Ethiopia Bookings travel platformEthiopiabookings

Version 1.0

Terms and Conditions

This legal text is a starting template and must be reviewed and approved by qualified Ethiopian legal counsel before publication. It does not constitute legal advice.

1. Agreement

By using Ethiopia Bookings you agree to these Terms and Conditions. 'You' means any user — traveller, guest, property owner or visitor. 'We', 'us' and 'Ethiopia Bookings' refers to [Company Name], registered in Ethiopia.

2. What Ethiopia Bookings Is

Ethiopia Bookings is a marketplace that connects travellers with accommodation providers. We are not an accommodation provider and we do not own or operate any listed property. We provide the booking technology, take payment for the stay, and provide support and mediation. The accommodation contract is between you and the property.

3. Accounts and Guest Bookings

  • You may book with an account or as a guest using your name, email address and phone number.
  • Guest bookings are accessed through a secure link emailed to you. Treat that link as a credential and do not share it. A booking reference alone will not open a booking.
  • If you later create an account with the same email address, eligible past bookings can be linked to it once ownership of the email is proven.
  • You must be at least 18 years old to make a booking and must provide accurate details. Bookings made with false details may be cancelled.
  • Owner access is granted through a request handled by our team; users cannot grant themselves elevated roles.

4. Booking, Holds and Pricing

  • Availability is checked against the property's live nightly availability. A booking is only created if the requested rooms are genuinely available for every night of the stay.
  • When you proceed to payment, the rooms are held for a limited period (currently 15 minutes). If payment is not completed and verified before the hold expires, the booking is marked expired and the rooms are released. You may start again if the rooms are still free.
  • All prices are calculated by our servers from the property's stored rates. The total shown in the price breakdown — room subtotal plus platform service fee — is the amount payable. Your browser never determines the price.
  • A booking is only confirmed after payment has been verified. A booking reference shown on screen before verification does not by itself confirm a stay.

5. Payments

  • Payments are handled by third-party payment providers on their own hosted checkout pages. We never ask for or store card details.
  • Supported methods depend on the provider and may include cards and Ethiopian mobile money and bank options. Bank transfer bookings are confirmed manually by our team once the transfer is verified.
  • Payment status is confirmed from the provider (including provider notifications) before a booking is treated as paid. Duplicate provider notifications are ignored, and a payment whose amount does not match the booking total is held for review rather than automatically confirmed.
  • A payment that arrives after the hold has expired is flagged for reconciliation by our team, who will either reinstate the booking if the rooms are still available or arrange a refund.

6. Cancellations and Refunds

Cancellations follow the cancellation policy recorded on your booking at the time of booking, not the property's current policy. The refund amount is calculated and shown before you confirm a cancellation. Refunds are returned to the original payment method, automatically where the provider supports it and manually otherwise. Settlement timing depends on the payment provider and your bank or mobile money operator, and we do not guarantee a fixed timeframe. Full detail is in the Cancellation and Refund Policy.

7. Property Owner Terms

  • Accuracy: your listing content — description, photos, amenities, rates and availability — must be accurate and current. You are responsible for keeping the availability calendar correct; rooms shown as available may be booked immediately.
  • Honouring bookings: confirmed bookings must be honoured. If you cannot host a guest you must notify us and the guest immediately.
  • Commission and service fee: the platform charges the traveller a service fee on top of the room subtotal and deducts a commission from the room subtotal before payout. The rates applied to your bookings are shown in your owner earnings dashboard and in the booking breakdown; the current standard rates are a 5% traveller service fee and 10% owner commission, and any change will be notified to you.
  • Payouts: payouts are made to the payout account you register in the owner portal, after the stay and net of commission. You are responsible for the accuracy of those account details.
  • Verification: verification documents you submit are reviewed by our team. Verified status reflects the checks we have carried out and is not a warranty of quality or of compliance with any law.
  • Content licence: you grant Ethiopia Bookings a licence to display your listing content on the platform and in related promotion. You confirm you have the right to use the photos you upload.
  • Legal compliance: you are responsible for operating your property lawfully, including any licensing, safety and tax obligations that apply to you.

8. Reviews

  • Only travellers with a completed stay recorded on the platform may review that property.
  • Submitted reviews enter moderation and are published only after review. We may decline or remove reviews that are abusive, discriminatory, off-topic, contain personal data of others, or are not based on a genuine stay.
  • Property owners can read and respond to reviews of their properties but cannot edit or delete them.
  • Ratings shown on listings are aggregated from published reviews.

9. Communication

We send service messages by email about your booking: confirmations, secure access links, payment outcomes, cancellations and refunds, and owner notifications about bookings, listing decisions and payouts. These are part of the service and are sent while a booking is active. Support is available by email and WhatsApp through the support page. Any marketing email is separate and will always include an unsubscribe link.

10. Platform Rules

  • No circumvention: users may not arrange payment off-platform to avoid commission or fees. Accounts doing so may be suspended.
  • Prohibited content: listings, reviews and messages must not contain false information, discriminatory language, personal attacks or unlawful content.
  • Platform rights: Ethiopia Bookings retains ownership of the platform design, code and its own content, and may suspend accounts or remove listings that breach these terms.

11. Limitations of Liability

Ethiopia Bookings facilitates bookings but is not liable for the condition or quality of accommodation, the conduct of property owners or guests, cancellations by property owners, events outside our reasonable control, or losses arising from inaccurate information supplied by property owners. Our maximum liability for any booking-related claim is limited to the amount paid through Ethiopia Bookings for that booking.

12. Disputes

Raise disputes with us first, through the support channels above, quoting your booking reference. We will review the booking record and mediate between the parties. Unresolved disputes are subject to the laws of Ethiopia and the jurisdiction of Ethiopian courts.

13. Changes to These Terms

We may update these terms and will post changes on this page. Where changes are material we will notify registered users. Continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance.