Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of these terms

By accessing, browsing or otherwise using lanternscuriouslane.lat (the "Website"), you confirm that you have read, understood and agree to be bound by these Terms of Service (the "Terms"), together with our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy, which are incorporated by reference. If you do not accept these Terms in full, you must stop using the Website immediately.

The Website is operated by Lanternhaus Editorial GmbH, registered in Switzerland under company number CHE-418.772.905, with registered office at Seefeldstrasse 214, 8008 Zürich, Switzerland ("we", "us", "our").

2. Nature of the service

The Website provides independent editorial commentary, comparison material and practical guidance concerning luxury hotels in Zurich and elsewhere in Switzerland. It is an information service only. We are not a travel agent, tour operator, reservation system or booking intermediary. We do not accept payments, hold deposits, issue confirmations, or enter into any contract of accommodation on your behalf or on behalf of any hotel.

Any reservation you make is a contract exclusively between you and the relevant hotel, governed by that hotel's own terms, rates and cancellation policy. We are not a party to that contract and bear no responsibility for its performance.

3. Accuracy of content

We research our content carefully and verify factual claims — room counts, addresses, restaurant awards, indicative rates — against publicly available sources at the time of publication. Hotels nonetheless change. Restaurants close, chefs move, refurbishments alter room counts, and rates fluctuate daily according to demand. All rates published on the Website are indicative, quoted in Swiss francs, exclusive of the Zurich accommodation tax, and are provided for comparative guidance only.

You must verify any detail that matters to your decision directly with the hotel before committing funds. We give no warranty, express or implied, that the content is complete, current or error-free.

4. Editorial independence and disclosure

We do not accept payment, commission, affiliate revenue, complimentary stays or gifts in exchange for coverage, placement or ranking. No hotel featured on the Website has editorial approval over what we publish. Where any commercial relationship exists in future — for example a clearly labelled sponsorship — it will be disclosed prominently on the relevant page before the content is read.

5. User obligations

When using the Website you agree that you will not:

• Use the Website for any unlawful purpose, or in breach of any applicable Swiss, EU or local law;
• Attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Website, its servers, databases or any connected infrastructure;
• Introduce viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material that is malicious or technologically harmful;
• Conduct denial-of-service attacks, credential stuffing, port scanning or vulnerability probing without written authorisation;
• Scrape, harvest, mine or systematically extract content, whether manually or by automated means, for republication or for training machine-learning systems, without our prior written consent;
• Reproduce, duplicate, resell or exploit any part of the Website for commercial purposes;
• Submit false, defamatory, abusive, harassing or misleading information through the contact form;
• Impersonate any person or organisation, or misrepresent your affiliation with any hotel or publication;
• Remove, obscure or alter any copyright, trade mark or other proprietary notice.

Breach of this section may constitute a criminal offence under applicable computer misuse legislation. We will report material breaches to the relevant law enforcement authorities and cooperate by disclosing your identity where lawfully required.

6. Intellectual property rights

All editorial text, structure, comparison tables, guides, layouts, graphics, icons, design elements and source code on the Website are owned by or licensed to Lanternhaus Editorial GmbH and are protected by Swiss and international copyright, database and design law. Photographic imagery is licensed from third-party providers and remains the property of the respective photographers and licensors.

Hotel names, logos, restaurant names and related trade marks — including Baur au Lac, The Dolder Grand, Mandarin Oriental, Park Hyatt and Widder Hotel — are the property of their respective owners and are used here purely for the purpose of identification and factual editorial reporting. No endorsement, affiliation or partnership is implied.

You may print or download extracts for your own personal, non-commercial use, and you may quote short passages with clear attribution and a functioning link to the source page. Any other reproduction, distribution, adaptation or public communication requires our prior written permission.

7. Third-party links

The Website contains links to external sites, including hotel websites and mapping services. Such links are provided for your convenience and do not imply endorsement. We have no control over the content, availability, security or privacy practices of external sites and accept no liability for any loss or damage arising from your use of them.

8. Availability of the Website

We aim to keep the Website available continuously but give no guarantee of uninterrupted access. We may suspend, withdraw, discontinue or change all or any part of the Website without notice for maintenance, security, commercial or operational reasons. We will not be liable to you if the Website is unavailable at any time or for any period.

9. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, the Website and its content are provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied or statutory, including any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy or non-infringement.

We shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, nor for any loss of profit, revenue, business, anticipated savings, goodwill, data or opportunity, arising out of or in connection with your use of, or inability to use, the Website — including without limitation any decision taken in reliance on rate information, availability information, facility descriptions or editorial opinion published here.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded. Where liability cannot be excluded, our total aggregate liability arising in connection with the Website is limited to CHF 500.

10. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Lanternhaus Editorial GmbH, its directors, employees and contractors from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses and expenses, including reasonable legal fees, arising out of or connected with your breach of these Terms or your misuse of the Website.

11. Termination

We may terminate or suspend your access to the Website immediately, without prior notice or liability, if we reasonably believe you have breached these Terms, engaged in unlawful conduct, or created risk or legal exposure for us or other users. Termination does not affect any accrued rights or obligations. Sections 6, 9, 10, 12 and 13 survive termination.

12. Governing law

These Terms, their subject matter and their formation, and any non-contractual obligations arising out of or in connection with them, are governed by and construed in accordance with the substantive laws of Switzerland, excluding its conflict-of-law rules and excluding the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods.

Where you access the Website as a consumer resident in the European Union or the United Kingdom, you retain the benefit of any mandatory consumer protection provisions of the law of your country of residence that cannot be derogated from by agreement.

13. Dispute resolution

We would prefer to resolve any dispute informally. Please write to [email protected] setting out the nature of the complaint and the outcome you seek; we will acknowledge within five business days and aim to respond substantively within thirty days.

If a dispute cannot be resolved informally within sixty days, the parties agree to attempt mediation under the Swiss Rules of Mediation of the Swiss Chambers' Arbitration Institution before commencing proceedings. Failing resolution, the ordinary courts of the City of Zürich, Switzerland, shall have exclusive jurisdiction, subject always to the mandatory consumer jurisdiction rights described in section 12.

14. General provisions

1. Entire agreement: these Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Website.
2. Severability: if any provision is held invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue in full force, and the invalid provision shall be replaced by a valid one that most closely reflects its commercial intent.
3. No waiver: failure to enforce any right does not constitute a waiver of that right.
4. Assignment: you may not assign or transfer your rights under these Terms. We may assign our rights to a successor entity in the event of a corporate reorganisation.
5. Amendments: we may amend these Terms from time to time. The version in force is the one published on this page at the moment of your access, with the effective date shown above.
6. Language: these Terms are published in English. Any translation is provided for convenience only, and the English text prevails in the event of conflict.