Welcome to BOOK@FRIENDS!
Please read this guide agreement carefully as it contains important information about your legal rights and obligations.
You are responsible for complying with all laws, rules and regulations applicable to your activity and the tours you offer. Depending on the country where YOU operate the tours & you may register, obtain a permit or purchase a license before offering them. Sanctions may include fines or other enforcement measures. We encourage YOU to seek legal advice if YOU have any questions about local laws and/or tax regulations that may apply to you.
IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ THE CLASS ACTION AND ARBITRATION WAIVER CONTAINED HEREIN BECAUSE IT REQUIRES THE PARTIES TO RESOLVE DISPUTES ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS AND SUBJECT DISPUTES TO FINAL AND BINDING ARBITRATION. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE, DO NOT ACCESS OR USE THE SITE.
1 Introduction
This Guide Agreement (“Agreement”), as may be amended and supplemented from time to time, constitutes the legally binding agreement by and between:
(a) BOOK@FRIENDS ("we", "us" or "our"); and
(b) a natural or legal person (“Guide” or “You”) entering and using the BOOK@FRIENDS Marketplace platform accessed via the website
www.bookatfriends.com and
https://bookatfriends.company.site/ and subdomains (the “Site”) to offer sightseeing tours, activities and other related services (the “Tours”) for sale to users searching for tours on the Site and other platforms (“Travellers”).
2. Acceptance of this Agreement
You hereby represent and warrant that:
(a) you have read, understood, and agree to comply with and be bound by this Agreement;
(b) You are an individual over the age of 18, or a properly organized, validly existing company, organization or other legal entity in good standing under the laws of the country in which you are established ;
(c) you can enter into legally binding contracts; and
(d) BOOK@FRIENDS does not prohibit you from accessing and/or using the Website.
If you do not agree to be bound by this Agreement, you may not apply to be a tour guide and may not post, offer or sell tours on the Website.
This Agreement should be read in conjunction with the Terms and Conditions, Cancellation Policy and Privacy Policy as they are incorporated into this Agreement by reference.
3. Scope of BOOK@FRIENDS Services
We operate the Website, an online marketplace platform that connects travelers with tour guides. The Website allows you to post and offer Tours on the Website and on third-party websites through which BOOK@FRIENDS makes the Tours available and to directly contact and contract with Travelers for such services.
We publish your tours. Tour reservations are made by travelers directly through the portal. We are not a travel agency and do not offer any tours ourselves. You are responsible for your published tours.
When you accept a traveler's reservation, you are contracting directly with the traveler. In no event shall BOOK@FRIENDS be a party to any agreement whereby a Traveler purchases Tours from you.
We promote the website and tours through search engine optimization, pay per click services, public relations, email marketing, affiliate programs and other online and offline promotional tools to increase traffic to the website and tours.
We constantly update our website and its functionalities. Therefore, from time to time, we may change and/or delete features on the website and/or introduce new ones.
4. Independent Tour Guides
You understand, acknowledge and agree that you are not an independent contractor, employee, agent, joint venturer or partner of BOOK@FRIENDS and that you are acting solely on your own behalf and for your own benefit and not on behalf of or for the benefit by BOOK@FRIENDS. Also, BOOK@FRIENDS is not your agent.
BOOK@FRIENDS does not, and shall not, direct or control you generally or in your performance under this Agreement. You acknowledge and agree that:
(a) You may choose not to engage in any other business or activity;
(b) you operate your own business, separate and separate from BOOK@FRIENDS' business, which is to provide an online marketplace platform to bring travelers and tour guides together;
(c) You have complete control over the publication, sale and operation of your Tours. You are free to accept or decline a Traveler's reservation request;
(d) you set your own tour prices (as defined below) and
(e) you have no person at BOOK@FRIENDS to report to.
You understand, acknowledge and agree that you are not authorized to make or accept any offer or representation on behalf of BOOK@FRIENDS. You will not make any statement that would reasonably contradict anything in this section.
5. Application and Acceptance by BOOK@FRIENDS
In order to publish and offer tours on the website, you must register online.
By registering on the Site, you agree that we may check you against third-party databases or other sources, request reports from service providers, verify information such as name and address, and obtain reports from public records of criminal convictions, vehicle stops or similar Version of background checks in your local jurisdiction, during the application process, or at any time while you keep your guide's account open.
