Terms of Business

This website is provided by KiliGATE OÜ. Any references on this site and in correspondence to KiliGATE and KiliGATE.com refer to KiliGATE OÜ, a company registered at Narva mnt 5, 10117, Tallinn, Estonia. You can contact us at partner@kiligate.com.

KiliGATE provides tour operators, activity organizers and other touristic service providers (Operators, each an Operator) this platform to promote and facilitate the sale of your tours, activities or services (Tours, each a Tour) to visitors of this website or other KiliGATE-affiliated marketing channels (including affiliated website and social media channels) (such visitors herein referred to as Clients, each a Client). Any contracts for Tours are to be made directly between you and the Client(s).

We carefully select Operators who we allow to promote Tours on KiliGATE.com and only accept Operators to promote Tours for which they comply with minimum standards, certifications or other criteria of responsible tourism. There is no registration fee, and, once accepted, there is no charge for Operators to promote their Tours on KiliGATE.com, or for our promotion of their Tours in our other marketing channels.

By using KiliGATE.com or any KiliGATE-affiliated websites, all users (including Clients and Operators) agree to our general Terms and Conditions. By creating an Operator profile or submitting a Tour, you further agree to the following business terms and conditions (Terms of Business):

  • You agree to follow the current KiliGATE booking, ratings and review processes, all of which may change from time to time such as is expected with the continued development of our platform and technology. You also agree to our Booking Fee.
  • We follow a best price policy. This means that the Tour pricing offered by you on KiliGATE (including our Booking Fee) must be at least as low as you (or any other channel used by you) would charge clients booking directly with you (or such channel). If we find your Tour offered at a lower price elsewhere, you grant us the right to promote your Tour at that same lower price (including our Booking Fee).
  • All information you upload or submit to KiliGATE must be accurate and kept up-to-date, following the below Tour overview and pricing information guidelines. None of your information will contain any misleading content or denounce other Operators, and you will refrain from making any such statements in your Client communications.
  • For Kilimanjaro Tours, we only accept Operators who are also KPAP Partner members with the KPAP and IMEC’s Partner for Responsible Travel Program (KPAP Partners). For other Tours, we may require Operators to be members of, or certified by, other applicable organizations in the field of Responsible Tourism. You warrant that you are a current KPAP Partner, or member or certificate-holder as may be specifically required for your Tour. Should your status change, you will notify us immediately, no later than 5 business days after you have become aware of such upcoming or recently enacted change.
  • You warrant that you are duly licensed to operate your Tours according to the laws and regulations of your country, region or tourism authority. You must provide proof of licensing.
  • You must be available by phone and email, and normally respond to voice messages or emails from KiliGATE or our Clients within two working days, or immediately in case of emergencies. An English-speaking representative must be available for such communications at all times.
  • We withhold the right to not publish, cease to publish or irrevocably delete your Tours or Operator information at any point in time. For example, we may do so if we deem your information to be incomplete, misleading or inappropriate. Normally, however, we strive to publish all your Tours and Operator profile information.
  • As we cannot guarantee continuous or uninterrupted access to the KiliGATE website and services, we assume no responsibility associated with any outages, delays, interruptions or unavailability.
  • These Terms of Business may be updated from time to time, in which case we will inform you by email. The latest Terms of Business will always be published here and shall take effect within one calendar week of publication.

Our reputation as a trustworthy company and platform committed to responsible tourism is crucial for our continued business development in line with our mission, to continue to provide and upgrade our services for Clients and responsible Operators, and to promote responsible tourism overall. Therefore, we take Operator compliance with our Terms of Business seriously. In case of non-compliance, especially if deemed to be harmful or potentially harmful to our reputation, we may block your access to our website or certain areas thereof, including information provided by you, and terminate our agreement with you with immediate effect.

 

Our booking process

We strive to make the booking process as smooth and efficient as possible for all parties involved. Therefore, this process is expected to change from time to time as we continue to upgrade our technology and services. We will update you accordingly before any such changes take effect. Our current booking process generally is as follows:

Client Q&A

A Client may send us, or you directly via the platform (including the wall on your profile or the private messaging feature), questions prior to checking availability and submitting a booking request. You will then normally respond to any query within two business days. To reduce your time spent answering Client queries, we encourage you to upload a complete Tour Overview and make use of the Frequently Asked Questions feature to pre-empt recurring questions.

