices, unless oral proceedings upon which conclusion of the contract are based, are derived from the previous order placement by the consumer; in the case of the latter, the right to revocation cannot be claimed.

2. Payment

2.1. RWR and travel agents may only request or accept payments of the travel price before the package travel is over if a valid customer money hedging contract exists and the customer submits a security certificate with the name and contact data of the insurer of the customer money specified clearly, understandably and highlighted. Upon conclusion of the contract and submission of the security certificate a deposit of 20% of the price of travel is due. Payment of the remaining amount is due 4 weeks prior to the beginning of travel providing the security certificate has been submitted and travel cannot be cancelled for reasons specified in number 8. For bookings placed less than 4 weeks prior to the beginning of travel, payment of the total price of the holiday is due immediately.
2.2. If the customer does not pay the deposit and/or remaining amount of payment at the
agreed due dates for payment, even though RWR is prepared and able to provide the contractual services properly, has fulfilled their statutory information obligation and no statutory or contractual right of retention exists, then RWR is entitled to withdraw from the package holiday contract after dunning and setting a grace period and to charge the customer with the cancellation costs as per number 5.

3. Changes to the content of the contract before start of travel that do not affect the price of travel

3.1. Changes to essential travel services agreed on in the content of the travel contract that become necessary after conclusion of the contract and are made by RWR in good faith are only permitted to the extent that these changes are not significant and do not detract from the overall arrangement of the trip.
3.2. RWR is obliged to notify the customer via a durable medium (e.g. also via email, SMS or voice mail) about changes in the services immediately upon gaining knowledge of the reason for the change, highlighting the information and providing it in a clear and comprehensible manner.
3.3. In the event of a major change to an essential feature of a travel service or deviation from particular customer requirements that have become part of the package holiday contract, the customer is entitled, within an appropriate period of notice stipulated by RWR at the same time as communicating the change, to either accept the change or withdraw from the package holiday contract without charge. If the customer does not expressly declare his intention to withdraw from the package holiday contract within the period of notice specified by RWR, then the change is considered accepted.
3.4. Any warranty claims remain unaffected to the extent that the altered services are affected with deficiencies. If RWR incurs lower costs for operating the modified holiday or for any replacement holiday of equivalent quality that is offered for the same price, then the customer must be reimbursed with the difference in amount as per § 651m para 2 of the German Civil Code.

4. Withdrawal by the Customer Prior to Start of Trip/Cancellation Costs

4.1. The customer may withdraw from the package holiday contract at any time before start of trip. Withdrawal must be declared by providing the above-mentioned/following address; if the holiday was booked via a travel agent then withdrawal can be sent to the travel agent. We recommend the customer provide written notification of withdrawal.
4.2. b) If the customer withdraws before the holiday starts, or does not start the tour, RWR loses the right to claim the travel price. Instead, RWR can request suitable compensation in as far as the withdrawal is not the fault of RWR or, if at the place of destination or close by unavoidable, extraordinary circumstances occur that considerably impair operation of the package holiday or transportation of the people to the place of destination; circumstances are unavoidable and extraordinary if they are out of the control of RWR and the consequences could not have been avoided even if all reasonable precautions had been taken.
4.3. RWR has defined the following lump-sum compensation charges, which take the period of time between the declaration of withdrawal and the start of the trip, also the expected savings in expenses and the expected earnings from any other use of the travel services. Compensation is calculated as of receipt of the declaration of withdrawal as follows based on the respective cancellation scale:
a) Standard holidays

Up to 28 days before the start of the tour: 20 %
27 days – 14 days before the start of the tour: 30 %
13 days – 8 days before the start of the tour: 50 %
7 days – 1 day before the start of the tour: 90 %
On the day of arrival for the tour or in case of a noshow: 90 %

b) Trips with ship travel:

Up to 84 days before the start of the tour: 20 %
Up to 42 days before the start of the tour: 30 %
Up to 28 days before the start of the tour: 60 %
Up to 1 days before the start of the tour: 90 %
On the day of arrival for the tour or in case of a noshow: 90 %

4.4. The customer is in any case free to prove to RWR that RWR incurred significantly lower damage than the sum demanded by RWR or no damage at all.
4.5. RWR reserves the right to demand a higher, concrete compensation for damages instead of the fees stated above to the extent that RWR proves that it incurred significantly higher expenses than the respective applicable fees. In this case RWR is obligated to list the compensation demanded in detail and take into account the saved expenses and any other use of the travel services and document this information.
4.6. If RWR is obliged to reimburse the travel price as a consequence of a withdrawal, RWR must do this at once or at any rate within 14 days of receiving the declaration of withdrawal.
4.7. The statutory right of the customer as per § 651 e of the German Civil Code to request from RWR by way of notification on a durable medium that a third party take over his rights and duties from the package holiday contract remains unaffected by the afore-mentioned conditions. Such a declaration is considered prompt if it arrives at RWR 7 days before start of the holiday.
4.8. Taking out travel cancellation insurance and also insurance to cover the transport costs in the event of an accident or illness is strongly recommended.

