Houfy Co-hosting Terms

1. About these Terms

1.1 These Co-hosting Terms (the "Co-hosting Terms") govern the Co-hosting Tools described in clause 3. They are one of the policies that form part of the Houfy Terms of Service (the "Terms of Service") and are incorporated into it.

1.2 These Co-hosting Terms are an agreement between you and Houfy, Inc., 1500 N Grant St # 4282, Denver, Colorado 80203, USA ("Houfy", "we", "us"). Words defined in the Terms of Service have the same meaning here unless clause 2 says otherwise. Where these Co-hosting Terms conflict with the Terms of Service, the Terms of Service govern.

1.3 You accept these Co-hosting Terms, and confirm you have read them, when you do any of the following: create or submit a co-host profile; send an Invitation; accept an Invitation; give or receive Co-host Access by any other means Houfy provides; or use Co-host Access. The Owner and the Co-host accept the same document.

1.4 Houfy charges no fee for the Co-hosting Tools. Identity verification, and any fee for it, is governed by the Terms of Service. The Co-hosting Tools are in beta. They may change, be restricted or be withdrawn at any time, and they depend on the conduct of other members, which Houfy does not control. You accept that risk, and you confirm you have not relied on any statement about the Co-hosting Tools that is not set out in these Co-hosting Terms or the Terms of Service.

2. Words we use

"Owner" — the Host whose Listing is the subject of an Invitation or of Co-host Access. The Owner remains the Host of the Listing under the Terms of Service at all times.

"Co-host" — a member an Owner has given, or invited to receive, Co-host Access. A Co-host is a Member under the Terms of Service in their own right.

"Co-hosting Arrangement" — the agreement between an Owner and a Co-host about the help the Co-host gives with the Listing, in whatever form it takes: written, oral, implied by conduct, or recorded only in messages between you.

"Co-hosting Tools" — the features Houfy provides for co-hosting from time to time, which at the date of these Co-hosting Terms are: the co-host directory at /find-a-cohost; co-host profiles and the profile wizard at /become-a-cohost; Invitations, including invitations sent by email; Co-host Access; the co-hosting pages in your account; co-hosting messaging; and the ability to link a Payout Account to a Listing.

"Co-host Access" — the ability to use the management functions of an Owner's Listing through the Co-host's own Houfy account, as described in clause 5.

"Invitation" — a request from an Owner to a member, or to a person by email, to become a Co-host of one or more Listings.

"Guest Information" — personal information about a Guest, or about a person who inquires about a Listing, that is available through a Listing, including names, contact details, booking details, messages and payment status.

"Payout Account" — an account with a payment processor, such as Stripe, Square or PayPal, that is linked to a Listing to receive Guest payments.

"you" — the Owner or the Co-host, as the context requires. Where a clause applies to only one of you, it says so.

3. What Houfy does, and does not do

3.1 What the tools do. The Co-hosting Tools let a member describe the services they offer and be found by Hosts; let an Owner invite a member to help manage a Listing; let the two of you message each other; give the Co-host access to the Listing once the Invitation is accepted; and let either of you end that access.

3.2 Houfy is not a party to your arrangement. Houfy is not a party to any Co-hosting Arrangement. Houfy does not negotiate, set, approve, document, record, enforce, collect or pay anything under it. Houfy is not the Owner's property manager, agent, employer, staffing agency, broker or insurer, and is not the Co-host's employer, agent, client or paymaster. The Terms of Service already say that Houfy is not a party to a Booking and does not manage any property; the same is true of co-hosting.

3.3 Houfy does not vet co-hosts or owners. Houfy moderates co-host profiles for compliance with our content and community standards, and requires a Co-host to provide a government-issued identity document before a profile can be submitted for review. Identity verification is described in the Terms of Service and is not a vouch for anyone. Houfy does not check a Co-host's qualifications, licences, insurance, references, employment history, experience, or criminal record, and does not check an Owner's right to grant access to a property. Years of experience and services shown on a profile are stated by the Co-host and are not verified. Guest reviews shown on a co-host profile are reviews by Guests of that member's own Listings as a Host, including reviews imported from other platforms; they are not a rating of that member as a Co-host.

