Terms of Service

1. Who we are

Guide Services ("Guide Services," "we," "us," or "our") is a software company headquartered in Mobile, Alabama. We operate the websites at goguideservices.com, fish.goguideservices.com (FishGuide), and hunt.goguideservices.com (HuntGuide), along with the per-charter websites and booking-management portal we build for our charter customers.

The legal entity behind Guide Services is in formation. Once formed, this section will be updated to identify it. Until then, "Guide Services" refers to the unincorporated business operated by its founder and the Guide Services trade name.

2. What the platform is (and isn't)

Guide Services provides software-as-a-service ("SaaS") tools that help independent hunting and fishing guides ("Charters") run their businesses. Our software helps Charters publish a website, accept and manage bookings, communicate with their customers, collect payment, and operate day-to-day.

Guide Services is a software vendor. We are not:

• A booking marketplace or trip-discovery service. We do not list, advertise, or recommend any specific Charter to consumers. Each Charter operates their own brand on their own URL using our software.
• A payment processor or money transmitter. Payments between consumers and Charters flow through third-party processors such as Stripe Connect; Guide Services receives only a software fee for the use of our platform.
• A licensed guide, captain, outfitter, or operator. We do not run trips, host customers, hold any state or federal guide license, or carry liability insurance covering trip operations.
• A party to any booking, trip, deposit, refund, or dispute between a Charter and that Charter's customers, except as specifically required to operate the underlying software.

Each Charter is solely responsible for the trips it offers, the customers it serves, the licenses and insurance it holds, and the content and policies that appear on its Guide-Services-hosted site.

3. Definitions

• Charter. A hunting or fishing guide business that has signed up to use Guide Services software, including its owner, employees, captains, mates, and authorized representatives.
• Customer. An end-consumer who books, pays for, or takes a trip with a Charter, regardless of whether they hold a Guide Services account.
• End User. Any natural person interacting with the platform, whether as a Charter, Customer, or visitor.
• Booking. A trip reservation a Customer places with a Charter through Guide Services software.
• Platform Fee. The 5% software fee Guide Services collects per Booking, either by deducting it from the Customer's payment (the "pass-through" model) or by invoicing the Charter monthly (the "absorb" model).
• Setup Fee. The one-time onboarding fee paid by the Charter to put their site, customer list, and content live on Guide Services. Tiers: $250 (light), $500 (standard), $750 (heavy lift).
• Subscription Fee. The $29 per month flat fee charged after the pilot period.
• Pilot. The first 3-5 Charters Guide Services onboards under no-cost terms (no Setup Fee, no Subscription Fee, no Platform Fee) for 60 days, governed by a separately signed Pilot Agreement.

4. Accounts and eligibility

To use Guide Services as a Charter, you must be a legitimate, currently operating hunting or fishing guide business with the licenses, permits, and insurance required by your state and federal regulators for the activities you offer. You must be at least 18 years old (or 21 where required for outfitter licensing) and able to enter into a binding contract.

To use Guide Services as a Customer, you must be at least 18 years old. Minors may participate in trips only with the consent and supervision of a parent or guardian who has booked on their behalf and who agrees to these Terms and to the booking Charter's policies.

You agree to provide accurate, current information when creating an account, to keep your credentials secure, and to notify us promptly of any unauthorized use. You are responsible for all activity under your account.

5. Charter responsibilities

By signing up to use Guide Services, each Charter represents and agrees that, at all times during their use of the platform:

• They hold all licenses, permits, registrations, and insurance required for their hunting or fishing operations under federal, state, and local law, and they will keep those credentials current.
• The information they publish on their Guide-Services-hosted site (descriptions of trips, pricing, availability, captain biographies, photos, policies) is accurate, current, and theirs to publish.
• They are the sole controller of their Customer data — names, contact information, booking history, and notes — and they are responsible for handling that data in compliance with applicable privacy and consumer-protection laws.
• Cancellation, refund, and reschedule policies they configure on the platform are the policies they will honor with their Customers. We render and apply those policies; we do not invent them.
• They will collect and remit any sales, occupancy, or excise taxes required by their jurisdiction. Guide Services may surface tax-rate fields in the software, but the Charter is solely responsible for the rate, the collection, and the remittance.
• They will not use the platform to commit fraud, harass Customers, evade taxes, violate fish-and-game regulations, or otherwise break the law.
• They acknowledge that Guide Services is software, not a substitute for professional legal, tax, insurance, or compliance advice.