5. Re-Bookings

5.1. After conclusion of the contract, the customer has no entitlement to changes with respect to the travel date, destination, place of embarkation, lodgings or mode of transportation or other services (re-booking). This does not apply if re-booking is required because RWR has provided no information, insufficient or incorrect precontract information to the traveller as per Art. 250 § 3 of the Introductory Law to the German Civil Code; in such a case, re-booking is possible free of charge. If in the other cases a re-booking is made upon request by the customer, RWR can, observing the following periods, demand a re-booking charge from the customer for each traveller affected by the re-booking. If, before undertaking the re-booking, nothing else is agreed on a case-by-case basis, the re-booking charge shall be up to the point in time of the start of the second cancellation scale of the respective holiday type, as per the afore-mentioned rule in number 4.3 100 € for each affected traveller.
5.2. Requests for re-bookings by the customer received upon expiry of the deadline can - assuming they are even possible, only be carried out upon withdrawal from the package holiday contract as per number 5 at the terms and conditions and simultaneous new registration. This does not apply to requests for re-bookings that only incur a low cost.

6. Services not utilised

If the traveller does not make use of individual travel services for which RWR is ready and capable of providing as per the contract, for reasons that can be attributed to the traveller, he is not entitled to claim a proportional refund of the travel price, in as far as the reasons as per statutory terms and conditions do not entitle him to free withdrawal or cancellation of the package holiday contract. RWR will make an effort to refund the expenses saved by the service provider. This obligation does not apply in the case of totally insignificant services.

7. Withdrawal due to Failure to Reach the Minimum Number of Participants

7.1. RWR can withdraw on failure to reach the minimum number of participants according to the following rules:
a) The minimum number of participants and the latest point in time of submitting a withdrawal declaration by RWR to the customer must be specified in the relevant precontractual information.
b) RWR must specify the minimum number of participants and the latest withdrawal deadline in the confirmation of travel
c) RWR is obligated to immediately notify the customer when the trip is cancelled as soon as it is clear that the trip will not be completed due to failure to reach the minimum number of participants.
d) RWR may not withdraw later than 20 days before the start of travel.
7.2. If the trip is not carried out for this reason, the customer will immediately be refunded any payments already made against the travel price; number 5.6 applies respectively.

8. Cancellation Due to Conduct

8.1. RWR can immediately cancel the travel contract if
a) The customer does not adequately meet the physical preconditions for the specific travel event or the equipment that he brings along with him is not adequate for the intended purpose,
b) The customer culpably violates the special responsibilities listed in No. 10 of these travel conditions
c) The customer continues to cause disruptions in some other way in spite of a warning from RWR or violates the contract in such a way that immediate nullification of the contract is justified.
8.2. If RWR cancels, it retains the claim to the trip price. However, it must give credit for the value of any saved expenses as well as those advantages that they achieve from any other use of the service not claimed, including any amounts paid to their account by the service providers.

9. Responsibilities of the customer/traveller

9.1. Travel documents
The customer must inform RWR or his travel agent with whom he has booked the package holiday if he does not receive the necessary travel documents within the period stipulated by RWR.
9.2. Notice of defects/request for rectification
a) If the holiday is not free of defects, the traveller can request rectification.
b) If RWR does provide rectification as a result of culpable inaction regarding the notification of defects, the traveller cannot assert a claim for abatement as per § 651m of the German Civil Code nor can be claim for damages as per § 651 n of the German Civil Code.
c) The traveller is obliged to inform the RWR representative immediately on site about his notification of defects. If no RWR representative is on site and not contractually due to be so, then any travel deficiencies against RWR must be communicated to RWR via the supplied contact information; the availability of the RWR representative or his on site contact information is provided in the travel confirmation. The traveller can, however, communicate his notification of defects to his travel agent with whom he booked the package holiday.
d) The RWR representative is commissioned to provide rectification in as far as this is possible. He is, however, not authorised to acknowledge claims.
9.3. Notice before termination
If the customer/traveller wishes to terminate the package holiday contract due to a travel deficiency of the type described in § 651l para. (2) of the German Civil Code, in as far as it is of a considerable nature, he must communicate to RWR a reasonable period of time in which to provide rectification. This does not apply only if rectification is refused by RWR or if immediate rectification is necessary.

