Operator Terms of Service — Himalos for Businesses

These Operator Terms of Service ("Operator Terms") govern the relationship between Hexlab LLC, a limited liability company registered in North Carolina, USA, trading as "Himalos" ("Himalos", "we", "us", "our"), and any business or individual ("Operator", "you") who registers an account on the Himalos platform ("Platform") to list and sell travel experiences to travellers.

By creating an account, submitting a listing, or accepting a booking through the Platform, you agree to these Operator Terms. They work alongside our Traveller Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and Cancellation Policy, all of which are incorporated by reference. If these Operator Terms conflict with the general Terms of Service on a matter specific to operators, these Operator Terms win.

If you accept these Operator Terms on behalf of a registered business, you confirm you have the authority to bind that business, and "you" means the business.

1. What Himalos is (and isn't)

Himalos is an online marketplace and technology platform. We connect independent local travel operators based in Nepal with travellers who want to book experiences.

Himalos does not provide, conduct, or deliver any of the experiences listed on the Platform. When a traveller completes a booking, a direct contract is formed between that traveller and you for the experience itself. Himalos is not a party to that contract. We are not a tour operator or a co-provider of the experience.

Our role is limited to:

Helping travellers discover and book experiences;
Collecting traveller payments as your limited payment collection agent (see section 8);
Providing messaging tools for traveller–operator communication;
Hosting reviews; and
Providing account and listing management tools.

We do not direct, supervise, or control how you deliver your experiences.

Nothing in this section limits any rights travellers may have against Himalos under applicable consumer protection law.

2. Who can register

To register as an Operator you must:

Be a legally registered business or sole trader operating in Nepal;
Be at least 18 years of age;
Provide accurate, current, and complete business information, including your legal business name, registration number where applicable, primary contact details, and valid banking information for payouts;
Hold all licences, permits, and registrations required by Nepalese law for the types of experiences you intend to list;

You also confirm that neither you, your business, nor any of its owners or directors appear on any applicable sanctions or restricted-party list (including US OFAC lists), and you agree that we may screen for this at onboarding and periodically afterwards. If a screening result requires it, we may suspend your account and hold payouts while we investigate or as the law requires.

Keep your registered information up to date. Changes to your business name, banking details, or contact information must be reflected in your account promptly. Himalos is not liable for failed payouts or missed communications caused by outdated account information.

Operator accounts belong to the registered business and may not be transferred, sold, or shared without our prior written consent.

3. Account approval and verification

Every Operator application is manually reviewed by Himalos before any listing goes live or any booking is accepted. Approval is at our discretion and does not guarantee continued listing on the Platform.

We may ask for documents verifying your identity, business registration, licences, permits, or insurance at any time — including after initial approval. If you don't provide requested documents within a reasonable time, we may suspend your account and listings until verification is complete.

Approval is an administrative step. It is not an endorsement of your business, the quality of your experiences, or your compliance with the law.

4. Listings: your content, your responsibility

You are solely responsible for the accuracy, legality, and completeness of everything you publish on the Platform — package descriptions, itineraries, departure schedules, pricing, group size limits, inclusions, exclusions, difficulty ratings, cancellation tiers, images, and other media.

By submitting a listing, you promise that:

Every factual statement in it is accurate, current, and not misleading;
You can deliver the experience as described for every departure date or availability slot you publish;
You hold all licences, permits, and insurance the experience requires — including trekking permits, guide licences, vehicle permits, or other authorisations required by Nepalese law or the destination region;
You have the right to use all images and media you upload, including any model releases or location licences;
The displayed price is the total price the traveller pays for the package as described, with no hidden mandatory charges; and
The experience and how you deliver it comply with all applicable Nepalese laws, including tourism, safety, environmental, and consumer protection rules.

Keep your listings accurate. If an experience changes materially after a booking is confirmed — itinerary, departure point, inclusions — tell affected travellers promptly and offer a full refund if the change is material and the traveller doesn't accept it.

We may edit listings for formatting, or remove listings that break these standards, without prior notice. We'll ordinarily tell you when we remove one. Removing a listing doesn't affect bookings already confirmed at the time of removal.

5. Bookings: deliver what you sold

Once Himalos confirms a booking, you must deliver the experience as described, on the confirmed date, to the confirmed number of travellers, at the confirmed price.

You must not:

Accept bookings for dates or slots you know are unavailable or full;
Substitute the listed experience with a materially different product without the traveller's agreement;
Cancel a confirmed booking because of your own planning, resourcing, or commercial decisions; or
Direct travellers to complete or pay for any part of the booking outside the Platform.