6. Customer responsibilities

By booking a trip through Guide Services software, each Customer represents and agrees that:

• The personal and contact information provided is accurate.
• They have read and accepted the Charter's stated cancellation, refund, weather, safety, and waiver policies as displayed at the time of booking.
• They will follow the Charter's reasonable instructions during the trip, including those concerning safety, conservation, fish-and-game limits, weather decisions, and conduct.
• They understand that hunting and fishing carry inherent physical risks, that weather and wildlife are unpredictable, and that the Charter — not Guide Services — is the operator they are contracting with.
• If a dispute arises about the trip itself (refunds, conduct, condition of equipment, safety), the dispute is between the Customer and the Charter. Guide Services may share booking records with both parties on request but is not obligated to mediate or resolve it.

7. Fees and payments

7.1 Pricing structure

Charter-side pricing has three components, each separately disclosed in the signed engagement document with that Charter:

• Setup Fee: a one-time fee of $250, $500, or $750 depending on the scope of onboarding work (site build, content load, customer-list import, Stripe Connect setup, intake call duration). Charged after the engagement document is countersigned and before site launch.
• Subscription Fee: $29 per month, billed monthly in advance, beginning either at site launch or at the end of the Pilot period if the Charter is a pilot participant.
• Platform Fee: 5% of the booking subtotal, applied per completed Booking. The Charter chooses, in their settings, whether the 5% is added to the Customer's total ("pass-through") or absorbed by the Charter ("absorb"). The math is shown to the Customer at checkout in either case.

7.2 Payment collection

Most Charters use Stripe Connect (Express). Customer payments flow into the Charter's connected Stripe account; Guide Services collects its Platform Fee as the Connect platform fee at that time. Charters who cannot or do not want to use Stripe (typically those with an existing Square or other merchant account) instead receive a monthly invoice from Guide Services covering the Platform Fees on Bookings completed that month, payable via a Stripe-hosted payment link.

7.3 Pilot terms

Pilot Charters pay no Setup Fee, no Subscription Fee, and no Platform Fee for 60 days. The full pricing schedule above applies after the Pilot period ends, unless a separately signed Pilot Agreement provides different terms (in which case the Pilot Agreement controls).

7.4 Disputes about fees

If a Charter believes a Platform Fee was collected in error (for example, on a Booking that was canceled within the no-fee window), the Charter should contact us at [email protected] within 60 days of the disputed transaction. Refunds, if owed, are issued back through the original payment path within 14 days of resolution.

8. Cancellation and refunds

Cancellation, refund, no-show, and reschedule policies between a Charter and that Charter's Customers are configured by the Charter and applied automatically by our software. Whatever percentage refund or credit a Customer is owed under the Charter's stated policy is what the Customer receives, and is processed back through the original payment path. Guide Services does not adjudicate trip-level disputes or override Charter-set policies.

Platform Fees on canceled or refunded Bookings: if a Booking is canceled before any service is rendered and a full refund is issued to the Customer, Guide Services refunds its Platform Fee on that Booking. If a partial refund is issued under the Charter's policy, Guide Services pro-rates its Platform Fee accordingly. If no refund is issued (no-show, late cancellation outside the policy window), the Platform Fee remains earned.

Subscription Fees and Setup Fees are non-refundable except where required by law or where Guide Services has materially failed to deliver the contracted service.

9. Charter content and intellectual property

The Charter retains ownership of the content it publishes through Guide Services — site copy, photographs, captain biographies, trip descriptions, pricing, customer notes, and customer lists. The Charter grants Guide Services a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, display, format, and distribute that content as needed to operate the platform on the Charter's behalf, including delivering it to the Charter's Customers and storing it in our backups.

The Guide Services software, source code, designs, brand marks ("Guide Services," "FishGuide," "HuntGuide," and associated logos), templates, and documentation are owned by Guide Services. Charters receive a non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the software during the term of their subscription. Charters do not receive any right to sublicense, resell, reverse-engineer, or fork the platform.

Customer-uploaded content (photos shared after a trip, reviews, waiver signatures) is owned by the Customer who uploaded it; the Customer grants the Charter a license to display it on the Charter's site and to retain it for the Charter's records. Guide Services hosts that content on the Charter's behalf under the same terms.

