1. General

1.1 These conditions of use apply to the use of the website vienna.info. vienna.info is a service of the Vienna Tourist Board. The goal is to offer interested users information about noteworthy sights, events and accommodations in Vienna and its surroundings. Users can direct non-binding requests for information to hotel operators through the vienna.info site.

1.2 In addition to this general information, the vienna.info website also transmits hotel reservations and offers users the possibility of creating their own individual travel plans. Registration with an email address (= user name), display name and password are required for these services.

1.3 An agreement is executed between the users and the Vienna Tourist Board about the use of the services offered on vienna.info. The Vienna Tourist Board, however, is not the contractual partner in respect to lodging reservations (see item 2.3 of these conditions of use for more information).

2. Hotel reservation

2.1 Users can book hotel rooms in Vienna or request information about them through vienna.info. Whether there is a possibility to book a reservation or whether the user can only request information from the lodging depends on the statements about the individual lodgings made on vienna.info. The Vienna Tourist Board merely serves as a broker (sharing information) for reservations and requests. This service is free of charge to the guests.

2.2 The hotel rooms that can be booked through vienna.info are offered by the corresponding lodgings. The user accepts this offer by booking through the vienna.info website. The agreement goes into effect with the reservation.

2.3 The reservation is made directly for the hotel selected by the user. The contractual relationship for the reserved hotel room is established directly between the user and the lodging. Payments should therefore be made directly to the lodging. The Vienna Tourist Board does not offer any travel services in its own name and does not appear as a travel agent in the sense of § 31 b of the Employment Protection Act.

2.4 The reservation through the vienna.info website is immediately confirmed by an email sent to the email address specified by the user.

2.5 All reservations through the vienna.info website are subject to the Austrian regulations for hotel agreements .

2.6 Unless something else has explicitly been agreed on (what matters here is the lodging information as offered on vienna.info), the stated prices apply per room and per night.

2.7 Reservations through the vienna.info reservation service are binding.

    2.7.1 But the lodging can require an advance payment in order to hold the room reservation.

    2.7.2 The lodging has to hold the room reservation for the guest in any case until 6 p.m. (local time) on the day of the agreed-upon arrival. After 6 p.m. the guest no longer has a claim to the accommodation, unless the lodging and the guest have explicitly agreed on a later arrival time.

    2.7.3 If the guest has made an advance payment, the rooms will be reserved until no later than 12 noon on the day following the agreed-on arrival day. If more than four days were paid for in advance, the obligation for the accommodations will end after 6 p.m. of the fourth day. The arrival day is counted as the first day.

    2.7.4 If the arrival is planned for a time after 6 p.m. (local time), the guest has to explicitly arrange this with the lodging. The reservation service provided by vienna.info makes it possible for guests to receive a reservation guarantee for an arrival after 6 p.m. by submitting a credit card number. In the case of a non-arrival or if the cancellation does not fall within the specified time period, the lodging may charge for the cost of the room.

2.8 The hotel reservations through vienna.info are recreational services in the sense of § 5 c par. 4(2) of the Employment Protection Act, which are rendered at a specific time or within a precisely stated period. The guest therefore has no right to withdrawal according to § 5 e of the Employment Protection Act (§ 5f (7) Employment Protection Act).

2.9 Unless the respective lodging has agreed on a different regulation with the guest (such as by already formulating the cancellation conditions in the offer on vienna.info), cancellations are only possible according to the conditions of the Austrian regulations for hotel agreements . If any contradictions arise between the cancellation conditions on vienna.info and the conditions of the Austrian regulations for hotel agreements, the following standard hierarchy applies: Explicit and individual cancellation agreements precede other cancellation rules. In the event that the cancellation conditions in the lodging description on vienna.info contradict the Austrian regulations for hotel agreements, the cancellation conditions of the lodging description on vienna.info shall apply. The cancellation conditions in the Austrian regulations for hotel agreements are therefore considered to be only subsidiary. They are applicable particularly in those cases where no other agreements were made.

2.10 Cancellations can be declared through vienna.info (but here too, the Vienna Tourist Board merely functions as a messenger, passing on the cancellation information). In respect to their contents, cancellations have to be arranged between the lodging and the guest according to the agreed-on cancellation conditions.

