Travelbug Terms and Conditions

Welcome to Travelbug, New Zealand's online travel site. The Travelbug website (Website) is owned and operated by Trade Me Limited (Trade Me). By using the Website, you accept these terms and conditions. If you do not accept them, you must refrain from using the Website or the Services.

Terms and conditions

1. These are the terms and conditions on which Trade Me offers you access to the Website and accommodation, product and service search and booking services (the Services).
2. These terms and conditions may be amended in whole or in part by Trade Me at any time at its discretion. Amendments will be effective immediately upon posting of the amended terms and conditions on this Website. You are responsible for ensuring you are familiar with the latest terms and conditions. Your continued use of the Website or the Services represents your agreement to be bound by the amended terms and conditions. These terms and conditions were last updated on 8 July 2009.

Your use of the Travelbug site

3. You may only use Travelbug if you can form a legally binding contract that is enforceable against you. You must be at least 18 years old.
4. You agree to provide complete, accurate and current personal information when booking accommodation.
5. Trade Me reserves the right at its discretion to decline to provide you with the Services at any time without entering further discussions with you. Any such termination shall not affect any right or remedy to which Trade Me may be entitled.
6. Trade Me will send you emails relating to your transactions and other activities on the Website.
7. Trade Me may also send regular electronic newsletters to Travelbug users. Newsletters will contain clear and obvious instructions for how you can unsubscribe from the mailing list.

The Services

8. Trade Me provides the Website for you to find and book accommodation directly with accommodation operators (Operators). You agree to use the Website and the Services for this purpose only.
9. When you make a booking and it is confirmed to you, you form a binding contract directly with the Operator. You must only make a booking that you intend to use and pay for. You must not use the Website to make speculative, false or fraudulent bookings.
10. Trade Me is not a party to any agreement or transaction between you and an Operator, including any booking for accommodation or other products or services made using the Website. Accordingly, you agree not to involve, or attempt to involve, Trade Me in any dispute or in the resolution of disputes that may arise between you and an Operator as a result of the Services provided. The inclusion on the Website of any third party material or a link to a third party website does not mean Trade Me endorses or approves that third party or the third party material.

Specific warnings

11. Each Operator maintains and updates its own information on the Website through the Vianet systems. Trade Me takes steps to ensure that information displayed on the Website is accurate and complete, but does not guarantee that information on the Website is free from errors or omissions and does not accept liability for any errors or omissions. Trade Me reserves the right to alter information published on the Website if Trade Me considers it incorrect or misleading.
12. Trade Me is not responsible or liable for any unavailability of accommodation, products or services that an Operator indicates on the Website is or are available.
13. The Services and all information and materials on the Website are provided "as is" and Trade Me does not give any warranties of any kind, whether express or implied. To the maximum extent permitted by law, all representations and warranties (statutory, express or implied) are expressly excluded, including, but not limited to, any implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Trade Me makes no representation or warranty about, and takes no responsibility or liability for, the quality or suitability of any accommodation, product or service featured on the Website.
14. Exclusion and Limitation of liability: Trade Me is not liable under any circumstances (including, but not limited to, negligence) for any direct or indirect loss or damage (including, but not limited to, general, consequential, special or incidental loss or damages, loss of profits or loss of savings) suffered by you or anyone else arising from the direct or indirect use of the Website or the Services or from the use of, or inability to use, any accommodation, product or service booked or purchased using the Website, even if Trade Me has been advised of the possibility of such loss or damages. In any event, if, notwithstanding these terms and conditions, Trade Me is held liable then Trade Me's total liability to you and those claiming through you under any and all causes of action, whether in contract, tort or otherwise, shall not exceed the amount paid by you, if any, for using the Website.
15. Trade Me will use its reasonable endeavours to ensure the availability of the Website and the Services, subject to any downtime required for maintenance. However, Trade Me takes no responsibility for any system unavailability, or for any loss or damage that is suffered as a result of the Website or Services being unavailable for any reason. Trade Me does not warrant that the Website or the Services will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that the Website will be free from viruses or other harmful content. Further, Trade Me is not responsible or liable for the corruption of any data or information submitted via the Website or held by Trade Me.
16. None of these terms limit your rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993.