Non-circumvention

In your correspondence at this stage, you will never ask Clients to communicate with you outside of KiliGATE, unless the Client specifically asks you for a voice or video call and we do not yet provide such features via KiliGATE. In any case, you will always ask interested Client(s) (including their entire party if the Client is also requesting on behalf of other individuals—the Client Party) or other individual(s) referred to you by Client(s) (Client Referrals) to submit their complete booking request via KiliGATE, even if the Client or Client Referrals suggest or ask otherwise. You will in no circumstance ask them to book with you directly or via another channel in a way that circumvents the KiliGATE booking process or our ability to obtain a Booking Fee.

Booking Requests

When we receive a booking request from the Client, including the size of the Client Party, the start date and length of the Tour (if applicable), and any comments or questions, (altogether a Booking Request), we send this Booking Request to you by email to the address you have saved in your KiliGATE account.

Reservation Confirmation

You respond to the Booking Request within two business days either with a confirmation of the reservation as per the Booking Request, or with an alternative-booking proposal including any updates of your Tour or addressing Client comments and questions, (either response a Reservation Confirmation), or with questions regarding the Booking Request without making a Reservation Confirmation.

Your Reservation Confirmation should contain:

  • A confirmation that you have reserved the booking as submitted or specifically noting any differences, including any updates to your Tour;
  • The required next steps within the Reservation Period in order to confirm the booking (such as your receipt of any payments by the Client),
  • Specifically note the name of the Client or the booking request ID as provided;
  • Specifically note the start date of the Tour;
  • Specifically note any additional services (e.g. equipment rental, transfers, additional hotel nights for which you shall also confirm dates and locations, etc.) and any upgrades (including for room categories, single or solo travellers) required for or requested by the Client;
  • The total gross Tour price (inclusive of VAT and our Booking Fee), including and broken down into the price of the Tour and each additional service or surcharge per individual Client (Party);
  • A copy of your applicable Operator T&C.

Because we will confirm availability of the requested booking to Clients based on your Reservation Confirmation, and because we normally then ask Clients to pay a deposit in order to lock in the reservation, it is crucial that your confirmation is accurate.

Reservation Period

Unless you specifically state otherwise in your Reservation Confirmation, by sending us your Reservation Confirmation, you commit to reserve the booking for the Client for the following time period, depending on the time between the date of the Booking Request and the start date of the requested Tour (Reservation Period):

  • Three (3) weeks reservation for more than six (6) months till start;
  • Two (2) weeks reservation for more than three (3) months to six (6) months till start;
  • One (1) week reservation for more than six (6) weeks to three (3) months till start;
  • Three (3) days reservation within six (6) weeks of start.

KiliGATE Deposit

We normally charge the Client a deposit in the amount of our Booking Fee in order to make the reservation. Once we have received payment from the Client, we will send the client our confirmation of the booking reservation. We will also send you the Client’s particulars, so you can directly coordinate all further steps directly with the Client.

Scheduled Group Tours

We offer to promote your scheduled group Tours and make them instantly bookable. This means that Clients will see your group Tours listed in our group Tour schedule(s) with a link to “Book” your Tour. We will help you create your Tour Overview page so that Clients will see and can book only your set departure dates (rather than choose any date from a calendar). When a Client wants to proceed to book your Tour, we will immediately confirm availability and ask the Client to pay the reservation deposit in the amount of our Booking Fee. Therefore, when you agree that we may publish your group Tours, you also confirm that they are available and instantly bookable.

We will update your group Tour schedule and information displayed on your group Tour Overview page normally within 24 hours of receiving your notice or request for changes.

Tour contract

The contract for the Tour will be directly between you and the Client, and all further payments of the balance of your Tour price (net of our booking fee) will be directly between you and the Client.

 

Our booking fee

We do not charge you for promoting your Tours. Only when you confirm a booking with a Client or Client Referrals, we charge you a booking fee as a percentage of the total gross Tour price (inclusive of VAT, additional services and surcharges) of the Client (including the Client Party) or Client Referrals (Booking Fee).

The Booking Fee percentage currently is 3.3%. We consider this a very low rate, which we offer specifically to responsible Kilimanjaro Tour operators who work with us from the start. We reserve the right to change the Booking Fee in the future, which may be for Operators joining us at a later stage, for Tours other than climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, for a change in the scope of our services, or for other reasons. We will update you accordingly should any such changes affect you, before they take effect.

