Terms of Service

1. Who we are

Wello is operated by Wello Technologies Ltd, registered in England and Wales under number 17428209, registered office 167-169 Great Portland Street, Fifth Floor, London, W1W 5PF. "Wello", "we" and "us" mean that company. "You" means you.

How we handle your personal data is set out separately in our Privacy Notice, which forms part of these terms.

2. What Wello is, and isn't

Wello is a place to find and fill experiences. We are not the organiser of any of them.

Hosts create and run their own experiences. Guests request a place, and hosts decide who comes. The agreement to attend an experience is between the host and the guest. Wello provides the platform: discovery, requests, messaging, payment processing, check-in and reputation.

We may verify identity, apply host requirements, and remove listings or people. Doing so doesn't make us the organiser of anything, and doesn't mean we've checked or approved a particular experience.

3. Who can use Wello

You must be 18 or over. Wello brings people together in person and we do not accept users under 18. We check your date of birth when you sign up and again against the date of birth confirmed during identity verification. If we find your account belongs to someone under 18 we will close it.

You must also be legally able to enter a contract, not be barred from the service by us previously, and comply with the law where you are.

Individual experiences may have their own age restrictions above 18, for example where alcohol is served. Hosts set and are responsible for enforcing those.

4. Your account

• Give us accurate information and keep it current. Don't impersonate anyone.
• One person, one identity. You may run more than one profile where Wello offers that, but they all belong to you and are subject to the same standing.
• Keep your login credentials secure. You're responsible for activity on your account.
• Tell us promptly if you think someone else has access.
• You can delete your account and your data at any time in Settings. Some records are kept where we have a legal obligation or an open safety matter. See the Privacy Notice.

5. Identity verification

We require identity verification before you can host a paid experience, before you can pay to attend one, and to join events where a host has chosen to welcome verified guests only.

Verification is carried out by Stripe Identity. We never receive or store your identity document or selfie. See the Privacy Notice for exactly what we do receive. You must not attempt to verify using someone else's identity; doing so will get you permanently removed and may be a criminal offence.

6. If you host

When you list an experience, you are the organiser and the merchant of record for it. That carries real obligations, and they're yours:

• Describe it honestly. What it is, what's included, where roughly it is, what guests need to bring or know, and any age or accessibility restrictions. Photos should be of your actual experience.
• Have the right to run it. Permission to use the space, whether that's your own home, a lease that permits it, or a venue that has agreed. If your tenancy, lease, mortgage, insurance or freeholder forbids what you're planning, that's between you and them, but you must not list it.
• Hold whatever licences and permissions apply. Selling alcohol, showing films, playing recorded music, serving food to the public, and running certain activities all have their own rules in the UK. Some need a licence, a temporary event notice, or registration with your council. Working these out is your responsibility. Our Learn guides are a starting point, not legal advice.
• Food safety. If you serve food, follow food hygiene law, and tell guests about the 14 major allergens in what you're serving. Take allergy questions seriously.
• Insurance. Consider public liability cover. Wello does not insure you, your guests or your property, and provides no cover of any kind.
• Tax. Income from hosting is yours, and so is any tax on it. We may be required to report information about hosts and their earnings to HMRC under digital platform reporting rules, and if so we'll collect what's needed and tell you.
• Turn up and deliver. Run the experience you sold, at the time you said, to the standard you described.
• Look after people. Keep the space safe, be clear about hazards, don't serve alcohol to anyone under 18, and don't let an event get out of hand.

You choose who attends. You can decline anyone. What you cannot do is decline people because of a protected characteristic: race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, disability, age, marriage or civil partnership status, or pregnancy. That's unlawful discrimination under the Equality Act 2010 and it will get you removed from Wello.

7. If you attend

• You're asking to join something someone else is running. Requests can be declined, and a decline doesn't need a reason.
• Read the listing. Follow the host's house rules, and any age restrictions.
• Turn up when you said, or cancel in good time so someone else can take the place.
• The exact address is shared once you're accepted. It's for you. Don't publish it, and don't bring people who weren't accepted.
• Treat the host's home or venue with respect. You're responsible for damage you cause.
• You attend at your own risk. Satisfy yourself that an experience is right for you. If something feels wrong, leave, and report it.

8. Payments and our fee

Experiences can be free or paid. Listing is free either way.

How a paid booking works

1. You request a place. Your card is authorised: a hold, not a charge.
2. If the host accepts, the payment is captured and your place is confirmed.
3. If the host declines, or doesn't respond before the request expires, the hold is released. You are not charged. Depending on your bank it can take a few days for the hold to disappear from your statement.

Where the money goes

Payments are processed by Stripe and paid into the host's own Stripe account. Wello never holds your money. Wello takes a service fee of 10% of the ticket price from the transaction. Stripe's own processing fees, and the cost of any chargeback, are the host's, as the merchant of record.

Stripe pays the host out on that account's payout schedule. New accounts usually have a short initial delay set by Stripe. We do not control payout timing and we don't promise a particular one.

Prices are set by hosts and shown inclusive of what you'll pay. Hosts are responsible for charging VAT where they're required to.

9. Cancellations and refunds

If the host cancels

Accepted guests are refunded in full. If a host repeatedly cancels, we may restrict or remove their ability to host.

