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1. This agreement

These Terms are a contract between you and Houfy, Inc., 1500 N Grant St # 4282, Denver, Colorado 80203, USA ("Houfy", "we", "us").

By creating an account, or by using houfy.com, you accept these Terms. If you do not accept them, do not use Houfy. You can end this agreement at any time by closing your account.

If you are using Houfy for a company or other organisation, you confirm you are authorised to accept these Terms on its behalf, and "you" means that organisation.

How we handle your personal information is set out in our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy.

Policies that form part of these Terms. These Terms incorporate our Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, SMS Terms, Community Standards, Listing Guidelines, Photo Guidelines, Link & Video Guidelines, Publishing Platform Guidelines, Fair Housing Guidelines, Tax Guidelines, Custom Link Guidelines, Copyright Policy, Brand Usage Terms and the Referral Program Terms. Where one of those documents conflicts with these Terms, these Terms govern.

2. Words we use

Host — a member who lists a property on Houfy. Guest — a member who books, or seeks to book, a property. Member — a Host or a Guest. Both are "you" where the context fits. Listing — a property offered for rent on Houfy. Booking — a confirmed reservation of a Listing. Content — anything you post, upload or send through Houfy. Services — houfy.com, our emails, and everything we offer through them.

3. Changes to these Terms

We may change these Terms. If a change is material, we will tell you at least 30 days before it takes effect, by email or through Houfy. Continuing to use Houfy after that date means you accept the change. If you do not want to accept it, close your account before it takes effect.

Changes that are required by law, or that address a security or safety risk, may take effect sooner where necessary.

4. Your account

Age. You must be 18 or older to use Houfy.

One account, real name. Hold one account, in your own legal name, or in the name of the organisation you are authorised to represent.

Keep it secure. Use a strong password, keep it to yourself, and tell us straight away at info@houfy.com if you think someone else has access. You are responsible for what happens through your account until you tell us.

Keep it current. Your contact details must be accurate. If we cannot reach you because they are not, that is not on us.

Restrictions. You may not use Houfy if we have previously banned you, or if you are located in, or listed on any sanctions list of, a country subject to US embargo. You agree to comply with applicable export control laws.

Verification. Hosts complete identity verification when they list. We check every new Host within 24 hours of a first listing going live, and we may ask any member to confirm their identity at any time. We do not run criminal background checks or check sex offender registries, and identity verification is not a vouch for anyone. Satisfy yourself about the people you deal with.

5. What Houfy is

Houfy is a venue. Hosts list properties, guests book them, and the two deal with each other directly.

We are not a party to your booking. The rental agreement is between the Host and the Guest. We do not own, run, or control any property. We are not a travel agency, a real estate broker, a property manager, or an insurer. Tours and activities from other providers that appear on Houfy are covered by section 8B.

We do not verify listings. We take steps to reduce fraud and abuse, but we do not inspect properties or guarantee that a listing is accurate, available, lawful, or safe.

You take the risks of using the platform. Staying in someone's property and dealing with people you have not met carries risk. Satisfy yourself about a Listing and a Host before you book, and about a Guest before you accept.

6. Bookings

When a Host accepts a booking, the Host and the Guest enter into a contract with each other, on the terms shown in the Listing — price, fees, taxes, house rules, cancellation policy, and anything else the Host has set out.

Cancellations and refunds follow the Host's cancellation policy. Houfy does not mediate between a Host and a Guest, does not decide who is right, and does not issue refunds on a Host's behalf. Our support team may offer general guidance, but that is not a decision and it does not bind either of you.

Changes to a booking are between the Host and the Guest, including any extra amounts.

Do your own checking. Read the Listing, the house rules and the cancellation policy before you book. Where travel carries risk, check the advice your government publishes.

7. Hosting on Houfy

You are independent. You are not our employee, agent or partner. You set your own prices, rules and availability, and you decide who to accept.

Your Listing must be accurate and complete — including the property, the price, every additional charge, and any taxes you collect directly. Keep your calendar current.

You are responsible for compliance. Permits, registrations, licences, zoning, safety, tax, and anti-discrimination and fair housing law all sit with you, not with us. Where a local scheme requires a registration or permit number, display it. Where the law requires us to share host or listing information with an authority, we will.

Guest data. When you receive a Guest's personal information, you are responsible for it. Use it to host that stay and nothing else, keep it secure, and do not market to a Guest without their agreement.

Any extra terms you impose on Guests must be shown in your Listing and must not conflict with these Terms.

Search ranking depends on factors including the Guest's search, the quality and completeness of your listing, your responsiveness, and your booking history. Cancelling a Booking does not count against you in search ranking. Purchased marketing placements also affect where a listing appears in search results.

