Version v1.1-draft · Print / save PDF

HostelsDirect Partner Agreement

Version v1.1-draft · Effective on acceptance

DRAFT: NOT YET REVIEWED BY A LAWYER. HostelsDirect wrote this as a working draft. It is not legal advice and must be reviewed by a qualified lawyer before it is used with real partners. Items in [square brackets] need to be confirmed. Australian small-business standard-form contracts are covered by the unfair contract terms rules in the Australian Consumer Law (strengthened in Nov 2023), so a lawyer must check every one-sided term in this draft.

This Partner Agreement ("Agreement") is between Labhat Group Pty Ltd [ACN/ABN to confirm], trading as HostelsDirect.org ("HostelsDirect", "we", "us"), and the business that accepts it ("Partner", "you"). It covers your listing of one or more hostel properties on hostelsdirect.org and its apps (the "Service").

1. What HostelsDirect does

1.1 HostelsDirect is a hostel directory. Travellers find your property here and book directly with you, on your website or the booking engine you choose. HostelsDirect never takes bookings or guest payments, and it is not a party to any booking between you and a guest.

1.2 No commission. You pay a flat yearly fee only. We charge no commission, booking fee or per-click fee, and we never charge travellers a booking fee.

1.3 We run HostelsDirect on a not-for-profit model. Fees cover running costs and growing the directory. This describes how we operate. It is not a claim of legal charity or non-profit status.

2. Plans, fees and term

2.1 Plans. The current yearly fees, in euros and excluding any applicable taxes, are:

2.2 Term. Each subscription runs for 12 months from the end of its free trial, or from activation if there is no trial ("Term").

2.3 Free trial. New listings get a 4-month free trial, unless we tell you otherwise when you sign up. You add a payment method when you sign up, and nothing is charged during the trial. Each property can use the trial only once. Chain subscriptions do not include a trial.

2.4 Automatic renewal. When the trial ends, the subscription becomes a paid yearly Term. It then renews automatically for further 12-month Terms at the fee current at renewal, unless you cancel first. We will email you at least 14 days before the trial ends and at least 30 days before each renewal. The email will state the price and explain how to cancel.

2.5 Price changes. We will give you at least 60 days' notice before any fee increase. The new fee applies from your next renewal. If you don't agree to it, you can cancel before the renewal.

2.6 Payment. Fees are charged in advance through our payment processor, Stripe, using your card, PayPal, Apple Pay or another supported method. If a payment fails, we may retry it and contact you. If a payment remains overdue for more than 14 days, we may hide your listing until it is paid (see clause 10).

2.7 Invoices. We issue tax invoices from Labhat Group Pty Ltd. You can download them from the owner portal.

3. Cancellation and refunds

3.1 You can cancel at any time in the owner portal, or by emailing us. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current trial or Term, and your listing stays live until then.

3.2 If you cancel during the free trial, you are never charged.

3.3 Refunds. If you contact us within 30 days of a yearly charge, including a renewal, we will refund it in full and remove the listing. After 30 days, fees are non-refundable except where the law requires otherwise or clause 10.4 applies. Nothing in this Agreement limits any right you have under the Australian Consumer Law or other law that cannot be excluded.

4. Direct price vs OTAs (minimum 10% saving)

4.1 Commitment. For every listed property, your direct price must be at least 10% lower than your lowest publicly available price on any third-party online travel agency (OTA), such as Booking.com, Hostelworld, Expedia or Agoda. "Direct price" means the price on your own website or booking engine. The comparison is for the same room or bed type, dates, occupancy and conditions (for example, cancellation policy and inclusions). Travellers who reach you through HostelsDirect get your direct price. No further discount is applied on top of your direct price. The 10% is measured only against OTA prices, not against your own direct rates.

4.2 How travellers get it. Your Book now link (or website link) must take travellers to your own website or booking engine, where the direct price is shown and bookable. No promo code or special HostelsDirect rate is required.

4.3 How we present it. Your listing may show "Book direct: save X% vs OTAs", where X is the saving you state in the owner portal (10% or more), plus any perks you enable. You are responsible for keeping this statement true.

4.4 Verification. We may run spot-checks. These compare your direct price (via your Book-now link or website) with your prices on OTAs for sample dates and the same room, occupancy and conditions. We may also ask for screenshots. If your direct price is not at least 10% (or your stated X%) below the lowest OTA price, we will tell you, and you will have 7 days to fix it. Repeated or serious shortfalls may lead to suspension under clause 10.

4.5 Where a law or a contract you are bound by makes clause 4.1 unenforceable or unlawful, the commitment applies to the extent permitted. You must tell us so that we can adjust how your listing is presented. This includes OTA parity rules where they still apply.