3.4 The directory is not a recommendation. Results in the co-host directory are ordered by factors including profile completeness, stated experience, number of Listings managed, number of services offered and how recently the profile joined. Nobody pays to be listed higher. Appearance in the directory, or in any position in it, is not a recommendation, endorsement or guarantee by Houfy.

3.5 Houfy does not supervise. Houfy does not direct, supervise, monitor or control what a Co-host does, how or when they do it, or whether they do it at all, and does not monitor what an Owner asks of a Co-host.

4. The Co-hosting Arrangement is between you

4.1 You agree your own terms. Everything about the help a Co-host gives is agreed between the Owner and the Co-host: which services, for which Listings, what the Co-host is paid and how, when and by whom; who pays for cleaning, supplies and repairs; how long the arrangement lasts; how either of you can end it and on what notice; confidentiality; insurance; and who is responsible to Guests, to the property's owner, and to the authorities for what is done. We recommend you record this in writing before access is granted. Houfy does not provide that agreement and gives no legal advice. If Houfy makes a template or a feature for recording your terms available, it is a convenience only, Houfy is not a party to anything you create with it, and it does not make Houfy responsible for your arrangement.

4.2 Fees between you are your affair. Houfy charges nothing for an Invitation and takes no fee, commission, percentage or other share of anything an Owner pays a Co-host. Houfy does not process, hold, split, calculate, invoice, enforce or guarantee any payment between you. Any payment between an Owner and a Co-host is made outside Houfy, by whatever means you agree, and Houfy has no record of it and no responsibility for it.

4.3 Independence. A Co-host is not Houfy's employee, agent, contractor or representative, and does not act for Houfy in anything they do for an Owner. Whether a Co-host is the Owner's employee, contractor or agent is a matter between the Owner and the Co-host and the law that applies to them. Nothing in these Co-hosting Terms creates a partnership, joint venture, agency or employment relationship between Houfy and either of you.

4.4 The Owner remains the Host. The Owner remains the Host of the Listing under the Terms of Service, remains the party to every Booking of it, and remains responsible for the Listing's accuracy, for compliance with the law, and for everything a Guest is told and charged. Anything done on a Listing through Co-host Access is treated, as between the Owner and Houfy and as regards Guests, as done by the Owner and with the Owner's authority, whether or not the Co-host was in fact authorised to do it. Houfy may act on it without further enquiry. The Owner's remedy for a Co-host acting outside their authority is against the Co-host.

4.5 If you are a Co-host, you must:

(a) act only within the authority the Owner has given you, and stop when the Owner tells you to;

(b) comply with the Terms of Service, the Community Standards, the Listing Guidelines, the Fair Housing Guidelines and every other policy that applies to Hosts, as if the Listing were your own;

(c) use Co-host Access only to help manage the Listings you have been given access to, and for no other purpose;

(d) keep your co-host profile truthful, including the services you offer and your experience, and keep it current;

(e) hold every licence, permit, registration and insurance that the law requires for the services you provide, and account for your own taxes on anything you earn;

(f) never describe yourself as employed by, acting for, or endorsed by Houfy; and

(g) comply with clause 6 on Guest Information.

4.6 If you are an Owner, you must:

(a) satisfy yourself about a person before you invite them. You are choosing who has access to your Listing, your calendar, your Bookings and your Guests' information, and that choice is yours;

(b) have the right to grant the access you grant. If you manage the property for someone else, you must have their permission to bring in a Co-host;

(c) tell the Co-host what you want done and what you do not, and make sure they have read these Co-hosting Terms;

(d) review who has access to your Listings regularly, and remove a Co-host's access as soon as the arrangement ends or you have any concern;

(e) check which Payout Account is linked to each Listing, and keep it correct (clause 7.2);

(f) never share your own Houfy password or sign-in with a Co-host or anyone else. Co-host Access is the only permitted way to give another person access to your Listing; and

(g) comply with clause 6 on Guest Information, including for what the Co-host does with it.

