South East Asia Travel Association (hereafter referred to as "SEATA") membership is free and currently automatic in return for each member agreeing to the following terms and conditions.

To apply and become a member of SEATA you must read and agree to the following terms and conditions, and then click the "I agree" link at the end to get the member graphic link code which you must display prominently on your web site (you may also reproduce the image on any stationary or published material);

1) You hereby indemnify SEATA against any and all claim in respect of your failure to apply and maintain the terms of this agreement. You hereby agree SEATA may terminate your membership at any time and require you to immediately remove any and all SEATA related material from your web sites and / or printed material if we become aware of any breach of this agreement by you; such decisions to be at the sole discretion of SEATA.

2) You hereby confirm that any of the following SEATA membership standards which apply to your business or organization are currently met by you and will continue to be met by you while you are a SEATA member;

Travel / Reservation / Tour Agents;

SEATA members which take money in advance for accommodations, services, etc. must be fully licensed for that business (e.g. not marketing companies feigning being a licensed travel agent when they are not). They must also provide an absolute guarantee method for legitimate refunds to their customers, e.g. bonded travel industry insurance (where a recognized insurer guarantees a customer’s money) or true escrow bank account system (where the bank guarantees money in that account is held in legal favour of the clients until the accommodation and / or service has been actually provided); In both cases the member must make such details fully itemized and clearly available to potential customers, including but not limited to full details of any bonded insurance they hold and / or signed statements from their bank confirming they operate a true escrow bank account (as previously detailed). Businesses which claim to offer such customer protection but do not or otherwise fail to live up to their statements in this respect agree that the owners or directors shall become personally liable to their customers in lieu thereof.

SEATA members who simply refer their customers to other people (the hotel or villa, a 3rd party tour operator, wholesaler, etc.) for payment must agree to only refer their customers to people who they have had no major justified guest complaints from or problems with. In the case of new associations, SEATA members must exercise reasonable due diligence and care to ensure these people will honor their obligations with customers who came off the SEATA member web site or from the SEATA member business. SEATA members agree to immediately stop doing business with anyone who has badly let down one of their own customers who they referred to that business.

All Travel / Reservation / Tour Agent SEATA members agree that they will either not take or will pass on all service charges taken by them to the accommodations / service provider. That is, they will not collect money in the name of “service charges” which actually goes towards their profits, wages or other running costs. All SEATA members will make sure that service charges are given to the people who are legally and morally entitled to them.

All Travel / Reservation / Tour Agent SEATA members must ensure they take every reasonable precaution to ensure unsustainable rates are not shown on their web sites or literature; unsustainable means where the quoted rate can not actually be offered to someone who applies for it. Let SEATA make it perfectly clear, the association will not tolerate “bait and switch” tactics of any kind, where a low price is shown in order to get an enquiry and / or credit card information from a potential customer only to say the hotel or service is full (because the agent can not honor the rate) but then to offer an alternative. SEATA members who clearly violate this rule agree to pay each disgruntled customer who complains to us and we notify them US$100 each in compensation, will have their SEATA membership revoked.

Hotels / Villas / Accommodations providers;

All SEATA members who run accommodations agree that they must be fully licensed in every respect including, but not limited to possessing legitimately obtained building permits and trading licenses, liquor licenses, spa licenses, restaurant licenses, vehicle licenses, etc. Hotels / Villas / Accommodations providers whose building and / or operational licenses are being contested legally or by locals may be SEATA members.

All Hotels / Villas / Accommodations provider SEATA members must guarantee that all service charges collected by and / or provided to them get evenly distributed amongst their staff, but not to senior management and / or directors.

All Hotels / Villas / Accommodations provider SEATA members must guarantee that all sales and other taxes stated as being collected by them are paid to the respective government agency.

All Hotels / Villas / Accommodations provider SEATA members must disclose any contentious owner or director details, such as a director of their accommodations or the company that owns their accommodations or a company that has shares in their accommodations who is a member of a family or group or organization which has negative connotations attached to them, for example a member or friend of the Suharto family.

All Hotels / Villas / Accommodations provider SEATA members must provide safety information to their guests while they are with them, such as known increased terrorism risks, likely public disorder events such as protests, police corruption risks and what to do if a police officer tries to extort money from them, any know health risks including using roads and walkways (how to avoid injury), plus natural disaster advice if appropriate (tsunami and / or earthquake advice which will help guests avoid injury or worse).

All travel businesses, associations, organizations and web site owners;

A) Traveller safety is paramount. Members agree to make any information they become aware of regarding specific health and other risks, such as a heightened terrorism risk known to people who use their business or other facilities, including web sites. This may simply equate to providing links to interactive Internet travel resources, such as forums, and / or web sites specific to any risk (such as foreign government travel advisory sites).

B) All SEATA members must make it clear if prices include or do not include service charges. The ambiguous “nett / net” expression which does not show whether service charges are included or are optional should be avoided. Customers must be in doubt as to whether they have paid any service charges or not and that any service charge money they have paid actually goes to the people (staff) they believe it to.

