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Terms of Service

 Last modified May 8th, 2024

Introduction / User Acceptance

Thank you for choosing BetterGuest. Please read these terms and conditions of use carefully before using or obtaining any information, content, products or services through this site.

By accessing or using the BetterGuest website, API or services (“Our Services”), you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions (“Terms”). If you do not accept all of these Terms, then please do not use Our Services. We reserve the right at any time, at our sole discretion, to modify these Terms without prior notice, and your continued use of Our Services signifies your acceptance of the updated Terms.

The Scope of Our Service

BetterGuest.io is a software platform offering web applications to assist our accommodation establishment clients (“Hosts”) with managing their bookings and communication with their staff and guests.

BetterGuest does not represent Hosts and only provides a software service to Hosts and accordingly accepts no liability for any injury, loss, claim, illness, harm, death or damage of any kind which you may suffer as a result of any act or omission on the part of or the failure of the Host to fulfil their obligations, whether in relation to travel arrangements, accommodation or otherwise.

Age and Responsibility

By accessing our using Our Services you warrant:

  • that you are of sufficient legal age to create binding legal obligations;
  • that all information supplied by you to BetterGuest is true, accurate, current and complete;
  • that you will only request legitimate changes to reservations and requests for services for yourself or for another person for whom you are
  • legally authorized to act and that you will inform such persons about the terms and conditions that apply to their reservation or service;
  • that should you make use of a BetterGuest Host account, you will safeguard your account information, be responsible for any use of your account and accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your account.

Ownership & Copyright

The content including text, graphics, button icons, audio and video clips, digital downloads, data compilations, other material and software (“The Content”) together with the collection, arrangement and the compilation of The Content is copyrighted to BetterGuest. The Content may not be copied, reproduced, sold, displayed, republished, uploaded, posted, transmitted or distributed without the prior written permission of BetterGuest, except that you may download, display and print The Content presented by Our Services for your personal, non-commercial use only. If you do so, you may not modify the Content in any way, and you must retain all copyright and trademark notices, including any other proprietary notices, contained in The Content, and you must not obscure, alter or delete any of such notices. Other product, company names, logos and trademarks contained in Our Services are the property of their respective owners and are mentioned in Our Services for identification purposes only.

We respect the intellectual property of others and ask that you do too. We respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement if they comply with the law. If you believe any materials accessible from Our Services infringe your copyright, you may request removal of those materials (or access thereto) from Our Services by submitting written notification to info@betterguest.io.

User-Generated Content

Certain features of Our Services may permit users to submit, upload, publish, broadcast or otherwise transmit (“Post”) content to or via Our Services, including social media posts and other content which may be comprised of messages, reviews, photos, video or audio (including sound or voice recordings and musical recordings embodied in the video or audio), images, folders, data, text, and any other works (“User Content”). You retain any copyright and other proprietary rights that you may hold in the User Content that you Post to Our Services subject to the licenses granted in these Terms.

Use of Our Services

BetterGuest grants you a limited, non-transferable license to access and use of Our Services in accordance with the Terms of this agreement. Additionally, you agree not to:

  • Access, monitor or copy any of the web pages, data or The Content using any “robot”, “spider”, “screen scraper” or other automated means or any manual process, for any purpose without the prior written consent of BetterGuest;
  • “frame”, “mirror” or otherwise incorporate any part of Our Services into any other website or service without the prior written consent of BetterGuest;
  • interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of Our Services;
  • take any action that imposes, or may impose, in our discretion, an unreasonable load on our computer or network equipment;
  • upload or transmit to Our Services software or computer programming routines that may damage, interfere or attempt to interfere with, the normal operation of Our Services;
  • transmit any viruses, worms, defects, Trojan horses, or any items of a destructive nature through your use of Our Services;
  • attempt to gain unauthorised access to Our Services, or other accounts through hacking, password mining, or any other means;
  • post or transmit via Our Services any unlawful, harmful, libellous, abusive, threatening, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, profane, hateful, ethnically or otherwise objectionable material of any kind, including, but not limited to, any material which encourages conduct that would be considered a criminal offense, gives rise to civil liability, violate the rights of others, or otherwise violate any local, national or international law;
  • violate the restrictions found in any of our page headers or our search engine exclusion file on Our Services or bypass or circumvent other measures employed to prevent or limit access to Our Services;
  • post false or misleading information on Our Services;
  • promote, sell or imply that BetterGuest is endorsing your services or products, through the use of Our Services;
  • translate into any language or computer language, reverse engineer or create derivative works from, The Content or any part of Our Services;

BetterGuest may, at our sole discretion, at any time and without notice or liability, suspend, terminate or restrict your access to Our Services.

