Terms & Conditions

Teilnahmebedingungen · Last updated 7 October 2026

1. Scope and acceptance

These terms govern every booking for a Wayfinder retreat and for the sessions that belong to it. You confirm them by ticking the box at checkout, and that confirmation forms part of our agreement.

They are written in English because that is the language in which the retreat is offered and sold. German law applies.

We may update these terms for future retreats. The version you accepted at the time of your booking is the one that applies to you, and we keep a copy of it.

We send you these terms in text form together with your booking confirmation, so that you have your own copy of the version you agreed to.

2. Who you are contracting with

Kento Akiyama, trading as „Wayfinder", Weinbergsweg 10, 10119 Berlin, Germany.
Email kento@bewayfinder.com · Telephone +49 152 33837732

Referred to below as „we", „us" or „the organiser". You are referred to as „you" or „the participant".

3. The retreat

We run facilitated retreats. The programme, the dates, what is included and the price are set out on the booking page for each retreat, and that description is what you are buying. These terms apply to all of them.

Accommodation and meals at the venue are arranged by us as part of the programme. Travel to and from the venue is not included. You organise and pay for your own journey. Drinks beyond those named on the booking page and personal expenses are also not included.

The overall shape of a retreat and its published start and finish times are fixed. The individual exercises and sessions within it are not, and we may change them where that serves the group better on the day. A change of that kind is part of how the work is facilitated and is not a shortfall in what you booked.

4. What this retreat is not

The retreat is professional and personal development work in a group. It is not therapy, psychotherapy, medical treatment or a substitute for any of these, and it is not financial, legal or career placement advice.

No particular professional, financial or personal outcome is promised, and none could honestly be. What you take from a retreat depends substantially on what you bring to it.

If you are currently in treatment for a mental health condition, please tell us after booking so we can look together at whether this is the right format for you at the moment. If you are in acute crisis, this is not the right setting, and we will say so and refund you in full.

5. Booking

Places are limited. A booking is made on the booking page, and the contract between us comes into effect when your payment has been received and we have sent you a written confirmation by email.

By booking you confirm that you are at least 18 years old, that you are able to enter into a binding contract, and that the information you have given us is accurate and complete.

Each place is personal to one participant. If you would like to attend with someone you know, you are very welcome to, and you each book your own place.

We may decline a booking, or withdraw it within seven days of receiving it, where we believe in good faith that the format will not serve you well. If we do, you get everything you have paid back in full and we will tell you why. This is rare, and it exists so that nobody spends a retreat in a room that is wrong for them.

We may also cancel a booking without refund where payment is not completed, where information given to us is false or misleading, or where these terms are seriously breached.

6. Price and payment

The price that applies to your booking is the one shown on that retreat's booking page at the time you book, together with any reduced or early rate stated there and the conditions attached to it. The full fee is payable at the time of booking.

Payments are processed by Stripe. We do not see or store your card details.

If a payment fails, is reversed or is charged back, we will contact you and hold your place for seven days. After that the place is released and may be offered to someone else.

We set prices for each retreat separately. A price paid for one retreat gives no entitlement to the same price for a later one.

As a small business under § 19 UStG we do not charge or show VAT.

7. Taking part

What we need to know about you

After booking we will send you a short intake form. Please use it to tell us about dietary requirements, allergies, mobility needs, and anything else that matters for doing demanding work in a group over several days. We can only accommodate what we know about, and some things need arranging with the venue weeks in advance.

How we expect people to behave

A retreat only works if the room feels safe. We ask everyone to treat the other participants, the facilitator, the venue and its staff with respect, to follow reasonable instructions during sessions and on site, and not to take part in sessions under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Where someone's behaviour seriously disrupts the group, endangers anyone, or damages the venue, we may ask them to leave the retreat. In that case no refund is given, and the cost of getting home is theirs.

Costs and damage

If you damage the venue, its rooms or its property, the venue charges us for it and we pass that cost on to you. The same applies to any additional cost we incur because of a change you make or something you do during the retreat, for example a meal or a room arranged specially at your request. We will show you what we were charged.

This does not apply to ordinary wear and tear, or to anything that was not your fault.

8. Minimum number of participants

A retreat runs subject to a minimum of six participants, unless a different minimum is stated on its booking page. If that minimum is not reached we may cancel, and we will decide and tell you no later than six weeks before the start date.

If we cancel for this reason you receive the full amount you have paid back, or a place at a later retreat if you would rather. Beyond that refund we are not liable for other costs you may have committed to, such as travel you have already booked, which is one reason we recommend the insurance in section 19.

9. Passing your place to someone else

You may pass your place to another person up to seven days before the retreat, at no charge. Tell us in writing who it is; we will confirm the transfer in writing, and the person taking your place completes the intake form and accepts these terms.

We keep the final say on who takes a place, because who is in the room shapes the retreat for everyone else. In practice we say yes, and we will help you find someone where we can.

A transfer is almost always a better outcome than a cancellation, for you and for us. Please ask before you assume it is too late.

10. Cancelling your place

Cancellations must reach us in writing; email is enough. The following then applies:

Transferring your place under section 9 stays open until seven days before, whichever band you are in.

If you do not come and have not cancelled, no refund is given. The same applies if you arrive late, leave early, or choose not to take part in some of the programme: the fee covers the retreat as a whole, not attendance session by session.

If our actual loss turns out to be smaller than the percentage shown above, you only pay the smaller amount. You are free to show us that this is the case, and if, for instance, we manage to fill your place from the waiting list, we will say so and refund you accordingly.

Why the bands exist: the venue is booked as a single unit for a small group, well in advance, so a place that goes unused costs us what a used one costs. Section 19 explains the insurance that covers this for you.