2.11 If the lodgings have not provided a direct reservation method on vienna.info, users are only able to direct requests for information to the lodgings through vienna.info. In that case, a contract only goes into effect when an agreement has been made between the lodging and user.

2.12 All of the hotel descriptions on vienna.info are based on statements made by the lodgings.

2.13 The classification of the lodgings according to stars is done according to the guidelines for the classification of hotels and accommodation establishments and offers a reliable tool to evaluate the quality of the respective accommodations. This classification is made according to strict criteria and is determined by the trade committee for the classification of Viennese accommodations.

3. Travel planner

3.1 The travel planner makes it possible for users to plan their individual stay in Vienna by themselves. The Vienna Tourist Board points out that cookies must be enabled to create a travel plan.

3.2 The use of the travel planner requires a free registration. The user selects a user name and a password during the registration. The selection of the user name may not infringe on the name, brand, trademark, or other rights of third parties. The Vienna Tourist Board does not assume any responsibility for user names that may infringe on the rights of third parties. The user commits himself/herself to indemnify the Vienna Tourist Board and hold it harmless in the event of any infringements on names, brands or signs caused by the user, as well as any other infringements of rights caused by the user's use of the vienna.info website. If the user acts on behalf of third parties, he or she will immediately notify the Vienna Tourist Board of this by presenting the facts of the case.

3.3 The user has the possibility of saving sights, hotels, restaurants and events in a list in the travel planner. The user can edit this list by adding, deleting or commenting on entries.

3.4 The user has the option of exporting his or her travel plan as a PDF.

3.5 The user can also provide access to this travel plan to third parties through a link. For this purpose, the user must activate his or her vienna.info account and publish the travel plan. Every published travel plan receives its own URL, which the user can then send out via email.

3.6 These published travel plans are anonymous, i.e. the identity of the user creating the plan is not publicly displayed. The user can also cancel the publication through the edit dialog.

3.7 The Vienna Tourist Board does not separately list the links to the users' published travel plans generated according to item 3.5 on vienna.info. But the Vienna Tourist Board has the right to use these published travel plans on vienna.info in an anonymous form as samples of travel plans. Each of the users can copy the travel plan samples into their own travel plans.

4. Vienna-Tip

4.1 Users can upload images and texts at Vienna-Tip without prior registration. The text will then be edited by WienTourismus and a suitable crop selected from uploaded images as required.

4.2 The user declares that all the texts and images uploaded by him have been created by him and that he is therefore the sole owner of all copyrights to these texts/images.

4.3 The user hereby grants the Vienna Tourism Association (hereinafter "WienTourismus") full, transferable, non-exclusive, and unlimited permission to use all texts/images uploaded by him without restriction for the duration of the statutory protection period in accordance with Art. 24 Sec.1 of the Austrian Copyright Act (UrhG). This permission to use his works includes all rights in accordance with Art. 14 - 18 a UrhG, in particular the right of duplication, editing (both of the uploaded texts and the uploaded images, e.g. by cropping, linguistic amendment of the texts, selection of cropped sections for images), translation, and placement in the public domain. The user waives all rights to the acknowledgement of creatorship pursuant to Art. 20 UrhG.

4.4 The user confirms that the texts and images uploaded by him are free from third-party rights and that he alone is entitled to hold the copyright. The user also confirms that he has not taken any steps that stand in the way of the granting of rights provided for by this agreement. If a claim is brought against WienTourismus by a third party as a result of copyright violations caused by the texts/images I upload, the user hereby declares that he shall hold harmless and indemnify WienTourismus. In connection with this declaration, the user also agrees that his IP address and the timing of the upload procedure may be saved by WienTourismus and his master data ascertained in case of conflict.

4.5 This contractual relationship shall be subject to Austrian law (excluding the rules governing conflict of law). The respective, competent court in this matter in Vienna, City Centre, is agreed as the place of jurisdiction.

5. Copyright and links

5.1 The website design of vienna.info and the editorial articles and photos published on vienna.info are protected by copyright laws.

5.2 Copying, making them publicly available, or otherwise using the copyright-protected contents of the vienna.info website requires the prior explicit authorization by the Vienna Tourist Board.

5.3 The links provided on vienna.info are made available in the interest of the user. The contents offered by the linked websites are not designed by the Vienna Tourist Board. The Vienna Tourist Board has no influence on these websites; accessing the sites is the sole responsibility of the user. It is not possible to control the contents of the linked websites on an ongoing basis. If there are legal violations on the linked sites and vienna.info is notified of this, the links will be removed.

