Terms and Conditions

1. Definitions

Words given a capital letter in these terms carry the following meanings:

• “VV” — Vino-Ventura, a brand of the sole trader Ricardo D. Ullrich, Import und Vertrieb von Wein, Engelstraße 61, 55124 Mainz, Germany, registered with the City of Mainz.
• “T&C” — these general terms and conditions.
• “Customer” — any consumer, legal person or business entity that has entered into a contract with VV.
• “Participant” — anyone taking part in a Service provided by VV.
• “Service” — any service offered and provided by VV.
• “Website” — vino-ventura.de.
• “Private Tour” — a tour contracted by one Customer for one or more Participants.
• “Small Group Tour” — a tour scheduled by VV that up to six individual customers may sign up to separately.

2. Scope

These T&C apply to every contract between VV and a Customer. They are available on the Website at all times and are referred to before any reservation or order is submitted.

A Customer who books for other Participants is responsible for making these T&C known to them. Reservations and orders can only be made by persons aged 18 or over.

The version that applies is the one published on the Website when the reservation is submitted or the offer is accepted. Later changes apply only to later reservations and orders. Individual agreements with a Customer take precedence over these T&C.

3. Services

3.1 What is offered

The Services and their principal characteristics are those set out on the Website. They include, without being limited to, chauffeured wine tours, wine tastings, vineyard walks and other activities connected with wine culture. VV undertakes to perform the Services ordered on the agreed day and on the terms of the offer approved by the Customer.

3.2 Changes

Any request to change an order must be sent to info@vino-ventura.de. VV may change individual parts of a Service — such as the order of the itinerary, the vehicle or an estate visited — where this becomes necessary after the contract is concluded for reasons VV did not cause and could not foresee (for example an estate closing at short notice, weather or road conditions), provided the change is minor, keeps the overall character of the Service and is reasonable for the Customer. VV informs the Customer of such a change as soon as it knows of it. If a change is significant, the Customer may cancel free of charge and receives a full refund.

4. Placing an order

4.1 How these terms are communicated

These T&C are published on the Website, linked from the booking form, and referred to in any proposal VV issues. Where a proposal signed by the Customer conflicts with the Website, the proposal prevails.

4.2 Reserving on the Website

Places on a scheduled day tour or tasting are reserved on the Website in three steps: choose the tour and a date, enter the number of guests and your details, and submit the form with the reservation button. Before submitting, the Customer can review and correct every entry in the form.

Submitting the form reserves the places; it does not yet create an obligation to pay. VV confirms the reservation by email without delay, with the total price, the key terms of the booking and the details for payment. The contract is concluded when the Customer’s payment of the total price reaches VV (see 7.1). If payment does not arrive within 48 hours of the reservation, VV may release the places; the reservation then lapses and nothing is owed.

4.3 Individual offers

For private tours and other Services arranged individually, VV sends an offer by email. The contract is concluded when the Customer accepts the offer by email.

4.4 Language and contract text

The contract is concluded in English. VV stores the details of each booking and sends them to the Customer by email; they cannot be viewed on the Website afterwards. These T&C can be viewed, printed and saved on this page at any time.

5. Cancellation

Cancellations, in whole or in part, must be sent by email to info@vino-ventura.de, or made with the cancellation link in the reservation email. A partial cancellation is settled pro rata.

5.1 Cancellation by the Customer

Until the contract is concluded (see 4.2), the Customer can cancel a reservation free of charge. After that, the Customer may cancel at any time; the fees in 5.2 apply.

5.2 Cancellation fees

Where the Customer cancels a contract that has been concluded, VV retains the following share of the price, depending on when the cancellation reaches VV:

• 10 days or more before the tour — 10%
• From 9 days to 2 working days before — 50%
• Less than 2 working days before, or not turning up — 100%

Working days are Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays in Rhineland-Palatinate. The Customer is free to prove that VV has incurred no loss, or a significantly lower loss than the amount retained.

5.3 Cancellation by VV

VV may cancel a Service only where (a) the conditions of section 8 apply; (b) the Service cannot be performed safely because of force majeure, such as extreme weather, strike action or a natural disaster; or (c) the guide cannot perform it because of illness or a comparable unavoidable reason, and no suitable replacement is available. VV informs the Customer without delay and refunds all amounts paid in full, to the account the payment came from. Where a Service has to be interrupted for one of these reasons after it has begun, VV refunds the part not performed in proportion. The Customer’s statutory rights remain unaffected.

5.4 No-show and lateness

A Participant who does not appear at the scheduled time and place, for a reason other than force majeure, is treated as cancelling less than 2 working days before the Service (5.2). On scheduled tours the driver waits a maximum of 15 minutes past the scheduled departure; on private tours, a maximum of 30 minutes.

