Summary:

Booking Protect is a refund protection product offered by you to your customers during the online booking process either on your website (when using the indie widget) or via indie Travel. This product allows your guest to claim a full refund on their experience through Booking Protect, should they be forced to cancel due to unforeseen circumstances. The protection can only be taken out at the time of booking and is optional for your customer. If the customer opt-in and chooses to take out the protection, indie will add an adjustment to their booking to cover the cost of the protection.

How Booking Protect works

Once a website is set up with indie’s Booking Protect widget or your product is set up to offer booking protect via indie travel, pricing and commission works are as follows;

  • Booking protect is priced from 7% depending on the booking total
  • The Experience Host/Owner retains a 25% commission on the 7%

For example: On a ÂŁ100 tour price, your guest pays ÂŁ7.00 for Refund Protection, and you as the Host will receive ÂŁ1.75.

Please note Booking Protect can only be added to bookings with a value of less than ÂŁ5000

Commission

The guest pays the cost of the Booking Protection via your website or via indie Travel.

On the 1st of each month, Booking Protect sends out an invoice for 75% of the protection that your guests have taken out in the previous month. Indie manages this on your behalf.

You earn 25% of the Booking Protect fees as a commission.

Change of mind:

If your guest has a change of mind and decides that they no longer want the protection, there is a 14-day cooling-off period whereby their agreement with Booking Protect can be cancelled. After that, you can simply contact Booking Protect via phone or email, and they will cancel the transaction.

If you cancel the Booking Protect on behalf of your guest, we suggest you recreate the entire booking. Unfortunately, the refund protection will still show against the booking even after the adjustment has been removed. Rest assured the guest will not be able to claim if you have cancelled it via Booking Protect.

Setting up

Please read and follow the steps to connect Booking Protect.

  1. The first step will be to make your experiences available on your website and/or on indie Travel:
    To make live booking available on your website your will need to install the indie widget on your website.
    To make sure your experiences are available on indie Travel you will need to configure your tours for the indie Travel B2C Marketplace.
  2. Once the widget is installed and/or indie Travel is configured, click on “Integrations” on the side menu  in your indie Dashboard.
  3. Click the “Enable” Purple Button on the Booking Protect Card

Making a claim:

If the guest needs to claim a refund on their experience, they must contact Booking Protect directly and submit an online refund application via this link https://bookingprotect.com/refund/.

All refund applications are reviewed and updated within 48 working hours.

Although indie cannot have any involvement in the claim process, it is important that you, as the Tour Operator, are informed of the cancellation. As the indie team is notified from our partners at Booking Protect, we will keep you informed too.

If the refund application is successful, the guest will receive immediate notification via email. Funds will then be sent to the bank account and should appear within 7-10 days.

If the refund application is rejected, one of the refund handlers from Booking Protect will respond to the application and explain why it was unsuccessful.

If you have any questions relating to the refund protection product, contact Booking Protect on:

info@bookingprotect.com

+44 (0) 113 831 3508

Below are the details of the Terms and Conditions that apply to your guests. If you’d like additional documentation to include on your website or emails for your customers, the team as Booking Protect and indie can help, or you can include this information below:

Definitions

The following words or phrases have the meaning shown below wherever they appear in bold in this document.

  • You/Your/Yourself – A person who has made a booking alone or as part of a group with us.
  • Doctor – A qualified medical practitioner registered with a recognised professional body. A doctor cannot be you or a member of your immediate family.
  • Emergency Services – The Police, Fire and Rescue Service or Emergency Medical Services.
  • Booking/Booked event – The pre-planned and pre-booked service(s)/event(s)/ticket(s), including booking and service fees transacted with us by you.
  • Group– Any number of people who have made a booking with us with Booking Refund Protection in the same transaction.
  • Illness – A physical or mental condition confirmed by a doctor that prevents you from attending the booked event.
  • Immediate family – Your husband, wife, partner, civil partner, parent, child, brother or sister.
  • Injury - A bodily injury confirmed by a doctor that prevents you from attending the booked event.
  • Public Transport Network – Any mode of public transport other than public hire taxis licensed for public use on which you had planned to travel to a booked event.
  • Ticket – A non-refundable, authorised ticket purchased from us where Booking Refund Protection has been purchased at the same time as purchasing the Ticket(s).
  • We/us/our – The booking vendor with whom you made the booking.

What will Booking Protect refund?

Booking Protect will refund the cost of your booking if you are unable to attend a booked event due to:

  • unexpected disruption of the public transport network you could not have reasonably known about before the date of the booked event;
  • an injury, or an illness affecting you or a member of your immediate family;
  • death happening to you at any time before the booked event or a member of your immediate family within four weeks of the booked event;
  • the mechanical breakdown, accident, fire or theft en route of a private vehicle taking you to the booked event;
  • jury service, which you were unaware of at the time of the booking;
  • burglary or fire at your residence in the 48 hours immediately before the booked event that required the attendance of the emergency services;
  • you being summoned to appear at court proceedings as a witness, which you were unaware of at the time of booking;
  • you being a member of the armed forces and being posted overseas unexpectedly;
  • adverse weather, including snow, frost, fog or storm where the Police services or other Government agencies have issued warnings not to travel. You must confirm relevant road closures from the Police or the appropriate governmental agency;
  • you being relocated permanently for work by your employer at the time of booking more than 100 miles from the booked event, which you were unaware of at the time of booking, or you are unexpectedly made compulsorily redundant.