5. Invitations and access

5.1 How access is granted. An Owner sends an Invitation naming one or more Listings. The person invited may be an existing member or, where Houfy allows an invitation by email, a person who must first register and accept the Terms of Service. The Co-host accepts the Invitation. Co-host Access begins when the Invitation is accepted, not when it is sent, and an unaccepted Invitation expires after the period shown on it. An Owner may withdraw an Invitation before it is accepted.

5.2 What access includes. Co-host Access gives the Co-host the management functions of the Listing that Houfy makes available to co-hosts from time to time, through the Co-host's own account. Those functions are described in the product when the Owner sends and when the Co-host accepts an Invitation. At the date of these Co-hosting Terms they include editing the Listing's details, and viewing and managing its reservations, and may include its calendar and availability, pricing, guest messaging, and the notifications Houfy sends about the Listing, including inquiries and Bookings. Co-host Access is not scoped: an Owner cannot currently limit which of those functions a Co-host can use, and a Co-host who accepts an Invitation receives all of them for each Listing named. Houfy may add functions to, or remove functions from, Co-host Access at any time.

5.3 What access does not include. Co-host Access does not give the Co-host the Owner's account, password or sign-in; Listings the Owner has not named; the Owner's subscription, billing or purchase history; or the ability to invite or remove other Co-hosts, or to delete or transfer the Listing. A Co-host does not receive copies of the Owner's guest email correspondence.

5.4 More than one. An Owner may give Co-host Access to more than one Co-host for the same Listing, and a Co-host may hold Co-host Access to Listings of more than one Owner. Each of you holds one Houfy account, in your own name, as the Terms of Service require. A Co-host must not be invited to a Listing they own.

5.5 Records. Houfy keeps a record of Invitations, acceptances and the periods during which Co-host Access was held, and may keep a record of actions taken through Co-host Access. Houfy may show those records to the Owner and the Co-host concerned. In the absence of manifest error, Houfy's records of those matters are conclusive evidence of them. Houfy is not obliged to keep records for any period or to produce them, except where the law requires.

5.6 Each other's details. By sending or accepting an Invitation you agree that your name, your profile and the contact details on your account may be shown to the other party through the Co-hosting Tools, including while the Invitation is pending. Communication through Houfy's messaging is the recommended channel and is what Houfy's records reflect.

6. Guest Information

6.1 The Owner shares it by granting access. Co-host Access gives a Co-host Guest Information. The Owner decides to share it by granting access, and the Owner is responsible for that decision: for having a lawful basis to share it, for putting in place whatever agreement with the Co-host the data protection law that applies to the Owner requires, and for what the Co-host then does with it. Houfy is not a party to any such agreement and does not provide one.

6.2 If you are a Co-host, you must, in relation to Guest Information:

(a) use it only to help manage the Listing and the stays it relates to, and for nothing else;

(b) keep it secure and confidential;

(c) not market to a Guest, add a Guest to any list, or contact a Guest for any purpose other than their stay, without the Guest's own agreement;

(d) not copy, export or store it outside Houfy beyond what is needed for the stay, and delete any copy when the stay has ended or your access ends, whichever is sooner, unless the law requires you to keep it;

(e) tell the Owner straight away if it has been lost, disclosed or accessed without authority; and

(f) comply with every data protection and privacy law that applies to you.

6.3 Houfy's role. Houfy handles personal information as described in the Privacy Policy. Houfy makes Guest Information available to a Co-host on the Owner's instruction, which the Owner gives by granting Co-host Access. Houfy is not responsible for what an Owner or a Co-host does with Guest Information after it is made available to them, and each of you is responsible for your own handling of it separately from Houfy and from each other. The Privacy Policy tells Guests that a Host may give another member access to a Listing.

6.4 Your own information. A co-host profile is public. The identity document a Co-host provides is handled as described in the Privacy Policy. Information you give the other party directly, outside Houfy, is outside the Privacy Policy and is your own affair.

6.5 When access ends. When Co-host Access ends, the Co-host no longer has access through Houfy to the Listing or to its Guest Information. The Co-host must delete any Guest Information they hold outside Houfy in accordance with clause 6.2(d).

7. Payments and payouts

7.1 Houfy processes no co-host payments. Houfy does not process, hold, split or transmit any payment from an Owner to a Co-host and takes no fee or share of any such payment. Clause 4.2 applies.

