Operator Terms of Service

These Operator Terms of Service ("Operator Terms") govern the relationship between Himalos ("Himalos", "we", "us", "our") and any business or individual ("Operator", "you") who registers an account on the Himalos platform ("Platform") for the purpose of listing and selling travel experiences to travellers.

By creating an account, submitting a listing, or accepting a booking through the Platform, you agree to be bound by these Operator Terms. These Operator Terms supplement and should be read alongside our general Traveller Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and Cancellation Policy, all of which are incorporated by reference. Where these Operator Terms conflict with the general Terms of Service on a matter specific to operators, these Operator Terms prevail.

If you are accepting these Operator Terms on behalf of a registered business, you confirm that you have authority to bind that business, and references to "you" apply to the business.

1. Platform role

Himalos operates as an online marketplace and technology platform. We connect independent local travel operators based in Nepal with travellers seeking to book experiences.

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

Himalos's role is limited to: facilitating the discovery and booking of experiences; processing payments as your limited collection agent; providing messaging infrastructure 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.

This distinction does not limit or affect any rights that travellers may have against Himalos under applicable consumer protection law.

2. Eligibility and registration

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 to operate the types of experiences you intend to list; and
• Not be subject to a current suspension or ban from the Platform.

You must keep your registered information up to date at all times. 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 are personal to the registered business and may not be transferred, sold, or shared with any other party without our prior written consent.

3. Account approval and verification

All Operator account applications are subject to manual review by Himalos before any listing may be published or any booking accepted. Approval is at our discretion and does not confer any entitlement to continued listing on the Platform.

We may request documentation to verify your identity, business registration, licences, permits, or insurance at any time — including after initial approval. Failure to provide requested documentation within a reasonable time may result in suspension of your account and listings until verification is completed.

Approval of your account or any listing is an administrative step. It does not constitute an endorsement by Himalos of your business, the quality of your experiences, or your compliance with applicable law.

4. Listing standards and content obligations

You are solely responsible for the accuracy, legality, and completeness of all content you submit to the Platform, including package descriptions, itineraries, departure schedules, pricing, group size limits, inclusions, exclusions, difficulty ratings, cancellation tiers, and any images or other media.

By submitting a listing, you warrant that:

• All factual statements in the listing are accurate, current, and not misleading;
• You are capable of delivering the experience as described for every departure date or availability slot you publish;
• You hold all licences, permits, and insurance necessary to operate the listed experience, including any trekking permits, guide licences, vehicle permits, or other authorisations required by Nepalese law or the relevant destination region;
• You have the right to use all images and media submitted, including any required model releases or location licences;
• The price displayed is the total price payable by the traveller for the package as described and does not omit any mandatory charges; and
• The experience and its delivery comply with all applicable Nepalese laws and regulations, including those relating to tourism, safety, environmental protection, and consumer rights.

You must keep listings accurate and up to date. If the details of an experience change materially after a booking is confirmed — including itinerary, departure point, or inclusions — you must notify affected travellers promptly and offer a full refund if the change is material and not acceptable to the traveller.

Himalos reserves the right to edit listings for formatting or to remove listings that violate these standards, without prior notice. We will ordinarily notify you of a substantive removal. Removal of a listing does not affect any confirmed bookings at the time of removal.

5. Booking obligations

Once a booking is confirmed by Himalos, you are obligated to deliver the experience as described in the listing on the confirmed departure date, to the confirmed number of travellers, at the confirmed price.

You must not:

• Accept bookings for departure dates or time slots you know to be unavailable or fully booked;
• Substitute the listed experience with a materially different product without the traveller's agreement;
• Cancel a confirmed booking due to a failure of your own planning, resourcing, or commercial decision-making; or
• Direct travellers to complete or pay for any element of the booking outside the Platform.

If you cancel a confirmed booking for any reason within your control, the affected traveller is entitled to a full refund of all amounts they paid, including the platform service fee. Himalos will process that refund and deduct the cost from your next payout or from any payout currently held. Repeated operator-initiated cancellations will trigger a review of your account and may result in suspension.

You must respond to traveller messages sent through the Platform's messaging system within a reasonable time. Persistent failure to communicate with confirmed or prospective travellers may be treated as a breach of these Operator Terms.

6. Cancellation tiers

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

The cancellation tier displayed on the listing at the time of booking is the tier that applies to that booking. You may change the tier on a listing at any time, but a change does not apply retrospectively to existing confirmed bookings.

Himalos enforces the applicable cancellation tier when a traveller submits a cancellation request through the Platform. You may not override, modify, or waive the tier's terms unilaterally once a booking is confirmed. If you wish to offer a more generous refund than the tier provides — for example, as a goodwill gesture — contact us and we will process it on your instruction.

