Host Agreement

Version 2026-10-01 · Last updated: 1 October 2026

1. The parties and this agreement

This agreement is between you, the person or business listing a retreat (“Host”, “you”), and Alma Escapes, operated by Alexander Costa, 1057 Saratoga St, Boston, MA 02128, USA (“Alma Escapes”, “we”, “us”).

You accept it when you create a host account or when you confirm acceptance in your host dashboard. We record the version you accepted, the date and time, and the IP address it was accepted from. This agreement includes our Terms of Service (especially section 6, “What may not be listed or booked”), our Cancellation & Refund Policy and our Privacy Policy. If this agreement conflicts with the Terms of Service on something between you and us, this agreement wins.

If you accept on behalf of a business, you confirm you are authorized to bind it. You also confirm you act as a business or professional in offering retreats on Alma Escapes.

2. Your role and ours

• You are the seller. You sell your retreat directly to the Guest. You are responsible for delivering it as described, and for everything that happens at it.
• We provide the marketplace. We present your listing, take bookings, and provide the payment technology that connects Guests to your Stripe account. We don’t run, supervise or insure retreats, and we are not your employer, partner or agent.
• Host accounts are by invitation. We approve each listing before it is published, and we may decline, pause or remove any listing at our discretion.
• How listings are shown. Guests see listings by relevance to their search, then by next available date; once reviews are live, well-reviewed listings may rank higher. Founding Hosts get the launch placement described in section 14. No Host pays for ranking.

3. Payments through your own Stripe account

• To take bookings you connect a Stripe account through Alma Escapes. Stripe verifies your identity and business and may ask for more information over time. Payment processing is provided by Stripe and is subject to the Stripe Connected Account Agreement, which includes the Stripe Services Agreement. You authorize us to share information about you and your transactions with Stripe.
• Each booking is charged to the Guest on your Stripe account, in your name. Your business name appears on the Guest’s card statement.
• We manage your Stripe account’s payout schedule (see section 5). Stripe charges its payment processing fees to Alma Escapes, and these are covered by our commission. You don’t pay Stripe separately for bookings made through Alma Escapes.

4. Prices and commission

• Your price is the Guest’s price. The price on your listing is the full amount the Guest pays. It must include everything the listing says is included, and any taxes that apply to your retreat. No fees may be added at checkout or on arrival for anything the listing says is included, and you may not charge any mandatory fee on arrival other than a government-imposed tourist tax stated on your listing (with the amount, if you know it).
• Commission. Alma Escapes earns a commission of 14% of the booking price, which means everything the Guest pays you through Alma Escapes for the retreat, including any taxes included in the price and optional add-ons booked at checkout (such as private sessions, upgrades or transfers). Extras a Guest buys from you on site, which were not listed or booked through Alma Escapes, are between you and the Guest. The commission is deducted automatically from each payment, as a Stripe application fee, at the moment the Guest pays. If we change the commission rate, the new rate applies only to bookings made after we give you at least 30 days’ notice.
• Fair price for Guests. The total price you list on Alma Escapes must not be higher than the price you publicly offer for the same retreat, dates, room and inclusions on your own website or on any other platform. You can still offer private deals to your own mailing list or returning clients. We ask this so Guests are not penalized for booking through Alma Escapes. Where the law of your country doesn’t allow this rule, it applies only as far as that law permits. If a Guest makes a valid claim under our Best Price Guarantee, we refund the difference to the Guest from the booking payment and return the same amount to you from our commission, so you don’t lose anything. If your lower price elsewhere broke this rule, we don’t return it, and the difference comes from your share.
• Refunded bookings. When a Guest receives a full or partial refund, we refund the matching share of our commission.
• Substances are never part of the price. Payments made through Alma Escapes are for the retreat only (such as accommodation, meals, teaching and activities). They never include, and may never be used to pay for, any drug, psychoactive or controlled substance, or any “plant medicine”, in any form. Alma Escapes is not a party to, and has no responsibility for, any such substance or its provision.

5. Payout timing

• Guest payments stay in your Stripe balance and are paid out to your bank account the day after the retreat’s start date. This makes sure money is available for the refunds in our Cancellation & Refund Policy.
• Stripe limits how long funds can be held for accounts outside the United States. For those accounts we release each booking’s funds by the 85th day after payment at the latest, even if the retreat starts later.
• We may keep a payout on hold while a refund, dispute or investigation involving that booking is open, or if we reasonably suspect a breach of this agreement.
• Payout amounts are your share of each booking (the payment minus our commission and any refunds), in the currency your Stripe account settles in.