10. Suspension and termination

By the Charter. A Charter may terminate at any time on 30 days' written notice (email is sufficient) to [email protected]. Upon notice, Guide Services exports the Charter's data — customer list, booking history, content, financials — in CSV and PDF formats and provides it to the Charter within 30 days, then retires the Charter's site and account.

By Guide Services. We may suspend or terminate a Charter's account, with reasonable notice, if the Charter materially breaches these Terms (including failure to maintain required licenses or insurance, repeated chargebacks, fraud, or misuse). For non-material issues, we will give the Charter written notice and a reasonable opportunity to cure before suspending. For severe issues — fraud, harm to Customers, illegal conduct — we may suspend immediately and notify after.

On termination by either party, the Charter's site is retired, their domain is released back to them (if they own it) or pointed away from our platform (if it was a Guide Services subdomain), and their data is exported. Customers who have made Bookings already paid for retain whatever rights to those trips the Charter has agreed to honor.

11. Prohibited use

End Users must not, directly or through automated means:

• Use the platform to commit or facilitate fraud, identity theft, or money laundering.
• Upload content that is unlawful, defamatory, harassing, threatening, sexually explicit, or that infringes third-party rights.
• Probe, scan, or test the platform for vulnerabilities, except through a coordinated security disclosure to [email protected].
• Interfere with the platform's operation, including by overloading it, scraping it at high volume, or circumventing rate limits.
• Resell, sublicense, or rebrand the Guide Services software as their own SaaS product.
• Use the platform to violate fish-and-game regulations, conservation law, or any other applicable law.

12. Disclaimers

The platform is provided "as is" and "as available." To the maximum extent permitted by law, Guide Services disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and uninterrupted or error-free operation. We do not warrant that the platform will meet every Charter's specific business needs, that all features will be available continuously, or that data will never be lost (we maintain backups, but Charters should keep their own copies of their content).

Guide Services makes no representation or warranty about any specific Charter's services, licenses, insurance, safety record, or fitness for a Customer's intended trip. Customers contract with Charters at their own risk.

13. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Guide Services' total cumulative liability to any single End User under or relating to these Terms is capped at the greater of (a) $500 or (b) the total fees that End User paid Guide Services in the 12 months preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

Guide Services is not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages — including lost profits, lost goodwill, lost data, or loss of business — even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.

Guide Services is not liable for the acts or omissions of any Charter or any Customer, including injury, property damage, refund disputes, conduct on a trip, or violation of fish-and-game law. Those parties are solely responsible for the underlying trip and its consequences.

Some jurisdictions do not allow these limitations; in those jurisdictions, our liability is limited to the greatest extent law permits.

14. Indemnification

Each Charter agrees to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Guide Services and its owners, employees, contractors, and successors from and against any claim, liability, damage, or expense (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of (a) the Charter's trips, services, or conduct; (b) any dispute between the Charter and a Customer; (c) the Charter's content; (d) the Charter's violation of any law, including fish-and-game, tax, employment, or consumer-protection law; or (e) the Charter's breach of these Terms.

Each Customer agrees to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Guide Services from and against any claim arising out of the Customer's use of the platform in violation of these Terms or applicable law.

15. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Alabama, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. The exclusive venue for any action arising out of or relating to these Terms is the state and federal courts sitting in Jefferson County, Alabama. Each party consents to personal jurisdiction in those courts and waives any objection to that venue.

Jury trial waiver. To the maximum extent permitted by law, each party irrevocably waives any right to a trial by jury in any action arising out of or relating to these Terms.

The parties will attempt to resolve disputes informally first by contacting [email protected] with a written description of the dispute and the relief sought; the parties will have 30 days to negotiate in good faith before filing suit.

16. Changes to these terms

Guide Services may update these Terms from time to time. We will notify active Charters by email at the address on file at least 30 days before any material change takes effect, and will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Continued use of the platform after the change takes effect constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms. If a Charter does not accept a material change, the Charter may terminate under Section 10 without paying further Subscription Fees.

17. Contact

Questions about these Terms, requests to exercise a contract right, or notices required by these Terms should be sent to:

Guide Services
[email protected]
Mobile, Alabama