Privacy Policy
Thank you for using Hermanus Experiences to book, list and pay for your next retreat, tour, activity and/or workshop.
You are important to us and so is the trust within our community. We are committed to protecting the security and privacy of your personal information.
This privacy policy sets out how Hermanus Experiences, this platform, uses and protects any information that you give when you use this platform.
We may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this to ensure that you are happy with any changes. This policy is effective from January 2020
Information given and or collected by us.
When booking your next retreat, tour, activity workshop and/or accommodation using this platform, you are required to provide us with information for us to provide you with the services this platform provides.
When you sign up for an account you are requested to provide your full name and email address.
When booking or creating a listing you will be required to provide information such as your address, phone number and a profile picture.
To verify your identity we may request images of your government issued ID, passport or driver’s license.
In order to process payments, you will be required to submit financial information, like your banking details and or credit card information, into our secure payment platform.
To enrich your experience with our platform the following additional information may be supplied. Personal description, photographs, gender, age, preferred language, skills or education qualifications achieved, reviews of retreats, workshops, courses and hosts listed on our platform.
We also collect information about how you interact with our platform, such as pages you view, time spent on our platform, searches and bookings made through our platform as well as interaction and messages shared with hosts on our platform.
We may use cookies and other technologies to track demographic information, preferences, interests and other information relevant to customer surveys and/or offers.
Third party services such as Facebook or Google may send and collect information about your interaction with our platform
Reviews of your retreat, workshop, course and venue are published on your public listing and profile page
What we do with the information we gather
We require this information to understand your needs and provide you with a better service, and in particular for the following reasons:
Internal record keeping.
We use the information to improve our products and services.
We may contact you by email, phone or mail to send you support messages, updates regarding your booking, security alerts and or account information. We may periodically send promotional emails about new products, special offers or other information which we think you may find interesting using the email address which you have provided.
From time to time, we may also use your information to contact you for market research purposes. We may contact you by email, phone, or mail.
We may use the information to customise the website according to your interests.
We may use the information obtained to comply with legal obligations
We may use the information obtained to resolve disputes
We may use the information to enforce our Terms and Conditions of Service
We may use personal information to prevent fraud, spam, security incidents and abuse.
We may use the information provided to verify your identity and the retreat, tour, activity, workshop or course you are listing on our platform.
How we share the information collected
We may share personal and booking information with the coaches, teachers, facilitators and their management and or administrative staff (vendors) who’s retreat, tour, activity, workshop or course you have booked to attend.
We may share listing and personal information on social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, to generate leads and drive traffic to our platform. The social media platforms we may share your personal information on are not controlled or supervised by us. At any time you may ask us to remove and not promote your information on any social media platforms by contacting us via email at info@hermanusexperiences.co.za
We may be required by courts, law enforcement, tax or government authorities to disclose information as it is required by law or is strictly necessary for the prevention, detection or prosecution of criminal acts and fraud or if we are otherwise legally obliged to do so.
Listing pages are publicly visible and include information about the location of your retreat, tour, activity, workshop or course, your personal information, name and photograph and whatever else you would like to share in your profile.
Reviews are also publicly visible on listing pages and may be used on social media platforms.
Vendors (coaches, teachers, facilitators and their management and or administrative staff) may need to use third party services to assist with providing accommodation, catering, transportation or additional services. Vendors are responsible for third party service providers they use and ensuring those service providers process information securely and in compliance with applicable law including data privacy and data protection laws.
We may review and analyse your communications on the platform to prevent fraud, ensure our terms and conditions are being met and for customer support, research and analytics.
Security
We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.
We will retain your personal data for as long as it is necessary to enable you to use our services and to comply with applicable laws, resolve disputes with any parties and otherwise as necessary to allow us to conduct our business, including to detect and prevent fraud or other illegal activities. All personal data we retain will be subject to this privacy policy.
Children’s information
Our platform is not directed at children under 16 and we do not knowingly collect any personal information directly from children under 16. For children younger than 16 years old, the use of any of our services is only allowed with the valid consent of a parent or a guardian. Should we become aware of processing information of a child under 16 years old, without valid consent of a parent or guardian, we reserve the right to delete it.
How you can control the personal information supplied to us
If you have a user account, you can access the personal information and update or delete anything you have shared with us.
We cannot be hold responsible for any information used by vendors and their management and or administrative staff who’s retreat, tour, activity, workshop or course you have booked to attend.
If you have any questions about our privacy policy or how we use and store your personal information, please contact us directly at info@hermanusexperiences.co.za
Hermanus Experiences platform is privately owned and operated by Elaine Skinner.
Office address: FIREFLYvillas 14 Hope Street, Hermanus, Western Cape, 7200
Cookie policy
A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added, and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.