11. Our promise on the retreat

If you take part and feel by the final afternoon that the retreat was not worth what you paid, tell us before you leave the venue and we will refund your fee in full. We ask only that you say it in person, to us, while you are still there.

12. If we cancel or change something

Too few participants

As set out in section 8.

Changes to the retreat

Minor changes to the schedule, the sessions or the room allocation are covered by section 3. If something material changes — the venue, or the dates — you may either accept the change or cancel and receive the full fee back.

If we cannot run it

If the facilitator is prevented from leading the retreat by illness or another serious reason, or the venue becomes unavailable, we will offer you a place on a replacement date, or the full fee back if you prefer.

Breach or non-payment

Where we cancel a booking because payment was not completed, because information given to us was false, or because these terms were seriously breached, no refund is given.

13. Circumstances beyond our control

Some things are outside anyone's control: severe weather and natural events, epidemics and public health measures, official orders and restrictions, war and civil unrest, major infrastructure or transport failure, and a venue or supplier becoming unavailable through no fault of ours.

If one of these prevents the retreat from going ahead, we will tell you as soon as we reasonably can and offer you a place on a replacement date. If you would rather not take it, we will refund you everything we are able to recover from the venue and our suppliers, and we will show you how that figure was reached. We would rather be straight with you about this than promise a full refund we may not be in a position to fund.

If a retreat has to be cut short for one of these reasons, the refund covers the part of the programme that was not delivered.

14. Confidentiality within the group

People speak about personal things at a retreat: work, money, families, decisions they have not told anyone about. Everything shared by someone else stays within the group. By booking you agree not to repeat it outside the retreat in a form that identifies the person who said it. We hold ourselves to exactly the same standard.

15. Photographs and testimonials

We would like to take some photographs during a retreat, and afterwards we may ask whether you would be willing to say a few words about the experience.

Both are entirely voluntary and both are opt-in. We ask on site, you decide then, and saying no has no effect on anything. Nothing is used publicly without your consent, and nothing you said during a session will be quoted in a form that identifies you unless you have agreed to it in writing.

Where consent is given, material may appear on bewayfinder.com, on Wayfinder social media accounts, and in emails and printed material about future retreats. You can withdraw consent for future use at any time by writing to us, and we will stop using the material going forward.

If a reduced rate was agreed with you in exchange for feedback or a testimonial, what that involves is set out in your booking confirmation. You still decide at the time what you are happy to have published.

16. Emails we send you

Some emails come with the booking and cannot be switched off: your confirmation and receipt, practical information before the retreat, anything that changes, and the follow-up that belongs to the programme.

We will also add you to the Wayfinder mailing list, where we write about future retreats, events and other things we run. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in any of those emails or by writing to us, and doing so has no effect on the emails in the paragraph above. We do not share or sell your email address.

17. Workshop materials

The worksheets, exercises and written material we hand out are ours. You are welcome to keep them and use them yourself, for as long as they are useful to you.

Please do not reproduce, publish or distribute them, and do not use them to run sessions for other people, whether paid or unpaid, without asking us first. We are usually glad to talk about it; we would just like to be asked.

18. Liability

We are liable without limitation for damage arising from injury to life, body or health caused by a negligent or intentional breach of duty on our part, and for other damage caused by an intentional or grossly negligent breach of duty.

In cases of slight negligence we are liable only for the breach of a material contractual obligation, and that liability is limited to the foreseeable damage typical for this kind of contract.

We are not liable for loss of or damage to your personal belongings.

The venue, its rooms, its facilities and its catering are provided by the venue operator, not by us. Where a problem is caused by the venue, a caterer, a transport provider or another third party rather than by us, we will do what we reasonably can to help you resolve it, but we are not ourselves liable for it. The same applies to your own travel to and from the venue.

Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited under German law.

19. Your own insurance

We do not insure participants. We strongly recommend that you arrange:

• Travel cancellation insurance (Reiserücktrittskostenversicherung). It typically costs a small fraction of the fee and covers exactly the situations in section 10
• Health insurance valid for the dates and the location of the retreat
• Personal liability insurance (Privathaftpflichtversicherung)

20. If something is not right

Tell us while we can still do something about it. If a room is cold, a meal is wrong, or a session is not working for you, say so on the day — that is almost always fixable on the spot, and we would far rather hear it while we are all still there than read it afterwards.

If something remains unresolved, please write to us within four weeks of the retreat setting out what happened, so that we can look into it properly while it is still fresh. This does not affect any statutory rights or time limits you have.

21. Right of withdrawal

The retreat is a service connected with leisure activities provided on a specific date. For contracts of that kind, German law does not provide a statutory fourteen-day right of withdrawal (§ 312g Abs. 2 Nr. 9 BGB). By booking you acknowledge that the statutory right of withdrawal does not apply, and that the cancellation terms in section 10 apply in its place.

22. This website

This website exists to describe our retreats and to take bookings. We keep it accurate and update it as things are confirmed, and the details that bind us are the ones in your booking confirmation and in these terms.

23. Your data

How we handle your personal data, including the mailing list in section 16, is set out in our Privacy Notice.

24. Final provisions

Cancellations, transfers and other notices under these terms must be in writing. Email is sufficient.

German law applies. Where you are a consumer, this does not affect mandatory consumer protection provisions of the country in which you are habitually resident, or your right to bring proceedings there.

We are neither obliged nor willing to take part in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration body. The European Commission provides an online dispute resolution platform at ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr.

If any provision of these terms is or becomes invalid, the rest remain in force.

25. Contact

Questions about these terms, or about anything else, are welcome.

Kento Akiyama · kento@bewayfinder.com · +49 152 33837732

We answer within 24 hours on working days.