Terms of service

v0.9 · updated 2026-07-26

Vastura Travel — Terms of Service

Last updated: 2026-07-26 Version 0.9

1. Who we are

Vastura Travel is a DBA of Vastura Ltd, a Canadian company based in Alberta. Vastura Ltd is the legal entity that operates Vastura Travel; every reference to "Vastura Travel," "we," "us," or "our" in this document means Vastura Ltd.

Registered address: Vastura Ltd, 62431 Range Rd 443, Ardmore, Alberta T0A 1H0, Canada

2. What Vastura Travel is — and what it is not

Vastura Travel is a directory and portal. We publish listings of independent travel operators — dive shops, boat charters, stables, hiking guides, surf schools, guesthouses, wildlife tour operators, and transport providers — so travellers can find them. A single operator may run more than one service line (for example, a guesthouse that also runs a dive shop and offers walking tours). Where that's the case, each service line is listed and assessed separately — see Section 4.

Vastura Travel makes introductions only. We are not:

a travel agent
a tour operator
a seller of travel
a booking intermediary, broker, or reservation system
a party to any booking, payment, or contract between you and an operator

We do not sell, arrange, broker, package, or administer any travel service. We hold no customer funds and process no bookings. We take no commission on any booking you make with a listed operator.

Why this matters: when you book with an operator you found through Vastura Travel, you are entering into a direct contract with that operator — not with us. We are simply the place you found them.

3. What we are not — read this before you rely on anything we publish

Vastura Travel is not an inspector, a regulator, a certification body, or a licensing authority, and nothing we publish should be read as any of those things. We do not inspect premises for code compliance, we do not certify equipment, and we do not license or accredit anyone to operate.

What we publish is the observation of a paying customer — our assessor — on a specific day, scored against criteria we publish openly (see Section 5). That is a description of a moment in time, made by someone with no regulatory authority, not a verdict on whether an operator is "safe" in any legal or technical sense. If safety certification, licensing, or regulatory compliance matters to you, you must verify it independently — with the operator, the relevant regulator, or a qualified professional — before you book.

4. No contract is formed with Vastura Travel for any booking

Using Vastura Travel to find an operator does not create any contract between you and Vastura Travel for travel services. Any agreement for accommodation, activities, transport, or any other service is solely between you and the operator you choose. All terms of that booking — price, availability, cancellation, refund, and performance — are set by the operator, not by us.

5. How we assess operators — the three-stage model

Every operator (and, where relevant, each of their individual service lines) moves through up to three stages. We publish which stage each listing has reached, and we are honest about the ones that haven't gone further yet.

Stage	Question it answers	Method	Our obligation (SLA)
Vetted	Are they real?	Registration, licences, and traceable business history are checked to screen out scams.	Within 2 weeks of the operator joining
Quality checked	Is it any good?	An announced onsite visit by our assessor, with our own photos and scoring against published criteria.	Within 6 months of joining
Service audited	How do they actually treat a paying customer?	An anonymous, full-price, unannounced visit by our assessor, scored against the same published criteria.	Within 1 year of joining, then annually

Every listed operator is Vetted at minimum — that's the floor for being listed at all. The 6-month and 1-year clocks start on the operator's signup date.

If a listing hasn't reached Quality checked or Service audited yet, we say so. An un-audited listing publicly shows "Awaiting onsite evaluation" rather than a score it hasn't earned.

These SLAs are our obligations, not aspirations. If Vastura Travel misses one of these deadlines, the operator may treat the missed SLA as a right to cancel their subscription without penalty for that period.

Scoring: where an assessment has happened, criteria are scored 1–10 with a published anchor describing what each score means, so a score is checkable against a stated standard, not just a number. Criteria vary by service type (there are 17 recognised service types on Vastura Travel), and where a provider runs multiple service lines, each line gets its own scores.

The one exception — visible safety kit for dive/water operators: for dive shops, boat charters, and other water-based operators, our scoring includes an observable category we call "visible safety kit" — for example, whether emergency oxygen is present at the site, whether it has a working gauge, and whether a safety briefing was given before the activity. This is scored as what any customer could see for themselves that day — it is not an inspection, not a certification, and not a verdict on whether the operator is safe. It is one more observable criterion, published with the same anchors and the same caveats as everything else in this section.

