Community Guidelines & Terms

Our community is where travellers who have walked the trails around Sapa share their real stories, photos, tips and honest reviews — and where people planning a trek can ask questions and see what the experience is actually like. We built it so the voices you hear are real people who have been here, not marketing copy.

To keep it that way, everyone who posts, comments, likes or shares agrees to the guidelines and terms below. They are written in plain English on purpose. If anything is unclear, message us on WhatsApp and we'll explain.

1. Who Can Join and Post

There are two ways to take part:

• Travellers who have booked with us — whether you booked online or arranged your tour in person at our office — already have an account. Your login is the email you used to book, and your temporary password is in your booking confirmation email. Once you sign in, you can write posts, upload photos, comment, like and share straightaway.
• Everyone else can sign in with Google or an email address to read posts, view photos, like and comment. You are also welcome to write a post — for example to ask the community a question before you travel — but posts from members who have not yet booked with us are reviewed by our team before they appear publicly (see Moderation & Approval).

We may, at our discretion, grant trusted members who have not booked the ability to post without prior review. We may also pause or remove posting access for anyone who breaks these guidelines.

2. What to Post

The best posts are specific and personal — the kind of thing you'd tell a friend who was about to do the same trek. Good examples:

• Your own trek story — the villages you passed through (Ta Van, Lao Chai, Ta Phin, Y Linh Ho…), what surprised you, what you'd do differently.
• Original photos and short videos from your trip.
• Practical tips — what to pack, how muddy the trail was after rain, the best time of year you experienced.
• Honest reviews of your tour, guide or homestay — praise and constructive feedback are both welcome.
• Questions for people who have already travelled with us.

3. Community Rules

By posting or commenting, you agree to these rules. Breaking them may result in your content being removed and, for repeat or serious cases, your posting access being suspended.

We want this community to reflect real experiences. Content that appears to be automated, copied, purely promotional or written to manipulate search rankings will be removed.

4. Photo & Content Consent

When you upload a photo or video, you will be asked to tick a box confirming your consent before it can be published. By ticking that box and submitting your content, you confirm that:

• The photo, video or text is yours, or you have the right and permission to share it.
• Anyone clearly identifiable in your photos has agreed to appear — this is especially important for photos that include our guides, homestay families, or other travellers.
• You are happy for your content to be shown publicly on this website, where it can be seen by anyone and found through search engines.
• You agree to these Community Guidelines & Terms and to our Privacy Policy.

5. Content Licence You Grant Us

You keep ownership of everything you post. You do not sign your rights away.

By posting content to our community, you grant Trekking Tour Sapa a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to display, store, reproduce and share your content for the purpose of running and promoting the community and our services — for example on this website, in our monthly community email, and occasionally on our social media channels, always credited to you by your community name.

This licence lasts while your content is on our community. If you delete your post, or ask us to remove it, we will stop using it going forward within a reasonable time (copies already included in a sent email or a third-party cache may remain outside our control). We will never sell your content to another company.

6. Moderation & Approval

We moderate the community to keep it authentic and safe:

• Posts from travellers who have booked with us are published immediately and may be reviewed afterwards.
• Posts from members who have not booked with us are reviewed by our team before they appear. We aim to review within a few days.
• Anyone can report a post or comment that breaks these rules using the report option. We review reports and may remove content.
• We may edit lightly for formatting, remove content, or decline to publish a post at our discretion. We may correct obvious spelling but we will not change the meaning of your honest review.

7. Your Posts Are Public

8. Likes, Comments & Sharing

You can like posts, leave comments, and share posts to other platforms. The same rules apply to comments as to posts — be respectful, stay on topic, and don't spam. A "like" is simply a signal that you found a post helpful or enjoyable. When you share a post, you're sharing a public page; please don't misrepresent it as your own.

9. Your Account & Responsibility

You are responsible for what happens under your account, so keep your password private. If you booked with us, we recommend changing your temporary password after your first sign-in. You are responsible for the content you post, and you agree that you — not Trekking Tour Sapa — are responsible for any claim arising from content you share that infringes someone else's rights.

The community is provided "as is". We do our best to keep it running smoothly and to moderate fairly, but we can't guarantee it will always be available or error-free.

10. Copyright & Removal Requests

We respect intellectual property. If you believe content in our community copies your work or infringes your rights, contact us at [email protected] with a link to the content and a description of the issue. We will review and, where appropriate, remove it promptly.

11. Privacy

How we handle your personal data — including the information linked to your community account — is explained in our Privacy Policy. These guidelines should be read together with it.

12. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Community Guidelines & Terms from time to time. When we make material changes we will update the "Last updated" date above. Your continued use of the community after changes take effect means you accept the updated terms.

13. Contact Us

Questions about the community, a removal request, or a concern about a post? We're happy to help: