Tripshepherd Terms of Use

Status: Draft — pending review by legal counsel. This document reflects how the Tripshepherd platform actually operates today and what we expect of users. It is not yet binding in its current form. Once finalised, it will replace any prior terms.

These Terms of Use ("Terms") form a binding agreement between you and Tripshepherd (the technology platform operated by See Sight Tours Inc. and its affiliates — referred to as "Tripshepherd", "we", "us", or "our"), and govern your access to and use of the Tripshepherd website, mobile applications, and related services (collectively, the "Platform").

The Platform is a technology service that connects travellers and guests with independent tour operators (each, an "Operator") who design, schedule, staff, and deliver tours and experiences. When you book a tour through the Platform, your booking is with the Operator — Tripshepherd provides the booking, payment, communication, and operational technology that powers the booking.

By creating an account, browsing the Platform, booking an experience, listing or operating an experience, or otherwise using the Platform, you agree to these Terms, our Privacy Policy, and the Cookie Notice. Tour participation is also governed by the Tour Participation Waiver and the Booking Terms presented at checkout.

1. Who can use the Platform

You may use the Platform only if:

• you are at least 18 years old, or the age of majority in your jurisdiction, whichever is greater;
• you can form a binding contract with us;
• you provide accurate, current, and complete information when you sign up;
• your use complies with these Terms and applicable law.

You may not use the Platform if we have previously suspended or terminated your access, or if you are barred from receiving the services under applicable law.

Travelling with minors. Adults may book and travel with minors as long as the minor's guardian completes the guardian portion of the Tour Participation Waiver before the tour begins.

2. Your account

When you create an account, you are responsible for:

• keeping your credentials confidential;
• all activity that occurs under your account;
• notifying us immediately if you suspect unauthorised access.

We may require email verification, phone verification, or other identity steps before some features are available. You agree to keep your contact information current so we can deliver booking confirmations, safety information, and other service messages.

You may close your account at any time. Some information may be retained as described in our Privacy Policy and as required by law (for example, transaction records for tax and accounting purposes).

3. The role of Tripshepherd, Operators, and resellers

Tripshepherd is a technology platform. We:

• power the booking, scheduling, payment, and communication tools that Operators use to run tours;
• present tour listings, prices, and availability supplied by Operators;
• process payments on behalf of Operators (see Section 6);
• provide customer support tooling and operational logs;
• distribute Operator inventory to authorised resellers and online travel agencies (each, an "OTA") where the Operator has chosen to sell through that channel.

Tripshepherd is not the provider of the tour itself unless explicitly stated. Operators are independent businesses responsible for delivering the experience, employing or contracting their guides, complying with local licensing and safety rules, and standing behind their service quality.

Where you book through an OTA or reseller, additional terms and a different cancellation policy from that channel may apply alongside these Terms.

4. Bookings

Booking, pricing, cancellation, refund, rescheduling, and no-show rules are set out in the Booking Terms / Cancellation Policy presented at checkout. By completing a booking you accept those terms in addition to these Terms.

Key points (reproduced for convenience):

• prices are shown in the currency selected by the Operator and may include taxes and fees as required by local law;
• payment is taken in full at the time of booking unless otherwise stated;
• the Operator's cancellation window applies — outside the window, refunds may be limited;
• Operators may cancel for safety, weather, capacity, regulatory, or operational reasons. Where the Operator cancels, you are entitled to a full refund of amounts you paid through the Platform;
• some experiences require a separate Tour Participation Waiver to be signed before the tour begins.

5. Tour participation

Participation in any tour is also subject to the Tour Participation Waiver. You are responsible for assessing whether a tour is suitable for you and any minors in your booking, following the Operator's safety instructions, and behaving responsibly during the experience.

The Operator (or Tripshepherd, where supporting the Operator) may refuse participation or remove you from a tour if you appear unfit to participate safely (including due to impairment), behave unsafely, or do not follow guide instructions. Refunds in those circumstances are governed by the Booking Terms.