If you cancel a confirmed booking for a reason within your control, the traveller gets a full refund of everything they paid, including the platform service fee. We'll process that refund and deduct the cost from your next payout or from any payout we're currently holding. Repeated operator-initiated cancellations will trigger an account review and may lead to suspension.

Respond to traveller messages sent through the Platform within a reasonable time. Persistently ignoring confirmed or prospective travellers is a breach of these Operator Terms.

6. Cancellations by travellers

Each listing must carry one of the four cancellation tiers defined in the Cancellation Policy: Standard, Short, Moderate, or Extended. You choose the tier when creating or editing a listing.

The tier shown on the listing at the time of booking is the one that applies to that booking. You can change a listing's tier at any time, but the change doesn't apply retroactively to confirmed bookings.

Himalos enforces the applicable tier when a traveller submits a cancellation request through the Platform. You can't override, modify, or waive the tier on your own once a booking is confirmed. If you'd like to offer a more generous refund — as a goodwill gesture, for example — contact us and we'll process it on your instruction.

7. Force majeure: when Nepal happens

Trekking and travel in Nepal are exposed to events nobody controls. This section covers what happens when they occur.

Force majeure events include: earthquakes, landslides, floods, avalanches, and other natural disasters; severe weather, including weather-related cancellation of domestic flights (such as Lukla flights); epidemics or public health orders; government action, including closure of trekking areas, national parks, or border crossings, or suspension of required permits; bandhs, strikes, or civil unrest; and any other event beyond the reasonable control of you or the traveller that makes the experience impossible or unsafe to deliver as booked.

If a force majeure event prevents an experience from going ahead, or makes it unsafe:

Tell us and the traveller immediately through the Platform.
Offer the traveller a choice, where feasible, of: (a) rebooking to a later date, (b) a credit for a future booking, or (c) a refund.
If the traveller chooses a refund, they receive a full refund of the amount paid, minus documented, non-recoverable costs you have already genuinely incurred for that specific booking (for example, permits already purchased in the traveller's name). You must provide evidence of those costs, and we decide in good faith what qualifies. Our platform commission on the refunded portion is waived.
A cancellation caused by a genuine force majeure event does not count against your account under section 5.

If the experience is interrupted partway through by a force majeure event, you and the traveller should agree on a fair partial arrangement; if you can't, contact us and we'll determine a fair apportionment in good faith based on what was delivered.

8. Payments, payouts, and the money we hold

This section matters. Please read it carefully.

How payment collection works. Himalos acts as your limited payment collection agent: by listing on the Platform, you appoint and authorise Himalos to collect payments from travellers on your behalf. A traveller's payment obligation to you is fully satisfied and discharged the moment the traveller pays Himalos. From that point, the traveller owes you nothing further for that booking, and Himalos owes you the payout described below. Card payments are processed through our third-party payment processor.

Where the money sits. Between the time a traveller pays and the time we pay you, booking funds are held in a bank account maintained separately from Himalos's own operating funds. Any interest earned on held funds belongs to Himalos. Holding funds until trip completion is how we protect travellers' refund rights and your payout — it is not a credit facility for either party.

When you get paid. Payouts run twice each month and cover bookings that have reached confirmed completion, minus our commission. A booking reaches confirmed completion seven (7) days after the scheduled end date of the experience , provided no refund request, dispute, or chargeback is open on it at that time. If one is open, the booking reaches confirmed completion when the issue is resolved in your favour.

Currency and fees. Payouts are made in US dollars to the bank account registered in your account. We pay the sending-side transfer fees; any receiving-bank fees, intermediary fees, or currency conversion applied on the Nepal side are borne by you, and the exchange rate applied by your bank (or its correspondents) is outside our control. Make sure your bank can lawfully receive foreign business payments under applicable Nepal Rastra Bank rules — that part is your responsibility.

When we may hold a payout. We may withhold a payout, in whole or in part, where:

There's an active traveller dispute, refund request, or chargeback on the booking;
Your account is under review or suspended;
A refund obligation has arisen that hasn't yet been offset against your payout balance;
We don't hold a valid tax form (section 2) or verified banking details for you; or
We're required to withhold by law or court order.

Right of offset. We may deduct from any payout (current or future) any amounts you owe under these Operator Terms — including refunds, chargebacks, penalties, or losses caused by your breach. This is intentional and mutual in spirit: it lets us resolve most money issues without anyone going to court.