We use technical cookies to give you an advanced user-friendly platform, to create your user account, to sign you in and to manage your bookings. These technical cookies are necessary for our website to function properly.
We use analytics cookies to identify which pages are being used, entered and exited from along with date and time stamp information. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our platform in order to tailor it to your needs.
We also use functional cookies to remember your preferences and to help you to use our platform. These cookies may remember your preferred currency, language, your searches and your previously viewed retreats, workshops or courses. We may also use cookies to remember your registration information so that you don’t have to retype your login credentials each time you the platform.
Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better platform, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us. To learn more about cookies you can visit this website http://www.whatarecookies.com/
You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of our platform.
Terms and Conditions
Hermanus experiences is an online platform/marketplace that enables registered users, members, to list their retreats, tours, activities, workshops and/or courses for online bookings. We also have a subscription based directory for all business listings and an event calendar.
Collectively these members will be referred to as “hosts” and all retreats, tours, activities, workshops, courses, listings and events will be referred to as “listings”, “services” and or “experiences”
All users of the Hermanus Experiences platform will need to sign up as an online member in order to book listings or communicate with hosts. For all event and listings visitors to the platform can click on direct links and communicate directlly with the listings and event providers. All online user members will be referred to as “participants” and/or “guests” By signing up you are agreeing to the terms and conditions listed here and in our, cancellations and privacy and cookies policy.
The services and functions of Hermanus Experiences
Hermanus Experiences, owners, staff and assigns will be referred to collectively as ‘’we”, “us” or “platform”.
We do not provide, manage, own, control, supply or organise any hosts listings and/or services.
We are not a travel agency and do not sell or organise travel packages under the packaged travel directive (2015/2302 EU).
All hosts, and participants are responsible in full for their own travel arrangements.
Hosts are solely responsible for their listings and services. When participants book a service or listing, they are entering into a contract directly with the host. We are not then party to any contractual relationship between hosts and participants.
Although, we will assist with the resolution of disputes. We have no control over or guarantee the existence, safety, quality and suitability of any listings or services, or the truth and accuracy of listing and services; descriptions, ratings, reviews, or host profiles, or the performance of any host, participant or third party.
Host verification only verifies that hosts have completed a verification of identity and or contact details, submitted and nothing else. Verification or any such description does not guarantee, endorse or certify any host or participant by the platform. You should always act with caution and due diligence when dealing with any hosts and participants on this platform or in person.
As we develop new services and advance our platform there may be times of disrupted use and functionality. We ask you in advance for your patience in this regard. It is our goal to produce the best user experience for all of our hosts and participants.
We may experience some growing pains along the way but will do our best to notify you in advance of any upgrades that may disrupt the use and access of information on the platform.
The terms and conditions listed here will also be updated and changed from time to time. All registered users will be notified of any such changes where possible, however it is advised that you regularly check and ensure you are aware of the latest terms and conditions of use.
It is the responsibility of all participants and hosts to keep their user registration details updated to receive notifications of any changes to any of our terms, conditions, privacy and cookie policies.
Booking your Hermanus Experience
There are no service fees associated with you discovering and booking your experiences, retreats, tours, activities, workshops and/or courses on our platform.
All our hosts agree to our best rate guarantee, whereby they confirm that you will not be able to book or pay for their experiences, retreats, tours, activities, workshops and/or courses anywhere else for less.
Subject to meeting any requirements by this platform and or the host you can book any available listing or service on the platform by following the booking process.
You will be guided to our 3rd party payment platform where full details of the full cost and your payment obligations will be presented.
The 3rd party payment platform will collect full payment at the time of your booking request. The terms and costs involved in this will be fully explained and visible during checkout.
You agree to full payment for any booking on the platform. Once your booking has been processed and you have received the booking confirmation a legally binding agreement is formed between yourself and the host, subject to any additional terms and conditions of the host that apply, including the cancellation policy and any rules and restrictions specified in the listing.
If you are booking on behalf of or for additional participants, you need to ensure that the participants meet the requirements set by the host, failing which, the hosts have the right to cancel the service without refund.
Please discuss bookings for minors with hosts as in some or most cases the nature of the listed retreats, tours, activities, workshops and/or accommodation rentals are not suitable for minors as they may be disruptive to other participants.
Please carefully review the description of the experiences, retreats, tours, activities, workshops and/or courses you are booking to ensure you understand exactly what is being offered and what is expected of the host by your participation.
You are welcome to contact the host for more information or read through their profile and reviews to ensure the experiences, retreats, tours, activities, workshops and/or courses are a good fit for you.
You may not bring additional participants along with you to the experiences, retreats, tours, activities, workshops and/or courses unless they have been booked for on the platform.
