Got a question about the Luxury Travel Diary auctions? We’ve tried to answer the most common queries below, but if your question isn’t covered, get in touch via our support page, and we’ll be happy to help.
1. About Our Auctions
2. Bidding On An Auction
3. Winning An Auction
4. Paying For An Auction
5. Misc
What Are Luxury Travel Diary Auctions?
Luxury Travel Diary auctions are online auctions for hotel stays and other miscellaneous luxury items. Our auction is ongoing with new items added all the time. You can bid on items from anywhere in the world as long you’ve registered with Luxury Travel Diary and have a Paypal account.
Are Your Auction Items Authorised By The Relevant Providers?
Absolutely. Be it a hotel stay, item of clothing, or a sightseeing trip – all the auction items featured by Luxury Travel Diary are sourced directly and authorized to appear in our auctions. The hotel stays we make available are provided by the relevant hotel. No booking agency or other third party is ever involved. Should you win such an auction, we will put you directly in contact with the applicable hotel staff to arrange your stay.
Will All Auctions Be Honoured?
Yes. All items, relating to a valid auction, without a reserve will be sold to the highest bidder regardless of value. So if that bid is just £1.99 GBP awesome, we’ll have a happy winner! A small number of our auctions have a reserve (made clear on the site), as long as this is met, the item will be sold to the highest bidder.
How Do I Know What Dates Are Available For A Hotel Stay?
The ‘Details’ section of each auction page lists the dates available at any particular hotel concerning the stay offered by Luxury Travel Diary. As such, users are strongly advised to read an auction’s Terms & Conditions before bidding.
Are Transfers Included With Your Hotel / Villa Stays?
No. Unless stated otherwise by an auction’s Terms & Conditions. Hence, users are strongly advised to read an auction’s Terms & Conditions before bidding as they contain specific terms regarding the stay offered by Luxury Travel Diary.
Are Government Sales Taxes Like VAT Included In Your Auctions?
Yes. As far as winning an auction goes, the amount you bid is the price you pay. You will receive a single PayPal invoice from us for that amount. On payment the item is yours. Some resorts may require additional charges at the time of booking, payable directly, such as a resort fee or specific regional taxes beyond their control. We will always do our best to list all such costs in an Auction’s Terms & Conditions.
Is there a buyers’ premium or any other fee/charge to pay after winning an auction?
If additional charges are not listed in an auction’s Terms and conditions none are payable. As far as winning an auction goes, your winning bid is the price you pay. You will receive a single PayPal invoice from luxurytraveldiary.com for just that amount. On payment the item is yours. Some resorts may require additional charges at the time of booking, payable directly to the provider, such as a resort fee or specific regional taxes beyond their control. Such costs will be listed in an Auction’s Terms & Conditions.
How Do You Arrive At The Value Of An Auction Prize Listed In The Description?
Typically, when the value of a prize is included in an auction’s description, it is provided by and displayed at the auction vendor’s request. As such, it will be the full retail price of the item. A listed value in no way reflects any reserve put upon an auction. Regarding accommodation, this value will be a rack rate, i.e. the price a customer would pay by just walking into a hotel and asking for a room. As such, cheaper discounted rates may be available. In the case of a physical product, it will be the full retail price. The originally quoted price will not change to take account of any discount of the item, by a vendor or 3rd party, during the duration of an auction.
When bidding on a multiple-night stay, is my bid for the entire stay or just for one night?
The entire stay. A winning bid is the total paid for any item as described. It’s important to check an item’s description as it details exactly what is and isn’t included in the lot, plus benefits and the number of nights offered.
How Does Bidding Work?
We use a ‘simple bidding’ system. To bid on an item, enter an amount greater than the ‘Current Bid’. Our system will immediately place your bid in its entirety on the auction item. If your bid is greater or equal to the amount displayed by the text, ‘Min. Next Bid…’ or any reserve where no bids have been made, you’ll become the highest bidder. E.G., if the current highest bid is £10.00 and you enter £11.00, the new highest bid will be yours, displayed as £11.00. Similarly, if the current highest bid is £10.00 and you enter £1000.00, the new highest bid will be yours, displayed as £1000.00.
Can I Leave It To The Last Few Seconds To Buy or Bid On An Item?
We try and compensate for any discrepancy between our servers’ very accurate time and that of a user’s PC. However, we would never recommend bidding or attempting to buy an item with just seconds of an auction remaining. Regardless of any possible time discrepancies, a request to buy or bid placed less than 10 seconds before an auction end is unlikely to reach and be processed by our servers in time. Don’t leave it too late. Get a sensible bid in early. There is no sniping advantage to be gained in late bids as we extend auctions.
Do You Extend Auctions?
Yes. To dissuade auction sniping, bidding is continually extended, should a bid be placed a few minutes before the “End” of an auction, (either the original or any new end date calculated by our system after an extension). In doing so, we allow everybody interested in a particular auction enough time to counter a late bid. So if you’re the highest bidder and you’re outbid with minutes to go, we’ll automatically extend the remaining time of the auction to always give you approx. a minute to respond. Popular auctions can be extended many times.
