Terms & conditions

 
General Terms of Business of RomFriend SRL and of Providers of Activities, Tours, Accommodation and other touristic Services on Romanian Friend

Version 10 April 2017

These Terms of Business are divided into two sections:
I. General Terms of Business of RomFriend SRL
II. General Terms of Business of Providers of Activities, Tours, Accommodation and other touristic Services on Romanian Friend

RomFriend SRL is the owner and administrator of www.RomanianFriend.com, a website with an online brokerage platform connecting its visitors with providers of touristic services through a booking system. Visitors can make bookings for services and offers presented by providers of such services. If a request for booking is made and/or confirmed, the contracts being concluded will be directly between users of the website and providers of touristic services identified on the website. Romanian Friend is not a contracting party and does not have any rights or obligations in respect of any booked tours, accommodation or any other touristic services or offers displayed on its website.

Part I. General Terms of Business of RomFriend SRL

RomFriend SRL, limited liability company incorporated and headquartered in Romania ("RomFriend"), operates a brokerage-platform website providing offers in the tourism and leisure sector as online-offers via the internet ("Romanian Friend"). On the platform, users can find and book tours, activities, workshops, experiences and accommodation all over Romania ("services"). The online offers include, for example, guided tours, bike tours, hikes, cooking lessons, artisan workshops, stays in guesthouses etc. Offers are uploaded online by local providers from Romania ("providers"), which have concluded service contracts with RomFriend ("service contracts"). Users can call up information regarding any service offered by such providers and initiate booking requests using Romanian Friend.

Romanian Friend is directed towards both users and individual business owners. For the purposes of these Terms of Business and except where specifically indicated otherwise, the following defined terms shall apply:

(a) A "consumer" is any natural person concluding the contract for purposes that cannot be primarily attributed to any commercial or independent professional activity (Art. 2, para. 2, Ordinance no. 21/1992 regarding Romanian Consumer Protection or the annex to the Romanian Consumer Code).

(b) A "business" is a natural or legal entity, which, in concluding the contract acts in its commercial, personal or independent professional capacity (Art. 2, para. 3, Ordinance no. 21/1992 regarding Romanian Consumer Protection or the annex to the Romanian Consumer Code).

(c) A "User" refers to a natural person visiting the Romanian Friend website, either acting on its own, on behalf of other natural persons or for a legal entity.

1. Object
These Terms of Business shall apply for the use of Romanian Friend via the internet, accessed in any way using any type of device. The relationship between a user of Romanian Friend and RomFriend encompasses only and is limited to the proper referral, through the website flow, of that user to a specific provider offering services. Romanian Friend acts only as a provider of marketing services for providers and is not and does not act as a seller, organizer, lessor, or any other form of contracting partner in connection with the service contract concluded with a provider. RomFriend itself does not offer any touristic services and is not a contractual party to the contracts that are concluded exclusively between users and providers when booking requests are made using Romanian Friend website.

Therefore, these Romanian Friend Terms of Business shall apply only for the referral of users to providers on the website. The Terms of Business of Romanian Friend providers shall apply to each individual contract concluded between a user and a provider of services and shall be as outlined in Part II.

2. Making a booking request
In some instances when using Romanian Friend, such as the initiation and sending of booking requests for the services offers of specific providers, the user shall be required to fill in personal and bank card details. On this instance, the user submits his/her details through an electronic registration form as required by Romanian Friend for completing the booking request and agrees to these Terms of Business prior to such submission. If all required details are filled in, the booking request shall be processed and further relayed by Romanian Friend to the relevant provider.

All natural persons using Romanian Friend must be at least 18 years of age and have full legal capacity for initiating a booking request and making a unilateral and binding offer to contract. RomFriend cannot verify the identity of any users of Romanian Friend and does not verify whether a user’s personal details, as filled in the booking request form, are true, accurate and/or belong to that user. RomFriend does not assume any liability or responsibility for the truthfulness or accuracy of such details and shall not be bound by the consequences of any erroneous use or submission of personal details of any natural person.

3. RomFriend’s position as an intermediary. Booking process flow.
3.1. By submitting a booking request, the user makes a unilateral and binding offer to contract the services offered by the relevant provider and shall be bound by said offer for a period of 5 working days. This is done by clicking the "request a booking" button.