Registration is at the sole discretion of BOOK@FRIENDS, and BOOK@FRIENDS reserves the right to refuse to publish or terminate any Guide account and/or Tours for any reason.
You must provide accurate, current and complete information during registration. We will only collect and use personal information from you in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
6. Use of the Website and Content
You are solely and exclusively responsible for any claim relating to inaccurate, untimely or incomplete information provided by you. BOOK@FRIENDS may review your tour information at any time to ensure it complies with the terms of this Agreement.
(a) grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual (or for the term of protection), sublicensable and transferable license in such content to access, use, reproduce, display, perform, without your prior consent and/or notification, adapt, modify, distribute and promote the Content in any form, anywhere and for the purpose of selling and marketing BOOK@FRIENDS or the tours you offer.
(b) warrant and represent that you own or otherwise control all rights to the Content and that use of your Content by BOOK@FRIENDS will not infringe the rights of any third party; and
(c) In the event that the content you provide to BOOK@FRIENDS infringes the rights of a third party, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless BOOK@FRIENDS from any loss and liability arising out of the action of such third party against BOOK@FRIENDS.
Content includes, without limitation, information on your profile, your images, information about your tours, tour prices, and tour images, whether images, text or otherwise.
We will not upload, post, send and/or store any Content that: (i) is fraudulent, false or misleading; (ii) is defamatory, obscene, pornographic, vulgar or offensive; (iii) promotes discrimination, bigotry, racism, hatred, harassment or harm against travellers, tour guides and/or users; (iv) promotes illegal or harmful activities; (v) includes contact details (if provided prior to booking confirmation); and/or (vi) contains watermarks.
We reserve the right to remove content that is claimed to be infringing on intellectual property rights and/or to unpublish tours containing such content without prior notice.
7. Reservations - Commission - Tour Price
Travelers can search for tours through the website without prior registration. You will be duly notified by automated email after a traveler requests a reservation and you must accept or decline that reservation.
Travelers must pay for reservations by credit card or other means of payment available through the website. You hereby appoint BOOK@FRIENDS as your limited collections agent solely for the purpose of processing the reservation fee of travelers purchasing tours. BOOK@FRIENDS may use external payment providers to process these transactions.
BOOK@FRIENDS does not charge any commission to the tour guides.
Tour prices are to be paid 100 percent directly by the traveler to the local tour guide.
8. Cancellation Policy
You agree to the terms of the Cancellation Policy and agree that any cancellation by you or a Traveler and any associated refunds or remaining transfers owed to you will be processed in accordance with the cancellation policy in effect at the time of booking.
BOOK@FRIENDS may, in its sole discretion, cancel any reservation if we have a good-faith belief that such cancellation is necessary to prevent or mitigate harm to users of the Website and/or to BOOK@FRIENDS.
9. Refunds
You agree that regardless of any refund given to Travelers under the Cancellation Policy, in the following situations and subject to Traveler request, you are entitled to a full or partial refund from you to Traveler:
(a) you failed to appear;
(b) you arrive late and the passenger leaves the meeting point;
(c) you send a substitute guide to operate your tour;
(d) a substantial part of the itinerary agreed with the Traveler is not delivered;
(e) there are security incidents during the tour that negatively affect the overall experience;
(f) Travelers incur unexpected or additional costs not included in the itinerary price and/or itinerary;
(g) Services included in the itinerary and/or agreed with the traveler are not or will not be available during the trip.
BOOK@FRIENDS will process the requests and, if BOOK@FRIENDS determines that one of the above situations has occurred, will forward them to you.
10. Tour Prices
You are responsible for the correct submission of the tour prices, the proper and accurate description of the items included in the tour prices and for any updates.
11. Site Rules
In order to protect the reputation of the website and other users who offer services on the website, you agree to the following provisions:
(a) Private Tour Offer. You are only allowed to offer your own private tours. You may not offer tours as an intermediary or agent. In addition, you may publish tours that are operated only by you and not in the company of any tour guide or person other than the traveler. You can publish up to 10 tours at a time, alongside any custom tours you can create and send to specific travelers. You cannot upload tours that are identical or remarkably similar to other tours you have uploaded to the website.