7.2 Linking a Payout Account. The Co-hosting Tools allow the Payout Account linked to an Owner's Listing to be an account held by a Co-host. One Payout Account is linked to each Listing, and all Guest payments for that Listing settle to whoever holds that account. Houfy does not divide, allocate or disburse funds between accounts, does not hold them, cannot recover them, and neither determines nor enforces any arrangement between you about them. If you are an Owner, you are responsible for checking which Payout Account is linked to each of your Listings, and you accept that Guest payments for a Listing will be paid to a Co-host's account for as long as that account is linked. If you are a Co-host who holds the linked account, you receive those payments under your own agreement with your payment processor, you are responsible to the Owner for them under your Co-hosting Arrangement, and you are responsible for the refunds, chargebacks, fees and taxes that attach to them.

7.3 Taxes. Each of you is responsible for your own taxes. Houfy does not pay a Co-host and issues no statement for amounts an Owner pays a Co-host outside Houfy. Where the law requires Houfy, as a platform operator, to report information about you, your Listings or amounts paid to you to a tax authority, Houfy will do so, and the Privacy Policy describes that processing.

7.4 Reserved. Houfy may in future offer tools for recording a Co-host's rate, dividing a Guest payment between an Owner and a Co-host, scoping Co-host Access, or recording the terms of a Co-hosting Arrangement. Nothing in these Co-hosting Terms offers or describes any such tool. If Houfy introduces one, supplemental terms will be published before it is available, and these Co-hosting Terms will be amended in accordance with clause 13.

8. Disputes between an Owner and a Co-host

8.1 You resolve them between you. Any dispute between an Owner and a Co-host, about anything, is resolved between the two of you. That includes disputes about payment, the quality or scope of services, a change made to a Listing, a Booking accepted, declined or cancelled, a price changed, a message sent, Guest Information, the Payout Account, damage to property, or the ending of your arrangement. Houfy does not mediate, investigate, adjudicate, enforce or decide any such dispute, and does not require either of you to do anything for the other. Houfy's support team may offer general information; that is not a decision and does not bind either of you or Houfy.

8.2 Records and reports. Houfy may, but need not, provide either of you with the records described in clause 5.5, and may provide them to an authority where the law requires or permits. Houfy may act under clause 9 whether or not a dispute between you is resolved. You may report conduct that breaks the Terms of Service or our policies using the reporting tools or at info@houfy.com; we will deal with such a report as a question of whether our rules were broken, not as a determination of your dispute.

8.3 Release. To the fullest extent permitted by law, each of you releases Houfy, its affiliates, and their respective officers, directors, employees and agents from every claim, demand, loss, liability and damage of every kind, known or unknown, suspected or unsuspected, arising out of or in connection with any dispute between an Owner and a Co-host, or with the acts or omissions of the other party to your Co-hosting Arrangement. If you are a California resident, you waive California Civil Code section 1542, which says: "A general release does not extend to claims that the creditor or releasing party does not know or suspect to exist in his or her favor at the time of executing the release and that, if known by him or her, would have materially affected his or her settlement with the debtor or released party." This release does not extend to liability that cannot lawfully be excluded, which clause 12.4 describes.

8.4 Disputes with Houfy. A dispute between you and Houfy is governed by section 16 of the Terms of Service.

9. Ending access, and Houfy's right to revoke

9.1 Either of you can end access. An Owner can remove a Co-host's access to a Listing at any time, from the co-hosting page in their account where that option is shown, or by asking us at info@houfy.com. A Co-host can remove their own access from Manage Listings. Removal in your account takes effect immediately; removal on request takes effect when we process it. Removal cannot be reversed except by a new Invitation. Ending Co-host Access on Houfy does not end your Co-hosting Arrangement or anything you owe each other under it, including notice, payment and handover; those remain between you.