3.2. After the user has submitted a booking request (containing, for example, selected service offer, number of participants, preferred date, price options, etc.) on Romanian Friend, the website shall automatically send such booking request to the relevant provider offering the service selected by the user ("service request"). Once submitted, a service request cannot be cancelled by the user.

3.3. Prior to making a service request, Romanian Friend shall provide users with the Terms of Business of Romanian Friend providers, outlined in Part II of this document, which shall contain the general terms and conditions for the contractual relationship that will be concluded between the user and the relevant provider for the provision of the service requested by the user, if that provider shall accept the user’s service request.
3.4. Romanian Friend shall relay the user’s service request to the relevant provider. The provider shall check availability, if necessary, for the provision of the requested service and shall respond (via email through a pre-generated electronic token) to Romanian Friend with an acceptance or refusal of that service request.
3.5. If the user’s service request has been confirmed by the relevant provider, a contract has been concluded between the said user and provider for the provision of that service ("service contract") and Romanian Friend shall then send the user a booking confirmation. The user shall be responsible for bearing the costs for technical access to Romanian Friend (e.g. internet access).
3.6. RomFriend does not provide any guarantee, neither to users nor to providers, for the accuracy of data forwarded or guarantee the performance of services by providers, because all information displayed and forwarded is based on data provided by third parties or providers, which RomFriend cannot verify in detail.

4. Payments on Romanian Friend
When making a service request by clicking the ‘request a booking’ button, a user shall be required to make a payment on Romanian Friend consisting of: (i) a deposit, calculated as a fixed percentage of the total price of the service request offer; the exact percentage shall be indicated by each provider for each of its offers when registering with Romanian Friend and shall be displayed to the user before submitting a service request, and (ii) a service charge for using the Romanian Friend brokerage platform (designated as ‘finder’s fee’) in the amount of 10% of the total price of the service request offer. RomFriend is entitled to require payment of the service charge for using the Romanian Friend platform by the user as a prerequisite for sending a service request, irrespective of whether a provider requests an advance payment for his offers of service.

The service contract concluded by the user with the provider once a service request has been confirmed shall regulate the compensation the user must pay for that provider’s services.

If the user is paying in a currency different from the provider’s currency (local currency
requirement), RomFriend will process the user’s foreign currency payment and convert it into local currency (Romanian LEU (RON)) at the currently valid exchange rate applied by the user’s bank issuer of the card used for payment. Unless the user’s bank automatically processes the foreign currency exchange operation and charges the user a fee for this process, RomFriend may charge the user an appropriate conversion fee for this service as per the payment processors applicable rates. The user’s payment for the outstanding balance of a service contract concluded with a provider shall be managed solely between the provider and the user with no involvement from RomFriend.

The user must provide truthful billing information and update this information promptly in case of changes. RomFriend may reject the payment method provided by the user when such payment methods are rejected by payment processors. Approved payment methods for the relevant services are displayed to the user during the order process.

By authorising a payment, the user agrees that his payment information may be used by the claimant (RomFriend) to collect compensation. RomFriend shall not process a service request where the user’s credit worthiness, as verified by the Romanian Friend payment processor, does not hold the required amount as indicated at para. 1 above.

Declined service requests. Refunds. In case a user’s service request has been declined by the provider, Romanian Friend shall refund the payment made by the user as per para. 1 above. The refund request shall be processed within the terms & conditions of the payment processor of Romanian Friend, but no later than within 20 working days since a service request has been declined. Any fees charged by the Romanian Friend payment processor for this operation shall be borne by the user.

5. Cancelation policy
Each provider shall indicate in the details of his offer the cancelation policy applied to the deposit paid by a user when submitting a service request. If the user cancels a service contract, said user shall not be entitled to obtain a refund of the service charge paid for using Romanian Friend and shall herewith forfeit the right to obtain a refund of this amount, irrespective of whether or not that user shall be entitled to a refund of the deposit. All cancelation requests that would entitle a user to a refund of the deposit, in full or in part, must be submitted to Romanian Friend within the term allowed by the cancelation policy indicated by the provider of the relevant offer. RomFriend reserves its right to deny any deposit refund requests submitted after the expiry of the relevant period which allowed for such refund to be processed.

6. Romanian Friend Pricing
All prices on Romanian Friend are displayed per activity and for a booking for one or two persons, as displayed on each activity, include VAT, where applicable, and all other taxes according to Romanian law.