(b) Customized Tours. You may, in your sole discretion, choose to customize any of your published tours at the request of a traveler. In this case you create an individual tour. You understand that the tours published on the Website contain the terms of the agreement with the traveler and that changing these terms without creating a tailor-made tour will prevent you from reaching a clear agreement with the traveler. You will not accept reservations for published tours whose terms have been modified by communications between you and the traveler.
(c) No Substitutes. They offer private tours and travelers select guides before the tour. So travelers expect you to be the one offering their tours. Therefore, you may only send a substitute to deliver your tours in exceptional situations. If there is an emergency situation and you are unable to personally deliver your tour, you must contact the traveler immediately and inform them.
(d) Tour Description. You agree that all information contained in your public profile and tour description is current and accurate. You agree that travelers may request a refund from you if the description of your tours does not match the services you provided.
(e) Contact Information. You agree not to provide any personal contact information, including phone number, email, social media, and/or your own website URL, to Travelers prior to accepting the reservation, and not to provide any information to Travelers that could cause Travelers to book from outside our website.
(f) Communication. You agree that all communication with travelers will be about you personally.
(g) Active Account. BOOK@FRIENDS may decide to suspend your tour guide's account if, in BOOK@FRIENDS' discretion, you do not keep your tour guide's account active. This may include, but is not limited to, your inability to post Tours on the Website, accept reservations from Travelers, or respond to messages from us and/or the Travelers for a significant period of time.
(h) Performance. You agree to operate the tour and/or other services as agreed with the traveler and as described in your tour description. In the event of illness or other extraordinary circumstances, you agree to inform BOOK@FRIENDS and the travelers.
(i) Security. You agree to be responsible for the health and safety of travelers at all times during the tour. You acknowledge and agree that you are solely responsible for providing any Equipment required for any Tour provided by you pursuant to this Agreement. Should your tours involve travelers at risk, or risks of a particularly dangerous nature, consider having a special waiver document prepared for your specific needs and seek advice from a local attorney regarding your unique situation.
(j) Information for Travelers. You agree that you will not use the traveler's information for any purpose other than to operate the tour or other services contracted through the website.
(k) Traveler Disputes. You agree to cooperate in good faith with BOOK@FRIENDS to resolve any traveler dispute or complaint.
(l) Reviews. After completing a Tour, Travelers may submit a public rating (“Review”) and submit a star rating (“Review”), which will be posted throughout the Site and on your public profile. Ratings or reviews reflect the opinion of travelers and not the opinion of BOOK@FRIENDS. BOOK@FRIENDS may check reviews for accuracy, but does not guarantee that they are correct or accurate. Guides are prohibited from manipulating the ratings and reviews in any way.
(m) Intellectual Property. The website is protected by copyright, trademark and/or other laws. You acknowledge and agree that the Website, including all intellectual property rights related thereto, are the exclusive property of BOOK@FRIENDS and/or its licensors or authorized third parties. All trademarks and logos used on or in connection with the website are trademarks or registered trademarks of BOOK@FRIENDS.
(n) Licensing. You agree that you will and will at all times comply with all license requirements and legal restrictions for any tours or other services you offer.
(o) Live Virtual Tours. If you offer live virtual tours and have them published through us, you agree to the following: (i) hand-picked employees of BOOK@FRIENDS are allowed random access to each virtual tour session for technical quality reasons, (ii) you grant the traveler one non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual license to access and use the live virtual tour for personal and non-commercial purposes only, (iii) the traveler grants you no right to use his image or likeness and you will not use the live virtual tour recording the image and likeness of the traveler for any purpose or in any medium, and (iv) BOOK@FRIENDS is not responsible for any damage or technical malfunction of any hardware, network or systems related to or resulting from participation in a live virtual tour, including such injury or damage to You and/or someone else's computer.
12. Insurance
You represent and warrant that you have, and will maintain at your own expense, adequate commercial general liability insurance in the amounts and types required by law for the performance of your services for the entire period that you are providing tours. You also represent and warrant that you will obtain and maintain, at your own expense, adequate commercial motor vehicle liability insurance for the amounts and types required by law throughout the period you are conducting tours using private transport, if any. If you engage a third party to provide passenger transportation services, you must require that such third party has appropriate commercial motor vehicle liability insurance in the amounts and types required by law for the entire duration of the passenger transportation services.
