Warranty Well-regulated Through STO Garant
To comply with the legally required guarantee in the Netherlands, Photothema uses STO Garant, a guarantee scheme recognized by the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM). You can check this via the STO Garant participant page. All information about STO Garant can be found at www.sto-garant.nl.
With every travel offer from Photothema on this website you can read whether the guarantee of STO Garant applies. In the guarantee scheme you can read what the guarantee entails and which conditions apply. You can find this guarantee scheme on the website of STO Guarantee.
Operation
If the guarantee from STO Garant applies to your booking, you do not pay the travel sum to Photothema, but to the escrow account of Stichting Derdengelden Certo Escrow, a payment service provider registered with De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), the Dutch Central Bank, and the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM). This third-party funds foundation guarantees your travel sum until after your booking has ended. The travel sum will be released to Photothema the day after. Should Photothema become financially insolvent before the end of your booking, STO Garant will carry out the guarantee. In the guarantee scheme you can read how you can claim this in that case.
More information can be found on the website of STO Guarantee.
GGTO Guarantee for Photo Tours Outside the Benelux
The photo tours in the Netherlands and Belgium are covered by STO Garant. The photo tours we organize in collaboration with Aladin Travel – to Greece, Italy, Oman and Canada – are covered by the guarantee of the GGTO. As of July 1, 2016, Aladin Travel is affiliated with the Guarantee Fund Foundation for Specialized Tour Operators (GGTO).
The GGTO Guarantee Fund guarantees travelers who have booked with one of the affiliated tour operators that they will receive a refund of the already paid part of the travel sum if the tour operator becomes financially insolvent and cannot carry out the trip properly for that reason. This can be before departure, but also during the trip.
In addition, the GGTO Guarantee Fund guarantees your return journey during your stay if the tour operator is no longer able to arrange this due to financial insolvency.
For more information, we refer you to the GGTO website.
Please note: Our photo workshops, (online) lessons and photo coaching are not standard covered by the STO-Garant guarantee scheme, because these activities do not fall under the package tours. View our general terms and conditions for these activities.