9.2 Houfy's right to revoke. The Co-hosting Tools are a facility for which Houfy charges no fee. Houfy may suspend, restrict or revoke a Co-host's access to any Listing, a co-host profile or its appearance in the directory, an Invitation, a Payout Account link, or either of your access to the Co-hosting Tools altogether, immediately and without prior notice, where Houfy reasonably believes that:

(a) you have materially breached these Co-hosting Terms, the Terms of Service or any policy that forms part of them;

(b) there is a risk to the safety, security or property of a Member, a Guest or the public;

(c) Guest Information has been, or is likely to be, misused, or Co-host Access has been, or is likely to be, used without the Owner's authority or for a purpose other than managing the Listing;

(d) fraud, deception, or a false profile is involved, or an account has been compromised;

(e) continuing the access would expose Houfy, its Members or Guests to legal or regulatory risk, or would damage Houfy's reputation or the trust of its community;

(f) Houfy has received a complaint, report, or request from an authority that it reasonably considers credible;

(g) the Owner's account or Listing is suspended, restricted or closed, or the Co-host no longer meets the eligibility or verification requirements for a profile; or

(h) it is otherwise necessary to protect the integrity or operation of the Co-hosting Tools or of Houfy.

Houfy may act on the information available to it at the time and is not required to investigate before acting, to hear from either of you first, or to take the same action against both of you. Where the law applicable to you as a business user requires a statement of reasons for a restriction, suspension or termination, Houfy will provide one, at or after the time of acting where that law permits. You may appeal as described in sections 11 and 12 of the Terms of Service. Houfy has no liability to either of you for acting under this clause.

9.3 Houfy may withdraw the tools. Houfy may change, suspend or withdraw the Co-hosting Tools, in whole or in part, at any time. Where Houfy withdraws them entirely, it will give the notice the law requires to business users, and Co-host Access will end when the withdrawal takes effect.

9.4 Effect of ending. When Co-host Access ends for any reason: the Co-host's access to the Listing and its Guest Information through Houfy ends; the Owner has sole control of the Listing and is responsible for every pending Booking, inquiry and conversation on it; clause 6.5 applies; and nothing either of you has done through Co-host Access before the end is undone. Clauses 4.4, 5.5, 6, 7.2, 7.3, 8, 9.4, 10, 11, 12 and 14 survive.

10. Your responsibilities and indemnity

10.1 Each of you, for your own conduct. Each of you will indemnify, defend and hold harmless Houfy, its affiliates and their respective officers, directors, employees and agents from and against all claims, demands, actions, proceedings, investigations, losses, liabilities, damages, fines, penalties, costs and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or in connection with: your own acts and omissions in connection with the Co-hosting Tools and your Co-hosting Arrangement; your breach of these Co-hosting Terms, the Terms of Service or any policy; your breach of the law or of a third party's rights; your handling of Guest Information; any dispute between you and the other party to your Co-hosting Arrangement, to the extent it arises from your own conduct; any claim by a Guest, a property owner or a third party arising from your own conduct in relation to a Listing or a stay to which Co-host Access applied; and, if you are a Co-host who holds a linked Payout Account, any Guest payment settling to, or failing to settle to, that account.

10.2 The Owner, for the Listing. If you are an Owner, you will also indemnify, defend and hold harmless the persons named in clause 10.1 from and against all such claims, losses, costs and expenses arising out of or in connection with anything done or not done through Co-host Access to your Listing, whether by you or by a Co-host, consistent with clause 4.4; and any Guest payment settling to, or failing to settle to, a Payout Account linked to your Listing under clause 7.2.

10.3 Defence. Houfy may, at your cost, take sole control of the defence and settlement of any matter within clause 10.1 or 10.2. You may not settle any such matter in a way that imposes an obligation, admission or liability on Houfy without Houfy's prior written consent.

11. Disclaimers

11.1 The Co-hosting Tools are provided "as is" and "as available", in beta, and Houfy charges no fee for them. To the fullest extent the law allows, Houfy disclaims all warranties, conditions and representations about them, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, reliability, security and non-infringement, and does not warrant that they will be uninterrupted or error-free.

11.2 Houfy gives no warranty or representation about any Owner or Co-host: their identity beyond what the Terms of Service say about verification, their skills, qualifications, licences, insurance, reliability, honesty, availability or performance, the truth of their profile, or the lawfulness of what they do. A profile, a badge, a position in the directory, a review, or Houfy's approval of a profile is not a warranty of any of those things.