Chargebacks. If a traveller's bank reverses a payment (a "chargeback"):

Before the experience: the booking is cancelled and no payout is owed for it.
After the experience: we'll notify you, and you'll have three (3) business days to send us evidence supporting the booking (delivery confirmation, communications, sign-in sheets, photos — whatever you have). We'll submit your response to the card issuer where possible. If the chargeback is ultimately lost, no payout is owed for that booking, we forgo our commission on it too, and if we already paid you for it, we may recover that amount by offset against future payouts.

Your bank details are your job. We're not liable for delayed or failed payouts caused by incorrect, outdated, or invalid banking information you provided.

Taxes. You are solely responsible for all taxes, duties, or levies on income you receive from bookings, including Nepalese income tax and VAT where applicable. We are responsible only for taxes on our own commission. We don't provide tax advice, and we don't withhold tax on your behalf unless the law requires us to. Where a traveller requests an invoice for the experience, you issue it (you're the provider); we'll give you the booking information you need to do so.

9. Pricing and commission

You set your own prices. Prices must be quoted in US dollars and must be the total price the traveller pays for the package as described — no mandatory taxes, fees, or charges left out.

Rate parity. The price you list on Himalos must not be higher than the price you offer for the same experience, on the same dates, through your own website or other online channels. In plain terms: don't use Himalos as your expensive shop window.

Commission. Himalos charges a commission on each confirmed booking. Your rate is stated in your onboarding communication and shown in your account settings. The commission covers the Platform, payment infrastructure, traveller support, and fraud protection, and is deducted from each booking before your payout.

Commission changes. We may change your commission rate with at least thirty (30) days' written notice, and no more than once in any twelve-month period except where a regulatory change forces our costs up. A rate change never applies to bookings confirmed before it takes effect. If you don't accept a change, you may close your account under section 16 before it takes effect.

Partial-refund cancellations. If a traveller cancels after the free-cancellation window under a partial-refund tier, Himalos retains its full commission from the non-refunded portion, and the balance is paid to you on the normal schedule. If our commission equals or exceeds the non-refunded portion, no payout is made for that booking. Cancellations within the free-cancellation window, or under a no-refund tier, don't generate a payout.

10. Your content and our licence to show it

You keep full ownership of the content you submit — descriptions, itineraries, schedules, images, and other media ("Operator Content").

By submitting Operator Content, you grant Himalos a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to host, display, reproduce, adapt, translate, and distribute it on the Platform and in communications about the Platform — including marketing, search indexing, social media, and editorial features — for as long as the content is published. The licence ends when the content is removed, except where we need to retain copies for legal or operational reasons (booking records, archived pages).

You promise that you own the content or have the rights to grant this licence, and that it doesn't infringe anyone's intellectual property, privacy, or other rights.

11. Staying legal: licences, permits, and insurance

You are solely responsible for making sure your business and every experience you list comply with all applicable laws, including:

Tourism and trekking regulations administered by the Nepal Tourism Board and the Department of Tourism;
Guide and porter licensing requirements;
Trekking permits, national park entry rules, and restricted area requirements;
Vehicle and transport licensing where relevant;
Health, safety, and environmental standards for your type of experience;
Nepalese tax and VAT registration and remittance; and
Any consents needed from local authorities or landowners.

Insurance. You must maintain, at your own cost, for as long as you list on the Platform:

Liability insurance appropriate to the experiences you offer; and
All insurance Nepalese law requires you to carry for guides and porters.

We may ask for proof of insurance at onboarding and at any time afterwards, and may suspend listings until you provide it. Your listings must also clearly recommend (or require, where you choose) that travellers carry travel insurance covering their activities — including emergency evacuation cover for high-altitude treks.

Our approval of your account or listings is not a statement that you're compliant. We don't perform compliance audits and aren't responsible for your regulatory violations.

If a regulatory change affects the legality or safety of a listed experience, update or take down the listing without delay and tell us at [email protected].

12. What you must never do

On top of the prohibited conduct in the general Traveller Terms of Service, Operators must not:

List experiences you have no capacity or intention to deliver;
Publish availability you know to be unavailable;
Share your contact details with travellers, or collect theirs, to arrange bookings or payments outside the Platform ("off-platform transactions");
Accept cash or other payments from travellers instead of, or on top of, the amount processed through the Platform;
Solicit, incentivise, or pressure travellers to leave positive reviews, change reviews, or withdraw negative ones;
Retaliate against travellers for honest reviews;
Inflate prices to make discounts look bigger than they are ("fake discounting");
Use the Platform to promote products or services not offered through Himalos without our prior written consent; or
Run multiple Operator accounts without our prior written consent.

