General Terms and Conditions

• “HopABoat”, “we” or “us” means the company that operates the HopABoat website and booking service. Its details are in the Legal Notice.
• “Platform” means the HopABoat website and the services offered through it.
• “Owner” means a boat owner or operator who offers trips on the Platform.
• “Guest” means a person who books a trip, and the people travelling with them.
• “Listing” means an Owner’s offer of a boat tour, experience or fishing trip.
• “Booking” means a reservation of a trip made through the Platform, whether confirmed instantly or sent as a request.
• “Trip” means the service the Owner provides to the Guest.

HopABoat is an online marketplace. We provide the website on which Owners present their Trips and Guests book them, and we pass on the information both sides need.

HopABoat is an intermediary. We do not own or operate boats, employ skippers or run Trips. The contract for a Trip is concluded directly between the Guest and the Owner, and the Owner alone is responsible for carrying it out.

We review Listings before publication, but we cannot verify every statement an Owner makes, and we do not guarantee the quality, safety or legality of a Trip.

You need an account to book a Trip or to publish a Listing. You must be an adult and able to enter into binding contracts.

Give accurate information and keep it up to date, especially your email address and phone number, because we and the other party use them to reach you. Keep your sign-in details to yourself; you are responsible for what is done through your account. Tell us immediately at support@hopaboat.com if you think someone else is using it.

Each Listing states whether it is booked with instant confirmation or on request.

Instant confirmation. The Booking is confirmed as soon as you complete it or, if you pay by card, as soon as your payment succeeds, and the contract for the Trip between Guest and Owner is concluded at that moment.

Request to book. Your request is an offer to the Owner. The Owner has 24 hours to accept or decline it. The contract is concluded only when the Owner accepts. If the Owner does not answer within 24 hours, the request expires automatically and neither side has any obligation.

We confirm every Booking and every change of its status by email, and for some events also by text message. A Booking is personal to the group it was made for and cannot be resold.

All prices are shown in euros and include HopABoat’s commission. The price shown when you book is the full amount you pay for the Trip, unless the Listing expressly names something as not included.

Each Listing states whether the Owner accepts payment in cash, by card or both, and the Guest chooses one of these when booking. Cash: nothing is charged when you book; the Guest pays the full price in euros directly to the Owner or skipper on arrival, before the Trip starts, and HopABoat does not receive or hold the Guest’s money. Card: the Guest pays the full price online through our payment provider Paddle, which acts as merchant of record for card payments and appears on the card statement – on booking for instant confirmation, or within 24 hours after the Owner accepts a request; a Booking that is not paid in time is released. HopABoat does not see or store card details.

Prices shown in other currencies are approximate conversions for information only. The price in euros is binding.

The Owner is responsible for issuing any receipt or invoice for the Trip and for the taxes on their income.

Each Listing sets a free-cancellation window, in hours before departure. Guests cancel under My bookings. If you pay in cash, nothing is paid in advance and there is nothing to refund. If you paid by card, you receive a full refund when you cancel within the free-cancellation window or when the Owner or HopABoat cancels; there is no refund if you cancel later or do not show up. Refunds are made to the same card and can take a few working days.

If you cancel after the free-cancellation window, HopABoat does not charge you a fee, but you must still cancel as early as possible so that the Owner can offer the place to others.

If the group does not arrive at the meeting point on time and has not cancelled, the Owner may record the Booking as a no-show and is not obliged to wait or to provide the Trip.

We may restrict or close the accounts of Guests who repeatedly cancel late or do not show up.

Owners must honour confirmed Bookings. An Owner may cancel a Booking only for a good reason, such as unsafe weather or sea conditions, a technical fault with the boat, illness of the skipper or an order by the authorities, and must state the reason. The Guest is informed immediately by email.

The skipper decides whether it is safe to sail, and that decision is final. A skipper may also shorten or change a route for safety reasons.

If the Owner cancels, the Guest owes nothing. If a Trip has to be ended early, the Guest and the Owner agree between themselves on a fair reduction of the price.

We may remove Listings or close the accounts of Owners who cancel without good reason.

• Be at the meeting point on time and, if you chose to pay in cash, with the full price in euros.
• Book for the correct number of people, including children, and tell the Owner in advance if the group changes. The Owner may refuse people who exceed the permitted capacity of the boat.
• Follow the safety instructions of the skipper and crew at all times, including on life jackets, alcohol and swimming.
• Tell the skipper before departure about anything relevant to safety, such as non-swimmers, pregnancy or medical conditions.
• Treat the boat, its equipment, the crew and other guests with respect. Guests are liable for damage they cause intentionally or through negligence.

