Travel Agency Terms For Package Holidays In NZ

Yes, you should have written travel agency terms and conditions in NZ if you sell package holidays, tours or bundled travel services. They help set the rules around deposits, final payments, cancellations, itinerary changes, supplier issues and customer behaviour before anyone pays you.

The slightly trickier part is that your terms can't simply say, "no refunds for any reason" and leave it there. New Zealand consumer law still applies, especially the Fair Trading Act 1986 and the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993.

The good news is that clear, fair booking terms can protect your business and give customers more confidence. You just need them to match how your trips actually work.

Do Travel Agencies Need Written Terms And Conditions In NZ?

Yes, you should use written terms whenever you take bookings, deposits or payments for travel arrangements. Without them, you may struggle to recover unpaid balances, keep cancellation fees, or explain who is responsible when a third-party supplier changes something.

Your travel agency terms and conditions are the contract between your business and the customer. For a travel agency or tour operator, that contract usually needs to cover more moving parts than a standard service agreement because a booking may involve:

• Flights, accommodation, transfers, activities or meals provided by different suppliers
• Non-refundable deposits paid to hotels, airlines or local operators
• Weather, illness, border restrictions, strikes or safety issues
• Customers missing departure times or not bringing the right documents
• Currency changes, fuel surcharges or supplier price increases

A written travel agency agreement also helps your staff stay consistent. If one customer is told they can cancel 7 days before departure, but another is told 30 days, that can quickly become a complaint.

Your terms should be easy to find and accepted before payment. For online bookings, use a clear tick-box or acceptance step. For phone or email bookings, send the terms with the invoice or booking confirmation and make payment conditional on acceptance.

If you rely on a template, be careful. Travel businesses vary a lot, and a generic document may not deal properly with supplier cancellation fees, package itineraries, customer conduct, or consumer law limits on refunds.

What Should Travel Agency Terms Include?

Your terms should include the practical rules for how a booking is made, paid for, changed, cancelled and delivered. They should also explain where your responsibility ends and where a third-party supplier's responsibility begins.

A helpful outline for package holiday terms and conditions in NZ might look like this:

1. Booking Process: Explain when a quote becomes confirmed, who can make a booking, and when the customer is bound.
2. Prices And Inclusions: List what is included, what is excluded, and whether prices can change before final payment.
3. Deposits: State the deposit amount, due date, whether it's refundable, and what supplier costs it covers.
4. Final Payments: Set the due date for the balance and what happens if payment is late.
5. Customer Cancellations: Set out notice periods, cancellation fees, supplier charges and any admin fees.
6. Changes By The Customer: Explain whether name changes, date changes or itinerary changes are allowed, and what fees apply.
7. Changes By You Or Suppliers: Explain when itineraries, accommodation, transport or activities may be substituted.
8. Refunds And Credits: Explain when refunds, credits or alternative arrangements may be offered, while preserving consumer law rights.
9. Third-Party Suppliers: Identify that some services are provided by airlines, hotels, cruise operators, guides or activity providers.
10. Travel Documents And Insurance: Make customers responsible for passports, visas, health requirements and suitable travel insurance.
11. Customer Conduct: Set behaviour standards and explain when someone may be removed from a tour without a refund.
12. Privacy: Explain how you collect, use and share customer details under the Privacy Act 2020.

This outline is a starting point, not a finished document. A lawyer should tailor it before you use it, especially if you sell international tours, group packages, adventure activities or non-refundable supplier products.

Can You Keep A Customer's Deposit If They Cancel?

It depends, because you can usually keep a deposit only if your terms allow it and the amount is fair in the circumstances. A deposit shouldn't operate as a penalty or mislead the customer about their rights.

In practice, your cancellation policy should link the deposit to real business costs. For example, your deposit may cover:

• Non-refundable payments you have already made to suppliers
• Booking and administration time
• Card processing fees or foreign exchange costs, if properly disclosed
• Lost opportunity where a seat, room or place on a tour can't reasonably be resold

The Fair Trading Act 1986 is relevant because your cancellation terms must not be misleading or unfair. If your website says "free cancellation" but your booking terms quietly say the deposit is never refundable, that could cause problems.

The Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 may also apply where the customer is buying travel services as a consumer. You can't contract out of consumer guarantees for ordinary consumer bookings. Your terms can explain your process, but they can't remove rights the customer has under that Act.

A Worked Example

Say Hana runs a small tour operator in Queenstown and sells a 5-day package for $2,400 per person. Her customer pays a $600 deposit. Hana immediately pays a $450 non-refundable accommodation deposit to a lodge and spends staff time confirming guides and transfers.

The customer cancels 45 days before departure. If Hana's terms clearly say the $600 deposit is non-refundable because it covers supplier commitments and administration, she is in a stronger position to keep it. If the terms were never accepted, or if the customer was told cancellations were flexible, Hana may have a harder time.

The safest approach is to be specific. Avoid vague wording like "all deposits are non-refundable in every situation" unless that genuinely reflects the costs and legal position.

What Should Your Travel Booking Cancellation Policy Say?

Your cancellation policy should say who is cancelling, when they're cancelling, what fees apply, and whether the customer may receive a refund, credit or alternative arrangement. The clearer this is, the fewer awkward conversations you'll have when plans change.

Many travel businesses use staged cancellation fees in their booking terms and conditions. For example, your terms might say different charges apply if the customer cancels:

• More than 60 days before departure
• 30 to 60 days before departure
• 14 to 29 days before departure
• Less than 14 days before departure
• After the trip has started or after a no-show

Don't copy those timeframes unless they match your supplier contracts. If your hotel supplier charges you 100% from 45 days out, your customer-facing terms shouldn't promise a generous refund up to 30 days unless you're comfortable carrying the gap.