10. Special obligations of the customer

10.1. The participant is obliged to observe information and instructions given to him by the guide, in as far as this information and these instructions are objectively reasonable and necessary taking into consideration the interests of the customer, and particularly serve to ensure the safety of the customer, other participants and prevent danger to third party persons and property and the proper operation of the tour.
10.2. The participant is obligated to make sure of his health status and physical constitution prior to booking the trip and during the trip and is specifically required to consult a physician, if necessary, prior to booking and/or start of travel. RWR is not obligated to provide any contractual consulting, examination or supervisory services in this matter.
10.3. The customer is exclusively personally responsible for the road safety, technical function and all other conditions relating to the carriage of his bicycle. RWR is not subject to any consulting or supervisory obligations in this respect, either.
10.4. Both in the case of private bicycles that the travellers may bring with them as well as in the case of bicycles that are provided, the customer is responsible for continuously monitoring the technical integrity and road safety of the bicycle. In the context of general legal obligations to report defects, the customer is obligated to immediately report any defects to the travel guide provided by RWR and – in the case of a bicycle that has been provided – to request assistance.
10.5. The customer is obliged to comply strictly with all traffic rules. Regardless of information issued by RWR up to now, the customer is also required to find out about the respective traffic rules of his/her travel destination.
10.6. RWR as tour operator requires that helmets are worn for all tours on bicycles.
10.7. The customer is required to avoid any damage, impairment or endangering of persons and property and to behave and ride his/her bicycle in suitable manner.

11. Limitation of liability

11.1. The contractual liability for damage that does not result in violation of life, the body or health, is limited to three times the travel price. Possible claims going beyond this under the Montreal Convention and/or the Air Travel Act are not affected by these liability restrictions.
11.2. RWR is not liable for disturbances to services, damage to person and property in connection with services that are only arranged as third party services (e.g. excursions, sport events, visits to the theatre, exhibitions) if these services in the travel description and travel confirmation are clearly and expressly identified by specification of the identity and address of the contractual partner as a third party service so that the traveller can see that it is not part of the package holiday by RWR and is selected separately. The §§ 651b, 651c, 651w and 651y of the German Civil Code remain unaffected.
11.3. RWR is liable, however, if and to the extent for damage to the traveller incurred by RWR violating a notification, explanatory or organisational obligation.

12. Assertion of claims, addressee

Claims as per § 651i para. (3) no. 2, 4-7 of the German Civil Code must be asserted by the customer/traveller against RWR. Assertion of the claim can be made by the travel agent if the package holiday was booked via this travel agent. Assertion of claims is recommended in writing.

13. Passports, Visas and Health Regulations

13.1. RWR will notify the customer/traveller about general passport and visa requirements as well as health-policy formalities of the country of destination, including rough deadlines for providing any required visas before conclusion of the contract or any such changes before start of the holiday.
13.2. The customer is responsible for obtaining and carrying all officially necessary travel documents, possibly required vaccinations as well as for compliance with customs and currency exchange regulations. Any penalties that result from the failure to heed these regulations, e.g. paying cancellation costs, will be borne by the customer/traveller. This does not apply if RWR did not provide any information, inadequate information or incorrect information.
13.3. RWR is not liable for the timely issue or receipt of any necessary visa by the specifically responsible diplomatic representation, if the customer did not contract RWR to obtain it, unless RWR culpably failed to fulfil its own obligations.

14. Alternative dispute resolution; choice of law and jurisdiction agreement

14.1. RWR participates in voluntary dispute settlement proceedings before a consumer arbitration board.
The relevant consumer arbitration board is:

Universal Arbitration Board of the Federation
Zentrum für Schlichtung e.V.
Straßburger Straße 8
77694 Kehl
Tel: +49 7851 795 79 40
www.universalschlichtungsstelle.de
mail [at] universalschlichtungsstelle.de

For all travel contracts that are concluded through electronic legal communication, RWR refers to the European online dispute resolution platform
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr/.

14.2. For customers/travellers who are not nationals of a member state of the European Union or Swiss citizens, the exclusive application of German law is agreed upon for all legal and contractual relations between the customer/traveller and RWR. Such customers/travellers can sue RWR only at the location of the head office of RWR.
14.3. For legal complaints brought by RWR against customers and/or contracting partners in the package holiday contract who are merchants, legal persons under public or private law or natural persons and who are domiciled or have their habitual residence abroad, or whose habitual residence is unknown at the time the complaint is brought, the headquarters of RWR is agreed to as the court of sole jurisdiction.

The tour operator is:
Radweg-Reisen GmbH
Fritz-Arnold-Straße 16a
D-78467 Konstanz
Tel. 49 7531 81 99 30
Fax 49 7531 81 99 3-66
info(at)radweg-reisen.com
Commercial Registry of Freiburg, HRB 381878
Managing Director: Simon Mink

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