6. Data protection

6.1 The Vienna Tourist Board uses a secure transmission process (SSL) to transmit user data, especially credit card numbers. This is intended to achieve the best possible security standard. However, the Vienna Tourist Board is unable to assume any responsibility for attacks by hackers.

6.2 The Vienna Tourist Board uses the personal data provided by the user (name, address, user name, password, email address, telephone number, fax number, if provided by the user) as follows (more details are provided in the privacy policy ):

6.2.1 In the case of hotel reservations through vienna.info, the user's name, address, email address, telephone number and fax number will be transmitted to the lodging for the purpose of executing an agreement with the user. Likewise, any credit card number provided by the user is transmitted to the lodging.
6.2.2 In the case of hotel inquiries through vienna.info, the user's name, address, email address, telephone number and fax number will be transmitted to the lodging for the purpose of contacting the user.
6.2.3 The travel planner uses the user data to store the travel plan that the user has initiated. The email address, user name and password are required to authenticate the user.

6.3 The Vienna Tourist Board installs cookies for the purpose of performing its services and to transfer information. The installation of cookies is required especially to create a travel plan. Travel plans are published only in an anonymous version (i.e. without stating the user name of the user who created the travel plan).

6.4 Based on the installed cookies, the Vienna Tourist Board also informs the user about offers that may be of interest to the user in the form of banner ads on the vienna.info site (personalized banner activations).

6.5 The Vienna Tourist Board uses Google Analytics, a web analysis service by Google Inc. (hereafter referred to as "Google"), to improve and optimize its Internet presence. Google Analytics uses cookies, meaning text files that are stored on the user's computer and that enable an analysis of the user's visits to the website. The information about the use of the vienna.info website generated by the cookie, including each user's IP address, is transmitted to a server used by Google in the US and stored there. Google processes this information to evaluate the use of the vienna.info website, generate reports about the website activities for the Vienna Tourist Board and render other services associated with the use of the website and the Internet. Google may also transmit this information to third parties insofar as this is legally required or if third parties use these data in the service of Google (assignment to service providers). In no event will Google associate any IP addresses with other data by Google. By visiting the vienna.info website, the user declares his or her agreement to Google's usage of the data captured about the user in the above-mentioned manner and for the above-mentioned purpose.

6.6 Users can prevent the installation of cookies with a particular setting in their browser software, but the Vienna Tourist Board points out that this would prevent the user from accessing all of the functions of the vienna.info website to their full extent (in particular the travel planner and hotel reservations and requests for information).

7. Final conditions

7.1 By using vienna.info and registering on vienna.info, the user agrees to these conditions of use and the privacy policy without limitations.

7.2 When commenting on vienna.info (especially in published travel plans), the users must ensure that the topics and contents of their statements are appropriate and do not infringe on any rights of third parties (especially copyrights). The user declares that he or she will indemnify the Vienna Tourist Board and hold it harmless in the case of violations of the rights of third parties (through copyright infringements, statements that damage the credit of others, or any other violation of rights). If the user acts on behalf of third parties in respect to these kinds of rights violations, he or she will immediately notify the Vienna Tourist Board of this by presenting the facts of the case.

7.3 The Vienna Tourist Board reserves the right to block users in the event of rights violations or conduct that violates netiquette (such as conduct that is insulting, biased, or harassing).

7.4 All statements on the vienna.info website have been compiled with great care. But no liability can be assumed for any errors in the data entry or transfer. Likewise, no liability can be assumed for unpredictable system failures and disruptions, such as those due to external attacks or other reasons that are not in the sphere of the Vienna Tourist Board.

7.5 The invalidity of any individual provisions in these conditions of use does not affect the validity of the other provisions.

7.6 Written declarations are considered to be delivered when they are sent to the customer's most recently published (email) address. Only written agreements are valid between the contracting parties. Any revisions of the conditions of use also have to be in writing. This also applies for a cancellation of the requirement for the written form. Oral agreements are not legally binding.

7.7 Austrian law applies with the exception of the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods as well as the reference norms of the international privacy law. It is agreed that the respective functionally appropriate court in the inner city of Vienna will be the place of jurisdiction.