13. Disclaimer
BOOK@FRIENDS, ITS PARENT COMPANIES, SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES, DIRECTORS AND EMPLOYEES (“BOOK@FRIENDS GROUP”) DO NOT PUBLISH, CREATE, SELL, CONTROL, OFFER, DELIVER OR DELIVER TOURS. YOU ARE NOT AN REPRESENTATIVE, INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR, OR EMPLOYEE OF THE BOOK@FRIENDS GROUP. THE BOOK@FRIENDS GROUP SHALL HAVE NO RESPONSIBILITY AND LIABILITY WHATSOEVER, AND YOU WILL BE SOLE AND EXCLUSIVELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, CONSEQUENTIAL OR OTHER DAMAGES OR EXPENSES ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH, WITHOUT LIMITATION, (I) THE OPERATION OF ANY TOUR, (II) YOUR PERFORMANCE OR FAILURE TO PERFORM THE TOUR AND/OR ITS SERVICES, (III) ANY TRANSPORT SERVICE RELATED TO ANY TOUR, (IV) ANY OTHER SERVICE OFFERED OR SUPPLIED BY YOU, (V) YOUR ACTS OR OMISSIONS, REPRESENTATIONS, WARRANTIES, NEGLIGENCE, GROSS NEGLIGENCE OR WILLFUL MISCONDUCT AND (IV) PERSONAL INJURY, DEATH, DEATH, PROPERTY DAMAGE TO YOU, ANY TRAVELER OR ANY OTHER PARTY. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TOURSBYLOCALS GROUP IS LIMITED TO THE LISTING AND MAKE AVAILABILITY OF THE TOURS AND OTHER ADDITIONAL SERVICES THROUGH THE SITE.
DUE TO THE NATURE OF BOOK@FRIENDS' SERVICES, BOOK@FRIENDS DOES NOT GUARANTEE THE CONTINUOUS AND UNINTERRUPTED AVAILABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY OF THE SITE. THE SITE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. BOOK@FRIENDS MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, NON-INFRINGEMENT, QUALITY, OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN ADDITION, BOOK@FRIENDS MAY RESTRICT THE AVAILABILITY OF THE WEBSITE IF NECESSARY TO CAPACITY LIMITATIONS, THE SECURITY OR INTEGRITY OF OUR SERVERS, OR TO PERFORM MAINTENANCE FOR THE PROPER OR IMPROVED, MODIFIED OR ENHANCED FUNCTIONALITY OF THE WEBSITE.
14. Limitation of Liability
TO THE FULL EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL TOURSBYLOCALS GROUP BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES OR LIABILITY WHETHER BASED ON CONTRACT, WARRANTY, TORT, TORT IF SUCH DAMAGES HAVE BEEN ADVISED IN ADVANCE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES, OR IF SUCH DAMAGES COULD BE REASONABLY FORESEEED BY SUCH DAMAGES.
15. Responsibility and Indemnification of the Tour Guide
You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless the BOOK@FRIENDS Group from and against any and all liabilities, claims, losses, damages, expenses, including attorneys' fees, arising directly or indirectly out of, as a result of, or in connection with , without limitation: (a) your use of the Website, (b) operation of a Tour, (c) your performance or failure to perform the Tour and/or Services, (d) any transportation services associated with a Tour, (e ) any other services offered or performed by you, (f) your acts or omissions, representations, warranties, negligence, gross negligence or willful misconduct, (g) personal injury, death, property damage to you, a Traveler or any other party , and (h) your failure to accurately report, collect or remit taxes. BOOK@FRIENDS Group reserves the right, at its own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any claim subject to indemnification by you. If so, you agree to cooperate with the BOOK@FRIENDS group in pursuing any available defenses.
16. Dispute Resolution
PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY. YOU MUST RESOLVE ANY DISPUTES BY ARBITRATION, NOT BY JUDGE.
