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Acceptable Use Policy

Last Updated: December 02, 2018

This Acceptable Use Policy outlines examples of prohibited conduct in connection with the HomestayMatch Platform. Note that any capitalized terms not defined in this Acceptable Use Policy have the meanings set forth in our Guest Terms and Conditions and Host Terms and Conditions. If you have any comments or questions about this Acceptable Use Policy, feel free to contact us via email at [email protected].

As a User you agree not to misuse the HomestayMatch Platform or help anyone else do so. Below are some guidelines for what you should not do with the HomestayMatch Platform. 

You agree that you will not:

  • Violate any local, state, provincial, national, federal, or any other law or regulation that may apply. In addition, you accept that you will not violate any court order;
  • Use any (manual or automated) processes, including, but not limited to software, scripts, devices, backdoors, robots to access, "scrape," "crawl" or "spider" HomestayMatch as well as other websites, which may be posted on the HomestayMatch Platform;
  • Damage or interfere with the HomestayMatch Platform including, but not limited to the use of viruses, cancel bots, Trojan horses, harmful code, flood pings, denial-of-service attacks, backdoors, packet or IP spoofing, forged routing or electronic mail address information, or any similar means of technology;
  • Use or access the HomestayMatch Platform to expose, use, or allow to be used, exposed any materials, content, functions, or services 1) that are not publicly displayed by HomestayMatch on any search result pages, listings before your Booking Request is confirmed, 2) that are inconsistent with HomestayMatch services, policy, terms, conditions, 3) in any way that may violate any rights, including privacy, of any user of HomestayMatch or its staff partners, or any third party;
  • Use the HomestayMatch Platform for any purpose, including, but not limited to commercial, marketing, for profit or nonprofit that are not permitted by these Terms and Conditions, or in a tone that may incorrectly imply HomestayMatch endorsement, partnership or otherwise misleading information and claims as to your relation to HomestyaMatch;
  • Diminish, dilute, damage, hurt or otherwise harm the HomestayMatch brand in any way;
  • Use and/or register HomestayMatch or derivative terms in domain names, trade names, trademarks, logos or other source identifiers, or use or register domain names, trade names, trademarks, logos or other source identifiers that closely imitate or are confusingly similar to HomestayMatch domain names, trademarks, logos, taglines, promotional campaigns or Content;
  • Copy, store, use, access, share or distribute any information contained on the HomestayMatch Platform, including Content, for any purpose not described or permitted by these Terms and Conditions;
  • Violate or infringe the rights of HomestayMatch or/and all of its users, partners and third parties in any way including, but not limited to intellectual property, privacy, publicity or contractual right;
  • Use the HomestayMatch Platform to spread, transmit, distribute, share, post or submit any information concerning any other person or entity, including, but not limited to photographs, personal contact information, or credit, debit, calling card or account numbers without their consent;
  • Use the HomestayMatch Platform to distribute any unsolicited commercial email ("spam") or advertisement not connected with listing or staying in an Accommodation;
  • Promote, solicit or recruit any User to join any third-party services, websites, applications without HomestayMatch consent and approval;
  • Harass, intimidate, persecute, threaten or stalk any User, or to store or gather any personal information about any User other than the purpose of listing inquiring, requesting or booking an Accommodation through the HomestayMatch Platform;
  • Engage in harassing, abusive, disturbing, troublesome, prohibited behavior in any aspect or use of the HomestayMatch Platform and HomestayMatch Services, or any Accommodation;
  • Sign Up for more than one HomestayMatch account or Sign Up for an account on behalf of any user other than yourself;
  • impersonate any person or entity, or falsify or otherwise misrepresent yourself or your affiliation with any person or entity;
  • Contact and communicate with another User for any purpose not related to inquiring about, requesting, or booking an Accommodation and/or services;
  • Use false claims, information or automated scripts to gather information from any User or the HomestayMatch Platform;
  • Use the HomestayMatch Platform to locate, find and identify a Host or Guest to request or book an Accommodation independent of the HomestayMatch Platform for any reason including, but not limited to avoiding the obligation to pay any fees to HomestayMatch;
  • Accept or make a payment for one of the HomestayMatch Accommodations outside of HomestayMatch. If you decide to do so, you agree that you (a) would be in violation of these Terms and Conditions, (b) accept all responsibility and risks connected with such payment, and (c) hold HomestayMatch harmless from all liability for such payment;
  • Offer, as a Host, any Accommodation that you do not yourself own or have permission to book as a residential or other property (without limiting the foregoing, you will not list Accommodations as a Host if you are serving in the capacity of an agent for a third party);
  • Offer, as a Host, any Accommodation that may not be booked pursuant to the terms and conditions of an agreement with a third party;
  • unless HomestayMatch explicitly permits otherwise, request or book a stay at any Accommodation if you will not actually be staying at the Accommodation yourself;
  • As a Host, submit any Accommodation listing with false or misleading information, including price information, or submit any Accommodation listing with a price that you do not intend to honor;
  • Violate, breach or infringe these Terms and Conditions and/or encourage or assist any User in doing so;
  • Post, upload, publish, submit or transmit any Content that: (i) infringes, misappropriates or violates a third party's patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, moral rights or other intellectual property rights, or rights of publicity or privacy; (ii) violates, or encourages any conduct that would violate, any applicable law or regulation or would give rise to civil liability; (iii) is fraudulent, false, misleading (directly or by omission or failure to update information) or deceptive; (iv) is defamatory, obscene, pornographic, vulgar or offensive; (v) promotes discrimination, bigotry, racism, hatred, harassment or harm against any individual or group; (vi) is violent or threatening or promotes violence or actions that are threatening to any other person; or (vii) promotes illegal or harmful activities or substances;
  • Engage in disruptive, circumventive, abusive or harassing behavior in any area or aspect of the HomestayMatch Platform;
  • Systematically retrieve data or other content from the HomestayMatch Platform to create or compile, directly or indirectly, in single or multiple downloads, a collection, compilation, database, directory or the like, whether by manual methods, through the use of bots, crawlers, or spiders, or otherwise;
  • Use, display, mirror or frame the the HomestayMatch Platform or Content, or any individual element within the HomestayMatch Platform Content, HomestayMatch's name, any HomestayMatch trademark, logo or other proprietary information, or the layout and design of any page or form contained on a page in the HomestayMatch Platform , without HomestayMatch's express written consent;
  • Access, tamper with, or use non-public areas of the HomestayMatch Platform , HomestayMatch's computer systems, or the technical delivery systems of HomestayMatch's providers;
  • Attempt to probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of any HomestayMatch system or network or breach any security or authentication measures;
  • Avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, impair, descramble, or otherwise circumvent any technological measure implemented by HomestayMatch or any of HomestayMatch's providers or any other third party (including another user) to protect the HomestayMatch Platform or Content;
  • Forge any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any email or newsgroup posting, or in any way use the HomestayMatch Platform or Content to send altered, deceptive or false source-identifying information; or
  • Attempt to decipher, decompile, disassemble or reverse engineer any of the software used to provide the HomestayMatch Platform or Content.

HomestayMatch reserves the right to prosecute any breach or violation of this Acceptable Use Policy to the entire extent of the law. You also accept that HomestayMatch has the right to take a range of actions against you, including, but not limited to cancelling, removing, blocking, deactivating, disabling the content of your account and your access to information and services on the HomestayMatch Platform.