C) All SEATA members must help to defeat the corruption which is too often rife in South East Asia. Although it may be difficult for association members to combat corruption up front themselves, they should make a conscious effort to make sure corrupt government officials, especially corrupt police officers do not get away with this terrible disease. E.g. members faced with extortion by corrupt officials in the presence of customers should, at the very least, inform their customers of what exactly happened and ask them to post details of this on public Internet travel forums, etc. when they return home. The reason for this is the more corrupt officials are named and shamed, the sooner it will be that corruption ends.

D) No SEATA member can indulge in fraud and / or corruption. All members agree that any substantiated reports of them being involved in fraud and / or corruption, particularly against any other person or body will require SEATA to consider the evidence and determine whether it is clear the member likely committed corruption or not. If SEATA determines that there is sufficient evidence to show the member has committed fraud and / or corruption, the member will automatically have their membership suspended or revoked, as appropriate. If such fraud and / or corruption was against another person or body, the party committing the fraud and / or corruption agrees to pay a fair compensation amount, as determined by SEATA, to the victim which will reflect if the fraudulent / corrupt act has been since rectified or not. In the event SEATA makes such a determination but the (former) member wishes to appeal / overturn this, they may only do so and at their cost at an independent tribunal or mediation service designated by SEATA in North America, The EU or Australasia; the location to reflect the best interests of justice and location of both parties. Members accept that tribunals / mediation services outside SE Asia are historically / logically / justice wise better in such matters and unconditionally agree to their jurisdiction accordingly.

E) All SEATA members will report any SE Asia connected travel company or organization who they have evidence of either fraud and / or corruption against to SEATA where they feel unable, because of corruption, etc. to report such crimes to the proper authorities in their own country. SEATA will consider the details and if they believe sufficient evidence exists to confirm that travel company / association has committed fraud and / or corruption, SEATA will, at the very least, name and shame that company or association on its own and / or third party SE Asia Travel Corruption Blacklist and / or Travel Fraud Warning pages. All SEATA members and travelers generally are asked to consider whether it is appropriate to have any dealings with any entity on such pages; any company or association placed by SEATA on a corruption blacklist and / or fraud warning page have the right to sue SEATA for civil libel in the country in which SEATA is legally based.

F) Any SEATA member who processes credit card payments from their customers agrees that their cancellation and refund policies will be made extremely clear, not hidden as one of many terms and conditions. In addition, any and all due refunds will be instructed within 2 business days of proper cancellation and any appropriate credit card refunds / credits will appear back on the customer’s account within 2 weeks (this includes the time it takes the banks to do this). SEATA members will take due care not to block more than two amounts with any potential customer’s credit cards which do not result in reservations / bookings.

G) All SEATA members will desist from Copyright and other intellectual property violations such as copying photographs and text from other travel sites and publications without the owner’s specific permission.

H) Membership of SEATA is limited to businesses and organizations with a pronounced focus on travel to / within SE ASIA, namely; Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia, East Timor and The Philippines. It is NOT currently possible for businesses located in or who exclusively / majoritively promote Burma / Myanmar due to the large amount of human rights abuse committed by the Myanmar Government.

I) Membership will only be deemed to have commenced once the applicant has emailed SEATA as per the directions on the page which appear after they click the "I agree" link below. This will allow SEATA to keep a database of all members in case these terms of membership change or if any other important member notification needs to be sent.

J) Members agree to place and maintain at least one of the membership graphic code links intact on their web site(s). Once members have placed this code on their site(s) they may ask to be added to SEATA's member list on this web site. Members agree that removal of the membership graphic code constitutes resignation / withdrawal from SEATA membership and that they will immediately advise SEATA accordingly.

K) This agreement can be amended at any time by SEATA upon notification by email to the membership list. Members bear all responsibility and liability in maintaining their email accounts (changes in email address must be notified to and confirmed by SEATA) in good condition (this includes making sure email boxes are not full, etc. so any such notification emails from SEATA do not bounce) so as to be able receive such notifications. If any member does not agree with any amendment, they may of course cancel their membership and remove the SEATA member graphic code (after having notified SEATA of the same).

L) Legal jurisdiction for this agreement is currently England.

On the 30th December, 2005 the following term was revised;

K) This agreement can only be amended or appended by SEATA's Governing Council upon a minimum of 14 days written (email) notice to the membership and then only according to SEATA's Terms of Association. If any member does not agree with any change they may of course cancel their membership and remove the SEATA member graphic code (after having notified SEATA of the same). Amendments and / or appendages have to be shown and noted as such here for a period of 12 months at which time all SEATA members who agreed to SEATA Membership prior to such changes will be deemed to have lawfully accepted the same and at which point the changes will be incorporated into this agreement without being so differentiated.

Request and agreement to join SEATA and to get member graphics (click link below);

I agree to and confirm I qualify under the above terms and conditions