Your policy should also separate customer cancellations from supplier or operator cancellations. If the customer changes their mind, different rules may apply than if a ferry operator cancels a crossing or an airline changes a flight time.

For tour terms and conditions in NZ, it's also useful to explain how partial cancellations work. If one person in a group of 10 cancels, does the whole package price change? Are single supplements triggered? Can another traveller take their place? These details can make a big commercial difference.

Finally, be careful with the word "refund". If you offer travel credits, say when they expire, whether they're transferable, whether price differences apply, and what happens if the replacement trip costs more.

Can You Change An Itinerary Or Supplier After Booking?

Yes, you can allow for itinerary or supplier changes in your terms, but the changes need to be reasonable and clearly disclosed. You shouldn't promise a specific experience and then reserve an unlimited right to provide something completely different.

Travel arrangements often depend on third parties. Hotels overbook, airlines change schedules, roads close, weather makes activities unsafe and local operators may become unavailable. Your terms should give you room to respond without breaching the contract every time something changes.

A practical itinerary change clause should cover:

• Minor changes, such as switching the order of activities
• Equivalent substitutions, such as replacing a hotel with accommodation of a similar standard
• Safety-related changes, such as cancelling a hike because of weather warnings
• Supplier changes, such as using a different transfer provider
• Material changes, such as removing a major included activity or changing the destination

For minor changes, you may simply need to notify the customer. For material changes, your terms should explain the customer's options, such as accepting the revised itinerary, choosing an alternative package, receiving a credit, or receiving a refund where required.

The Fair Trading Act matters here. If your marketing highlights "3 nights at a 5-star lakefront resort", you should be careful about substituting a lower-standard property unless the customer agrees or the circumstances genuinely justify it.

Your supplier clause should also say that airlines, hotels, cruise operators and activity providers have their own terms. This doesn't let you avoid all responsibility, especially if you package and sell the experience, but it helps customers understand that some issues are outside your control.

How Should You Handle Force Majeure-Style Travel Disruptions?

You should handle major disruptions with a clear clause that explains what happens when events outside your control affect the trip. Many businesses call this a force majeure clause, but the wording matters more than the label.

Travel can be disrupted by events such as:

• Severe weather, natural disasters or unsafe conditions
• Border closures, epidemics or government restrictions
• Airline strikes, transport failures or port closures
• Supplier insolvency or sudden service withdrawal
• Civil unrest, security threats or official travel warnings

Your clause should explain the process you'll follow. For example, you might first try to rearrange the itinerary, then offer a comparable alternative, then consider credits or refunds depending on supplier recoveries and consumer law obligations.

Be careful with wording that says you never owe a refund if the issue is outside your control. That may not always be enforceable, and it can also create customer trust issues. A better approach is to explain how unrecoverable supplier costs will be treated, what options you may offer, and that nothing in your terms limits rights that can't be excluded under New Zealand law.

You should also keep records when disruptions happen. Save supplier notices, government announcements, customer emails, cost breakdowns and decisions about alternatives. If a customer complains to the Commerce Commission or another body, clear records help show you acted fairly and consistently.

Privacy also matters during disruptions, and your privacy policy should cover this. If you need to share passport details, emergency contacts or medical information with overseas suppliers, your Privacy Policy should explain this and comply with the Privacy Act 2020, including the rules around using and disclosing personal information.

How Do Customer Conduct Clauses Protect Your Tour Business?

Customer conduct clauses protect your tour business by giving you a clear basis to manage unsafe, unlawful or disruptive behaviour. This is especially useful for group tours, adventure activities, school groups, retreats and alcohol-related travel experiences.

Your terms can require customers to:

• Follow reasonable directions from guides, drivers and local operators
• Arrive on time for departures and activities
• Respect local laws, customs and supplier rules
• Not endanger themselves, staff, suppliers or other travellers
• Not harass, threaten or abuse other people on the trip
• Disclose relevant medical, mobility or dietary needs before travel, where needed for safety or logistics

You can also explain what happens if someone breaches those rules. Depending on the situation, you might issue a warning, remove them from an activity, end their participation in the tour, or require them to cover extra costs such as transport back to the hotel.

Be fair and proportionate. Removing someone from a tour is a serious step, so your terms should give you the right to do it only where their behaviour creates risk, breaks the law, seriously affects the group, or breaches key supplier rules.

You should also think about age restrictions, fitness requirements and activity waivers. If a supplier requires participants to meet a certain height, weight, health or skill level, say that upfront. Hidden restrictions can lead to refund requests and unhappy customers at the worst possible time.

For higher-risk activities, your terms should sit alongside your health and safety processes. The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 can be relevant where your business arranges or conducts activities and has duties to workers, contractors and others affected by the work.

Key Takeaways

• Written travel agency terms help you manage deposits, final payments, cancellations, itinerary changes and supplier issues.
• Your refund and cancellation policy needs to be clear, fair and consistent with the Fair Trading Act 1986 and Consumer Guarantees Act 1993.
• Deposits should connect to real costs, such as supplier charges, administration and lost booking opportunities.
• Itinerary change clauses should distinguish minor changes from major changes and explain the customer's options.
• Force majeure-style clauses work best when they set out a practical process, rather than simply saying there are no refunds.
• Customer conduct clauses are especially valuable for group travel, adventure tours and trips involving third-party operators.

If you'd like help with your travel booking terms, cancellation policy, supplier clauses or privacy wording, you can reach us at 0800 002 184 or team@sprintlaw.co.nz for a free, no-obligations chat.