If you cancel

Each listing shows the host's cancellation policy, set before anyone books. That policy governs. Cancel through the app so it's recorded.

Your statutory rights

Nothing here removes rights you have under UK consumer law. Note that the usual 14-day right to cancel a distance contract does not generally apply to the provision of leisure services for a specific date, which is what most Wello experiences are. Your right to a remedy if a service isn't carried out with reasonable care and skill is unaffected.

If something went wrong

Raise it with the host first. If you can't resolve it, open a case through Help & resolution and we'll look at it. We can issue a refund from within Wello where the facts support it. We are mediating between a host and a guest. We are not a court, and we decide these on our terms, not on a determination of legal liability.

10. Content and ratings

You keep ownership of what you post. You give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce and display it for the purpose of running and promoting Wello. That licence ends when you delete the content, except where it's already been shared with others or we need to keep it for a legal or safety reason.

Only post content you have the right to post. Don't post photographs of other people who haven't agreed to it.

Ratings. Hosts and guests can rate each other, and only after an experience they actually attended. Ratings must be honest and based on your real experience. Buying, selling, trading or coercing ratings is prohibited, and so is leaving one to retaliate. We may remove ratings that break these rules and we may remove accounts that manipulate them.

11. What's not allowed

Don't use Wello to do any of this. Some of it will get a listing removed; the serious ones will get you permanently banned, and reported.

Illegal or dangerous

• Anything illegal, or that facilitates something illegal.
• Selling or supplying controlled drugs, weapons, or age-restricted goods to anyone under age.
• Selling alcohol without the licence or temporary event notice you need.
• Sexual services, or experiences whose real purpose is sexual contact.
• Gambling, or anything requiring a licence you don't hold.
• Experiences involving unreasonable risk of serious harm.

Against other people

• Harassment, threats, stalking, hate speech, or discrimination against a protected characteristic.
• Sharing anyone's private information: including an experience's exact address, outside Wello.
• Recording or photographing people who've said no.
• Bringing people who weren't accepted.
• Any sexual contact with, or sexual interest in, a person under 18. This is an immediate permanent ban and a report to the authorities.

Against the platform

• Fake accounts, verifying with someone else's identity, or coming back after a ban.
• Fake listings, fake bookings, or fake ratings.
• Taking payment for a listed experience outside Wello to avoid our fee, after using Wello to find the guest.
• Scraping, reverse engineering, disrupting the service, or probing it for vulnerabilities without our written permission.
• Using Wello to advertise something else, or to recruit for a business, cause or organisation without our agreement.

This list isn't exhaustive. We can remove content or accounts that we reasonably consider to breach the spirit of these rules.

12. Reports, suspension and appeals

You can report a person, a listing or a message in the app. We review reports and may take any of the following steps, proportionate to what we find: remove content, cancel an experience, refund guests, restrict features, suspend an account, or ban permanently.

Where there is an immediate risk to someone's safety, we will act first and explain afterwards.

If we take action against your account, we'll tell you what we did and, unless telling you would compromise a safety investigation or break the law, why. You can appeal by replying to that notice or contacting support@wello.social. A person who wasn't involved in the original decision will review it.

We are not a law enforcement body and we don't determine legal liability between users. We enforce these terms.

13. Our liability

We don't limit or exclude liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else that can't lawfully be limited. Nothing in these terms affects your statutory rights as a consumer.

Subject to that:

• Wello is provided as it is. We don't warrant it will be uninterrupted or error-free.
• We are not liable for what happens at an experience, or for the acts or omissions of any host or guest. They're not our employees or agents.
• We don't verify the accuracy of listings, the quality or safety of an experience, or whether a host holds the licences they should.
• We're not liable for indirect or consequential loss, loss of profit, or loss of opportunity.
• Where we are liable, our total liability to you for all claims connected with these terms is limited to the total fees we received from you in the 12 months before the claim.

14. Your responsibility to us

If you're using Wello as a host in the course of a business, you agree to indemnify us against claims, losses and reasonable costs arising from your experiences, your breach of these terms, or your breach of the law. This does not apply to consumers.

All users remain responsible for loss we suffer as a result of their own breach of these terms, to the extent the law allows.

15. Changes, and ending this

Changes to these terms. We may update them. If a change materially affects your rights we'll give you reasonable notice, at least 30 days for a significant change, by email or in the app. Continuing to use Wello after that means you accept the new version. If you don't, you can close your account.

Changes to the service. We may change or discontinue features. If we discontinue Wello entirely, we'll give reasonable notice and honour confirmed bookings where we can.

Ending it. You can stop using Wello and delete your account at any time. We may suspend or end your access if you breach these terms, or on 30 days' notice for any other reason. Where we end your access for convenience, we'll refund any fees you've paid for something you haven't received.

16. Law, disputes and contact

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. If you're a consumer resident elsewhere in the UK, you keep the benefit of the mandatory protections of your home nation, and can bring proceedings there.

Disputes go to the courts of England and Wales, except that consumers may also bring proceedings in the courts of their home nation.

Come to us first: most things are fixable. Contact support@wello.social or use Help & resolution in the app.

Other bits. If a provision is found unenforceable, the rest stays in force. If we don't enforce something immediately, we haven't given up the right to. You can't transfer your rights under these terms; we may transfer ours if the business changes hands, without reducing your rights. No one other than you and us has rights under these terms.