These prices are established by providers and may be subject to specific conditions, for example, regarding cancellations and refunds of payments made. Therefore, please check carefully before booking if the respective service contract is subject to special conditions

7. Duties and Obligations of the User
Users shall provide truthful, accurate and personal data on Romanian Friend when making a service request. Using Romanian Friend with the personal data provided by the user shall be attributed to that user.

When going through the booking process on the platform, the user may request special or additional services, which will be forwarded by Romanian Friend to the provider. Upon receipt of a service request confirmation, Romanian Friend will provide the user with the service provider’s contact details. Any further correspondence regarding the service, related details or extra services will thereafter take place directly between the user and the service provider without the involvement, liability or knowledge of RomFriend.

The user shall indemnify RomFriend from claims by third parties resulting from his use of Romanian Friend, except insofar as RomFriend is at fault for said claims.

8. Availability and Warranty
There shall be no entitlement to the availability, quality, service characteristics, or technical support for Romanian Friend. RomFriend can alter, restrict, or discontinue its online portal Romanian Friend at any time and at its own discretion. Existing agreements between a user and a provider, as well as their processing, shall not be affected by such changes.

RomFriend shall assume no warranty for the accuracy or completeness of the data provided by providers.

RomFriend shall assume no liability for the services offered by providers. The user's contact point for questions and claims in connection with a service contract and its implementation shall be the respective provider.

Insofar as RomFriend bears no obligation toward the user, RomFriend also offers no guarantee.

9. Limitation of Liability
RomFriend shall only be liable for damages caused by RomFriend or its vicarious agents by intent or gross negligence.

In the case of simple negligence, RomFriend shall be liable only for breach of an essential contractual obligation and only for immediate prejudice limited to the sums received by RomFriend from the respective user. Essential obligations shall be those whose fulfilment makes the proper execution of the contract possible and on whose fulfilment the user may generally rely.

In no event shall Romanian Friend, its officers, directors, employees, agents, vendors or providers be liable under contract, tort, strict liability, negligence or any other legal theory with respect to the service: (i) for any lost profits or special, indirect, incidental, punitive, or consequential damages of any kind whatsoever, even if foreseeable, (ii) for any bugs, viruses, trojan horses, or the like (regardless of the source of origination), or (iii) for any direct damages in excess of (in the aggregate) the amounts paid by user to Romanian Friend for the purchase directly connected with the liability claim. In addition, Romanian Friend shall not be liable for any loss or liability resulting, directly or indirectly, from a user's inability to access or otherwise use the platform, including, without limitation, any delays or interruptions due to electronic or mechanical equipment failures, denial of service attacks, date data processing failures, telecommunications or internet problems or utility failures.

Romanian Friend shall not be liable for any failure to perform its obligations hereunder where such failure results from any cause beyond its reasonable control, including, without limitation, mechanical, electronic or communications failure or any other form of degradation.

The foregoing limitations shall not apply to the extent prohibited by Romanian law.

10. Data Protection
RomFriend shall collect and use users' personal information only to the extent necessary to receive, process and forward a service request submitted on Romanian Friend and to act as an intermediary between a user and a provider registered on Romanian Friend.

Insofar as RomFriend becomes included in the communication regarding a service contract between the user and the respective provider, it submits the required data necessary for the conclusion of said contract to the provider. The provider then processes and uses the data for the purposes of contract initiation, conclusion and execution on its own responsibility. The identity of the respective provider results from the relevant offer page and from the booking confirmation relayed by Romanian Friend to the user once a service request has been confirmed.  For more information, please see Romanian Friend's privacy policy under http://romanianfriend.com/privacy-policy

11. Amendments to these Terms of Business
RomFriend reserves the right to modify these Terms of Business at any time without notice and without stating reasons for doing so. RomFriend shall only make such changes with regards to consumers as users would be reasonably expected to admit in consideration of the mutual interests of the parties. This includes, for example, a lack of equivalence between services and considerations, but also includes regulatory gaps and legislative changes. No changes will take place on the applicable Terms of Business for a previously confirmed service request. Any change of the hereby Terms of Business will be applicable when a new service request is submitted by the user, as the platform will be prompting the user for a confirmation and acceptance of the Terms of Business applicable at such moment.

