Partner Terms

1. About these Terms

These Partner Terms (the “Terms”) are an agreement between AskBooked, a trading name of BRAZAUSTRA PTY LTD (ABN 45 647 949 488), Queensland 4216, Australia (“AskBooked”, “we”, “us”) and the business that registers as a partner (“Partner”, “you”). They govern your use of the AskBooked partner portal and your participation in the AskBooked marketplace.

By ticking the acceptance box when you sign up, or by using the partner portal, you accept these Terms. If you accept on behalf of a business, you confirm that you are authorised to bind that business.

2. Definitions

• “Customer” means a person who books your services through AskBooked.
• “AskBooked Booking” means a booking for your services made through AskBooked, including through any AI assistant using an AskBooked connector.
• “Booking Value” means the price of the service booked, as shown to the Customer, excluding any separately disclosed AskBooked booking fee and any taxes collected on top of the price.
• “Commission” means our fee for an AskBooked Booking, calculated under section 7.
• “Listing” means the information you publish through the portal: business details, services, prices, availability, opening hours and policies.
• “Stripe” means Stripe, Inc. and its affiliates, which provide payment processing.
• “AI Assistants” means third-party AI products, such as Claude, ChatGPT and Muse, through which Customers use AskBooked.

3. Joining AskBooked

• Free to join. There is no sign-up fee, subscription, monthly fee or minimum term. You pay only Commission on AskBooked Bookings.
• Approval. New Listings are reviewed before they go live. We may approve, request changes to, or decline a Listing at our reasonable discretion, for example if we cannot verify the business or it falls outside the services we support.
• Eligibility. You must be a lawfully operating business, and the person creating the account must be at least 18. You must keep your account credentials secure and are responsible for activity under your account.
• Accurate information. Information you provide about your business, including its legal name, address and contact details, must be true, complete and kept up to date.
• Account verification. During partner account setup, you agree to receive a verification SMS at the mobile number you provide. Google receives and stores that number and uses it to improve spam and abuse prevention across Google services, including Firebase. Standard message rates may apply. This verification permission does not authorize marketing messages. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle account information.

4. Your listing and availability

You control your Listing. You are responsible for making sure that your services, descriptions, prices, opening hours, capacity, lead times and cancellation policy are accurate and kept up to date, and that your availability reflects times you can genuinely honour. If you also take bookings elsewhere, you must keep your AskBooked availability current so that Customers are not offered times that are no longer free.

We may display, format, translate, summarise and adapt your Listing so that AI Assistants and customers can understand it, and we may rank options using factors such as relevance, price, distance, availability and rating. We do not guarantee any number of bookings or any placement.

You can pause new bookings at any time from your dashboard. Pausing does not cancel bookings already made.

5. Bookings

• Binding bookings. An AskBooked Booking is a contract between you and the Customer, arranged by AskBooked as booking agent. You must honour every confirmed booking at the price, time and on the policy shown to the Customer when they booked.
• Price and policy at booking. Changes you make to prices or policies apply only to bookings made after the change.
• Additional charges. You may charge more than the booked price only if the Customer’s information was materially inaccurate or the Customer asks for additional services, and in each case only with the Customer’s agreement before the extra work is done.
• Cancelling a booking. If you must cancel, tell the Customer and us promptly, offer a reasonable alternative where possible, and give the Customer a full refund of the amount paid for that booking. Repeated cancellations may lead to suspension.
• No-shows and late cancellations are handled under the cancellation policy you published, which must be fair, clearly stated and compliant with consumer law.
• Booking requests. We may pass you requests for services that could not be booked instantly. You may accept or decline them.

6. Payments and Stripe

• Your own Stripe account. To accept payments through AskBooked you must create or connect a Stripe Standard account through the partner portal and keep it in good standing. Your relationship with Stripe is governed by the Stripe Services Agreement and the Stripe Connected Account Agreement, which you accept with Stripe. AskBooked is not a party to your agreement with Stripe.
• Direct charges. Customer payments are created as charges directly on your Stripe account. You are the merchant of record, and the Customer’s statement may show your business name.
• We never hold your money. Funds are paid out to you by Stripe on your Stripe payout schedule. AskBooked does not receive, hold or control Customer funds.
• Processing fees. Stripe’s processing fees for charges on your account are charged to you by Stripe under your agreement with Stripe.
• Without online payments. Until your Stripe account can accept charges, we may hold your Listing in review, or allow Customers to book and pay you directly at the time of service. Commission remains payable on those bookings and we will invoice it to you.

