Booking Conditions

These conditions govern trips arranged by LocalKey Travel. They set out the commercial rules behind deposits, balances, cancellations, changes, supplier terms, insurance, complaints, and payment disputes. Plain conditions help both sides know what is confirmed, what can change, and what may become non-refundable. Please read them before you accept a proposal — they govern your booking. Quote the version number above in any correspondence.

1. How a booking is formed

Your proposal and itinerary are indicative until they are confirmed in writing by LocalKey. A booking is formed when you give written acceptance of the proposal or itinerary and pay the deposit. Doing both means you accept these Booking Conditions in the version shown above, on your own behalf and on behalf of every traveller on the booking. The lead traveller is responsible for passing these conditions to the rest of the party.

2. Deposit and balance

A 25% deposit of the trip price is due within 7 days of proposal acceptance, before LocalKey confirms paid arrangements. The deposit is non-refundable, save where a refund is required by mandatory law applicable to you. It is non-refundable because it is committed immediately to suppliers — guides, drivers, hotels, rail and air seats, permits and access — and to the planning work already carried out on your dates.

Unless your proposal says otherwise, the balance is due 60 days before departure. Trips booked inside 60 days may require full payment at confirmation. If the balance is not paid by its due date, we may treat the booking as cancelled by you and apply the cancellation charges in section 3.

3. Cancellation by you

Cancellations must be sent to us in writing and take effect on the day we receive them. The following charges apply, calculated on the trip price from the date of your acceptance:

• 60 days or more before departure — No cancellation fee on the unpaid balance. The deposit remains non-refundable.
• 30-59 days before departure — A 50% cancellation fee applies to the trip price.
• Under 30 days before departure — A 100% cancellation fee applies to the trip price.

The 25% deposit remains non-refundable in every tier. Separately, some supplier items are non-refundable from the moment they are issued, whatever the tier: rail and air tickets, special hotel rates, permits, guide slots, event and attraction tickets, and restaurant deposits. LocalKey will identify known non-refundable items before confirmation where practical.

4. Changes by you

Date changes, passenger swaps, hotel changes, activity changes, and route edits depend on supplier rules and availability. Please send change requests in writing so we have a clear record. LocalKey will try to make reasonable changes, but price differences, supplier change fees, and supplier payments already made and not recoverable may apply. A change we cannot make may have to be handled as a cancellation under section 3.

5. Changes or cancellation by LocalKey, and force majeure

We may need to change your arrangements — for example where a supplier fails, a site closes, a minimum number is not reached, or a permit is withdrawn. Minor changes we will notify you of. For a significant change or a cancellation by us, you may accept the replacement arrangements, accept alternative arrangements of comparable standard where we can offer them, or cancel and receive a refund of amounts you have paid that we have not already committed and cannot recover.

Force majeure means events outside our reasonable control, including natural events and severe weather, epidemic or public-health measures, war or civil unrest, terrorism, strikes, transport failures, border or visa-regime changes, and acts of government. In those events we will work to reroute or postpone your trip and to recover supplier refunds. We will pass on any supplier refunds we actually recover, less costs we cannot recover. We are not liable to refund amounts we cannot recover, and we are not liable for consequential costs such as separately booked flights.

6. Price validity

Proposal prices hold until the validity date shown on the proposal, and are based on the party size, dates, and services quoted. After your booking is confirmed, we will not change the price except where a stated cost we do not control changes: transport and fuel costs, government taxes, entry or permit fees, or the exchange rate applied to a supplier cost. If such an increase exceeds 8% of the trip price, you may cancel without a cancellation charge and receive a refund of what you have paid, or accept the revised price.

7. Visa refusal, no-show, and unused services

You are responsible for your passport validity, visas, permits, and entry requirements. A visa refusal is treated as a cancellation by you on the date of the refusal, and the charges in section 3 apply. If you do not arrive for a service, arrive late, miss a transport connection, or choose not to use a confirmed service, that service is treated as delivered and is not refunded beyond any amount we can actually recover from the supplier.