12. Other Provisions
These Terms of Business represent the entire agreement between RomFriend and the user. Other supplementary agreements shall not exist. Changes and additions to this agreement shall be required in written form and expressly signed and accepted by RomFriend in order to be valid; text form (e.g. email) shall not suffice. Clause 11 of these Terms of Business shall not be affected by the written form requirement.

The law of Romania shall apply. If you have submitted a service request as a consumer, and at the time of your order your habitual residence is in a country other than Romania, the application of mandatory laws of that country shall not be affected by the applicable jurisdiction of Romanian law and courts of law. By accepting these Terms of Business, the user expressly agrees that any and all disputes in relation to these Terms of Business or otherwise connected to RomFriend, shall be settled by the Court of First Instance of District 1 in Bucharest or the Bucharest Tribunal, as applicable according to the material jurisdiction provisions of the Civil Procedure Code applicable in Romania at the time an action is brought. Legally binding jurisdictions shall remain unaffected.

If certain provisions of these Terms of Business shall be or become void or invalid under Romanian law, this shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions.
RomFriend SRL
2 Duiliu Zamfirescu Street, Oradea, Bihor county
Trade Registry no. J5/2249/2016
Sole Registration Code 36873898
Romania
Email: contact@romanianfriend.com

Part II. General Terms of Business of Providers of Activities, Tours, Accommodation and other touristic Services on Romanian Friend:

Content
1. Acceptance of Bookings
2. Truthful Information
3. Arrival at venue, and compliance with rules
4. Conditions of Participation
5. Binding Nature of Inquiry
6. Payment
7. Disclaimer on Right of Withdrawal
8. Personal Responsibility for Insurance
9. Unpaid Services
10. Exchange of Messages
11. Cancellation Policy
12. Extraordinary Cancellation
13. Exclusion from Participation
14. Program Changes
15. Other Conditions
16. Time Zone
17. Liability of the provider of the tour, accommodation or touristic service
18. Changes of these General Terms of Business
19. Applicable Law

Introduction
These General Terms of Business of Providers apply to contracts concluded between users of Romanian Friend and providers of activities, tours, accommodation and other touristic services registered on Romanian Friend.

1. Acceptance of Service Requests by Providers
A provider only accepts service requests (as defined in Part I of these Terms of Business) through the actions of persons fully capable of acting and with full powers to represent and legally bind that provider. RomFriend does not and cannot verify the identity, legal powers or authorisations of natural persons acting for or on behalf of providers and assumes no liability in this respect.

2. Truthful Information
The information provided on the Romanian Friend booking platform by providers must be truthful and accurate. The provider reserves the right to cancel bookings when incorrect information has been provided by the user when submitting a service request. In this case, the deposit paid cannot be refunded.

3. Arrival at Venue and Compliance with Rules
The user is personally responsible for timely arrival at the meeting point, as indicated by the provider. If the user arrives to the booked activity from abroad, he is personally responsible for the necessary travel documents (flight tickets, passport, etc.), compliance with health regulations, any personal safety matters, etc.

4. Conditions of Participation
The user is personally responsible for compliance with any conditions of participation for a specific activity. The provider reserves the right to exclude participants who do not meet these conditions from the activity. In this case, the deposit paid cannot be refunded.

5. Binding Nature of Service Request
The contract between the user and the provider is concluded when the provider accepts the user’s service request. By submitting a booking request on Romanian Friend for an activity, tour, accommodation or any other offer, the user is sending the provider a binding offer to contract to which he is bound for 5 working days. If the provider accepts the offer (service request) within this period, the service contract is definitely concluded. The user will be notified via e-mail.

6. Payments
The user’s bank card will be charged by Romanian Friend upon submitting a service request for the advance payment required by the provider in order to start processing the user’s booking request. If the provider does not accept the user booking request, the charged amount will be credited back.

Unless agreed otherwise by the user and the provider through independent communication, the default provision of the service contract concluded between a user and a provider shall require the user to pay the remaining balance of the booked offer price cash on arrival on day of booked activity.

7. Disclaimer on Right of Withdrawal
In case that the applicable law for the contract between the user and the provider grants a right of cancellation in favour of the user, the user waives that right, to the extent permitted by Romanian law.