Payment, Fees and Charges

17. Trade Me receives non-refundable payments from Operators for providing the Services. Trade Me may also charge a booking fee for providing the Services. These fees and charges will not be refunded to you if you cancel a confirmed booking or claim a refund from the Operator of accommodation, products or services booked using the Website except in exceptional circumstances, such as where the Operator cancels a confirmed booking.
18. Trade Me reserves the right to change at any time the fees charged for any of our Services or the manner in which they are charged, imposed or collected. If we launch a new service, the charges for that service will be effective at the launch of that service unless otherwise stated.
19. All fees are inclusive of New Zealand GST and in New Zealand dollars, unless otherwise stated.

Changes, Cancellations and Refunds

20. The availability and costs of cancellations, changes and refunds depend on Operators' own terms and conditions and policies. When you make a booking you agree to be bound by the relevant Operator's terms and policies.
21. Please contact the Operator directly to discuss any desired cancellations, changes or refunds.

Comments

22. Comments you submit to the Website about Operators must be true in all respects and be based only on your own experience with that Operator.
23. Comments you submit to the Website must not be offensive, defamatory, unlawful, misleading or deceptive.
24. The Comment facility on the Website may not be used to promote any commercial or business activity. If you own or are employed by an Operator, you must not post comments about that Operator.
25. Trade Me is not responsible for any of the opinions expressed in the Comment facility. By posting a comment you agree to take full legal responsibility and liability for your comments and to indemnify Trade Me from all liability, loss, damages, costs or expenses suffered by Trade Me in connection with your comment.
26. Trade Me reserves the right to remove any comments that it considers inappropriate or in breach of these terms and conditions.
27. Comments submitted to the Website are provided for the sole purpose of facilitating the operation of the Website and the Services. You must not market or export any comments on the Website to any other venue or website.

General

28. Governing Law: These terms and conditions are governed by the laws of New Zealand. You submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of New Zealand.
29. Intellectual Property Rights: Trade Me (and its licensors or suppliers, as the case may be) owns all intellectual property rights in the Website and the Services (including, but not limited to, text, graphics, logos, icons and sound recordings) and the software and other material underlying and forming part of the Services and the Website. TRAVEL BUG is a trade mark of Trade Me Limited. You may not without our prior written permission, in any form or by any means:
    • Adapt, reproduce, copy, store, distribute, print, display, perform, publish, transmit or create adaptations from any part of the Website or its contents; or
    • Commercialise, copy, or on-sell any information, or items obtained from any part of the Website or its contents.

    You agree:

    • not to use any software, process or device to copy, collect or harvest data or other content from the Website;
    • not to decompile, reverse-engineer, disassemble or otherwise deal with any software underlying or forming part of the Services or the Website; and
    • not to do anything or take any action that imposes an unreasonable burden on Trade Me's computer systems.

30. Waiver and Severability: Trade Me will not be deemed to have waived any right under these terms and conditions unless the waiver is in writing and signed by Trade Me. Any unlawful or voidable provision in these terms and conditions shall be read down so as to be valid and enforceable or, if it cannot be read down, will be severed without affecting the validity, legality or enforceability of the remaining provisions.
31. Headings: The headings used in these terms and conditions are included for convenience only and do not affect or limit these terms and conditions.
32. Privacy: Trade Me collects personal information about you through your use of the Services and the Website, including:
    • your contact details; and
    • information relating to your use of the Website and the content you access.

You agree that Trade Me may use this personal information to assist Trade Me to provide the Services to you, for internal research purposes, to verify your identity, for promoting and marketing other Trade Me products and services to you, and for any other use that you authorise.

Trade Me will provide Operators with the information required to facilitate a booking that you make through the Travelbug site.

Trade Me uses the Vianet system in order to provide you with the Travelbug site. You may view the Vianet privacy policy at www.vianet.travel.

Trade Me will not sell or allow third parties to access your personal information without your consent. Trade Me releases account and other personal information only when it believes release is appropriate to comply with the law, to facilitate court proceedings, to enforce or apply Trade Me's terms and conditions or protect the rights, property, or safety of Trade Me, its website users, its members or others.

Please review our privacy policy. By using the Website you accept the terms of our privacy policy, as amended from time to time.