Terms of Service

Ghyd Member Lounge is operated by Ghyd, LLC. (“Ghyd”, “we”, “us”). Our registered address is 1195 Saint Matthews Rd, PMB 330, Orangeburg, SC 29115, United States.

Membership is by invitation. There is no public sign-up: an account is created either when Ghyd invites you, or when an existing member who is hosting a trip invites you to join it. If you received an invitation email, accepting it and completing your profile creates your account and means you accept these terms.

Each trip has one trip owner. Other travellers on that trip are guests. The owner is the person who books, who holds the payment method on file, and who is responsible for the trip. A trip owner may also add a traveller who does not have their own email address or login — for example a child or a partner. If you do that, you confirm that you are entitled to share that person’s details with us and that you accept these terms on their behalf.

[LEGAL REVIEW] Minimum age to hold an account, and the age at which a traveller must have their own account rather than being added by an adult. We record no date of birth anywhere in our systems, so we cannot enforce an age limit technically — counsel should decide what we state, and whether a contractual age representation is enough.

[LEGAL REVIEW] Whether membership itself is a paid subscription, and if so its price, term and renewal mechanics. Our systems bill for trips, experiences and add-ons, not for a recurring membership fee. [CONFIRM: is there a membership fee or dues?]

Ghyd arranges real-world travel. We curate destinations and private villas, coordinate stays, and book experiences with local operators: chefs, guides, drivers, tour companies, grocery pre-stocking services, property managers and similar partners. We also track your flights so we can meet you.

Those services are delivered by independent third parties, not by Ghyd. We select them, brief them and coordinate them, but we do not own or operate the villas, vehicles, boats, kitchens or activities. Each partner has its own operating standards, safety practices and, in some cases, its own terms and waivers, which you may be asked to sign on site.

We do not sell travel insurance, and Trip Protection (described below) is not insurance. We are not an airline, a tour operator or a travel agency of record [CONFIRM: preferred characterisation].

[LEGAL REVIEW] Our legal status as a seller of travel. Depending on how we are characterised, registration and trust-account obligations may apply — for example California’s Seller of Travel programme, Florida and Washington equivalents, and the UK Package Travel Regulations for any EU/UK members. This determines whether we may describe ourselves as an agent, a principal, or a disclosed intermediary, and it drives most of the liability language below.

When you book a trip, an experience or an add-on through the Member Lounge, you are making a request that becomes binding once we confirm it. Confirmation may depend on a partner’s availability, so a booking is not final until you see it confirmed in your itinerary.

Payments are processed by Stripe. Your card number, expiry and security code are entered directly into Stripe’s own secure fields and never reach Ghyd’s servers. We store only the card brand, the last four digits and the expiry month and year so you can recognise the card.

The trip owner is the party charged. That means the trip owner is responsible for the cost of the trip and for amounts incurred by everyone on it, unless we have agreed a split arrangement in writing.

Card on file. While you are an active member, at least one valid payment method must remain on file. When you add a card you authorise us to charge it for costs incurred during your trip, including:

• property damage;

• unpaid experience bookings;

• guest policy violations, such as exceeding the maximum guest count for your villa;

• Trip Protection, if you buy it;

• additional traveller slots;

• onboarding add-ons; and

• other incidentals.

We do not collect a security deposit. Wherever possible we will tell you about a pending charge before we process it, and any charge for damage or a policy violation will be described to you, with the amount, before it is taken. You can update or replace your card at any time.

Group size and additional travellers. Each trip has a standard traveller limit and a maximum limit set by the villa. If your group wants to exceed the standard limit, the trip owner may purchase an additional traveller slot, charged to the card on file. The fee is set per trip and is shown to you before you confirm; once the villa’s maximum is reached, no further travellers can be added at any price.

Prices are shown in [CONFIRM: currency and whether taxes are included]. Taxes and fees associated with a purchase are charged in addition where indicated.

[LEGAL REVIEW] The card-on-file authorisation, especially for damage and policy violations. This is a pre-authorised charge to a stored card for an amount not agreed in advance, which is regulated differently across jurisdictions and is a common source of chargeback disputes. Counsel should confirm the notice period, the dispute route, any cap, and whether a separate signed authorisation is needed rather than the in-app acceptance we record today.

[LEGAL REVIEW] Whether any in-app purchase must run through Apple or Google in-app-purchase billing rather than Stripe. Real-world travel services are generally exempt, but Trip Protection and some add-ons sit close to the line, and getting it wrong is both a 30 percent revenue question and a rejection risk.

Because every Ghyd trip is bespoke, we make commitments to villas, guides and partners on your behalf well before you travel. Our policy tries to balance flexibility against those commitments. The full policy is published separately and forms part of these terms — see the Cancellation & Refund Policy. In summary:

• Within 10 days of purchase of an experience or service, you may cancel for a full refund less administrative fees.

• After 10 days, payments become non-refundable, because of the advance commitments made on your behalf.

• Rescheduling. If the problem is timing, we will try to move your experiences. If you need to move the whole trip, paid experiences and services may transfer to your new dates provided Trip Protection was purchased.

• Trip Protection carries your experiences and services over to new dates without loss if you have to reschedule. It is an optional purchase and it is not travel insurance.

• Never refundable: Trip Protection itself, extra traveller fees, taxes and fees associated with your purchases, and unused services, no-shows or early departures.

• Custom and peak-season trips may carry additional restrictions. We will tell you at the time of booking.

• Processing. Approved refunds are issued within 14 business days.