7. Commission

• Rate. Commission is a percentage of the Booking Value of each AskBooked Booking, at the rate shown for your service category on our partner page and in your portal when you join. Some categories have a maximum Commission per booking, and some are offered at 0% during launch periods.
• Automatic collection. Commission is collected automatically as a Stripe application fee on each charge, so it is deducted from the payment before the funds reach your balance. For bookings paid outside Stripe, Commission is invoiced and payable within 14 days.
• Refunds. If a booking is cancelled and the Customer receives a full refund, we refund the Commission for that booking. If a partial refund is made, Commission applies only to the amount you keep. Commission is not refunded where a refund results from your own breach of these Terms.
• Changes to rates. We may change Commission rates by giving you at least 30 days’ written notice. Changes apply only to bookings made after the effective date. If you do not agree, you may close your account before the change takes effect.
• Taxes on Commission. Commission is exclusive of GST, VAT, sales tax or similar taxes, which will be added where required by law.

8. Refunds, chargebacks and taxes

• Refunds. You are responsible for issuing refunds in line with your published policy, these Terms and the law. Customers may ask us to help request a refund; you must respond promptly and in good faith.
• Chargebacks and disputes. As merchant of record, you are responsible for payment disputes, chargebacks, reversals and associated fees on your Stripe account, and for responding to them.
• Taxes. You are responsible for determining, charging, collecting, reporting and paying all taxes that apply to your services, including GST, VAT and sales taxes, and for issuing any tax invoices or receipts required by law.

9. Non-circumvention

AskBooked invests in bringing you new customers. For 12 months after a Customer first books you through AskBooked, you must not encourage or require that Customer to book or pay outside AskBooked for the purpose of avoiding Commission, for example by offering a discount to book directly, cancelling an AskBooked Booking and re-booking it privately, or using the Customer’s contact details to divert future bookings.

This does not stop you from serving a Customer who independently contacts you, providing ordinary aftercare or follow-up for a booked service, or dealing with customers you already had before their first AskBooked Booking. If you breach this section, we may charge the Commission that would have applied to the diverted bookings and may suspend your account.

10. Service, licences and insurance

You are solely responsible for the services you provide, and you agree that you will:

• provide services with due care and skill, as described in your Listing, and in compliance with all applicable laws, industry codes and standards;
• hold and maintain all licences, registrations, permits, accreditations and qualifications required for your services and staff;
• maintain adequate insurance for your business, including public liability (general liability) insurance and, where relevant, professional indemnity, care-custody-control, goods-in-transit or vehicle cover, with limits appropriate to your services;
• for children’s activities, comply with all applicable child-safety and working-with-children or background check requirements;
• for health services, comply with professional registration, clinical and health-privacy obligations, and not rely on AskBooked for any clinical information;
• for notary and translation services, comply with the laws and commissioning requirements that govern your service; and
• comply with consumer law, including any guarantees you give Customers that cannot be excluded.

We may ask for evidence of licences or insurance at any time.

11. Customer data and privacy

• Purpose. We share Customer details with you (such as name, contact details, booking details and notes) so you can fulfil the booking. You may use them only to provide the booked service, to communicate about it, and to meet legal obligations.
• Marketing. You must not use Customer data for marketing unless the Customer has separately given you consent in accordance with applicable law.
• Your obligations. You act as an independent controller (or equivalent) for the Customer data you receive, and must comply with applicable privacy and data protection laws, including the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (where applicable), PIPEDA and provincial laws in Canada, US state privacy laws and, where applicable, the GDPR and UK GDPR.
• Security. You must protect Customer data with reasonable technical and organisational safeguards and notify us without undue delay (and in any case within 72 hours) of any security incident affecting data received through AskBooked.
• Sensitive information. You must not ask Customers to share sensitive information through AskBooked or an AI Assistant. Collect anything sensitive directly through your own compliant processes.
• Our own handling of personal information is described in our Privacy Policy.