Disclaimer of Warranties and Limitation of Liability

Our Services and all information, content, materials, products, software and services included on or otherwise made available to you through Our Services are provided by BetterGuest on an “as is” and “as available” basis. BetterGuest makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the operation of Our Services or the accuracy, completeness, currency or reliability of any of the information, content, materials, products, software or services included on or otherwise made available to you through Our Services. BetterGuest does not guarantee the accuracy of, and disclaim all liability for any errors or other inaccuracies relating to the information, ratings, reviews and description of Hosts and their properties or services displayed on Our Services or included within communications with BetterGuest or Hosts. BetterGuest expressly disclaim any representation or warranty that Our Services will be free of viruses, that our services will be available uninterrupted and communications to or from Our Services will be secure and not intercepted. You expressly agree that your use of Our Services is at your own sole risk. BetterGuest makes use of cloud service and storage providers and BetterGuest disclaim all liability for any loss, damage or misappropriation of your data under any circumstances or for any consequences related to changes, restrictions, suspensions or termination of Service or the Agreement.

By permitting Hosts to make use of Our Services to market travel to South African and international destinations, BetterGuest does not represent or warrant that travel to such destinations is advisable, suitable or without risk, and is not liable for damages or losses that may result from travel to such destinations.

In no event shall BetterGuest be liable for any injury, loss, claim, damage, or any direct, indirect, incidental, exemplary, punitive, or consequential damages of any kind, whether based on a theory of negligence, contract , tort, strict liability, or otherwise, which arise out of or are in any way connected with (i) any use of Our Services or content found therein, (ii) any failure or delay, or (iii) the performance or non-performance by BetterGuest, its agents or Hosts, including, but not limited to, non-performance resulting from bankruptcy, reorganisation, insolvency, dissolution or liquidation even if such party has been advised of the possibility of damages to such parties or any other party.

Hosts providing travel or other services using Our Services are independent contractors and not agents or employees of BetterGuest. BetterGuest shall not be held liable for the acts, errors, omissions, representations, warranties, breaches or negligence of any such suppliers or for any personal injuries, death, property damage, or other damages or expenses resulting there from. BetterGuest have no liability and will make no refund in the event of any delay, cancellation, overbooking, strike, force majeure or other causes beyond its direct control, and they have no responsibility for any additional expense, omissions, delays, re-routing or acts of any government or authority.

If, despite the limitation above, BetterGuest is found liable for any loss or damage which arises out of or is in any way connected with any of the occurrences described in the limitations or exclusions of liability above, then BetterGuest liability will in no event exceed R1000.

Indemnification

You agree to defend and indemnify BetterGuest and their agents, and each of their respective officers, directors, employees and agents, harmless from and against any claim, cause of action, liability, expense, loss or demand, including without limitation reasonable legal and accounting fees, arising out of, or in any way connected with your breach of this agreements, your use of Our Services, your violation of any law or the rights of any third party.

Links to Other Websites

Our Services may contain links to third party websites. The inclusion of any website link does not imply an approval, endorsement, or recommendation by BetterGuest. Such third party websites are not governed by these General Terms. You access any such website at your own risk. We expressly disclaim any liability for these websites. When you use a link to go from the Services to a third party website, our Privacy Notice is no longer in effect. Your browsing and interaction on a third party website, including those that have a link in the Services, is subject to that website’s own terms, rules and policies.

Privacy

Please review our Privacy notice, the terms of which are incorporated herein, to understand our practices. You consent to the use of your personal information in accordance with the terms of and for the purposes set forth in the BetterGuest Privacy Policy.

Free subscriptions, offers and trials

BetterGuest may offer free subscriptions, offers and trial subscriptions in its sole discretion. If access to Our Services is provided to you for free or for trial purposes, such access is governed by these terms. At any time prior to or during the free or trial period, BetterGuest may, in its sole discretion, terminate the free or trial access without prior notice and without liability to you, to the extent permitted under applicable law, for any reason, including to prevent abuse of the free or trial access. After the free or trial access priod expires, you may only continue using Our Services by enrolling in a paid subscription, if available, or as otherwise permitted by BetterGuest. During the free or trial period, no express or implied warranties shall apply to Our Services, all of Our Services are provided “as-is” with all defects, and no technical or other support is included.