6. Payments and refunds

Tripshepherd uses third-party payment processors (currently Stripe) to charge your payment method and to issue refunds. By providing payment details you authorise us, on behalf of the Operator, to charge your payment method for the booking total and any taxes, surcharges, or fees disclosed at checkout.

• Payment is taken in full at booking confirmation.
• Refunds, where due, are issued to the original payment method through the same processor and may take several business days to settle.
• If your bank, card issuer, or wallet declines a charge or initiates a chargeback, we may suspend related bookings until the dispute is resolved.
• We may share information necessary to defend payment disputes (booking and check-in evidence) with payment processors, banks, card networks, OTAs, and dispute-resolution bodies as described in the Tour Participation Waiver and the Privacy Policy.

You are responsible for any taxes, currency conversion charges, or fees imposed by your card issuer, bank, or wallet that are not collected by Tripshepherd at checkout.

7. Communications and consent

By using the Platform you agree we and Operators may contact you for service reasons, including:

• booking confirmations and updates;
• pickup, ETA, and meeting-point coordination;
• safety, weather, and itinerary changes;
• waiver and check-in workflows;
• responses to questions and support requests.

These messages may be delivered by email, SMS, push notification, in-app message, or phone, using the contact details you provide. Service messages are not optional — they are essential to delivering the booking.

For marketing messages (newsletters, promotions, recommended experiences):

• you may opt in or out of marketing communications in your account settings or via the unsubscribe link in marketing emails;
• where required by law, marketing SMS will only be sent after you have given express prior consent. You can opt out at any time by replying STOP to a marketing SMS;
• you can reach our support team for assistance by replying HELP to any SMS.

Internal note (to be removed once implemented): the platform currently defaults sms_opt_in to true at signup. To match this section, signup needs an explicit opt-in checkbox and back-end STOP/HELP keyword handling to satisfy A2P 10DLC carrier requirements.

8. User content and reviews

The Platform lets you submit content, including reviews, ratings, comments, photos, and messages ("User Content").

You retain ownership of your User Content. By submitting User Content you grant Tripshepherd and the relevant Operator a worldwide, royalty-free, sub-licensable licence to host, store, reproduce, display, distribute, translate, and create derivative works of that content, solely for the purposes of operating the Platform, displaying the content where you posted it, supporting bookings, and (for content marked appropriately) reasonable marketing of the Platform or the Operator. You can request removal of your User Content at any time, subject to legal and operational retention.

You represent and warrant that:

• you have the right to submit the User Content;
• the User Content does not violate the rights of any third party;
• the User Content complies with our Community Guidelines.

We may remove, hide, or restrict User Content that we reasonably believe violates these Terms, the Community Guidelines, or applicable law. We do not pre-screen reviews; reports of false, abusive, or illegal content can be sent to info@tripshepherd.com and will be reviewed.

9. Acceptable use

When using the Platform you must not:

• create fraudulent bookings or misuse refunds, chargebacks, or promotional credits;
• impersonate another person or business;
• harass, threaten, or harm other users, Operators, guides, or staff;
• scrape, crawl, mine, copy, reverse engineer, or otherwise harvest data from the Platform without our written consent;
• interfere with the integrity or performance of the Platform, or attempt to bypass security or rate-limiting measures;
• use the Platform to break the law or infringe anyone's rights;
• upload viruses, malware, or harmful code;
• use the Platform to send spam or unsolicited messages.

The full list is in our Acceptable Use Policy. We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these rules.

10. Intellectual property

The Platform, including its software, design, logos, and the Operator-provided content displayed on it, is protected by intellectual property laws. Except for the limited rights to use the Platform granted by these Terms, no licence is granted to you to use any Tripshepherd or Operator marks, content, or technology. Tripshepherd's and Operators' trademarks and branding may not be used without prior written permission.

You agree not to remove, obscure, or alter copyright, trademark, or other proprietary notices on the Platform or in materials we provide.

11. Third-party services

The Platform integrates with third-party services, including payment processors, mapping providers, identity verification providers, communication carriers, analytics providers, and OTAs. These third parties have their own terms and privacy practices. Tripshepherd is not responsible for the acts or omissions of third parties, except to the extent imposed by law.