The skipper may refuse to take on board, or may put ashore, anyone who endangers safety or does not follow instructions.

By publishing a Listing, the Owner confirms and undertakes that:

• they hold all registrations, licences and permits required by law for the boat, the skipper and the commercial carriage of passengers, and keep them valid;
• the boat and the passengers are insured as the law requires;
• the boat is seaworthy and carries the required safety equipment, including life jackets for every person on board, in suitable sizes;
• the Listing is accurate and up to date: description, photos, what is included, capacity, schedule, meeting point and price;
• they answer booking requests within 24 hours and honour confirmed Bookings;
• they charge Guests exactly the price shown on the Platform and do not ask Guests to book outside the Platform in order to avoid the commission;
• they mark each Booking as completed or as a no-show after the Trip. Bookings that are not marked are treated as completed automatically 12 hours after the Trip ends;
• they pay HopABoat the commission for every completed Trip. The commission is the difference between the price the Guest pays and the Owner’s own price, both of which are shown to the Owner before the Listing is published and are stored with each Booking. It becomes due when the Trip is completed. No commission is due for cancelled Bookings or no-shows;
• they use Guests’ personal data only to carry out the Trip and in line with data protection law.

HopABoat may decline or remove Listings, ask for changes, and suspend an Owner whose commission is overdue.

Owners can choose to promote a Listing. Sponsored Listings are shown ahead of others in the default order of search results and are always marked with a “Sponsored” label. Apart from that, results are ordered by criteria such as relevance to your search, and you can sort them yourself.

Only Guests whose Trip was completed can review it. Reviews must be honest, based on your own experience and free of insults, personal data of others and advertising. Owners may not review their own Trips or offer anything in return for a review.

By posting a review you allow us to publish it on the Platform together with your name. We may remove reviews that break these rules, but we do not edit them and do not remove them merely because they are negative.

You may not:

• give false information, impersonate someone else or create accounts for others without their permission;
• make Bookings you do not intend to use, or block an Owner’s availability on purpose;
• publish content that is unlawful, misleading or offensive, or that infringes the rights of others;
• use the contact details you receive through a Booking for anything other than that Trip;
• copy, scrape or systematically extract content from the Platform, or interfere with its operation or security;
• use the Platform for any unlawful purpose.

The Owner is responsible for the Trip, including the safety of the boat and of the people on board. Claims arising from a Trip must be made against the Owner. We will help you contact the Owner and try to help both sides find a solution.

HopABoat is responsible for providing the Platform with reasonable care. We do not promise that it will be available without interruption or free of errors.

To the extent permitted by law, HopABoat is not liable for the acts or omissions of Owners or Guests, for the performance of Trips, or for indirect or consequential loss.

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability that cannot be excluded or limited by law, in particular liability for intent or gross negligence, for death or personal injury caused by our fault, or your mandatory rights as a consumer.

The Platform, its design, texts, logo and software belong to HopABoat or its licensors and may not be used without our permission.

Owners keep the rights to the texts and photos they upload. By uploading them, an Owner grants HopABoat a non-exclusive, royalty-free right to display, reproduce, adapt and translate them on the Platform and to use them to promote the Listing and the Platform, for as long as the Listing exists. Owners confirm that they hold the rights needed to do so and that the content does not infringe anyone else’s rights.

You can stop using the Platform at any time and ask us to close your account at support@hopaboat.com. Bookings that are already confirmed still have to be honoured or properly cancelled, and commission already due remains payable.

We may suspend or close an account, or remove Listings, if these terms are seriously or repeatedly breached, if there is a risk to the safety of Guests, or if the law requires it. Where reasonable, we give notice and a chance to put things right first.

We may change these terms, for example when the service or the law changes. We publish the new version on this page with its date and inform account holders of significant changes by email before they take effect. The terms in force at the time of a Booking apply to that Booking.

[To be confirmed before launch: the governing law of these terms and the courts that have jurisdiction will be set out here once they have been confirmed by a lawyer.]

Whatever is set out here will not deprive consumers of the protection given to them by the mandatory rules of the country where they live.

Questions about these terms: legal@hopaboat.com. Help with a booking: support@hopaboat.com.