8. Fees and paid services

Bookings. Houfy charges hosts no commission and no service fee on a booking, and takes no percentage of a Host's nightly rate. The one exception is portfolio partners, described below. Two guest-paid charges can appear at checkout, each shown as a separate line before payment: a 5% API connection fee on bookings made through certain usage-based integrations, and the houfyProtect per-night charge where a Host has enabled houfyProtect on a Listing. We receive both. Neither is deducted from the Host's payout, and both are refunded to the Guest if the booking is cancelled before check-in.

For usage-based integrations, the guest pays a 5% API connection fee to Houfy as a separate transaction at checkout, alongside the booking total they pay the host. It helps cover what these software partners bill Houfy for the connection. Hosts are not charged it. Not every integration carries this fee — the current list of which do and which do not is on our software partners page.

Portfolio partners. A professional operator that connects a large portfolio of listings directly to our Open API may agree with Houfy, in a separate written agreement, to pay a commission on bookings of those listings. The operator pays that commission, not the Guest. Houfy adds nothing to the price the Guest sees, and the commission is not deducted from what the Guest pays.

Host verification. A one-time verification fee applies to each Host in connection with a first listing. It is waived where a Host connects through a supported channel manager — the fee is waived, not the verification itself. The current amount is on our pricing page.

Paid services. We offer two subscription tiers, priced by the number of listings on your account, and one-off marketing placements. Current plans and prices are on our pricing page.

Subscriptions renew automatically at the start of each period until you cancel. Cancel before the renewal date to avoid the next charge; cancellation takes effect at the end of the period you have paid for. You can upgrade or downgrade at any time, and we will pro-rate the difference.

Refunds. Subscription and verification payments are non-refundable, except where the law requires otherwise. Where a booking is cancelled before check-in, we refund to the Guest the API connection fee and any houfyProtect charge we received for that booking.

Price changes take effect no earlier than 30 days after we tell you, and apply from your next billing period.

Taxes. Prices exclude taxes. Where we are required to charge VAT, sales tax or a similar tax on what you pay us, we will add it and show it separately.

Payment automation. Hosts can configure automated payments with Guests through their own payment processor. Houfy provides the technology; the payment relationship is between the Host, the Guest and that processor. Houfy does not hold or transmit those funds and is not a payment processor or money transmitter. Nothing is deducted from the amount the Guest pays the Host. The charges described in this section, including a portfolio partner's commission, are paid to us separately and directly.

8A. houfyProtect

houfyProtect is a damage guarantee and guest-screening service. The guarantee is given by Truvi Ltd, not by Houfy. Where a Host enables houfyProtect on a Listing, the Guest pays a per-night charge, shown separately at checkout. That charge is paid to Houfy, and Houfy pays Truvi for the guarantee. The charge is refunded to the Guest if the booking is cancelled before check-in.

Houfy is not the guarantor, is not an insurer, and does not decide claims. Cover limits, eligibility, exclusions and the claims process are set by Truvi and are set out in the houfyProtect terms, which the Host and the Guest should read before relying on the programme. Limits differ between approved and flagged bookings. houfyProtect is not a substitute for property or liability insurance, and is not available in every country.

Nothing in this section makes Houfy liable for a claim decision, a claim payment, or the conduct of Truvi.

8B. Tours, activities and other services offered by others

Some pages on Houfy show tours, activities and other services offered by third-party providers, such as GetYourGuide. These are not Houfy products and Houfy does not sell them.

If you book one, you leave Houfy and your contract is with that provider, on its terms and cancellation policy. Its privacy notice applies to what you give it. Houfy is not a party to that booking, does not take payment for it, and does not handle changes, refunds or complaints about it — contact the provider.

Descriptions, prices, ratings and availability shown on Houfy come from the provider and can change. Check them on the provider’s site before you book.

We may receive a commission from the provider when you book through a link on Houfy. This does not change the price you pay.

9. Your content

You own what you post. By posting it, you give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable licence to host, store, reproduce, adapt, publish, translate and display it, so that we can run and promote the Services, including through partners and distribution channels we use to promote Listings. The licence lasts as long as your Content is on Houfy.

You can end it by deleting the Content or closing your account. Three things survive: copies other people have already made or shared, copies in our backups until they are overwritten in the ordinary course, and reviews you have written, which stay published so that the record other members rely on remains complete, shown as written by "Houfy user" rather than by your name.

We may reformat, resize, translate or transcribe your Content. We will not change what it says.

We will not use your Content in advertising for anyone else's products without asking you first.

What you post must be lawful, must be yours to post, and must not infringe anyone's rights. Your profile must be truthful.

We can remove Content that breaks these Terms or the law, or that we reasonably consider harmful. We are not obliged to review Content, and we do not endorse it.

Feedback you send us about Houfy, we can use freely.

9A. AI features

Some parts of Houfy generate text, images or suggestions automatically. Output is generated from what you and others provide and may be inaccurate, incomplete or unsuitable — check it before you rely on it or publish it. As between you and us, output generated for you from your own Content is yours to use, subject to these Terms. You are responsible for anything you publish, whether or not a Houfy feature helped you write it. Similar output may be generated for other members.