Do You Ever Withdraw Bids?
Our system may occasionally detect abnormal or fraudulent bidding, and the suspect bid may be removed. On these rare occasions, we will immediately contact the relevant user via their registered email address.
Who Can Bid For An Item?
Any registered user of Luxury Travel Diary with a PayPal account anywhere in the world.
How Do I Register To Bid On An Auction?
Pop over to our registration page and simply enter your email address, we’ll handle the rest. You’ll be set up and bidding in minutes.
Why Do I Need An Account To Bid?
We need to have a verified email address to contact you should you win an auction. We also require confirmation that you agree to the full Terms & Conditions of our auctions. Requiring users to register fulfills these requirements. Your email address is the only item of personal data we ask for and store. See our privacy policy for more information.
Can I Bid For An Item With A Currency Of My Choosing?
No. All bids are made in Great British Pounds (GBP). Conversion to other popular currencies like the United States Dollar is offered on the applicable page, but upon placing a bid, it is understood by the user that the bid is placed in GBP. However, should you win an auction may use any currency of your choice to pay for the item.
Does An Auction Page Automatically Show New Bids?
Everywhere you see the text ‘Automatically Checking For New Bids’ the page is continuously being updated to show the latest bidding. This includes our auction catalog and pages showing a specific auction if you’ve placed a bid. Otherwise, a link – ‘Periodically Reload This Page To Check For New Bids’, will be displayed just below the ‘Current Bid’. An auction’s page is automatically refreshed when an auction’s end date is reached, or an auction is extended.
I’m An Active Auction’s Highest Bidder, But I Don’t Want The Item Anymore. What Can I Do?
If you’re the highest bidder of an active auction and for whatever reason, you don’t want the item any longer – that’s fine, we won’t be mad – but please don’t leave it until the auction’s finished to tell us. Let us know as soon as possible, and we can withdraw your bid for you.
How Do I Win An Auction?
When an auction’s end date is reached, (allowing for extensions), bidding is stopped. At that point, providing any reserve has been met the highest bidder wins the applicable item – it’s as simple as that. So get your highest bid in before an auction ends to give yourself a shot at winning!
What’s A Buy It Now Auction?
Some of our auctions display a ‘Buy’ or a ‘Buy It Now’ button. These auctions can be purchased immediately at the cost shown. Once the button is selected, you will be directed to PayPal for payment. Upon completing the PayPal payment process, you will be directed back to Luxury Travel Diary. Your auction win will then be verified, and fulfillment details emailed to your registered address. Auctions not displaying a ‘Bid’ button have bidding disabled and can only be purchased via the ‘Buy It Now’ button. Buying an item is a several-step process, which must be completed before an auction ends. We never recommend that a user attempts to Buy an item just a few minutes before an auction concludes. Ample time should be allowed to login into PayPal and verify the payment.
What’s A Reserve?
A small number of our auctions have a reserve price. The reserve is the minimum price an auction needs to reach to be sold to the highest bidder. Our auctions will either display ‘No reserve price’, ‘Reserve price met’, or ‘Reserve price not met’. ‘No reserve price’, means no reserve has been placed on the item, and the highest bidder will win regardless of the amount bid. ‘Reserve price met’, implies that bidding has passed a reserve put on the item, and it will be sold to the highest bidder. ‘Reserve price not met’, means there is a reserve on the item, and current bidding has not achieved that price. As such, the item will not be sold unless a higher bid is made.
How Are Winners Notified?
Providing any reserve has been met if you’re the highest bidder when an auction ends you’ll receive an email notifying you that you have won. This email will give you instructions on how to pay. Once payment is received via Paypal our auction team will contact you directly with fulfilment details, typically within 2-4 working days.
What Happens If I Win An Auction, But There’s No Availability On My Preferred Dates?
Hopefully, that won’t happen. However, If there’s no availability for your preferred dates, the related hotel will do its best to put forward an alternative set of dates to accommodate your stay, within any dates given in the relevant Terms & Conditions.
Can I Extend, Upgrade, Add People Or Rooms To An Auction I’ve Won?
No. All auction items are sold as listed for the duration, the number of people, and rooms stated in the item’s Terms & Conditions. Upgrades etc. may be possible on a case-by-case basis, and we’d be happy to inquire on behalf of an auction winner on receipt of payment. However, upgrades, etc., would need to be sourced directly from the hotel in question and can’t be provided in conjunction with any auction item offered on our site.
Can I Gift An Item I’ve Won?
Absolutely. Unless an exception is made within an individual auction’s Terms & Conditions, items can be gifted to friends or family members. However, the resale of any auction item is expressly forbidden. Checks are in place to prevent such a practice, and we reserve the right to withdraw the use of any suspect item immediately and without prior notice.