Fees, Payments & Refunds

If you are using a free version of one of Our Services, it is really free; we do not ask for your credit card and – just like for Hosts who pay for Our Services – we do not sell your data.

For paid Services that offer a free trial, we explain the length of the trial when you sign up. After the trial period, you need to pay in advance to keep using Our Services. If you do not pay, we will suspend your account and it will be inaccessible until you make payment. If your account has been frozen for a while, we may queue it for auto-cancellation.

Our Services are paid for by Hosts via a Subscription Fee, or for some Services such as SMS or WhatsApp communication, via a balance on your account that you need to top up periodically. Our current pricing is available on our website on our Pricing Page.

The Subscription Fee will remain fixed during the initial term (“Subscription Term”) of your subscription. Subscription Terms are usually 1 calendar month, 6 months, or 1 year, at the Hosts discretion. Upon renewal, we may increase your feed up to our then-current list price set out on our Pricing Page. If this increase applies to you, we will notify you at least thirty (30) days in advance of your renewal and the increased feed will apply at the start of the next renewal term. If you do not agree to this increase, either party can choose to terminate your subsciption at the end of your then-current term by giving notice.

Payment is taken via credit card, and you authorise us to charge your credit card (“Authorised Payment Method”) for all fees payable during the Subscription Term. You further authorise us to use a third party to process payments, and consent to the disclosure of your payment to such third party. BetterGuest does not store your credit card information, however the third party payment gateway will securely store your credit card in order to process future payments.

You will keep your Authorised Payment Method, contact information and billing information up to date for the payent of incurred and recurring fees, as applicable. Changes may be made on your Account page on your BetterGuest Host service. You authorise BetterGuest to continue to charge your Authorised Payment Method for applicable fees during your Subscription Term and until any existing fees have been paid in full.

All fees are exclusive of taxes, levies or duties imposed by taxing authorities. Where required, we will collect those taxes on behalf of the taxing authority and remit those taxes to taxing authorities.

Account Closure and Termination of Services

You can cancel your Subscription and/or close your account at any time by contacting customer support. When you close your account, your Subscription will automatically be cancelled, your Services will be terminated, and you will no longer be able to access your account to use Our Services and your Content will be deleted in accordance with our data retention policy and these Terms. Alternatively, you can delete your Content yourself proactively prior to cancelling a Subscription and closing your account.

When you close your account, we will provide you with confirmation of account closure and Subscription cancellation, and you will not be charged again for that Subscription unless you open a new account and purchase a new Subscription. If you cancel a Subscription in the middle of a billing cycle, you will not receive a refund unless you are canceling for any of the following reasons: (a) we have materially breached these Terms and failed to cure that breach within 30 days after you have so notified us in writing; (b) a refund is required by law; or (c) we, in our sole discretion, determine a refund is appropriate. For clarity, we will not grant a refund where you have used our Services, collected responses, and/or downloaded your responses unless the termination is due to our material, uncured breach or a refund is required by law.

Changes to Terms

BetterGuest may change these Terms and any time for a variety of reasons, such as to reflect changes in applicable law or updates to Our Services, and to account for new Services or functionality, for security or to prevent abuse or harm. The most current version will always be posted on the BetterGuest website. If an amendment is material, BetterGuest will notify you in advance by email to provide you the opportunity to review the changes. Notice of amendments may also be posted upon signing in to your account. Except as otherwise specified by us, changes will be effective no sooner than the day they are publicly posted. Once our new Terms are effective, if you continue to use Our Services, you indicate your agreement to be bound by the updated Terms. If you do not agree to any changes made to the Terms for a Services, you should stop using that Service and you may close your account with us.

General

These terms and conditions shall be governed in accordance with the laws of the Republic of South Africa. You hereby consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of South Africa in respect of any disputes of any sort that might arise between you and BetterGuest.

You agree that no joint venture, partnership, agency, or employment relationship exists between you and BetterGuest as a result of this Agreement or the use of Our Services.

This agreement (and any other terms and conditions referenced herein) constitutes the entire agreement between the parties with regard to the subject matter hereof.

If any part of this Agreement is found to be invalid, void, or for any reason unenforceable, that condition shall be deemed severable and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining condition. Our failure or delay in enforcing any provision of this agreement at any time does not waive our right to enforce this agreement in the future.