12. Conduct

You must not:

• publish false, misleading or deceptive information, prices or reviews;
• discriminate against Customers unlawfully;
• list services that are illegal, unsafe or that you are not licensed to provide;
• attempt to manipulate search results, create fake bookings, or interfere with the platform or other partners;
• access or use the portal or any AskBooked system other than as permitted; or
• harass or behave abusively toward Customers or AskBooked staff.

13. Your content and our brand

You keep ownership of your business name, logo, photos and descriptions (“Partner Content”). You grant AskBooked a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence, for as long as you are a partner and a reasonable period afterwards to wind down, to use, reproduce, adapt and display Partner Content to operate, promote and improve AskBooked, including by making it available to AI Assistants. You confirm you have the rights needed to grant this licence. You may say that you accept bookings through AskBooked; other use of our name or logo requires our consent.

14. Confidentiality

Each party must keep confidential any non-public information received from the other that is marked confidential or would reasonably be understood to be confidential, and use it only for the purposes of these Terms, except where disclosure is required by law.

15. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless AskBooked and its officers, employees and contractors from and against any claims, losses, liabilities, damages, fines, costs and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or in connection with: (a) the services you provide or fail to provide; (b) your breach of these Terms or of law; (c) your Partner Content; (d) injury, loss or damage suffered by any person in connection with your services; (e) taxes payable in connection with your services; or (f) your handling of Customer data. This indemnity is reduced to the extent that the loss was caused by AskBooked’s own breach or negligence.

16. Disclaimers

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the partner portal and the AskBooked marketplace are provided “as is” and “as available”. We do not guarantee any volume of bookings, revenue, placement or uninterrupted availability, and we are not responsible for the operation of Stripe or of any AI Assistant.

17. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law: (a) neither party is liable to the other for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive loss, or for loss of profits, revenue, goodwill or data; and (b) AskBooked’s total aggregate liability to you arising out of or in connection with these Terms is limited to the Commission you paid to AskBooked in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim.

These limits do not apply to your indemnity obligations, your payment obligations, a breach of section 9 (non-circumvention) or section 11 (customer data), or liability that cannot be limited by law. Where a law such as the Australian Consumer Law implies a guarantee that cannot be excluded, our liability is limited, where permitted, to supplying the relevant services again or paying the cost of having them supplied again.

18. Suspension and termination

• By you. You may close your account at any time by contacting us. You must honour bookings already confirmed unless you cancel them in line with section 5.
• By us. We may suspend or remove your Listing, or terminate these Terms, on notice if you breach them, if we receive credible complaints about safety, fraud or service quality, if your Stripe account is restricted, or if we are required to by law. Where reasonable, we will explain why and give you an opportunity to respond. We may also end these Terms for convenience on 30 days’ notice.
• Effect. Sections 7 to 9, 11, and 13 to 21 survive termination to the extent relevant, and Commission on bookings made before termination remains payable.

19. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms. For material changes, we will give you at least 30 days’ notice by email or in the portal, and you may be asked to accept the new version to keep using the portal. If you do not agree, you may close your account before the change takes effect.

20. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of Queensland, Australia, and each party submits to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of its courts. The parties will first try in good faith to resolve any dispute by negotiation for at least 30 days before starting proceedings, except where urgent relief is needed.

21. General

• The parties are independent contractors. Nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, joint venture, employment or franchise relationship. AskBooked acts as your booking agent only to the extent needed to arrange AskBooked Bookings.
• You may not assign these Terms without our consent. We may assign them to a successor to our business.
• Notices to you may be sent to the email address on your account. Notices to us must be sent to support@askbooked.com.
• These Terms, together with the rates and policies shown in the portal, are the entire agreement about their subject matter. If any provision is unenforceable, the rest remains in effect. A failure to enforce is not a waiver.
• Neither party is liable for delays caused by events beyond its reasonable control.

22. Contact us

Questions about these Terms? Email support@askbooked.com or write to [COMPANY LEGAL NAME], Queensland 4216, Australia.