Website Terms of Use

WEBSITE OPERATION AND USAGE

This website is operated by the International Youth Hostel Federation (IYHF) operating as Hostelling International (“HI”).  Hostelling International is registered under the Charity Act in England & Wales: Registered Charity No. 1117014 and as a company: Registered No. 02250706.

In using this website, you confirm that:

you are at least 16 years of age and have the legal authority to give consent and/or enter into contractual agreements for the purchase of products or services,
you will abide by the Website Terms of Use and that you will only use this website for legitimate and non-commercial purposes.
all the information you supply will be correct and accurate.
you will keep your usernames and password secure.
when prompted, you will pay particular attention to the ‘Privacy Policy’, ‘Terms and Conditions of Transactions’ and ‘Important Info’ for any transaction.

Access to the website is permitted on a temporary basis. From time to time and without notice, we may withdraw or suspend access to the website or amend, withdraw or discontinue any of the materials and/or features available on it. The website and its content are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis.

We do not guarantee that our site, or any content or features on it, will always be available or be uninterrupted and we will not be liable if for any reason the website (or any part of it) is unavailable at any time or for any period.

If, through using our website, you cause HI to publish, whether on the Website or otherwise, potentially defamatory, illegal, obscene or offensive material, you agree that you shall be solely liable for the publication of such material and that you will indemnify HI for all costs, penalties, liabilities and charges incurred by it in relation to such publication.

If you do not agree with the terms of use, please stop using the site immediately.

VIRUSES, HACKING AND OTHER OFFENCES

You must not misuse our site by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to our site, the server on which our site is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our site. You must not attack our site via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of-service attack.

By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use our site will cease immediately.

We will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a distributed denial-of-service attack, viruses or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of our site or to your downloading of any material posted on it, or on any website linked to it.

LINKING TO OUR SITE

You may link to our pages, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it, but you must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on our part where none exists.

You must not establish a link from any website that is not owned by you.

LINKS FROM OUR SITE TO OTHER SITES

Where our site contains links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only.  Such links should not be interpreted as endorsements by us of those linked websites. We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources and accept no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them.

FORCE MAJEURE

HI cannot accept any liability where the service purchased could not be fulfilled due to circumstances which we could not, even with due care, have foreseen or avoided.

Such events may include, but are not limited to, war, threat of war, civil commotion or strife, hostilities, strikes or other industrial dispute, natural disaster, fire, act of God, terrorist activities, technical problems with transportation, closures of airports, ports and/or ferries, quarantine, epidemics, weather conditions, government action or other events outside our control.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

This site is provided by HI on an “as is” and “as available” basis. You expressly agree that use of this site is at your sole risk. To the full extent permissible by applicable law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, as to the operation of this site or the information, content, materials, or hostels included on this site.  HI does not warrant that such items are complete, accurate, reliable, current or error-free. We do not warrant that this site, its servers, or e-mail sent from services on behalf of HI are free of viruses or other harmful components. We will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from the use of this site. Hypertext links to other Internet resources, which are not under the control of HI, are used at your own risk.

The products, services, information, and materials obtained through this site are provided, serviced by, and subject to the terms, conditions and warranties, if any, offered by the respective provider of such products, services, information and materials.

In the event of a problem arising, our liability, if any, is limited to the fees paid by you on this website.

HI and its members make no representation with respect to, and shall not be held liable or accountable for, the conformity of third party products, services, information and materials to such terms, conditions and warranties.

APPLICABLE LAW

The contract and these Terms of Use are governed by the laws of England and Wales. The courts of England and Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction to determine any dispute in connection with such terms and conditions or use of the website.

SITE POLICIES, MODIFICATION AND SEVERABILITY

We reserve the right to make changes to our site, policies, and these Terms of Use at any time and you should therefore ensure that if you use any of our websites regularly that you view the latest Website Terms of Use.

If any of these conditions shall be deemed invalid, void, or for any reason unenforceable, that condition shall be deemed severable and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining conditions.

PRIVACY POLICY

We operate with a privacy policy that complies with the General Data Protection Regulations which came into force during 2018.  Please review our Privacy Policy.

TRANSACTION TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Should you wish to transact using our websites and services then we will show you the terms and conditions that apply, it is your responsibility to read and accept them.  

OUR USE OF COOKIES

Our website and many others use small files of text known as ‘cookies’ to improve your experience. The small text files are accessible to us and saved on your computer to ensure we can have things setup just how you like them and give you a seamless experience.

On first using the site or after a prolonged absence, you are given the option as to whether to accept cookies or not. We recommend that you accept the cookies as many of the functions of the site depend on you accepting cookies. If you are not comfortable with cookies, please stop using the site immediately and remove any existing cookies from your machine.

We never store personally identifiable information like your name or email address in cookies.

We use three types of cookies:

  1. Cookies which help you to experience the site as you wish.  We use cookies to remember if you have accepted our ‘use of cookies’ policy, if you have changed the language or currency in which the site functions.  We do this so you don’t have to it each time you visit the site.   If you search for a hostel stay on certain dates then we remember the dates searched in a cookie so you can pick up searching where you left off.
  2. Cookies that are required for our booking system to function. These help us to identify you if you go away and come back to ensure any products you have added to your basket can remain in your basket.
  3. Cookies from 3rd parties.  We use Google Analytics and Google AdWords to understand (in an aggregated sense) customer behaviour and the effectiveness of our marketing investments.  Google’s services rely on cookies to function.   We use Addthis to offer functionality to share a page to popular social media sites and their service relies on cookies to function.

We have links to many other websites including service providers and social networking sites such as Facebook. These websites may also use cookies which we cannot control.  We accept no liability for cookies issued via 3rd parties.

OUR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Copyright © Hostelling International 2022. All rights reserved.

Copyright in these pages and in the screens displaying these pages, and in the information and material therein and in their arrangement, is owned by HI unless otherwise indicated.

No permission is granted to distribute, modify, post or frame any text, graphics, video, audio, software code, or user interface design or logos, except that you may:

  • Print or download extracts of the material on this site for your personal use, or
  • Copy the material on this site for the purpose of sending to individual third parties for their personal information provided that you acknowledge us as the source of the material and that you inform the third party that these conditions apply to them and that they must comply with them.

TRADEMARKS

”Hostelling International”, “Youth Hostelling International”, and the blue triangle hut and tree logo are registered trademarks of member Associations of the International Youth Hostel Federation (IYHF) and/or HI itself.

“HI-Q”, the “HI-Q” logo and “HI-GROUPS” are registered trademarks of HI.

“HI-HOSTELS” and “HI Quality” are trademarks of HI, Member Associations and HI may also claim trade mark rights in other marks contained in these pages.

All other brand names, product and service names used in this site are trademarks, trade names or service marks of their respective holders. No permission is given by HI for their use by any person other than such holders and such use may constitute an infringement of the holders’ rights.

OUR SERVICE PARTNERS

Parts of our website use Google Maps.  As such, users are bound by the Google Maps/Google Earth Additional Terms of Service (including the Google Privacy Policy).

COMPLAINTS

HI is a federation which umbrellas Youth Hostel Associations and as such we do not have day to day control over the management of the hostels or their employees.

Please raise any concerns with the association that runs the hostel. If there is no association listed for the country/area you stayed with please contact us.