The administrative fee deducted from a within-10-days refund is [CONFIRM: administrative fee — amount or percentage, and whether it is a flat fee or the non-recoverable partner cost].

If we cancel — because a villa becomes unavailable, a partner fails, or for safety reasons — we will offer you alternative dates or a refund of amounts paid for the affected services. [CONFIRM: our standard remedy when Ghyd cancels; the code does not define one]

[LEGAL REVIEW] This whole section. Cancellation and refund terms for travel are heavily regulated and vary by where the member lives. Points needing a decision: whether “within 10 days of purchase” is measured from payment or from confirmation; whether the 10-day window survives statutory cooling-off rights (UK/EU distance-selling and package-travel rules, and several US state travel-services statutes, may override it); whether an undisclosed “administrative fee” is enforceable; whether making taxes and fees non-refundable is lawful where those taxes are not actually remitted on a cancelled booking; and what happens on force majeure, government travel restrictions, natural disaster or a partner’s insolvency, none of which our current policy addresses.

The Member Lounge is a private space for members and their travelling companions. When you use it, please:

• keep your login to yourself — do not share your account, and tell us promptly if you think someone else has access;

• give accurate information, particularly traveller names and passport details, since partners and border authorities rely on them;

• only share another person’s details if you are entitled to;

• use chat, notes and uploads for genuine trip coordination — no harassment, no unlawful content, nothing you do not have the rights to share;

• respect villa house rules, guest limits and local law while you are travelling; and

• leave our systems alone — no scraping, no automated access, no attempts to reach data belonging to other members, and no circumventing the security of the site or the apps.

Our in-app assistant is powered by AI. It is helpful for orientation and suggestions, but it can be wrong. Please confirm anything that matters — times, addresses, entry requirements — with the Ghyd team before you rely on it.

You keep ownership of what you upload. You give us permission to store it and to share it with the partners who need it to deliver your trip. How we handle your personal information, including passport details and any dietary or medical needs you tell us about, is set out in our Privacy Policy.

We may suspend or close an account that breaches these terms. [CONFIRM: notice given before suspension, appeal route, and what happens to a booked trip when an account is closed]

We grant you a personal, non-transferable, revocable licence to install and use the Ghyd Member Lounge app on devices you own or control, for the purpose of managing your own membership and trips. You may not copy it, modify it, reverse-engineer it, or redistribute it.

The app is a window onto your Ghyd account. It does not replace your trip documents, and it needs an internet connection to show current information.

If you install the app from the App Store, Apple is not a party to these terms and has no obligation to support the app. These terms are between you and Ghyd. [CONFIRM: whether the full Apple “Instructions for Minimum Terms of Developer’s EULA” clauses — third-party beneficiary rights, product claims, IP claims, export compliance, US Government end-user terms — should be reproduced here in full]

[LEGAL REVIEW] Whether this section satisfies Apple’s minimum EULA requirements as a custom EULA, or whether we should instead point to Apple’s standard licensed application end-user licence agreement and keep this page purely about the travel service. Also confirm the account-deletion commitments Apple and Google require are stated somewhere a member can find them.

We take real care selecting our partners and coordinating your trip. What we cannot do is guarantee the performance of an independent business operating in another country, or the weather, or a border decision, or a flight schedule.

To the fullest extent the law allows, Ghyd is not liable for acts, omissions or failures of third-party providers, or for events beyond our reasonable control, and our total liability to you for any claim connected with a trip is limited to [CONFIRM: liability cap — commonly the amount you paid Ghyd for the affected service].

Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited — including liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or for fraud.

Travel carries risk. We strongly recommend you hold your own travel insurance covering medical care, evacuation, cancellation and personal belongings. Trip Protection is not a substitute for it.

[LEGAL REVIEW] The entire limitation of liability, the exclusion of consequential damages, any indemnity from the member, and the assumption-of-risk language for adventure activities. Personal injury on a trip is the realistic worst case for this business and the drafting here is placeholder only. Counsel should also decide whether waivers signed with local operators need to be reflected here, whether we should require proof of travel insurance, and how the cap interacts with consumer-protection rules that void it for UK/EU members.

These terms are governed by the laws of [CONFIRM: governing law — state and country], and disputes will be resolved in [CONFIRM: courts or arbitral forum, and seat].

Before starting formal proceedings, please contact us at memberlounge@ghyd.com. Most things are faster to fix by talking.

[LEGAL REVIEW] Governing law, forum, and whether to include an arbitration clause and class-action waiver. Note that a US choice of law and forum will not displace the mandatory consumer protections of a UK or EU member’s home country, and an arbitration clause may be unenforceable against them. Also decide whether small-claims court is carved out, and whether an EU Online Dispute Resolution reference is required.

We may update these terms as the service changes. The date at the top of this page always shows the current version.

If a change materially affects your rights, we will tell you before it takes effect — by email, or in the Member Lounge — and give you a chance to review it. The terms that applied when you booked continue to govern that booking; changes are not applied retroactively to trips already confirmed.

[CONFIRM: notice period for material changes, and whether continued use constitutes acceptance or an explicit re-acceptance is required]

[LEGAL REVIEW] Unilateral variation clauses are restricted in several jurisdictions, and mid-contract changes to price or cancellation terms for an already-booked trip are restricted almost everywhere. Confirm the notice mechanism and whether re-acceptance must be recorded.

Ghyd, LLC.
1195 Saint Matthews Rd, PMB 330, Orangeburg, SC 29115, United States
memberlounge@ghyd.com

Related documents: Privacy Policy · Cancellation & Refund Policy