Booking Fee payment

We strive to make the payment process as efficient as possible for you. Hence, we will normally require a deposit equivalent to the amount of the Booking Fee to be paid to us directly by the Client to secure their reservation. We offset this deposit against your Booking Fee. This means that we normally do not require the payment of the Booking Fee from you to us. You then only invoice the Client your Tour price net of the Booking Fee.

There may be instances when we are not technically or otherwise able to obtain a deposit from the Client. In this case, we will inform you accordingly along with the Booking Request. By submitting a Reservation Confirmation, you then agree to invoice the Client the gross Tour price as advertised on KiliGATE, and the Booking Fee shall remain payable by you to use. However, for the avoidance of doubt, the Booking Fee shall in no case become payable by you before you have received initial payment from the Client (in the form of a deposit, down payment, partial payment or full payment, as the case may be). You will update us within two (2) working days of receipt of payment from the Client (or Client Referrals), and the Booking Fee will be payable to us only within seven (7) calendar days of your receipt of payment from the Client (or Client Referrals), by wire transfer or otherwise as per details provided in our invoice.

 

Ratings and review process

KiliGATE strives to develop a custom-made rating and review mechanism specifically for Kilimanjaro and other Tours promoted on KiliGATE. We encourage Clients to rate and review Operators and Tours, and encourage Operators to invite their Clients to do so, after they have completed the Tour, at the Clients’ own time and convenience.

Prohibited activities

Under no circumstance shall an Operator try to manipulate ratings or reviews in any way (other than indirectly through their actual performance and service delivery), including, but not limited to, the following manipulative activities, which are strictly prohibited:

  • Fake an identity to submit a rating or review;
  • Submit, or encourage someone else to submit, a review by someone who has not been a client of the reviewed Operator or for the reviewed Tour;
  • Exert pressure on a Client to submit a positive rating or review, such as by being present when the Client submits the rating or review, or by asking the Client to submit the rating or review while a Tour with the Client is still ongoing;
  • Provide incentives to Clients who submit a positive rating or review.

Getting started

Operators who have recently joined KiliGATE and thus not yet been able to collect ratings and reviews from Clients who have booked via KiliGATE may be invited to solicit such ratings and reviews from prior actual clients. In such case, KiliGATE will verify the client identity and request proof of the client relationship. Further details will be updated here or communicated directly to the affected Operators.

 

Your Tour overview and pricing information

KiliGATE provides you the features to upload, edit and update your Tours directly on our website (with the exception of scheduled Group Tours which we will help you publish). For each of your Tours, based on the information submitted by you, KiliGATE will display to Clients a Tour overview page (Tour Overview), which you can normally preview via your dashboard. The content and layout of the Tour Overview may change from time to time as we strive to continuously improve the customer experience, but will always be based on information provided by you.

Optional information

In order to keep processes easy for you at the start, we currently make at lot of the Tour information optional for you to provide. However, the ranking of your Tour in listings may be subject to completeness of information and quality of photos provided. We encourage you to make full use of our features as to provide full and easily understandable information about your Tours to Clients.

Tour pricing

All prices on KiliGATE shall be quoted gross, inclusive of VAT and our booking fee. Tour prices should normally be quoted per person, double occupancy, unless specified otherwise. Any costs for additional services (e.g. equipment rental, transfers, additional hotel nights, etc.) or surcharges for single (one person per room) or solo (traveling alone and not joining a group tour) travelers shall be included in the pricing to the extent possible via the pricing features provided by us, so that the full Tour price including all additional services and surcharges can be calculated automatically for the Client at the time of their booking request.

Your Tour overview page should explain all these services and related policies. For example:

  • For equipment rental, which makes/models do you use and what are your usage/maintenance practices?
  • For travellers without a roommate, will you try to find a same-sex roommate? If you’re not successful, will the client be required to pay the single supplement?

Anything that is not included in your Tour price but might be commonly expected shall be clearly stated. If clients are expected to share any part of your Tour with other clients or travellers, this must be clearly stated in your Tour Overview. You should also make clear the limits as to size, weight, type and number of items of baggage.

Photos and videos

We encourage you to provide high-quality photos and videos, which can be extremely helpful to promote your Tours. You must own the rights to all photos and videos that you upload or otherwise provide to us. By uploading photos or videos, you give us permission to use your photos and videos at our discretion for marketing and promotion, unless otherwise stated. You are responsible for any fines or penalties arising to us as a result of your non-compliance with any applicable copyrights.

Use of language

We reserve the right to revise your texts, if needed, to correct or improve spelling, grammar, or overall language. Poor use of language may result in rejection or low ranking of your Tour listing.