5. Your listing and content

5.1 Accuracy. You must keep your listing accurate and up to date. That includes the name, address, room types, prices, photos, booking links, perks and stated direct-price saving. Each property must be a genuine hostel or backpacker accommodation with shared or dorm-style options.

5.2 Approval. We review every new property, and every material change, before it goes live. We may decline or ask for changes. We aim to do this within 5 business days.

5.3 Content licence. You keep ownership of your content. You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, reproduce, adapt (for example, by resizing or cropping), display and promote your content in the Service and in HostelsDirect marketing for as long as you are listed, plus a reasonable wind-down period. You confirm that you have the rights to everything you upload, including photos.

5.4 Perks. The perks you enable, such as a free welcome drink, are your promises to guests and you must honour them. We may moderate or remove custom perks that are misleading, unlawful or inappropriate.

6. Clicks, analytics and data

6.1 Click data. We count impressions and clicks on Visit website and Book now. We send these through tracked redirect links with UTM tags so that you can attribute bookings. We do not store travellers' raw IP addresses; we store only one-way hashes.

6.2 Analytics access. Pro and Chain plans include aggregated analytics in the owner portal. Basic does not.

6.3 Privacy. Each party complies with applicable data-protection law, including the GDPR/UK GDPR where it applies and the Australian Privacy Act 1988. We process your account data under our Privacy Policy [link]. Guest booking data is yours: you are its controller, and we never receive it. We act as an independent controller of directory usage data. If we ever process personal data on your behalf, we will sign a data processing agreement first.

6.4 Communications. We may email you about your account, billing, renewals and important Service changes. Marketing emails are optional, and you can unsubscribe from them.

7. Acceptable use

You must not: (a) post false or misleading content or reviews; (b) list a property you are not authorised to market; (c) scrape or attack the Service, or interfere with its security; (d) use HostelsDirect to send spam, or to take payments in our name; (e) discriminate unlawfully against guests; (f) breach the law, including consumer, tax and accommodation licensing rules.

8. Our commitments

8.1 We will operate the Service with reasonable care and skill. We will display your approved listing to travellers, and we will try to keep the Service available. Planned maintenance is excluded.

8.2 We do not guarantee any number of clicks or bookings, or any level of revenue. Placement and ranking may vary. Featured or paid placement is always labelled.

9. Liability and indemnity

9.1 To the maximum extent permitted by law, neither party is liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for lost profits, revenue or bookings.

9.2 To the maximum extent permitted by law, each party's total liability under this Agreement in any 12-month period is capped at the fees you paid in that period [or AUD/EUR minimum to confirm].

9.3 Clauses 9.1 and 9.2 do not limit liability for fraud, wilful misconduct, the indemnity in 9.4, or anything that cannot be limited by law.

9.4 Indemnity. You will indemnify us against third-party claims to the extent they arise from your content, your properties or services to guests, your perks or direct-price saving statements, or your breach of this Agreement or the law. We will tell you promptly about any such claim and let you control its defence.

10. Suspension and termination

10.1 We may suspend a listing immediately, with notice, for any of these reasons: (a) unpaid fees more than 14 days overdue; (b) a serious or repeated breach, including of clause 4; (c) a credible safety, legal or fraud concern; (d) inaccurate content that you have not corrected within 7 days of our request.

10.2 Either party may terminate this Agreement if the other materially breaches it and does not remedy the breach within 14 days of written notice. Either party may also terminate if the other becomes insolvent.

10.3 You may end the Agreement at any time by cancelling all of your subscriptions (clause 3).

10.4 If we terminate without cause, or end the Service, we will refund the unused part of your prepaid fees pro rata.

10.5 Clauses 5.3 (for the wind-down only), 6, 9, 11 and 12 survive termination.

11. Changes to this Agreement

11.1 We may update this Agreement. We will give you at least 30 days' notice of material changes, by email and in the owner portal. Each version has a version number.

11.2 You will be asked to accept the new version in the portal. If you don't accept it, you may cancel and receive a pro-rata refund of unused prepaid fees. Until the end of your current Term, the previous version continues to apply to you.

12. General

12.1 Governing law. This Agreement is governed by the laws of [New South Wales, Australia — to confirm]. The courts of that place have non-exclusive jurisdiction. Mandatory consumer-protection rights in your country are not affected.

12.2 Entire agreement. This Agreement, together with the plan details shown when you sign up, is the entire agreement between us about the Service.

12.3 Notices. We send notices to the account email address, and you send them to [legal@hostelsdirect.org].

12.4 Assignment. You may not assign this Agreement without our consent, which we will not refuse unreasonably, for example when a property is sold. We may assign it to a successor of the HostelsDirect business, provided we give you notice.

12.5 Electronic acceptance. You accept this Agreement by ticking the box during sign-up, claim or add-property, or in the portal. We record the version, the date and time, the user, and a one-way hash of the IP address.

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