6. Keeping bookings on Alma Escapes

• If a Guest first finds you through Alma Escapes, bookings you take from that Guest for the same retreat, or for another retreat you run, in the next 12 months must be made and paid through Alma Escapes, so our commission applies.
• This does not cover people who were already your clients before they found you on Alma Escapes, and it does not stop you from running your own website or taking your own clients. You may tell Guests about your other retreats, and you may mention your own website.
• Don’t use our messaging or Guest contact details to move a booking off Alma Escapes. If you take an Alma-introduced Guest’s booking elsewhere, you agree to pay us the commission we would have earned.
• Until a booking is confirmed, keep Guest questions, price discussions and payments inside Alma Escapes. After booking, talk directly in any way that suits you both.

7. Cancellations, refunds and disputes

• Every booking is covered by our Cancellation & Refund Policy, and you agree to honor it, including a 100% refund to the Guest if you cancel or significantly change a retreat.
• You accept the refund promises we make to Guests: a full refund if you cancel, if you decline a booking for safety reasons before the start, or if a retreat can’t go ahead because of events outside anyone’s control (the events listed in section 4 of the Cancellation & Refund Policy). If such an event cuts a retreat short, the Guest gets a fair refund for the days not delivered.
• If you cancel, or change a retreat significantly, tell the Guest and us as soon as you know, and help the Guest move to another date or retreat if they want to. Cancelling more than once in 12 months without a good reason (such as illness, a safety issue or events outside your control) is a breach of this agreement, and we may pause or remove your listings.
• Refunds are paid from your Stripe balance. You authorize Alma Escapes to issue refunds on your Stripe account when the policy requires one. If the money has already been paid out to your bank (for example because Stripe requires an earlier release, or a refund is due after the retreat has started), you must cover the refund.
• Chargebacks and disputes are yours. Each booking is charged on your Stripe account, so if a Guest disputes a payment, Stripe takes the disputed amount and its dispute fee from your Stripe balance, whether or not you win. We may send Stripe evidence on your behalf (booking details, messages, the listing and the cancellation policy that applied), but you must answer any request for evidence within 3 days (we need it early to submit before Stripe’s deadline). If your balance can’t cover a refund, dispute or fee, you must repay the shortfall within 14 days of our request, unless Stripe has already recovered it from you, and we may deduct it from your future payouts. Our commission on a booking that ends in a lost dispute is not returned. If Guests keep disputing your bookings, or a dispute shows a retreat wasn't as described, we may pause or remove your listings.

8. Your listings and your retreat

You confirm, and must keep true while you list with us, that:

• You hold every license, permit and registration your retreat, venue, food service and activities legally require, and public liability insurance at a level customary in your country for the activities you run, covering the retreat and your activities. Add professional indemnity insurance if you teach or treat people. Before your first listing is published, and again whenever the policy renews, send us the certificate or policy schedule. If a policy lapses, tell us the same day and pause your bookings until it is back in force.
• If your retreat counts as a package under the law that applies to your Guests (for example the EU or UK package travel rules), you are responsible for meeting those rules, including insolvency protection, and you will tell us if that applies.
• You may decline a booking or change how a Guest takes part only if their answers show a specific, objective safety risk that cannot reasonably be managed, never because of a disability or condition in itself.
• You and anyone working at your retreat are qualified for what you offer, and any credentials you state are true and verifiable.
• Your listings are accurate and complete: what is included and excluded, location, accommodation, schedule, physical demands, group size, age limits and any health requirements.
• You follow section 6 of the Terms of Service in full. You will not offer, provide, sell or allow any drug, psychoactive or controlled substance at or in connection with a retreat booked through Alma Escapes, even where local law permits it. You will not claim or imply that your retreat diagnoses, treats, cures or prevents any illness or condition.
• You run your retreat safely, with suitable emergency procedures, and you are responsible for your staff and contractors.
• Tell us fast. Report to [email protected] within 24 hours any serious injury, illness needing medical care, allegation of assault or harassment, police or emergency involvement, or evacuation connected to a retreat booked through Alma Escapes. Keep a record of what happened.
• Respect and consent. Everyone leading or helping at your retreat treats Guests with respect. Touch, bodywork and hands-on practices happen only with the Guest’s clear consent, which they can withdraw at any time. Sexual or romantic contact between staff and Guests during a retreat is not allowed. Don’t pressure Guests into disclosing trauma, doing a practice, or staying in a session. Staff working with anyone under 18 must hold a current background check valid in your country. If we receive a credible complaint, we may pause your listings while we look into it.
• You keep your dates, prices and availability up to date, including any other place you sell the same spaces. Don’t accept a booking you can’t deliver. If you have overbooked or can’t run a retreat, tell us immediately, and the Guest receives a full refund under section 7. Reply to Guest messages, and confirm or decline a booking request, within 48 hours.
• You own, or have permission to use, every photo, video and text in your listings, including permission from anyone recognizable in them and for any music, and you give us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to display, crop, resize, translate and promote them on Alma Escapes and in our social media, email and advertising for Alma Escapes. When you remove content or leave, we stop new uses within 30 days; copies already published in ads or newsletters may stay until they expire. We won’t use your content to train AI models or sell it to third parties.
• When Alma Escapes shows reviews: don’t write, buy or pressure Guests into reviews, don’t offer rewards for positive reviews, and don’t review your own retreat or a competitor’s. You may publish one reply to any review. We may remove reviews that break our rules, and we may remove or pause listings that manipulate reviews.

