These terms cover all use of Kernel Booking, as a service provided by Kernel Data Ltd. By using Kernel Booking, you agree to be bound by these Terms.

By accepting the terms, you acknowledge that you have read, understood and agree to be bound by the terms. You also acknowledge that you have the legal right to use the service for purpose of hire or rental of the property displayed on Kernel Booking. If you are agreeing as part of an organisation, you acknowledge that you have the authority to agree to the terms on behalf of your organisation or legal entity.

Please be aware that our terms can change without warning, and that the only valid version is that available on our website. This version will supersede any other version, other than a written and signed agreement between both parties. Use of Kernel Booking commits you to check for changes periodically and to ensure that your use of the system stays within these terms. Use of the system after a change to the terms indicates your ongoing acceptance of the terms.

License, Ownership and Usage

In return for payments made by you, the customer, for the service, Kernel Data Ltd grants you the right to use Kernel Booking in accordance with these terms. That right is non-exclusive, non-transferable (unless with written agreement from Kernel Data Ltd) and can not be sub-licensed to any party.

Please be aware that as part of your arrangement with us, you are granted the rights to use Kernel Booking for as long as the arrangement lasts, but Kernel Data Ltd retain the ownership of all code, imagery, logic, branding and guidance materials associated with Kernel Booking.

While using the platform, you will observe the following:

• You will use the service as it is provided, and will not attempt to over-ride or change any parts of the system
• You will not attempt to access or reverse engineer any parts of the system
• You will use the system only in accordance with guidance materials provided by Kernel Data Ltd
• You will use the system in accordance with the laws governing you or your organisation
• The system will be used by you and your organisation to process and manage data in accordance with regulations in force for your organisation

Intellectual Property Rights

All content of Kernel booking, including text, code, images, branding or other displayed material are the property of Kernel Data Ltd. You are not allowed to reproduce, sell or modify any of this content without prior written consent from Kernel Data Ltd.

Content added by you, the user of Kernel Booking, remains your property. You will not add any content to Kernel Booking for which you do not own the copyright, without the written permission of the copyright holder. Kernel Data Ltd will not be responsible for any claims or damages relating to material you have added to the system, should it result in any claim for copyright infringement.

You, as a user of Kernel Booking give us a license to use your content on the platform. You will retain the copyright, but we will have the rights to use it on your behalf as part of Kernel Booking for as long as the arrangement lasts.

Legal Use of the Platform

In order to use Kernel Booking, you must have the legal rights to rent any property that is added to the system. You are responsible for all of the legal obligations of running your business, including your financial records. Kernel Data Ltd does not assume responsibility for any of your legal obligations, or for the contracts between you and your customers.

We retain the right to review all data added to Kernel Booking to ensure that it is both legal and suitable for it's intended purpose of providing a mechanism for the rental or hire of a property.

You are responsible for providing your own terms and conditions to your own customers.

Fees and Payment

Your Kernel Booking account is invoiced on a monthly rolling basis from your signup date, with payment being due within 7 days of invoicing. We will automatically invoice the card that you have on file within your Kernel Booking account. Failure to pay at the agreed time may result in the cancellation of your account.

Subscription Models

We offer two different subscription models as follows:

1. Monthly Subscription - £18 per month + £1.30 per additional room (changes in room numbers during a billing period will be invoiced pro-rata basis)
2. Commission - 1.3% of online payments taken through the platform, with no monthly fees

The format and price of the above subscription models are subject to change at any time and without notice. You have the option to switch between subscription models at any point and the difference will be calculated and invoiced on a pro-rata basis.

By accepting these terms you agree that abuse of the subscription models may result in your account being forceably switched a different subscription model. The definition of subscription model abuse is at the sole discretion of Kernel Data Ltd.

Payment Systems

Kernel Booking will integrate with selected third party payment gateways. Please note that although we provide these connections, they can change without notice.

Kernel Data Ltd does not accept any liability for any failed payments from your customers to you, even if Kernel Booking indicates that these payments have been successful. It is your responsibility to verify all payments with your banking system.

