Website Terms & Conditions

Port Stephens Tourism Limited; Trading as Destination Port Stephens

Website Terms and Conditions

Welcome to the Destination Port Stephens website located at http://www.portstephens.org.au (the “Site”) which is owned and operated by Port Stephens Tourism Limited trading as Destination Port Stephens (ABN 96 080 458 733) (“DPS”, "us" or "we").

DPS and its affiliates provide their services, including this website, to you on the following terms and conditions (the "Terms"). It is important that you read and understand the following Terms. By placing a booking and/or continuing to use and access the Site, you are deemed to have accepted the Terms, as may be amended from time to time. DPS reserves the right to effect changes to these Terms by posting the amended Terms on the Site without further notice whereupon they will take immediate effect. If you do not agree with these Terms, do not use or access the Site.

Certain legislation in Australia may provide consumer guarantees or impose obligations on DPS which cannot be excluded, restricted or modified, or only to a limited extent. These Terms are subject to such legislation, including without limitation the Australian Consumer Law.

This Site is only directed at customers of legal age. By accepting these Terms you warrant that you are 18 years old or over and that you can form legally binding contracts under applicable law. If you do not qualify, you must not use or access this Site or place a booking through this Site.

Booking Products via the DPS Site.

  1. The Site is a search engine for accommodation, tours and events in the Port Stephens region. DPS does not provide, own or control any of the services or products that you book through the Site, such as accommodation, tours or events (the “Tourism Products and Services”). The Tourism Products and Services are owned, controlled or made available by third parties (the “Tourism Providers”) either directly or as an agent. The Tourism Providers are responsible for the Tourism Products and Services, including delivery of the Tourism Products and Services. The Tourism Provider’s own terms and privacy policies apply to your purchase and use of the Tourism Products and Services so you must agree to, and understand those terms. Your interaction with any Tourism Provider accessed through the Site is at your own risk and DPS does not have any responsibility or liability in relation to your purchase and use of the Tourism Products and Services.
  2. The display on the Site of any Tourism Products and Services or any Tourism Provider does not in any way imply, suggest, or constitute a recommendation, adoption or endorsement by DPS of that Tourism Product and Service or that Tourism Provider.
  3. DPS hosts content made available by or obtained from Tourism Providers. DPS is in no way responsible for the accuracy, timeliness or completeness of such content.
  4. DPS is not a transport, tour or accommodation provider. If you make a booking through the Site for Tourism Products and Services, that booking is made with the Tourism Provider named on the booking page and the Site only acts as a user interface. Accordingly DPS has no responsibility for the booking or the Tourism Product or Service as DPS has no involvement in the description of the Tourism Product or Service, the price and any fees related to the Tourism Product or Service, or in providing the Tourism Products and Services that you book. If you have any issues or disputes around your booking and/or the Tourism Products and Services, you agree to address and resolve these with the Tourism Provider and not with us.
  5. DPS reserves the right to offer alternative Tourism Products and Services of a similar standard in the case of a Tourism Provider overbooking or for any other reason beyond our control.
  6. By submitting a booking you warrant that:

a)   you are capable of entering into a legally binding contract with the Port Stephens Visitor Information Centre (Port Stephens Council), DPS and the Tourism Provider,

b)   you are authorised and able to make payment via the method you have chosen,

c)   the information you have provided is correct, and

d)   your purchase is not made for the purpose of commercial resale.

  1. Confirmation of you booking will only be made once we have issued you with a confirmation email which includes a receipt number ("Confirmed Booking")

Booking Agent Terms and Conditions
Applicable to all bookings

Bookings

Accommodation, Tours and Event Tickets
Full payment at the time of booking is required to confirm the booking, unless otherwise agreed to by the service provider/operator.

Cancellations
Accommodation
The cancellation of a confirmed paid accommodation booking will attract a $60.00 booking centre cancellation fee in addition to any advertised cancellation fee the service provider/operator may pass on. We encourage you to view the Operator Terms and Conditions before confirming and paying for your booking.

Tours
We encourage you to view the provider/operator’s terms and conditions that also apply before making your booking.

Event Tickets
All tickets are non-refundable unless agreed upon by the event organiser.