Hosts plan in advance and most likely will not favour or be able to accommodate last minute arrivals. Should you have a family member or friend you would like to have join you on the experiences, retreats, tours, activities, workshops and/or courses you have booked. Please check availability on the platform or use the contact button to discuss with the host as additional participants may be turned away if not booked prior to arrival.
Reviews
Reviews are a vital part of your participation in ensuring the best possible use of this platform for all hosts and participants.
Reviews are public and not verified by us. We put our trust in all our hosts and participants to operate out of honesty and kindness towards each other when reviewing and rating the experiences, retreats, tours, activities, workshops and/or courses discovered and booked via our platform.
Your ratings and reviews assist other participants with deciding if the service or listing is a good fit for them. Be honest about your experience and detail the high points and low or negative points. This also gives our hosts the opportunity to fine tune experiences, retreats, tours, activities, workshops and/or courses for other participants.
Cancellations
Please refer to our cancellation policies by following this link
Content
In order for the platform to function hosts will be required to store content such as videos, photographs, text and other information (herein after collectively termed “content”) regarding their listings and or services. All hosts and participants agree by uploading any content onto the platform that they are duly authorised to do so and hold full licence for the content and provide the platform full global license to distribute and use the content provided in any measure or on any platform globally for the purpose of marketing the platform.
The platform also stores and makes use of content generated by or licensed to the platform via third parties. Where we may make use of content supplied to the platform by hosts and participants for marketing purposes by no means may anyone copy, repost and/or repurpose any material contained within the platform or found on any or all of our social media platforms for any commercial use without the platforms prior written consent.
We reserve the right to remove any content that is found to be violent, promotes illegal activity, is discriminative, racist or in violation of any of our terms and the loving community we have set out to create with this platform.
Hosts responsibility
Hosts are responsible for identifying, understanding, and complying with all laws, rules and regulations that apply to their listings.
In many cases hosts may have to register, get a permit or obtain a license before providing certain services like providing accommodation, serving meals or alcohol, guiding or transporting participants.
Host are responsible for identifying and obtaining any required licenses, permits, or registrations for any and all services they offer. Certain services may carry fines or penalties or not be permitted at all. If you are unsure you should seek legal guidance prior to listing your services.
Hosts are responsible for ensuring that all information supplied in their listings is true and accurate including: their cancellation policy, all possible risks involved in participating in their services including those provided by 3rd parties, all requirements for participating, equipment, dress code, minimum age, skills level, level of fitness and any terms, rules, restrictions and conditions necessary for participants to agree and adhere to.
All our hosts are bound by our best rate guarantee whereby you confirm that participants will not be able to book or pay for your retreats, tours, activities, workshops and/or accommodation rentals anywhere else for less than the rates listed for your listings on our platform.
You are welcome to issue discount vouchers to participants on this platform as incentives for early bookings or other promotional activities.
Host fees and pay-outs
We charge 15% commission on the total booking amount paid by participants booking your experiences, retreats, tours, activities, workshops and/or courses discovered on our platform. By listing your experiences, retreats, tours, activities, workshops and/or courses on our platform you agree to our lowest price guarantee that no guest will be able to book your experiences, retreats, tours, activities, workshops and/or courses off our platform for less. You also agree that the commission is due on the total booking amount including all extras relevant for guests to participate in or book your experiences, retreats, tours, activities, workshops and/or courses.
Guests book and pay via our secure online payment platform. Our fee, the 15% commission collected on the total amount paid, is deducted and the remainder of the payment sits in our secure account until payment, pay-outs are due.
Pay-outs will be released within 24 hours of the start of the experiences, retreats, tours, activities, workshops and/or courses booked. This provides time for participants to notify us if there is no legitimacy of the hosts listing created on our platform.
Tax
As a host you are solely responsible for determining your obligations in regards to vat and tax laws
Tax laws may require us to provide tax information to relevant authorities. We do not assume any liability for the failure of any host to comply with any applicable tax reporting or remittance obligations.
Indemnification
The hosts, participants and/or any members listing their venues, services and listings on this platform shall be liable for and indemnifies and shall keep indemnified the platform and any of our directors, employees, representatives, subsidiaries, distributors, affiliate partners, licensees, agents or others involved in creating, sponsoring, promoting, or otherwise making available the platform and its contents against any liability, loss, expense, damages, claims, suits, actions, demands or proceedings, whether arising under any statue or at common law, in respect of any loss or damages, personal loss, injury (including illness) to or death of any person arising out of or in connection with or caused by any listings and service promoted on this platform and the performance of this platform.
Contact
Any questions or comments on our terms of service can be submitted directly via email to info@hermanusexperiences.co.za or via our contact page submission form