Kernel Data Ltd does not accept any liability for any duplicate payments, or any other inconsistencies in the expected or received amounts. It is your responsibility to verify that all payments match the amounts that you are expecting.

Where refunds are agreed between you and your customers, please note that while our system allows for you to record a refund for your administrative purposes, it is unable to implement refunds. This is an action that you must take within the administration panel of your chosen payment partner.

Integrated Payment System

We offer an integrated payment system, should you wish to utilise it. We provide this facility at cost. This service is provided by Stripe but means that you do not need a Stripe account. You can read the Stripe Connect terms here: https://stripe.com/connect-account/legal

The breakdown of fees associated with our integrated payment system are as follows:

• Monthly Fee: £2.00 (only applicable to months in which you take a booking)
• Payout Fee*: 10p per payout to your bank account (created daily, only when there is a balance to payout. Maximum of £3.10 in a month)
• Transaction Fee**: 1.4% + 20p per transaction for European cards and 2.9% + 20p for non-European cards. Taken at the time of booking by Stripe
• Payment Processing Fee: 0.25% per transaction, added to your monthly invoice

The integrated payment system does not provide the functionality to issue refunds. If the need arises for a payment to be refunded to a customer of the subscriber, the subscriber must do this via their online banking services to the customer directly.

* Money taken for bookings will be paid out to your bank account and can take up to 7 days to process. Payouts are created on a daily rolling basis automatically.

** Transaction fees will vary depending on the originating country of your customer's card. These prices are correct at time of writing and are subject to change without notice. Kernel Booking will not be liable for any differences in these rates. These prices are set by Stripe.

Website Integration

Kernel is designed to feed easily into any common website structure or content management system. Your usual web developer should be able to make use of the code snippets we make available in order to do this. We accept no responsibility for any changes, damage or loss of functionality of your website caused by the integration of Kernel Booking.

Should you need assistance from us to integrate with your website we can do so. Please note, however, that it will remain your responsibility to have an up to date back up of your website and database, or to request that we do so, prior to commencement of any work.

Data Protection

Your database is backed up in 'real time' to separate servers, 24/7 to prevent losses in case of hardware failure. The entire Kernel Booking system is also backed up separately on an 4-hourly basis to multiple locations, on different servers. It is unlikely that any software or hardware failure at our end will lead to loss of data, but we do recommend you take backups via the csv download option as a failsafe should you need it.

For the same reason, cancelled bookings (and similar actions) do not actually delete data from our system, it is simply tagged as 'cancelled'. As we have user-logging enabled on the system, this means that you should be able to see who deleted relevant information/bookings and to retrieve that information on request if it was done in error.

Kernel Data Ltd is compliant with the GDPR regulations.  It is your responsibility to ensure that your use of the system is also compliant, and that you do not use any of the data you obtain through use of Kernel Booking in a way which contravenes GDPR.

Service Uptime

We understand that uptime is essential to your operation, which is why our service is hosted on servers we control, giving us excellent levels of uptime. The unexpected can sometimes happen, however, and should this be the case we will communicate any issues to all of our clients as soon as we are aware of the issue, and commit all necessary resource to any issue found. We recommend that you have clear alternative booking methods on your website, such as phone booking, in the unlikely event of an extended period of downtime.

Kernel Data Ltd does not accept any liability for loss of business or loss of goodwill or lost revenue due to system downtime.

Confidentiality

Kernel Data Ltd is committed to maintaining complete confidentiality in all areas of operation. We will not share your data with any party other than you and those individuals you authorise to access your account. Kernel Data Ltd acknowledges that in the course of providing you with the service, it will gain access to confidential data. This data shall only be used for the purposes of providing the service to you, and will not be shared to any third parties without your written permission.

Kernel Data Ltd will not share your customers' data in any way with 3rd parties, and neither will we contact your customers, unless specifically requested by you in writing or required by law.

You agree that Kernel Data Ltd may identify you / your organisation as a client during the course of promotional activities and in promotional materials.

User Access and Security

Kernel Booking will ask you to choose a username and password for use of the system during the signup process. It is your responsibility to keep this information safe and secure.