12. Availability, beta features, and changes

We work hard to keep the Platform available, but we do not promise uninterrupted service. We may release new features, modify existing ones, or discontinue features for reasons including security, legal compliance, business priorities, or technical issues. Some features may be released as beta or experimental, and may behave differently from production features.

We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be communicated through the Platform or by email, and the "Effective" date and version on this page will be updated. Continued use of the Platform after a change means you accept the updated Terms. If you do not agree, you should stop using the Platform.

13. Suspension and termination

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Platform if:

• you breach these Terms, the Booking Terms, the Tour Participation Waiver, the Acceptable Use Policy, or the Community Guidelines;
• we reasonably suspect fraud, abuse, safety risk, or chargeback risk;
• we are required to do so by law or by a competent authority;
• the Operator or a third-party service we rely on requires it.

Where reasonable and lawful, we will give you notice and an opportunity to cure. In urgent cases (for example fraud, threats, or safety risk) we may act immediately. Sections of these Terms that by their nature should survive termination (including payment, intellectual property, indemnity, limitation of liability, and dispute resolution) will continue to apply.

14. Disclaimers

Except to the extent prohibited by law, the Platform and any content available through it are provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, statutory, or otherwise, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, or that the Platform will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free. Tripshepherd does not warrant the acts, omissions, or descriptions provided by Operators, OTAs, or other third parties.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties — to the extent we cannot lawfully disclaim a warranty, the disclaimer in this Section does not apply.

15. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law:

• Tripshepherd will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill, or other intangible losses, arising from or relating to the Platform, your use of the Platform, or any tour booked through the Platform;
• our total aggregate liability to you for all claims arising from or relating to the Platform or these Terms, regardless of the cause, will not exceed the greater of the amounts you paid through the Platform in the twelve (12) months immediately before the claim or one hundred Canadian dollars (CAD 100);
• nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited under applicable law (including, in some jurisdictions, liability for fraud, gross negligence, willful misconduct, death or personal injury caused by negligence, or non-waivable consumer rights).

16. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Tripshepherd and its affiliates, directors, officers, employees, agents, and partners from any third-party claims, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from or related to your breach of these Terms, your User Content, your use of the Platform, your tour participation, or your violation of any law or third-party right, except to the extent caused by Tripshepherd's negligence or willful misconduct.

17. Dispute resolution and governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable in Ontario, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles, except where mandatory consumer-protection rules of your jurisdiction require otherwise.

Before commencing formal proceedings, you and Tripshepherd will attempt to resolve disputes informally for at least thirty (30) days. If we cannot resolve the dispute, either party may bring proceedings in the courts located in Ontario, and the parties submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of those courts, except where mandatory law requires otherwise.

Nothing in this Section prevents either party from seeking urgent injunctive or interim relief from a court of competent jurisdiction.

For users in Quebec, the United States, the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or other jurisdictions with non-waivable consumer rights, those rights apply despite this Section.

18. General

• Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, the Cookie Notice, the Booking Terms, the Tour Participation Waiver, and any documents referenced in any of them, are the entire agreement between you and Tripshepherd regarding the Platform.
• No assignment by you. You may not assign these Terms without our written consent. We may assign these Terms to an affiliate or successor in connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, or reorganisation.
• No waiver. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of our right to enforce it later.
• Severability. If any provision is unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in effect.
• Force majeure. Neither party is liable for delay or failure caused by events beyond reasonable control, including severe weather, public health events, government orders, labour disruptions, or third-party service outages.
• Notices. We may give notices through the Platform, by email, or by other reasonable means. Notices to us should be sent to info@tripshepherd.com.

19. Contact us

Questions about these Terms? Contact us:

Tripshepherd

• Email: info@tripshepherd.com
• Phone: 1-888-961-6584
• Mailing addresses:
  • Canada: 5400 Robinson St, Niagara Falls, ON L2G 2A6
  • United States: 310 Pine Ave, Niagara Falls, NY 14301, United States