7. Pricing and commission

You set your own prices for each listing. Prices must be quoted in US dollars and must represent the total price payable by the traveller for the package as described, including any mandatory taxes, fees, or charges. You may not advertise a price on the Platform that is higher than the price you offer for the same experience through any other channel, net of the Platform commission.

Himalos charges a commission on each confirmed booking. The commission rate applicable to your account is disclosed in the onboarding communication you receive upon account approval and is available in your account settings. We may update the commission rate with reasonable advance notice; a rate change does not affect bookings confirmed before the change takes effect.

Himalos deducts its commission from each booking amount before remitting the balance to you. The commission covers use of the Platform, payment processing infrastructure, traveller support, and fraud protection.

Where a traveller cancels a confirmed booking after the free-cancellation window has expired under a partial-refund tier, Himalos will retain its full platform commission from the non-refunded portion of the booking amount. The balance remaining after deducting the platform commission will be remitted to you on the standard payout schedule. If the platform commission equals or exceeds the non-refunded portion, no payout will be made for that booking. Cancellations within the free-cancellation window, or under a no-refund tier, do not result in a payout to you.

8. Payouts and payments

Himalos acts as your limited collection agent for the purpose of receiving traveller payments. Payment is processed by Stripe, Inc. on our behalf. By listing on the Platform, you authorise Himalos to collect payments from travellers on your behalf.

Payouts are made to the bank account registered in your account after confirmed trip completion, in accordance with the payout schedule communicated to you at onboarding. Himalos deducts its commission before remitting your share.

Payouts may be withheld, in whole or in part, where:

• There is an active traveller dispute, refund request, or chargeback relating to the booking;
• Your account is under review or suspended;
• A refund obligation has arisen that has not yet been offset against your payout balance; or
• We are required to withhold funds by law or court order.

You are responsible for ensuring your registered bank details are accurate and current. Himalos is not liable for any delay or failure in processing a payout caused by incorrect, outdated, or invalid banking information you have provided.

You are solely responsible for any taxes, duties, or levies applicable to income you receive from bookings, including Nepalese income tax and VAT where applicable. Himalos does not provide tax advice and does not withhold tax on your behalf unless required to do so by law.

9. Intellectual property and content licence

You retain full ownership of the content you submit to the Platform, including package descriptions, itineraries, departure 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 that content on the Platform and in communications relating to the Platform — including marketing, search engine indexing, social media promotion, and editorial features — for as long as the content remains published. This licence terminates when the content is removed from the Platform, subject to any legal or operational retention obligations (for example, in booking records or archived pages).

By submitting Operator Content, you warrant that you own it or have the necessary rights to grant this licence, and that the content does not infringe any third-party intellectual property rights, privacy rights, or applicable law.

10. Compliance and legal obligations

You are solely responsible for ensuring that your business and all experiences you list comply with all applicable laws and regulations, including but not limited to:

• Tourism and trekking regulations administered by the Nepal Tourism Board and the Department of Tourism;
• Guide and porter licensing requirements;
• Trekking area permit requirements and national park entry regulations;
• Vehicle and transport licensing where applicable;
• Health, safety, and environmental standards applicable to the type of experience;
• Nepalese tax and VAT registration and remittance obligations; and
• Any authorisations or consents required from local authorities or landowners for the activities involved.

Himalos's approval of your account or any listing does not constitute a representation that your business or any experience is compliant with the above requirements. We do not perform compliance audits and are not responsible for regulatory violations by Operators.

If you become aware of a regulatory change that affects the legality or safety of a listed experience, you must update or take down the affected listing without delay and notify us at [email protected].

11. Prohibited conduct

In addition to the prohibited conduct set out in the general Traveller Terms of Service, Operators are specifically prohibited from:

• Listing experiences they have no capacity or intention to deliver;
• Publishing availability slots they know to be unavailable;
• Sharing their contact details with travellers, or soliciting traveller contact details, for the purpose of arranging or completing bookings or payments outside the Platform ("off-platform transactions");
• Accepting cash or alternative payments from travellers in lieu of, or in addition to, the amount processed through the Platform for a booked experience;
• Soliciting, incentivising, or coercing travellers to leave positive reviews, alter submitted reviews, or withdraw negative reviews;
• Retaliating against travellers for leaving honest reviews;
• Submitting false or inflated pricing in order to make a discounted price appear more attractive ("fake discounting");
• Using the Platform to promote or advertise services or products not offered through Himalos without our prior written consent; or
• Operating multiple Operator accounts without our prior written consent.