10. Rules

You agree that you will not:

• misrepresent who you are, create an account for someone else, or use another member's account

• scrape, crawl or harvest data from Houfy, or use bots or scripts against it

• get around our security measures, access controls or usage limits

• copy or redistribute information from Houfy without our permission

• post anything that infringes someone's rights or discloses information you have no right to disclose

• post malware, or anything designed to damage or disrupt Houfy

• reverse engineer the Services

• claim an affiliation with Houfy that you do not have

• resell or sublicense access to Houfy

• interfere with the Services or place an unreasonable load on them

• take a booking off-platform to avoid fees or checks, or ask another member to

• discriminate against a member on any ground protected by law

Please report security vulnerabilities to us at info@houfy.com rather than disclosing them publicly.

11. Suspension and termination

You can close your account at any time.

We can suspend or close your account, remove Listings or Content, or cancel bookings, if you break these Terms or the law, or if we reasonably believe it is necessary to protect members, the public, or Houfy.

We will tell you and give you a chance to put things right, unless the breach is serious, repeated, or the delay would create a risk. You can appeal by contacting us.

After termination you have no right to have your account or Content restored, and you may not open a new account without our agreement.

What survives termination. Sections 2, 9 (the licence you have granted, to the extent described there), 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17, together with any amounts either of us already owes the other.

12. Reporting content and IP complaints

If you believe Content on Houfy infringes your rights, tell us and we will look at it.

Reporting other content. To report Content you believe is illegal, unsafe, fraudulent or in breach of our Community Standards, use the reporting tools on the Listing or profile, or write to info@houfy.com. We will tell you what we decided and why.

Copyright complaints for US purposes should be sent to our designated agent:

Houfy, Inc. — ATTN: Copyright Agent
1500 N Grant St # 4282
Denver, CO 80203, USA
+1 970 355 3003
info@houfy.com
Registered in the US Copyright Office DMCA Designated Agent Directory, no. 1080034

Our Copyright Policy explains what a notice must contain, how we respond, and how to reply if your Content is removed. It also covers trademark complaints, which follow a different process.

We may pass a complaint to the member who posted the Content. That member can respond, and we will consider what they say. We may remove Content while we look into it.

If we act against your Content or account. If we remove your Content or restrict your account, we will tell you the reason and you may appeal within 30 days by replying to that notice.

13. Disclaimers

The Services are provided "as is" and "as available".

To the fullest extent the law allows, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, accuracy and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Services will be uninterrupted, secure or error-free.

We are not responsible for Content posted by members, for the conduct of any member, for what happens during a stay, or for services offered by third-party providers whose offers appear on Houfy (section 8B).

Some jurisdictions do not allow these exclusions. Where that is so, they do not apply to you.

14. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, data, goodwill or business opportunity, however caused.

Our total liability arising out of these Terms or your use of the Services will not exceed the greater of (a) the fees you paid us in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) US $1,000.

These limits do not apply to liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for our fraud or wilful misconduct, or to any liability that cannot be limited by law.

You acknowledge that we have set our prices on the basis of these limits.

15. Indemnity

You will indemnify us against any claim, loss or cost (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your breach of these Terms, your breach of the law, your infringement of anyone's rights, or — if you are a Host — your Listing or your hosting.

16. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the law of the State of Colorado and of the United States, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Claims must be brought in the state or federal courts in Denver, Colorado, and both of us consent to those courts.

This does not deprive you of any mandatory consumer protection you have under the law of the country where you habitually live, and it does not stop us seeking an injunction anywhere to protect our intellectual property.

Any claim arising out of these Terms or your use of the Services must be brought within one year of the date the claim arose, except where the law does not allow that limit.

17. General

Severability. If a term is unenforceable, it is modified as far as needed to make it enforceable, or removed. The rest stands.

No waiver. If we do not enforce a term, we have not given it up.

Entire agreement. These Terms, and the policies they refer to, are the whole agreement between us on this subject.

No partnership. Nothing here makes us partners, joint venturers, employer and employee, or agent and principal.

Assignment. You may not transfer this agreement without our consent. We may transfer it to a group company or to a buyer of the business, on 30 days' notice.

Force majeure. Neither of us is liable for delay or failure caused by events beyond reasonable control — including natural disasters, epidemics, war, civil unrest, government action, strikes, utility, network or third-party platform failures, and cyberattacks. This does not excuse money already owed.

No third-party rights, except where these Terms say otherwise.

Notices to you may be sent by email, through Houfy, or by SMS, and count as being in writing. For SMS in the United States, see our SMS Terms.

Notices to us must be sent by post, and take effect when we receive them:

Houfy, Inc. Legal Department 1500 N Grant St # 4282 Denver, Colorado 80203 USA

18. Contact

General questions: info@houfy.com or our Help Center. Legal notices: the postal address in §17.