6. Prices

Prices are stated in Euros. Prices on the Website include VAT, as do prices in offers and quotations unless stated otherwise.

VV may change its prices at any time, but applies the price in force on the Website — or in the offer sent to the Customer — at the moment the reservation is submitted or the offer is accepted. The price covers everything listed in the description of the Services. Unless the programme or tour agreement says otherwise, meals and personal expenses are excluded.

7. Payment

7.1 Terms of payment

Nothing is charged online. Submitting a reservation on the Website holds the places immediately and VV emails the Customer the bank details together with a reference number for the transfer.

To conclude the booking, the Customer pays the total price in full by transfer, quoting that reference, within 48 hours of the reservation. If payment does not arrive in time, VV may release the places; the reservation then lapses and nothing is owed. Services arranged through an individual offer are payable on presentation of the invoice, and in full when the offer is accepted where the Service takes place less than 15 days later.

A payment counts as made only once the sums due have actually been collected.

7.2 Means of payment

Services are payable by bank transfer to the account shown on the invoice. All exchange fees and bank charges are for the Customer’s account.

7.3 Late payment

Where an invoice for an individual offer is not paid when due, statutory default interest applies. VV may refuse a new order from a Customer who has not paid a previous order in full.

8. Minimum participation

Where a Customer reserves a tour that depends on a minimum number of Participants — a small group tour, for instance — the reservation is subject to that number being reached. If VV informs the Customer that it has not been, VV is treated as never having contracted with the Customer, and the fees paid are refunded in full.

9. Minors and minimum age

Minors cannot take part in public or small group tours. No alcohol is served to Participants under the age of 16.

10. Insurance

VV is fully insured for traffic accidents. No other insurance is included in the prices offered unless expressly stated. VV recommends taking out insurance at the time of order, covering:

• cancellation
• repatriation and flight assistance
• loss or destruction of baggage
• legal assistance
• bodily injury and repatriation
• unforeseen events such as a weather hazard, terrorist attack, epidemic or pandemic

11. Liability

11.1 VV’s responsibility

VV is not liable for non-performance caused by force majeure — strikes, weather, attacks, civil unrest and the like — or by the fault of a Customer. VV is not liable for delays in transport caused by circumstances outside its control, such as roadworks or traffic. Where a vehicle is immobilised by mechanical failure, accident, theft or damage, VV will make every effort to continue the journey. VV is not liable for non-substantial differences between how a Service is presented on the Website, in photographs or descriptions, and the Service as delivered.

11.2 Participants’ own responsibility

Tours leave punctually at the scheduled time, and Participants should arrive ten minutes beforehand so as not to miss departure. Each Participant is responsible for moderating their own alcohol consumption in light of their physiology, any condition they have, and any medical treatment they are undergoing.

11.3 Scope of liability

VV is liable without limitation for intent and gross negligence, for injury to life, body or health, and under the German Product Liability Act (Produkthaftungsgesetz). For slight negligence, VV is liable only for breach of an essential contractual obligation — one whose fulfilment makes proper performance of the contract possible in the first place and on which the Customer may regularly rely — and then only for the foreseeable damage typical of this kind of contract. The limitations in 11.1 apply only within these limits.

12. Safety on board

Seat belts must be worn in the front and the back. Smoking on board is strictly forbidden, in line with the law applying to all public spaces, and alcohol may not be consumed on board.

VV may refuse access to any Participant who is evidently drunk, under the influence of narcotics, or behaving violently in a way that threatens the safety of others, without any claim to a refund. VV may also interrupt a Service in progress where the driver or guide observes a Participant committing an offence, or where a Participant’s behaviour endangers the driver, the other Participants or the vehicle.

13. Intellectual property

The content of the VV website is its property and is protected by European and German intellectual property law. Reproducing the website or its content — its general structure, texts, sounds, logos, and images whether moving or still — in whole or in part and by any means whatsoever, is strictly prohibited.

14. Governing law

These T&C, and the contracts concluded under them, are governed by German law. Where the Customer is a consumer, this choice of law does not deprive them of the protection of mandatory provisions of the law of the country in which they habitually reside, to the extent those provisions apply. This version is published in English.

15. No right of withdrawal

Consumers have no statutory right of withdrawal for leisure services that are to be provided on a specific date or within a specific period (§ 312g(2) no. 9 of the German Civil Code, BGB). All tours and tastings offered by VV are provided on a date fixed in the booking, so no right of withdrawal applies. The cancellation terms in section 5 apply instead.

16. Contact and complaints

Questions and complaints can be sent to info@vino-ventura.de or made by phone on +49 174 925 4719.