11.3 Houfy does not warrant that an Invitation will be delivered or accepted, that Co-host Access will work as either of you expects, that a notification will reach either of you, that a record under clause 5.5 is complete, or that a Payout Account link reflects what you agreed between you.

11.4 No advice or information from Houfy, whether in the product, in our Help Center, or from our support team, creates a warranty not stated here, and nothing Houfy says is legal, tax or professional advice.

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

12. Limitation of liability

12.1 What Houfy is not liable for. To the fullest extent the law allows, Houfy has no liability of any kind, whatever the basis of the claim, arising out of or in connection with: the acts, omissions or default of any Owner or Co-host; any Co-hosting Arrangement or dispute under one; anything done or not done through Co-host Access, including a change to a Listing, a price or a calendar, a Booking accepted, declined, cancelled or modified, a message sent or not sent, or a review given; the use or misuse of Guest Information by an Owner or a Co-host; any Guest payment that settles to, or fails to settle to, a Payout Account, and any refund, chargeback or fee attaching to it; unauthorised access to either of your accounts; the content of any profile or the position of any profile in the directory; the suspension, restriction, revocation or withdrawal of Co-host Access or of the Co-hosting Tools under clause 9; and any interruption, defect, delay, data loss or failure of the Co-hosting Tools.

12.2 Kinds of loss. To the fullest extent the law allows, Houfy is not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, bookings, data, goodwill or business opportunity, however caused, even if Houfy was told they were possible.

12.3 Cap. The limitation of liability in section 14 of the Terms of Service applies to any liability Houfy has to you arising out of or in connection with these Co-hosting Terms or the Co-hosting Tools, and nothing in these Co-hosting Terms increases it.

12.4 What is not excluded. Nothing in these Co-hosting Terms excludes or limits liability which cannot lawfully be excluded or limited, including liability for death or personal injury caused by Houfy's negligence, and for Houfy's fraud or wilful misconduct. In addition:

(a) nothing in these Co-hosting Terms deprives a consumer of mandatory protections under the law of their country of habitual residence;

(b) where applicable law does not permit the exclusion or limitation of a particular loss or liability, that exclusion or limitation applies to the maximum extent that law permits, and no further; and

(c) where applicable law does not permit liability to be excluded or limited for breach of an obligation which is essential to the proper performance of these Co-hosting Terms and on which you may reasonably rely, Houfy's liability for such a breach is limited to loss which was foreseeable when you accepted these Co-hosting Terms and which is typical for an agreement of this kind.

12.5 Reduce, not strike. If any part of clauses 8.3, 10, 11 or 12 is held unenforceable, it is to be modified to the minimum extent needed to make it enforceable while preserving its intent, and severed only if that is not possible. The rest stands.

12.6 Basis of the bargain. You acknowledge that Houfy charges no fee for the Co-hosting Tools and provides them in reliance on clauses 8.3, 10, 11 and 12, and that those clauses are an essential basis of the agreement between you and Houfy.

13. Changes to these Terms

13.1 Houfy may change these Co-hosting 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 the Co-hosting Tools after that date means you accept the change. If you do not accept it, remove your Co-host Access, or your Co-hosts' access, before it takes effect.

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

14. General

14.1 Sections 16 (governing law and disputes) and 17 (general) of the Terms of Service apply to these Co-hosting Terms, including the choice of Colorado law, the Denver courts, the one-year period for bringing a claim, and the rules on notices.

14.2 No Guest, property owner or other third party acquires any right under these Co-hosting Terms. The release in clause 8.3 and the indemnity in clause 10 are for the benefit of Houfy and the persons named in them, and no Owner or Co-host acquires a right against the other under these Co-hosting Terms; your rights against each other arise under your Co-hosting Arrangement and the law.

14.3 These Co-hosting Terms, together with the Terms of Service and the policies that form part of it, are the whole agreement between you and Houfy about the Co-hosting Tools.

14.4 Questions about these Co-hosting Terms: info@houfy.com or our Help Center. Legal notices: the postal address in section 17 of the Terms of Service.