Amendments

Accommodation
Any change to a confirmed paid booking will attract a non-refundable $31.50 fee.

Please note product descriptions and images are generally provided by the service provider/operator. However facilities may change from time to time and accordingly images portrayed may not show the particular room, decor, view or other specifications included in your booking. The Port Stephens Visitor Information Centre is not itself a transport, tour or accommodation provider and in making bookings on your behalf we are acting for such service provider/operator. In addition, we reserve the right to offer alternative accommodation/tour of a similar standard should a provider/operator
overbook their property/tour for any reason beyond our control.

User Accounts

  1. In order to purchase Tourism Products and Services or access some of the functionality of and information contained on this Site you may need to set up an account on the Site ("User Account").
  2. To create a User Account, you must provide us with your full name, delivery address, email address and a password.
  3. Maintaining the security of your User Account is important to us. You agree that you will maintain the confidentiality of your User Account (including password), and you will not allow or authorise any other person to use your User Account.
  4. You must not access or attempt to access the User Account of any other user of the Site.
  5. We reserve the right to terminate your User Account at any time if we believe in our sole discretion that you have breached any of these Terms.

User Content

  1. You acknowledge and agree that any content that you transmit or upload to online forums, the blog or other interactive services on the Site ("User Content") will be publicly available. Publicly available content may be viewed by other users of the Site, and may also show up on public search engines such as google and yahoo.

  2. The Site includes forums and blog posts containing the personal opinions and expressions of persons who use the Site to post entries on a range of topics. Such opinions, expressions and other content published by users of the Site may not be screened, moderated or reviewed by us and, in no circumstances, are approved or endorsed by us.

  3. By posting to or viewing forums and blog posts on the Site, you agree that we are not responsible or liable for the content of any postings.

  4. You agree your User Content, and your conduct on the Site will not:
    a) include obscene or offensive language or images (such as pornography or nudity);

    b) defame, libel, ridicule, mock, disparage, threaten, harass, intimidate or abuse anyone;

    c) promote violence;

    d) violate the contractual, personal, intellectual property or other rights of any party, or promote or constitute illegal activity;

    e) include any offensive comments that are connected to race, national origin, gender, sexual preference or physical handicap;

    f) reveal any personal information about another individual, including another person’s address, phone number, e-mail address, credit card number or any information that may be used to track, contact or impersonate that individual;

    g) attempt to or impersonate any other party;

    h) trick, defraud, deceive or mislead other users;

    i) raise money for anyone or advertise or promote a product, service, pyramid scheme or other multi-tiered marketing scheme;

    j) disparage, tarnish, or otherwise harm, in DPS’s opinion, DPS.

    k) violate these Terms or any local, state, federal or international law, rule or regulation or any other requirements or restrictions posted by DPS on the Site;

    l) upload or transmit (or attempt to upload or to transmit) viruses, Trojan horses or other material that interferes with any party's uninterrupted use and enjoyment of the Site, or modifies, impairs, disrupts, alters or interferes with the use, features, functions, operation or maintenance of the Site.

    m) upload or transmit (or attempt to upload or to transmit) any material that acts as a passive or active information collection or transmission mechanism, including, without limitation, clear graphics interchange formats (“gifs”), 1x1 pixels, web bugs, cookies or other similar devices (sometimes referred to as "spyware," "passive collection mechanisms" or "pcms");

    n) use or launch any automated system, including without limitation, any spider, robot (or "bot"), scraper or offline reader that accesses the Site or use or launch any unauthorised script;

    o) disguise or mislead as to the source(s) of your User Content or other information you submit to the Site; and/or

    p) interfere with or circumvent any security feature of the Site or any feature that restricts or enforces limitations on use of or access to the Site.

  5. We reserve the right to remove any content in breach of clause 23 from a forum or blog post at our sole discretion, but are not required to do so. If we do remove content you have posted, we may not notify you we have done so. You acknowledge that we do not screen or moderate all content posted to the Site by users.

  6. You must not alter, damage or delete any content on the Site of which you are not the author, unless you have express permission from the author to do so.