Violations may result in immediate suspension, permanent removal from the Platform, and recovery of losses caused to Himalos or travellers.

12. Reviews

Travellers who have completed a booking may leave a review of their experience. Reviews are published on the Platform and contribute to your overall rating. You may respond publicly to reviews through your account.

You may not request the removal of a review on the basis that it is negative or unfavourable, provided it was submitted by a genuine traveller who completed a booking. You may flag a review to Himalos if you have evidence it is fraudulent, defamatory, or otherwise in breach of our content standards. Himalos will review flagged submissions and may remove reviews that violate our standards; we do not edit review text for tone or star rating, and we do not suppress or reorder reviews on the basis of commercial status.

13. Indemnification

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

• Your breach of these Operator Terms or the general Terms of Service;
• The content you submit to the Platform, including any claim that it infringes a third party's intellectual property or other rights;
• The operation or delivery of your experiences, including claims by travellers or third parties relating to personal injury, death, property damage, or misrepresentation in your listings;
• Your failure to hold required licences, permits, or insurance; or
• Your violation of any applicable law or regulation.

This indemnification does not apply to the extent that a claim results from Himalos's own negligence, fraud, or wilful misconduct.

14. Himalos's liability to operators

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Himalos is not liable to you for:

• Traveller no-shows, last-minute cancellations, or chargebacks that arise from genuine traveller disputes;
• Loss of revenue resulting from Platform downtime, maintenance, or technical failures, provided we make reasonable efforts to restore service promptly;
• Decisions to suspend, remove, or modify listings made in good faith under these Operator Terms;
• Actions taken by travellers, third parties, or regulatory authorities in connection with your experiences; or
• Indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive losses of any kind.

Our total aggregate liability to you for any claim arising out of or in connection with these Operator Terms — whether in contract, tort, or otherwise — shall not exceed the total commission paid by Himalos to you in the three months preceding the claim. This limit does not apply to liability that cannot be excluded by law.

15. Account suspension and termination

Himalos may suspend or terminate your Operator account if we reasonably believe that you have breached these Operator Terms, engaged in prohibited conduct, pose a risk to travellers or the integrity of the Platform, or if we are required to do so by law.

We will ordinarily provide written notice and a reasonable opportunity to respond before suspending or terminating an account, except where we determine that immediate action is necessary — for example, to protect travellers who have confirmed bookings, to prevent ongoing harm, or to comply with a legal obligation.

On suspension or termination of your account:

• All published listings will be taken offline immediately;
• Existing confirmed bookings will be honoured where possible, or travellers will be offered a full refund if the experience cannot proceed;
• Outstanding payouts due to you will be settled after resolution of any open disputes or refund obligations; and
• Your access to the Platform and your account data will be restricted in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

You may close your account voluntarily at any time by contacting us at [email protected]. Voluntary closure does not affect any outstanding obligations, confirmed bookings, or payout entitlements.

16. Changes to these Operator Terms

We may update these Operator Terms at any time. When we make material changes, we will update the effective date at the top of this page and notify you by email to your registered address at least fourteen days before the changes take effect.

If you continue to use the Platform after material changes take effect, you will be asked to accept the revised terms before proceeding. If you do not accept the revised Operator Terms, you must stop listing on the Platform and may close your account as described in section 15. A revised Operator Terms does not apply retrospectively to confirmed bookings.

Non-material changes — such as corrections, clarifications, or updates to reflect new Platform features — may be made without advance notice.

17. Governing law and disputes

These Operator Terms are governed by the laws of Nepal. Any dispute arising out of or in connection with these Operator Terms shall, in the first instance, be raised with Himalos through our support channel. We will endeavour to resolve disputes within fourteen calendar days of receiving a written complaint.

If a dispute cannot be resolved through direct discussion, either party may refer the matter to mediation or commence legal proceedings. Subject to any mandatory jurisdictional rules, disputes will be subject to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Kathmandu, Nepal.

Nothing in this section prevents either party from seeking urgent injunctive or other equitable relief in any court of competent jurisdiction.

18. General provisions

Entire agreement. These Operator Terms, together with the general Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and Cancellation Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and Himalos regarding your use of the Platform as an Operator and supersede all prior agreements or understandings on that subject.

Severability. If any provision of these Operator Terms is found to be unenforceable or invalid under applicable law, it will be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable, or severed if modification is not possible. The remaining provisions continue in full force.

No waiver. Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Operator Terms does not constitute a waiver of that right or provision in the future.

Assignment. You may not assign your rights or obligations under these Operator Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign our rights and obligations 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 in the event of any conflict.

19. Contact

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

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