8. Traveller conduct

We ask that travellers behave in a way that does not put others at risk or prevent the trip from running. Your guide, driver, or a supplier may end a traveller's participation where conduct is seriously disruptive, unlawful, or unsafe. In that case no refund is due for unused services and we are not responsible for onward or return travel costs.

9. Travel insurance

Comprehensive travel insurance, including medical cover and cancellation and curtailment cover, is a condition of travel. By accepting your proposal you confirm you have arranged it, or will arrange it before departure, for every traveller on the booking. Cover should match your medical needs, the trip value, and the activities in your confirmed itinerary. If you travel without adequate insurance, you accept the costs yourself: losses that would have been covered by adequate insurance are not recoverable from us.

10. Complaints

If any part of your journey does not match the confirmed itinerary, tell your specialist or your on-trip contact straight away, while you are travelling, so we have the chance to put it right. If it is not resolved on the ground, write to service@localkeytravel.com within 28 days of the last day of travel, quoting your order number. We will acknowledge within 5 business days and respond in substance within 28 days.

11. Payment disputes and chargebacks

If you have a billing or service concern, please raise it with us first using the process in section 10 and allow us to respond, before contacting your card issuer or payment provider. We will acknowledge within 5 business days. This does not limit any right you have under mandatory consumer law, and you remain free to contact your issuer.

Starting a chargeback for a payment properly due under these conditions — a non-refundable deposit, a cancellation charge, or services delivered as confirmed — is a breach of this contract. Where a chargeback is raised without first using the process above, we may suspend services not yet delivered, treat the booking as cancelled by you on the date of the chargeback with the charges in section 3 falling due, and recover the disputed amount together with card scheme or acquirer dispute fees and our reasonable costs of responding, to the extent permitted by law.

In responding to a dispute we rely on the records we hold: the proposal and itinerary you accepted and the date you accepted them, the version of these conditions then in force, booking and supplier confirmations, vouchers issued to you, our correspondence with you, and records of services delivered on each day of travel.

12. Refunds

Any refund due is paid to the original payment method and in USD, less amounts committed to suppliers that we cannot recover and, where permitted by law, payment-provider fees that are not returned to us. We are not responsible for exchange-rate movements or for fees applied by your card issuer or bank between payment and refund.

13. Payments and third-party payers

Trips are priced and collected in USD. Payment is made by card, through a secure payment link issued by LocalKey Travel's payment provider, or by bank transfer where we agree it. The payment provider's own payment terms apply in addition to these conditions.

Where the cardholder or the account holder is not a traveller on the booking, the lead traveller confirms that the payer authorised the payment and accepts these conditions. We may ask for written confirmation of that authorisation before services are confirmed.

14. Our role and liability

We organise the arrangements described in your confirmed itinerary and contract with suppliers on your behalf. Those suppliers — airlines, rail operators, hotels, guides, drivers, and activity providers — deliver the individual services under their own terms and conditions, which apply to you in addition to these conditions.

Except where the law does not allow it to be limited, our total liability in connection with your booking is limited to the trip price you have paid. Nothing in these conditions limits liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or any other liability that cannot lawfully be limited, and nothing affects your statutory consumer rights — including rights under package travel legislation in the EU and UK where that legislation applies to your booking. If any part of these conditions is found unenforceable, the rest continues to apply.

15. Governing law and jurisdiction

These conditions are governed by the laws of the People's Republic of China, and disputes are resolved through arbitration in mainland China, unless mandatory consumer protections in your home jurisdiction require otherwise. See section 7 of our Terms.

Related policies

Terms · Cancellation & Refund Policy · Payment

LocalKey Travel is a trading name of Guangdong Xingcheng International Travel Agency Co., Ltd. (广东星程国际旅行社有限公司), Room 1506, R&F Tianyu Center, 180 Jiangnan Avenue Central, Haizhu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China (广州市海珠区江南大道中 180 号富力天域中心 1506), unified social credit code 9144010468766315X6, travel agency licence L-GD-CJ00271. Contact: service@localkeytravel.com.