Terms of Service

The terms governing your use of the Verandah platform.

Last updated: 6 May 2026

1. Who we are

Verandah is a property operations management platform provided by Authentic Retreats (Pty) Ltd, a company registered in South Africa. In these terms, "Verandah", "we", "our" and "us" refer to Authentic Retreats (Pty) Ltd trading as Verandah. "You" or "Customer" means the hotel, lodge or business that has signed up to use the platform.

By creating an account, accessing the platform or otherwise using the Verandah service, you agree to these terms. If you don't agree, don't use the platform.

2. The service

Verandah provides a cloud-based platform for hospitality operations — including, depending on your subscription, modules for guest messaging, reservations, spa, restaurant, activities, housekeeping, maintenance, finance, sales & marketing, reporting and others. The exact scope of your subscription is set out in your sign-up confirmation or order form.

We provide the service "as a service" — meaning we host, operate, maintain and update the platform on our infrastructure. You access it through a web browser using credentials we issue to your team.

3. Eligibility and accounts

To use Verandah you must:

• Be a business legally able to enter into contracts in your jurisdiction.
• Provide accurate registration information and keep it up to date.
• Be responsible for the actions of every user you authorise on your account.

You are responsible for keeping login credentials secure and for any activity that takes place under your account. Notify us immediately at hello@verandah.app if you suspect unauthorised access.

4. Subscription, fees and billing

The Verandah service is provided on a subscription basis at the rates set out in our published pricing or, where applicable, your individual order form. Unless otherwise agreed:

• Subscription fees are billed monthly or annually in advance.
• Fees are quoted exclusive of VAT and other applicable taxes, which are added at the prevailing rate.
• You are responsible for keeping a valid payment method on file. We may suspend the service if a payment is more than 14 days overdue.
• We may revise pricing on renewal with at least 30 days' notice. If you don't accept the revised pricing, you may cancel before the renewal date.

Card payments are processed by our payment provider (Peach Payments). We do not store full card numbers.

5. Cancellation and termination

You may cancel your subscription at any time by writing to hello@verandah.app. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period — we don't issue partial refunds for the period in progress unless required by law.

We may suspend or terminate your access if you materially breach these terms (including non-payment, misuse of the platform, or violation of the acceptable-use rules in section 8) and don't fix the breach within a reasonable period after we notify you.

On termination, you can request an export of your data within 30 days. After that, we delete your operational data in line with the retention periods in our Privacy Policy, except where we're legally required to retain it.

6. Data ownership and processing

You retain ownership of all data you upload to or generate within the Verandah platform — guest records, bookings, operational logs, messages, financial entries and so on ("Customer Data").

We act as a data processor in respect of personal information contained in Customer Data: we process it only on your instructions and for the purpose of providing the service. Our handling of personal information is governed by our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these terms.

We may use anonymised, aggregated information about platform usage to improve the product. We will never use Customer Data for marketing or share it with third parties beyond the named processors listed in our Privacy Policy.

7. Customer responsibilities

You are responsible for:

• Obtaining the necessary consents from your guests, staff and contacts for the personal information you process through Verandah.
• Configuring the platform appropriately for your property — including user permissions, integrations, branding and notification settings.
• Connecting and maintaining any third-party integrations you choose to use (Meta WhatsApp Business, Messenger, Instagram, payment providers, ad accounts, etc.) within those providers' own terms.
• Backing up exports of your data if you need a local copy in addition to what we hold.

8. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Use Verandah to send unsolicited bulk messages, spam, or any communication that violates the policies of an underlying messaging or advertising platform (WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, etc.).
• Process or store data through Verandah that would violate applicable law (including data you have no legal right to hold).
• Attempt to reverse-engineer, decompile, or scrape the platform except as expressly permitted by law.
• Interfere with the security, integrity or performance of the service — including probing for vulnerabilities outside a coordinated disclosure process.
• Use the service to compete with Verandah by building a substantially similar product.
• Resell, sublicense or provide the service to any third party except your own users.

We may suspend access immediately if we reasonably believe you are violating these rules and the violation poses a security risk or risk of harm.

9. Service availability

We aim to keep Verandah available 24/7 but cannot guarantee uninterrupted service. Planned maintenance is announced in advance where reasonably practicable. We are not liable for unavailability caused by:

• Scheduled or emergency maintenance.
• Failures of third-party services we depend on (hosting, database, messaging providers, payment gateways, internet connectivity, etc.).
• Force majeure events.
• Your own systems, network, or configuration.

If you experience an outage, write to hello@verandah.app and we will respond as quickly as we reasonably can.

10. Intellectual property

The Verandah platform, including its software, design, branding and documentation, is and remains the property of Authentic Retreats (Pty) Ltd. Subject to your compliance with these terms, we grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable right to access and use the platform for your own internal business operations during the term of your subscription.

You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell or lease any part of the platform, nor remove or alter our copyright, trademark or other proprietary notices.

11. Warranty disclaimer

The Verandah platform is provided "as is" and "as available". To the maximum extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties — express, implied or statutory — including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the platform will meet every requirement, be free of bugs, or operate without interruption.

12. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, our total cumulative liability for any claim arising out of or related to these terms or the service is limited to the amounts paid by you to Verandah for the service in the 12 months preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

We are not liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary or punitive damages — including lost profits, lost data, lost revenue or business interruption — even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes liability where it cannot be limited or excluded under applicable law (including liability for fraud, gross negligence or intentional misconduct).

13. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold Verandah harmless against any third-party claims, losses, damages or expenses (including reasonable legal costs) arising from your breach of these terms, your misuse of the platform, or your violation of any law in connection with your use of the service.

14. Confidentiality

Each party agrees to protect the other party's non-public information disclosed in connection with the service — including pricing terms, technical information and operational data — using at least the same care it uses for its own confidential information, and to use that information only for the purposes of operating or using the service.

15. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time to reflect changes in the service, our business or applicable law. Material changes will be notified by email to your account contact and by updating the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. If you continue to use the platform after the changes take effect, you accept the updated terms; if you don't agree, you may cancel as set out in section 5.

16. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. Any dispute arising out of or in connection with these terms will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the South African courts, save that we may seek injunctive relief in any jurisdiction necessary to protect our rights.

17. Contact

Questions about these terms? Write to us at hello@verandah.app or:

Authentic Retreats (Pty) Ltd
Port Alfred
Eastern Cape, South Africa