FAQ

Everyone who books a city tour with us pays a participation fee. However, these revenues do not cover our costs. We are therefore very pleased to receive additional support from the Federal Agency for Civic Education and the Berliner Sparkasse Foundation. In addition, our association members pay a membership fee and we receive donations from individuals or companies who would like to support our work.

We pay a fair wage to the tour guides. In the office, three employees take care of all organisational matters: We coordinate the booking enquiries and arrange appointments with the tour guides. With new tour guides we develop tours and monitor quality, as well as press and public relations work. We also do the bookkeeping, administrate funding, maintain the website, coordinate the work with our honorary board and maintain contact with project and network partners.

Our legal form is a registered charitable association. It obliges us to use all income for the charitable purposes specified in our articles of association. However, while many associations are financed solely through membership fees, donations and subsidies, we generate part of the revenue ourselves through the tour fees. This gives us the necessary independence to further develop querstadtein. Public funding subsidies in particular are almost always project-related and often limited to one year. We are therefore working to ensure that querstadtein can increasingly support itself. Thus we also see ourselves as a social enterprise in the sense of the definition of the association SEND: “Social Entrepreneurs address our social challenges holistically with innovative and future-oriented solutions. (...) They use entrepreneurial and modern instruments, putting social returns before financial returns”. Conclusion: We are a charitable association with a social entrepreneurial claim.

The search for new tour guides is one of our most important tasks. In order to find (formerly) homeless people, we mainly approach supporters and social workers. We also often get to know people with refugee experience through personal contacts or other projects. If you are interested in working as a city guide with us, you can find more information here.

Yes, the guided tours take place in all weathers — please dress accordingly. If it rains heavily, the city guide can take the group to a café if necessary. It is possible only in cases of heavy storm and storm warnings that we might cancel the city tours for security reasons. If you entered your mobile number when you purchased your ticket, we will inform you by SMS if necessary, otherwise by e‑mail. In this case we will issue you a voucher so that you can make up the tour at another time.

By all means. The guides are pleased about it. 

For any kind of recording – audio, video or both – you require our consent, as well as that of your guide. This applies regardless of whether you intend to publish the recordings or whether they are meant for private use only. If you are planning to record parts of the tour, please check with us beforehand via email to info@querstadtein.org and, of course, let the guide know at the start of the tour.

Because of the current contracting risk participants must keep a distance of 1,5m at all times. To make this possible, we have reduced the size of our groups to a maximum of 20 participants. The number of available places will be shown at the moment of buying the tickets. 

We always offer public tours for private individuals on Sundays (except on holidays such as Easter and Christmas). On the other days of the week we organise guided tours for groups, e.g. school classes, voluntary services and NGO. If no tour is displayed on our website on your desired date, there can be two reasons: Either the desired tour is already fully booked or there is no open tour on this day. For larger groups we can also organise a private tour. Simply fill out the request form for group bookings. Please note, however, that we charge the participation fee per booked city tour and not per person.

Unfortunately not, so we advise you to book as early as possible.

If you let us know at least seven days before the scheduled date of your tour, we can issue you a voucher so that you can take part in tour at another date. In that case please send an email to: buchungen@querstadtein.org. Unfortunately, we can not refund the participation fee. 

The most likely explanation: Your booking confirmation might have been filed to your spam folder. This should not happen, but might occasionally. Another possible explanation is that you mistyped your email address when filling in the form. In that case please contact us at buchungen@querstadtein.org. Please, state your full name as well as the name and the date of the tour you booked. We will then send you the ticked again. 

Not to worry – we’ll send you the ticket information again. Just email us at buchungen@querstadtein.org and explain the problem. If possible, use the email address that you bought the ticket with, so we can be sure it’s you. We’ll sort it out!

We recommend a maximum group size of 20 participants per tour. Larger groups can be divided into several tours. Audio devices will be used for groups of 21 or more participants. We also recommend using the audio devices for smaller groups, as this makes communication and listening easier. We charge a fee of 20 euros per group for the use of the audio devices.

Usually not. For group bookings we will send you an invoice, the amount of which you then transfer to our account. In exceptional cases, e.g. for groups from abroad, the city guide can also accept the participation fee in cash and we will send a bill to you. If this is necessary, please contact us.

If you contact us at least seven days before the tour date, we can postpone the city tour. We will then try to find a new date together with you, if necessary also with another city guide. If you want to cancel the tour, we have to charge you the following amounts according to our terms and conditions:

• up to 28 days before the tour: 35 Euro cancellation fee
• from the 247^th to the 7^th before the tour: 20 % of the total contract price, but at least 45 Euro 
• less than 7 days ahaead on the day of the tour or in case of non-appearance without prior cancellation: 100 % of the total contract price, at least 45 Euro (even with sponsored free tours).