Violations may lead to immediate suspension, permanent removal, and recovery of losses caused to Himalos or travellers.

13. Reviews

Travellers who complete a booking may review the experience. Reviews are published on the Platform and feed into your overall rating. You can respond publicly through your account.

You can't have a review removed just because it's negative, as long as it came from a genuine traveller who completed a booking. You can flag a review if you have evidence it's fraudulent, defamatory, or breaks our content standards; we'll review it and may remove it. We don't edit review text for tone or rating, and we don't suppress or reorder reviews based on anyone's commercial status.

14. Indemnification

To the extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Himalos and its officers, directors, employees, and agents from any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, costs, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from:

Your breach of these Operator Terms or the general Terms of Service;
Content you submit, including claims that it infringes someone's rights;
The operation or delivery of your experiences — including traveller or third-party claims for personal injury, death, property damage, or misrepresentation in your listings;
Your failure to hold required licences, permits, or insurance; or
Your violation of any law or regulation.

This doesn't apply to the extent a claim results from Himalos's own negligence, fraud, or wilful misconduct.

15. Himalos's liability to you

To the fullest extent the law allows, Himalos is not liable to you for:

Traveller no-shows, last-minute cancellations, or chargebacks arising from genuine traveller disputes;
Lost revenue from Platform downtime, maintenance, or technical failures, provided we make reasonable efforts to restore service promptly;
Good-faith decisions to suspend, remove, or modify listings under these Operator Terms;
Actions of travellers, third parties, or regulators in connection with your experiences; or
Indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive losses of any kind.

Our total aggregate liability to you for any claim connected to these Operator Terms — in contract, tort, or otherwise — will not exceed the total booking amounts remitted or payable by Himalos to you in the three (3) months before the event giving rise to the claim . This cap doesn't apply to liability that can't be excluded by law.

16. Suspension and closing your account

We may suspend or terminate your account if we reasonably believe you've breached these Operator Terms, engaged in prohibited conduct, pose a risk to travellers or the Platform, or if the law requires it.

We'll ordinarily give you written notice and a fair chance to respond first — unless immediate action is needed to protect travellers with confirmed bookings, prevent ongoing harm, or comply with a legal obligation.

On suspension or termination:

Your published listings go offline immediately;
Confirmed bookings are honoured where possible; where they can't be, travellers are offered a full refund;
Payouts you've legitimately earned are settled after open disputes and refund obligations are resolved; and
Your access to the Platform and account data is restricted in line with our Privacy Policy.

You can close your account any time by emailing [email protected]. Closing your account doesn't erase outstanding obligations, confirmed bookings, or payout entitlements.

17. Changes to these Operator Terms

We may update these Operator Terms. For material changes, we'll update the effective date at the top and email your registered address at least fourteen (14) days before the changes take effect. You'll be asked to accept the revised terms before continuing to use the Platform; if you don't accept them, stop listing and close your account under section 16. Revised terms don't apply retroactively to confirmed bookings.

Non-material changes — corrections, clarifications, new-feature updates — may be made without advance notice.

18. Governing law and disputes

These Operator Terms are governed by the laws of Nepal. If a dispute comes up, raise it first through our support channel — we'll aim to resolve written complaints within fourteen (14) calendar days.

If we can't resolve it directly, either party may refer the matter to mediation or bring legal proceedings. Subject to any mandatory jurisdictional rules, disputes fall under the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Kathmandu, Nepal.

Nothing here stops either party from seeking urgent injunctive or equitable relief in any court of competent jurisdiction.

19. General provisions

Entire agreement. These Operator Terms, together with the general Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and Cancellation Policy, are the entire agreement between you and Himalos about your use of the Platform as an Operator, and replace all earlier agreements on that subject.

Severability. If any provision is found unenforceable, it will be modified as little as necessary to make it enforceable — or severed if that isn't possible. Everything else stays in force.

No waiver. If we don't enforce a right or provision at some point, that doesn't mean we've given it up.

Assignment. You may not assign your rights or obligations under these Operator Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign ours to an affiliate or in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, with notice to you.

Language. These Operator Terms are written in English. If translated, the English version controls if there's a conflict.

20. Contact

Questions about these Operator Terms, compliance matters, or legal correspondence should be directed to:

Email: [email protected]
Support enquiries: himalos.com/contact