Except where prohibited by law, all disputes arising out of or relating to this Agreement will be initiated, negotiated and resolved by arbitration, except that you may assert a claim on an individual basis in small claims court. If any part of this Arbitration Agreement is held invalid or unenforceable, the other parts will remain in effect. You and BOOK@FRIENDS acknowledge and agree that you are waiving all constitutional and statutory rights to a jury trial and seeking remedy in court.
The arbitration will be conducted in English before a single arbitrator and within the United Arab Emirates. The arbitration may be held remotely and the costs will be borne by each party.
However, you and BOOK@FRIENDS agree to resolve any dispute in the least onerous manner. Therefore, you and BOOK@FRIENDS agree to negotiate a resolution of the Dispute informally and in good faith prior to initiating arbitration. The party making the request shall notify the other party of the initiation of the informal dispute resolution procedure. You and BOOK@FRIENDS will participate in a videoconference within 45 days of receipt of notice, unless extended by agreement of the parties. Any applicable statute of limitations will be temporarily suspended during this negotiation period.
You may opt out of this Agreement to Arbitrate by notifying BOOK@FRIENDS in writing within 30 days of the effective date of this Agreement to Arbitrate. Your notice will include your name, BOOK@FRIENDS routing number, and a clear statement that you are opting out of this Agreement to Arbitrate. If you opt out, all other parts of this Agreement will continue to apply.
17. Waiver of Class Action Disputes
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, you agree that any arbitration and trial of any dispute arising out of or relating to this Agreement will be conducted solely on an individual basis and you agree not to seek any controversy, claim or dispute that is being tried as a class action or any other type of representative proceeding.
18. Force Majeure
We are exempt from liability for partial or total non-performance of obligations under this contract due to force majeure. In the event of force majeure, we will notify you of the beginning and end of circumstances that prevent us from fulfilling our obligations.
19. Contract Modifications
BOOK@FRIENDS, in its sole discretion, may change and amend this Agreement from time to time. BOOK@FRIENDS will notify you at least thirty (30) days in advance of the effective date of any material changes to this Agreement. If you do not terminate the Agreement before the effective date of the changes, you will be deemed to have accepted the amended Agreement. If you do not agree to the amended Agreement, you will terminate it prior to the effective date and stop accessing your tour guide's account and using our Services.
20. Term of Agreement
This Agreement is effective immediately after your request is sent pursuant to Section 5 and will remain in effect until terminated by either party as provided herein.
You may terminate this Agreement at any time by emailing us. If you terminate this Agreement, all accepted reservations will be automatically canceled.
BOOK@FRIENDS may terminate this Agreement without notice and terminate or restrict your access to your tour guide's account if (i) you are in material breach of this Agreement, (ii) you are in violation of any applicable law, (iii) BOOK@FRIENDS believes that such termination is necessary to protect BOOK@FRIENDS, the users of the website or other third parties, or (iv) your Guide's account remains inactive for 60 days. If we terminate this Agreement, we may provide travelers with a full refund for any accepted bookings that have been canceled and you will not be entitled to compensation for any pending or accepted bookings that have been cancelled.
If this Agreement is terminated, you will not be entitled to have your Guide account reinstated and you may not apply for a new Guide account or access and use the Site through another Guide's account.
In the event of termination or expiration, the following sections will survive: Disclaimer of Liability, Limitation of Liability; Responsibility and indemnification of the tour guide, duration of the agreement; Waiver of Dispute Resolution and Class Actions for Litigation.
21. General Provisions
(a) Waiver. BOOK@FRIENDS' failure to enforce any provision of this Agreement shall not be construed as a waiver of any provision or right.
(b) Governing Law. This Agreement and all other aspects of the use of the Website shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the United Arab Emirates.
(c) Entire Agreement. This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between you and BOOK@FRIENDS with respect to the subject matter of this Agreement.
(d) Severability Clause. If any provision of this Agreement is determined to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall, to the maximum extent possible, remain valid and enforceable and remain in full force and effect.
(e) Successors. This Agreement is binding on you and BOOK@FRIENDS and their successors and assigns.
(f) Notice. All notices or other communications made hereunder will be in writing by email to the following address: shop@bookatfriends.com
(g) Legal Counsel. You agree that you have been advised to seek independent counsel of your choice in relation to your rights, obligations and interests under this Agreement.
Status 01.07.2024