8. Personal Responsibility for Insurance
Insurance is not included in the price of an offer. The user is personally responsible for a sufficient insurance coverage. The extent of insurance need depends on the booked offer.

9. Unpaid Services
If the user does not make the required payments on arrival or day of activity or as otherwise expressly agreed with the provider, his claim to the services of that provider shall be forfeited. This will be regarded as a cancellation and cancellation charges will apply according to section 11.

10. Exchange of Messages
All communication between the user and the provider before the service request is confirmed must be made through the Romanian Friend booking platform. For this purpose, solely the forms provided by Romanian Friend are to be used. After the service request is confirmed any communication will take place directly between the user and the provider. Any such communications shall not be binding on RomFriend or carry any legal effect.

11. Cancellation Policy and No-Shows
If the user cancels the service contract, the cancellation policy on Romanian Friend platform is authoritative and shall apply. We advise the user to carefully read the information on the Romanian Friend platform and the specific cancelation policy that applies to each tour as indicated in the ‘additional information’ box on the tour page.

There are 3 types of cancelation policies applicable to all offers displayed on Romanian Friend, with the following cancellation charges:

1) Easy: if cancelled with up to 3 full days before booked date, full refund of deposit paid;
2) Medium: if cancelled with up to 7 full days before booked date, full refund of deposit paid;
3) Custom: will be expressly specified for individual offers, according to providers’ policies applied to those offers (e.g. in case of long tours where bookings are required in advance).

The default rule for most tours on Romanian Friend (unless otherwise mentioned on the tour page) is the easy cancelation policy. Please always check the ‘Additional information’ section of the tour page to see if a specific cancelation policy applies. You agree to this cancelation policy when making a booking request.

For example, a booking made on the 10th must be canceled on the 6th by 23:59 at the latest (Romanian local time), according to the easy cancelation policy.

If you cancel after more than 30 days when making your booking request, you will not be refunded the Romanian Friend finder's fee (service charge) but only the deposit payment of tour price. In case of no-shows no refunds are possible.

The user is deemed to have accepted the applicable cancelation policy when submitting a service request and proceeding to payment page.

The payment processor used by Romanian Friend, MobilPay Netopia https://www.mobilpay.ro/public/en allows for refunds to be made within 30 days from the date a payment was processed. Any refunds for cancelations made after this period will have to be processed through a different payment system, a bank transfer, PayPal or otherwise. We will agree with you the exact details and payment process to use, but any extra charges or fees for the transfer will be incurred by you.

In case of a no-show on day of booking, there will be no refund of the deposit paid.

12. Extraordinary Cancellation
The provider can cancel the activity without adherence to the cancellation period if weather conditions, governmental actions, unforeseeable or unavoidable external circumstances endanger or make carrying out the activity impossible or substantially more difficult.

This is done under exclusion of any compensation for damages or other claims under what legal basis whatsoever.

13. Exclusion from Participation
The provider has the right to refuse admittance, check-in or exclude a user from an activity if the user does not meet the eligibility requirements, or if the user’s participation puts the user or others at risk, or otherwise interferes with the proper conduct of the activity or accommodation. In these cases, the price paid cannot be refunded.

14. Program Changes
The provider further reserves the right to make minor program changes, if deemed necessary due to unforeseeable or unpreventable circumstances.

If the user so requests and the activity for such, the provider has the right, but not the obligation, to customize a tour, activity or offer.

15. Other Conditions
Further conditions or alternative rules can be found on the respective provider service pages.

16. Time Zone
For time and date calculations, the time zone of the Romania EET +2:00 shall apply.

17. Liability of the provider of the activity, tour, accommodation or touristic service
The provider of the activity, tour, accommodation or touristic service is liable according to applicable law. The liability is excluded to the extent permitted by applicable law.

The service is provided on an "as is" basis, without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including, without limitation, implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement. Romanian Friend or the provider makes no warranty that (i) the booked service is free of viruses or other harmful components, or (ii) the results of using the service will meet user's requirements.

18. Changes of these General Terms of Business
These Terms of Business are subject to change without prior notice. The terms that are valid at the time of each booking shall apply. The user has no claim that future bookings be completed under existing conditions.

19. Applicable Law
The legal relationship between users and providers of services shall be in each case governed by the Romanian law and any dispute shall be under the jurisdiction of competent Romanian courts.