6. Publication — including low scores

We publish per-criterion scores, not just an overall number, along with the date of assessment and the role of the person who did the assessing (announced quality check vs. anonymous service audit). We do this whether the result is good or bad. A low score gets published just as readily as a high one — our purpose is to inform travellers honestly, not to protect operators from an honest result. See Section 8 for how this interacts with an operator leaving Vastura Travel.

7. No liability for operator acts or omissions

Because Vastura Travel is not a party to your booking, we are not responsible for:

the accuracy of any operator's advertised prices, availability, or descriptions (beyond what we display as their listing content, which they control)
the quality, safety, or delivery of any service you receive from an operator
any injury, loss, damage, delay, cancellation, or dispute arising from your use of an operator's services
any act or omission of an operator, its staff, contractors, or agents

This is explained further in our separate Dispute Resolution Policy, which describes exactly what we will and will not do if something goes wrong.

8. What happens when an operator leaves or is removed

When an operator's listing is cancelled or ends, we remove the things that let a traveller reach or book them — contact details, booking links, WhatsApp numbers, area-affiliate placement, and search placement generally. We do not remove the scorecard. A completed assessment is a factual record of a visit that actually happened, and it stays visible, archived, and clearly marked as no longer an active listing.

This applies regardless of the score. An operator who scored a 9.1 is archived exactly the same way as one who scored a 4.2 — the record doesn't disappear because the number was good, and it doesn't get scrubbed because the number was bad. Archived listings are also demoted: they rank below every current paying member in search and browse. An archived page reads: "No longer listed · Vastura Travel has no current relationship with this operator."

Operators agree to this at the time they sign up, before they pay — see the Provider Agreement, Section 9.

9. Reviews

Traveller reviews on Vastura Travel go through a verification step before they're published — we check for evidence that the reviewer was actually there. Full detail on what we accept and how we handle it is in our Privacy Policy and Provider Agreement. Operators cannot review themselves, cannot edit a traveller's review, and cannot pay to have one removed.

10. No warranty

Vastura Travel and all information on it (including listings, stage badges, scores, and descriptions) are provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including warranties of accuracy, completeness, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement.

11. Acceptable use

You agree to use Vastura Travel only for lawful purposes and in accordance with our Acceptable Use Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference. This includes rules against submitting false reviews, harassing operators, scraping our site, and impersonating others.

12. Intellectual property

The Vastura Travel name, logo, stage/badge marks, site design, and original content are owned by us or our licensors and may not be copied, reproduced, or used without our written permission. Operator-submitted content (descriptions, photos) remains subject to the licence terms in our Provider Agreement.

13. Links to third parties

Vastura Travel contains links to operator websites, booking channels, and third-party platforms (including embedded video from services like YouTube or Vimeo). We do not control and are not responsible for the content, policies, or practices of any third-party site. Visiting a linked site is at your own risk and subject to that site's own terms.

14. AI-generated illustrative imagery

Some images on Vastura Travel may be AI-generated or AI-enhanced and used for illustrative purposes only (for example, to represent a type of activity or destination). Where this is the case, we aim to label it clearly. AI-generated images are not photographs of the actual operator, location, or experience unless stated otherwise, and should not be relied on as an accurate depiction of what you will receive.

15. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Vastura Travel's total liability to you for any claim arising out of or relating to your use of the site will not exceed the amount (if any) you paid to Vastura Travel directly, which for travellers is expected to be zero, since Vastura Travel does not charge travellers. We are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages, including lost travel costs, missed connections, or personal injury arising from a third-party operator's services.

Why this clause exists, in plain terms: we don't run the boats, feed the animals, or drive the vehicles — the operators do. Our liability has to match the narrow role we actually play: pointing you toward operators and being honest about what our assessor observed.

16. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold Vastura Travel harmless from claims, losses, or expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your misuse of the site, your violation of these Terms, or your violation of any third party's rights.

17. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of Alberta, Canada, without regard to conflict-of-law principles.

18. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top will change when we do. Continued use of Vastura Travel after an update means you accept the revised Terms.

19. Contact

Questions about these Terms can be sent to travel@vastura.ca.

Terms confirmed in this document

Vastura Ltd, 62431 Range Rd 443, Ardmore, Alberta T0A 1H0, Canada — registered business address (Section 1)
Missed-SLA remedy — the operator may cancel for the affected period without penalty (Section 5)
Alberta, Canada — governing law / jurisdiction (Section 17)
travel@vastura.ca — general contact address (Section 19)