For refund circumstances due to COVID-19, take a look at the Booking Protect guidance here: https://documents.bookingprotect.com/general/coronavirus-advice.pdf

You can see the Booking Protect Platform Guide here: https://documents.bookingprotect.com/guides/backoffice-guide.pdf

What will Booking Protect not refund?

Booking Protect will not provide a refund where:

  • you cannot provide a doctor’s report for injury or illness;
  • you cannot return all unused tickets or vouchers forming part of the booking;
  • your sole reason for not attending is due to another member of your group no longer being able to attend for any reason;
  • you are unable to attend a booked event because you are unable to obtain a visa to travel;
  • the booked event is cancelled, abandoned, postponed, curtailed or relocated;
  • you decide not to attend a booked event other than for a reason included within this Booking Refund Protection;
  • you are prevented from travelling to a booked event due to disruption of the public transport network, which is public knowledge before the booked event;
  • you are being relocated temporarily for work by your employer at the time of booking, or you have applied for relocation more than 100 miles from the booked event;
  • you can recover any part of the booking;
  • in our reasonable opinion, you did not allow sufficient time to travel to a booked event;
  • you carry out a criminal act which prevents you from attending a booked event;
  • you are prevented from travelling to a booked event due to an outbreak of a contagious disease, and the Government or any agency acting on behalf of the Government has imposed a ban on travel;
  • you make a false or fraudulent refund application or support a refund application by false or fraudulent document, device or statement;
  • you submit your refund request more than 45 days after the booked event.

COVID-19 - What will Booking Protect refund?

  • Positive test - if you test positive for COVID-19 and can evidence this, your refund will be paid.  Your required self-isolation period would need to cover the event date.
  • Negative test - if you test negative, our standard terms and conditions will apply, and a doctor's note would be required for any illness.  If you have a valid doctor's note, your refund will be paid.
  • High-risk individuals - if you're in a high-risk group and were not aware of this at the time of booking, and you later receive a doctor's note instructing you not to travel to a specific area, then your refund will be paid.  Providing the event takes place in the excluded area.
  • Track and trace and required self-isolation - if a member of your immediate family tests positive and you're required to self-isolate and can evidence this, then your refund will be paid.
  • If you have not been made redundant or put on notice of redundancy when the booking is made, your refund will be paid if you are made redundant.  

COVID-19 - What will Booking Protect not refund?

  • You choose not to attend an event - Booking Protect, unfortunately, cannot issue refunds where you decide not to attend an event because you are concerned about catching COVID-19.
  • If you are unable to attend a booked event due to the government imposing additional social distancing measures and banning larger groups from meeting socially indoors or outdoors, Booking Protect is unable to issue a refund.
  • All protection is given subject to the event going ahead as planned.  Booking Protect, unfortunately, cannot pay refunds where an event does not go ahead as planned.
  • Travel bans - as above, if you are prevented from travelling to a booked event due to an outbreak of a contagious disease and the Government or any agency acting on behalf of the Government has imposed a travel ban, Booking Protect is not able to issue a refund.  A travel ban may include national lockdown, local lockdown, border closure.

Booking Protect will not pay for travelling or associated expenses (unless travel costs are included as part of the total booking price) or any loss other than the purchase price, including the booking fee, of the booked event.

Booking Protect will not pay any consequence of war, invasion, acts of foreign enemies, hostilities (whether war be declared or not), civil war, rebellion, revolutions, insurrection, military or usurped power, riot, civil commotion, strikes, lockout, terrorism, malicious intent or vandalism, confiscation or nationalisation of or requisition or destruction of or damage to property by or under the order of any government or public or local authority.

Booking Protect will not pay any costs you incur in submitting or providing evidence to support your refund application.

General Conditions

a) you must make all necessary arrangements to arrive at the event on time.

b) you must not be aware of any material fact, matter or circumstance, when Booking Refund Protection is purchased, which may give rise to a refund request.

c) you must take all reasonable precautions to prevent or reduce any request for a refund.

d) unless Booking Protect agrees otherwise:

i) the language of this document and all communications relating to it will be English; and

ii) all aspects of the contract, including negotiation and performance, are subject to English laws and the decisions of English courts.

e) refund protection is non-refundable unless cancelled within 14 days of purchase and the booking has not occurred. To cancel the refund protection, you need to contact TicketSource within 14 days (support@ticketsource.co.uk)

Requesting a Refund

You must log in to www.bookingprotect.com and fill in and submit the Refund Application Form as soon as possible after becoming aware of circumstances that may lead you to request a refund but no more than 45 days after the booked event.

You will be asked to provide at your own expense the following within 45 days of registering your refund application:

  • the original unused tickets and vouchers for all parts of the booking;
  • a doctor’s report where your refund request is for injury or illness or a death certificate where your refund request is for death;
  • an official notice from the transport service provider in the event of delay, cancellation, mechanical breakdown or accident concerning the public transport network;
  • for the breakdown of a private vehicle, a vehicle recovery service report (AA, RAC or equivalent), copy of garage repair bill or parts receipt or in the case of vehicle repairers or police;
  • the original jury invitation inviting you to be a juror;
  • in the event of a burglary, the police report with a crime reference number;
  • the original witness summons requesting you to appear in court;
  • a copy of a valid visa permitting your travel to the booked event;
  • confirmation of relevant road closures from the Police or the appropriate Government agency if requesting a refund due to an official weather warning being issued;
  • any reasonable additional evidence that Booking Protect asks for.