How Long Do I Have To Pay For An Item?
As per our terms and conditions, we require payment for all auction items no later than 48 hours after the date of the auction’s invoice. Failure to do so will result in the auction’s sale being revoked & bidding suspended for the relevant account. If no payment is received within 24 hours, we will do our best to contact winners with a reminder but reserve the right to revoke the sale of an item that has not been paid for, 48 hours after the date of the auction’s invoice, without prior notice.
Do You Ever Offer An Auction To A User Other Than The Highest Bidder?
Should a winner default in the payment of an auction, we reserve the right to offer the item to the next highest bidder. We may also offer auctions with a reserve to the highest bidder regardless of the reserve price being met. Offers are issued on a purely ad-hoc basis, entirely at the discretion of Luxury Travel Diary. No assumption concerning the issue of an offer should ever be made, regardless of the receipt of any previous offer.
How Do I Pay For An Item?
For the security of all parties involved, payment for all auction items offered by Luxury Travel Diary must be made via Paypal, without exception. If you don’t have a PayPal account, it’s straightforward to set one up.
Why Can I Only Use Paypal To Pay For An Item?
Paypal allows us to secure and verify payments via a trusted third party without storing payment details ourselves. It gives you, as a winning bidder, the piece of mind that comes from a credible invoice from a trusted company. In the unlikely event anything goes wrong both parties have PayPal’s various layers of protection to call upon.
Can I Pay For An Item Using An Email Address Different From That Used To Register With Luxury Travel Diary?
Absolutely. We understand that users may want to use a PayPal account registered to an email address that differs from the email address used to register with Luxury Travel Diary. Doing so will not affect our receipt of your payment.
Can I Pay For Items Using A Currency Other Than GBP?
Yes. A benefit of using PayPal as our payment provider is that PayPal will handle the conversion of your chosen currency into ours, (GBP). No hassle, no fuss, it’s all done for you when you pay for any item you have won.
What Happens After I’ve Paid For My Item?
Once payment is confirmed, our auction team will be in touch within 2-4 working days with details on claiming your item. If an auction item is tangible, it will be sent to you via insured post as soon as possible. If an auction item is a hotel stay, villa stay, voucher, airline flight, tour, lounge pass, treatment, membership, or dining experience, we will send the relevant information on redeeming the item to your registered email address. Where necessary, we will put you directly in contact with the auction item’s provider, so bookings or other arrangements can be made.
I’ve Paid For My Item. Why Haven’t I Heard From You?
We’re probably asleep. Based in the UK, our support team’s online from 10:00 – 17:00 GMT, Mon – Fri (excluding public holidays). If you make payment while we’re offline, we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. We aim to process auctions 2-4 working days after payment is received (during public holidays, there will be a slight delay). Notifications regarding an auction will always be sent to the email address used to subscribe to Luxury Travel Diary. It’s always worth checking a spam/junk folder for missed correspondence, but if you have any concerns, get in touch via the website.
Why Don’t Your Currency Conversions Match The Current Exchange Rate?
We ask users to pay for any auctions they win with PayPal. Therefore when displaying conversions from our currency (GPB), we attempt to use PayPal’s exchange rate. The resulting figures should only be used as a rough guide. PayPal will calculate the correct amount at the time payment is made. Regrettably, this total will differ slightly from any conversion previously displayed, as we are not privy to the exact rate PayPal uses.
What timezone do the auction pages use?
Where possible we convert the times used by Luxury Travel Diary to a user’s local time. Hence, as a rule, times displayed by the site will be in your local timezone, unless otherwise specified by one of the zones below:
Timezones
GMT: Greenwich Meantime
BST: British Summer Time
EST: Eastern Standard Time
CET: Central European Time
CEST: Central European Summer Time
EDT: Eastern Daylight Time
PDT: Pacific Daylight Time
What do the codes like GBP, displayed beside auction prices mean?
Luxury Travel Diary is based in the United Kingdom, but our auction items are available worldwide. Hence, we denote the currency used to display prices. In doing so, we allow users to convert to their local time and currency.
Currencies
GBP: Great British Pound
USD: United States Dollar
EUR: Euro
AUD: Australian Dollar
CAD: Canadian Dollar
CHF: Swiss Frank
It’s easy to convert from your local time to GMT / BST.
Explain The “Add This Date To Your Calendar” Links. Am I Giving You Access To My Calendar?
No. At various points, we offer links to save the end date of an auction or all our auctions in your device’s calendar. This allows you to be informed when an auction of interest is about to end. At no point does Luxury Travel Diary ever have any access to your calendar.
How do I remove your auctions from my calendar?
The Luxury Travel Diary auction calendar is subscription-based. As such, you need to remove the subscription. How you do this will depend on the calendar you are using. For example, instructions on removing a calendar from macOS are available on apple.com. For other platforms, search google for “removing subscription calendar” and look for results concerning the software you’re using.
Should you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