Intellectual Property

  1. All content and other materials available on the Site are owned by or licensed to us and are protected by intellectual property rights. You agree to abide by all copyright notices and other restrictions contained in the Site and in materials accessed through the Site. We grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to access and use the Site for personal, educational and non-commercial use as permitted by these Terms.
  2. You must not modify, copy, reproduce, republish, or display any content from the Site and represent it as your own (including by framing pages from the Site), upload to a third party, post, transmit or distribute this content in any way except as permitted by law or expressly provided for on the Site or expressly authorised in writing by us and, where relevant, any third party owner or rights holder.
  3. Unless we notify you otherwise in writing, you are not authorised to use any of our trademarks, or any third party trademarks contained on the Site.
  4. Before sharing any content or information on the Site, please ensure that you have the right to do so. You must not use or reproduce any material which is protected by intellectual property rights (including software, photographs and videos), if to do so would infringe the intellectual property rights of the owner or any other person with intellectual property rights in the materials.
  5. You are responsible for all User Content and information that you post on the Site. By transmitting or uploading User Content to the Site, you grant us a non-exclusive, irrevocable, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide licence to use the User Content for any lawful purpose. You further represent and warrant to us that you own or have the right to:

a)    use and reproduce all User Content that you post on the Site; and

b)    grant such licence to us.

Right to Link this Site

  1. You are granted a limited, revocable, and nonexclusive right to create a hyperlink to the home page of DPS so long as the link does not portray DPS or our products or services in a false, misleading, derogatory, or otherwise offensive matter as deemed by DPS. You may not use any DPS logo or other proprietary graphic or trademark as part of the link without express written permission.

Third Party Links and Content

  1. The Site, or communications you receive from the Site, may link to third party Sites or provide third party content that we do not control, maintain or endorse. You expressly acknowledge and agree that we are in no way responsible or liable for any third party content or third party site, including, without limitation, third party policies, failures, promotions, products, services, actions and/or any damages, losses, failures or problems caused by, related to, or arising from those third parties. Your correspondence and business dealings with others found on or through the Site including, without limitation, the payment and delivery of products and services, and any terms, conditions, warranties and representations associated with such dealings, are solely between you and the third party.

Warranties and Liability

  1. Except for those required or implied by legislation and which cannot be excluded, DPS gives no express warranty in relation to your access and use of the Site, or any products or services purchased through this Site. Your access and use of the Site is at your own risk. All content and any products or services sold on the Site are provided “as is”, without any warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. DPS does not warrant or make any representations of any kind with respect to the content or any other feature or function of the Site, including without limitation:
    a) that your access to the Site will be uninterrupted or error-free;

    b) that any defects will be corrected; and/or

    c) that the Site or the server which transmits content to you is free of any viruses or other harmful components.

  2. While we have made every effort to ensure that information on the Site is free from error, DPS does not warrant the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of any content on this web site. All information is subject to change without notice.

  3. Except to the extent the law provides that liability is not able to be excluded, in no event will DPS or its affiliates or licensors and their respective employees, officers, successors and assigns be liable for any incidental, indirect, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for any damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages for injury to person or property, for loss of profits, business interruption, loss of data suffered, loss of business information, loss of privacy, cost of procurement of substitute goods or services, failure to meet any duty and negligence) which may be suffered or incurred or which may arise directly or indirectly from your access and use of the Site, or from any product or service purchased through this Site

  4. DPS reserves the right to amend, terminate, suspend, cancel or discontinue any aspect, function or feature of this Site at any time, without notice or liability.

  5. You indemnify and agree to keep us indemnified from and against all damages, losses and expenses of any kind (including legal costs) incurred by us in connection with any claim made against us by a person in connection with:

    a) any products and services purchased by you from this Site;

    b) your actions in accessing or using the Site; or

    c) your User Content.

 Disclaimers

  1. Nothing in the Terms limits or excludes any guarantees, warranties, representations or conditions implied or imposed by law, including the Australian Consumer Law (or any liability under them) which by law may not be limited or excluded.

  2. Subject to this clause, and to the extent permitted by law, all terms, guarantees, warranties, representations or conditions which are not expressly stated in the Terms are excluded.

  3. Use of the Site and the Tourism Products and Services is at your own risk. The Tourism Products and Services and everything on the Site is provided to you “as is” and “as available” without warranty or condition of any kind. None of the affiliates, directors, officers, employees, agents, contributors and licensors of DSP make any express or implied representation or warranty about the Tourism Products and Services referred to on the Site. This includes (but is not restricted to) loss or damage you might suffer as a result of any of the following:
    a) failure of performance, error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, failure to correct defects, delay in operation or transmission, computer virus or other harmful component, loss of data, communication line failure, unlawful third party conduct, or theft, destruction, alteration or unauthorised access to records;

    b) the accuracy, suitability or currency of any information on the Site or the Tourism Products and Services (including third party material and advertisements on the Site); and

    c) costs incurred as a result of you using the Site, the Tourism Products and Services or any other services provided by DPS.

  4. The Site may display, include or make available content, data, information, applications or materials from third parties or provide links to certain third party web sites. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, DPS does not warrant or endorse and will not have any liability to you or any other person for any third party services, content or web sites which are provided solely as a convenience to you.

  5. Because we do not control interactions among between you and Tourism Providers and because we cannot guarantee the background experience or qualifications of Tourism Providers, you agree that you bear all risk and you agree to release us (and our affiliates, directors, officers, employees, agents, contributors and licensors) from claims, demands, and damages (actual and consequential) of every kind and nature, known and unknown, suspected and unsuspected, disclosed and undisclosed, now and in the future, arising out of or in any way connected with your use of the Tourism Products and Services.

  6. DPS has no control over the quality, safety or legality of the items or content posted on the Site by a Tourism Provider. We cannot censure and do not guarantee that a Tourism Provider will actually complete a transaction or act lawfully in providing the Tourism Products and Services. DPS is not responsible for any inappropriate or unlawful actions that you may encounter in connection with your use of the Tourism Products and Services.

  7. DPS is not a referral service. DPS does not select or endorse any individual Tourism Provider. While DPS uses commercially reasonable efforts to verify that the Tourism Providers have valid qualifications, it does not make any warranty, guarantee, or representation as to the ability, competence, quality or qualifications of any Tourism Provider. DPS encourages you to make all necessary enquiries and satisfy yourself as to whether the Tourism Provider meets your requirements and objectives. Under no circumstances shall we be liable for any damages whatsoever as a result of losses caused to you by any person or entity that you engage as a consequence of using the Site.

Privacy

  1. Your privacy is very important to us.
  2. These Terms must be read in conjunction with our Privacy Policy. We undertake to comply with the terms of our Privacy Policy.
  3. You acknowledge and agree that personal information, health information and sensitive information you submit to us on the Site will be handled by us in accordance with the Privacy Policy, applicable laws and the terms set out in this section.
  4. By setting up a User Account, you grant us an ongoing consent to promote and market our products and services and to make other offers to you (including by email). You acknowledge that this consent continues indefinitely until such time as you expressly withdraw it. If you do not wish us to contact you or you would like us to stop contacting you for promotional or marketing purposes, please contact us using the contact details set out in our Privacy Policy. You agree that as a holder of a User Account, you will be automatically added to our email newsletter for product and promotional updates. If you do not wish to receive these newsletters, you will be given the option to unsubscribe in the newsletter.

 General

  1. You must not assign, sublicence or otherwise deal in any other way with any of your rights under these Terms.
  2. If a provision of these Terms are invalid or unenforceable it is to be read down or severed to the extent necessary without affecting the validity or enforceability of the remaining provisions.
  3. These Terms constitute the full and complete agreement between the parties relating to the subject matter contained in these Terms and supersede any and all previous Terms, understandings, negotiations and representations between the parties in respect of all matters dealt with in this Terms. 
  4. Both parties confirm and declare that the provisions of these Terms are fair and reasonable and both parties have taken the opportunity to obtain independent legal advice and declare the Terms are not against public policy on the grounds of inequality or general grounds of restraint of trade.
  5. These Terms are governed by the laws of New South Wales, Australia and each party submits to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of New South Wales, Australia.

Revised: 24 April 2017