9. Guest information

You receive Guests’ booking details to deliver their retreat. You are responsible for handling that information lawfully, as an independent controller of it, and you will use it only to deliver the booking and meet your legal obligations, never for unrelated marketing. If you need health information from a Guest, ask them directly on your own form (not through the notes box on Alma Escapes), use it only to run the retreat, keep it secure, and delete it when you no longer need it. If you ask a Guest for an emergency contact, make sure that person knows you hold their details. If a Guest asks you to delete or hand over their data, do so within 14 days and tell us.

We are also an independent controller of Guest data we collect, and handle it under our Privacy Policy. You must keep Guest data secure, not sell or share it with others for their marketing, and delete it when you no longer need it for the booking or a legal duty. If you have a data breach affecting Alma Escapes Guests, tell us within 48 hours so we can meet our own deadlines (72 hours under the GDPR).

10. Taxes

You are responsible for registering for, collecting, reporting and paying any taxes on your retreat income. Stripe may send you tax forms, and we may share transaction information with tax authorities where the law requires it.

Tax details. Some countries, including EU member states under the DAC7 rules, require marketplaces to collect and report information about the people and businesses who earn income through them. We may ask you for these details when you sign up or later, and whenever they change you must give us accurate details: your legal name or business name, address, date of birth (if you are an individual), country of residence, tax identification number, and VAT number if you have one. We use this only for tax reporting and fraud checks, and we may share it with tax authorities as the law requires. If you don’t provide it after two reminders and at least 60 days from our first request, we may pause payouts and listings until you do. You issue the Guest’s invoice or receipt in your own name, with any VAT or tourist tax that applies to your retreat.

11. Liability and indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Alma Escapes, and its operator, against any claims, losses, fines, damages and costs (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your retreat, your listings, the conduct of you or your staff, or your breach of this agreement or the law.

To the extent permitted by law, Alma Escapes is not liable to you for indirect or consequential losses or loss of profits, and our total liability to you under this agreement is limited to the commission we earned from your bookings in the 12 months before the claim.

12. Suspension and ending this agreement

• You can stop listing at any time. Confirmed bookings must still be honored, or cancelled with a full refund to the Guest.
• We can suspend or end your account, remove listings and cancel bookings (refunding Guests) if you breach this agreement, if we receive credible safety or fraud concerns, or where required by law or by Stripe. Except where the law or a serious safety, fraud or legal risk requires immediate action, we give 30 days’ notice before ending your account and tell you the reason in writing. You can ask us to reconsider at [email protected], and we answer within 14 days.
• Sections 4 (commission), 5 (payouts), 6 (keeping bookings on Alma Escapes), 7 (refunds and disputes), 9, 10 and 11 survive the end of this agreement.

13. Changes

We may update this agreement. We will give you at least 30 days’ notice of material changes, and you will be asked to accept the new version before you can publish new listings or connect payments. Bookings already confirmed stay under the version in force when they were made.

14. Founding Hosts

If you are one of our founding hosts (the first hosts we invite before launch), you also get the following, which we will honor for 12 months after you first publish: (1) your listings appear in the first-launch placement, (2) a feature in our editorial content (such as our Journal or newsletter) once it is published, and (3) your commission stays at 14% for those 12 months, even if we change the standard rate for others. After that, any change follows section 4: 30 days’ notice, and never for bookings already made. These perks end if you stop listing or if your account is suspended for breach. They don’t guarantee a number of bookings.

15. Governing law

This agreement is governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, USA, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Please contact us first at [email protected] so we can try to resolve any dispute informally.

16. Contact

Alma Escapes, operated by Alexander Costa, 1057 Saratoga St, Boston, MA 02128, USA
[email protected]