Marketplace Terms

Last updated: 8 November 2026

Walk Via Francigena operates a marketplace (sometimes called "Services" or "Directory") that connects hikers and travellers with independent businesses offering tours, accommodation, luggage transfer, airport transfer, equipment rental, food supply, local experiences, and related services on and around the Via Francigena. This page explains how the marketplace works legally — who you contract with, what Walk Via Francigena does and does not do, and what your rights are if something goes wrong.

These Marketplace Terms form part of our general Terms of Service and should be read alongside our Privacy Policy, Content Policy, and Hiking Risk Disclaimer.

1. The short version

What Walk Via Francigena is

An introduction platform run by Pixelo Mobile Ltd (trading as Walk Via Francigena). We do not organise, sell or operate tours; our Terms of Service cover your use of the site and app.

When you contact or deal directly with a third-party business

Your contract is directly with the independent provider. Walk Via Francigena is only the introduction platform — we are not a party to the contract and are not the seller, tour operator, or reseller of that service.

How do you know who you are dealing with? The business you choose or book — an agency, a guide, a guesthouse, a transfer company — is who you deal with. Its name is shown on its listing and booking pages and, for a request, on its quote or at the latest when you choose that quote. Walk Via Francigena organises no tours of its own, so every tour and service here is a third-party listing.

Tour requests and booking an experience

You can send a tour request to the businesses on this site, and book some local experiences online. In both cases we only pass on your request, your booking and your messages, and show you the businesses' replies:

The business that sends you a quote, or that you book, is the seller of what it offers and, where the law treats it as one, its organiser. Your contract is with that business alone: we are not a party to it and are nobody's agent, neither yours nor the business's.
A quote is the business's own offer.
We do not check a business's availability, prices or quality, or what a quote or an experience includes. The dates, places left and prices shown for an experience come from the business.

2. What Walk Via Francigena does on the marketplace

We list providers: businesses that sign up with us, and businesses we find in public sources such as maps and the business's own website. When a business claims a listing, we check that the claim comes from that business. We do not check business registration, licences, insurance, vehicles or safety, and we do not inspect services.
We display listings: photos, descriptions, prices, stage coverage, reviews from signed-in hikers.
We pass messages between you and the provider through our in-app messaging or email relay.
We take no payment for third-party bookings: you pay the provider directly under their own terms, and we take no service fee. Providers may buy a listing plan from us (see our Partner Terms); that changes nothing about your contract with them, your price or your rights.
We moderate reviews and listings: remove content that breaches our Content Policy.
If you and a business disagree, we may, at our discretion, pass messages between you and the business; we are not a mediator and have no duty to resolve disputes.

3. What Walk Via Francigena does NOT do

Walk Via Francigena is not:

A travel agency, or a seller of any travel service
A package travel organiser, or a trader who arranges linked travel arrangements (see s.4)
An escrow agent or custodian of your payment
An employer or agent of any provider
A guarantor of any provider's services, safety record, insurance, or financial stability
Responsible for enforcing the provider's own terms, refunds, or cancellation policy

4. Package Travel Regulations

Walk Via Francigena is not a travel agency or a package organiser under the EU Package Travel Directive (EU) 2015/2302 and the national laws that implement it, or under the UK Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018, and does not arrange linked travel arrangements. Specifically:

We sell no travel services, alone or combined, and take no payment for them.
If you use several businesses you find here (e.g. accommodation from one and luggage transfer from another), you make a separate contract with each of them.
Our trip planner's plans, and the businesses they suggest, are suggestions only, not a package or a booking (see clause 13a of our Terms of Service).
Walk Via Francigena organises no tours of its own, so it never sells a package of its own either.

This means that if one business fails (e.g. a hotel cancels), you do not have an automatic right to refunds or re-booking of unrelated services from other businesses on the same trip. You should take out travel insurance that covers this.

5. Before you book — please check with the provider

For any third-party booking, we recommend you ask the provider directly for:

Their own terms and conditions, including cancellation and refund policy
Proof of public liability insurance (for tours and physical services)
Licences or certifications (e.g. a tour operator's or a guide's licence, where local law requires one)
Their complaints and emergency contact process

A business that signs up with us agrees, in our Partner Terms, to hold the licences and insurance the law requires. We do not check this, and we do not carry insurance that covers their liabilities.

6. Payments and refunds

6a. Walk Via Francigena takes no payment for a tour

Walk Via Francigena organises no tours of its own and takes no deposits or balances for tours: you pay each provider under their own terms (6b).

6b. Third-party listings — you pay the provider directly

Walk Via Francigena does not process payments for third-party listings, holds none of your money and takes no service fee on them. A listing plan that a provider buys from us is a contract between us and that provider (our Partner Terms); it changes nothing about your contract with them, your price or your rights. If a provider fails to deliver the service:

Your first recourse is the provider under their own terms.
If you paid by card, you may also have rights against your card issuer; ask them.
Walk Via Francigena may, at its discretion, pass messages between you and the business; we are not a mediator and have no duty to resolve disputes. We hold none of your money and cannot refund it.

7. Reviews and ratings

Signed-in hikers can review providers. Reviews are moderated as our Content Policy describes. Showing a review does not mean we have checked, verified or endorsed it. Providers may respond to reviews. Walk Via Francigena does not remove honest negative reviews on request of the provider — transparency is the point of the system. Reviews that are defamatory, off-topic, or from someone who cannot demonstrate they actually used the service may be removed.

7a. How businesses are ordered in our lists

Businesses can buy a plan from us (our Partner Terms). The Featured mark shows that a business has a plan with us. Businesses that pay for their plan come first in the default order of our lists, and in lists ordered by rating or by number of reviews, taking turns at the top in an order that changes every day. The other businesses follow, mainly in order of their rating from hikers; in the lists of guides, tour companies and other services, how quickly a business answers messages can count too, and we may adjust a business's place. When you sort a list by price, duration, name or newest, you get exactly that order, and a plan does not move a business up it. The Featured mark is not a review, a recommendation or a check by us, and a plan changes nothing about a business's reviews and ratings.

8. Complaints process

First, contact the provider directly. Most issues are resolved this way.
If unresolved after 14 days, contact us at hello@walkviafrancigena.com with the request reference, if you have one. We may, at our discretion, pass messages between you and the business; we are not a mediator and have no duty to resolve disputes.
For payment disputes, your card issuer is often the fastest route.

9. Our liability (limits)

Our liability to you arising from the marketplace is set out in clause 7 of our Terms of Service. It never excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or anything else the law does not allow us to exclude or limit, and it is subject to the one cap in that clause: the greater of £100 (or its equivalent in your currency) and the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim.

Because we are not a party to your contract with third-party providers, we do not carry liability for their actions, injuries suffered while using their services, delays, cancellations, or loss of property.

10. Governing law

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. If you are a consumer, you can bring a claim in the courts of England and Wales or in the courts of the country where you live, and nothing in these terms takes away any protection that the law of the country where you live gives you and that cannot be excluded by agreement.

11. Contact

Pixelo Mobile Ltd trading as Walk Via Francigena
Company number 10585806
Registered office: c/o Demsa Accounts, 565 Green Lanes, Haringey, London, England, N8 0RL
Marketplace queries: hello@walkviafrancigena.com

For businesses: your business account, your listing and any plan are governed by our Partner Terms, with or without a plan. You accept them when you claim or create your business account or buy a plan, and by using your business account.