We do not allow users to set up other users, in order to ensure data security and confidentiality. You can, however, request access for colleagues at any time and we will usually be able to action this within 1 working day.

We recommend that you do not share login details for security reasons. Kernel Booking maintains a log of all actions on your account, including the details of which registered user has taken those actions. We can not be responsible for any loss of data or revenue due to actions from anyone logged in to the system.

You are responsible for the security of users of your account. We depend on you to inform us should any users need to be cancelled due to staff leaving or changing roles, and are not responsible for any lost or maliciously damaged records caused by users logged in to your account.

You have the facility to change passwords on your account, and recommend you do so immediately, should you have concerns about the security of the password.

A standard Kernel Booking account is designed for use by a single business.  We reserve the right to split an account, with subscription fees being applied accordingly for each resultant account, should we identify that it is being used for multiple businesses. 

Channel Connections

We maintain connections to other booking platforms to allow our customers to keep multiple channels up to date. These will sometimes be automatic via an API or iCal sync, and sometimes will be via a manual upload. For iCal connections, bookable item availability will be synced every 15 minutes.

Please be aware that sometimes these connections change, and we will not always be informed of the changes. It is your responsibility to actively monitor any other booking channels that you use, and to inform us immediately should you find discrepancies between the two. Kernel Data Ltd does not accept any liability if a bookable item becomes booked both on Kernel Booking and any other external booking platform.

Your Responsibilities

You are responsible for the accuracy of any room details, descriptions, prices, special offers or opening times on Kernel Booking. While Kernel Data Ltd may assist you with entering this data on occasion, we do not assume the responsibility for the accuracy of any data added to your account, and strongly recommend that you check this prior to making any information live and available to your customers.

Technical Support

Our team are always happy to provide technical support, and are committed to being helpful and constructive. You can contact our team for support either via email or telephone, but we can not guarantee instant responses, depending upon the availability of our support team. We will, however, typically respond within 1 working day by either email or telephone.

Our accounts include unlimited technical support, and we aim to provide consistently excellent level of customer support to all users of Kernel Booking. To ensure that we are able to offer this level of support fairly and at reasonable cost to all of our customers, please note that technical support is subject to the following Fair Use Policy.

We will use reporting from our systems to identify any persistently high users of technical support. This is unlikely to affect anyone during typical high usage periods during setup or changes within their business which require our input - these are the periods during which we would expect customers to take advantage of our support. For any persistently high users of support, we will get in contact to identify why it is required, and to assist with delivering the necessary training in order to help those clients better understand the system.

For any accounts where high levels of support remain necessary, we will then discuss how to implement a higher level of paid support, which will be based on a cost of £30 / hour.

System Updates, Bugs and Feature Requests

We do periodically need to shut our system down for essential maintenance or updates. When this happens, we will always aim to make that down time as quick as possible, and we will also endeavour to give you advance notice. However, please be aware that there may also be occasions when this maintenance happens at short notice. There may also be occasions when we make changes to the system and features which are not announced.

Should you identify bugs or faults in Kernel Booking, we request that you inform our team at your earliest convenience. We will always aim to correct any bugs in the shortest space of time possible.

We are always happy to hear from you with feature requests, but implementation can not always be guaranteed.

Acceptable Use Policy

Use of Kernel Booking is subject to the following acceptable use stipulations:

• You will not use the service in any way which damages the service or restricts its availability to other users
• You will not use the service in any way that is unlawful or directly abusive
• You will not use the service in any way that is likely to cause offence or is considered to be discriminatory
• You will not use the service to carry out any fraudulent activities
• You must own the copyright to all information on the system
• You will not enter or display any information on the system which is obscene, pornographic, libelous or likely to cause offence to users
• You will not use the system to publish personal details of any individuals without express permission
• You will not use the service to conduct any crime or promote any criminal activity
• You will not use the system to conduct mass mailing activities other than those required to fulfill your contractual relationships with your customers
• The content you publish must be factually correct, and must not mislead users
• You will only upload content to the system that is directly required to display your properties and rent your properties effectively, and will not use the system for general storage of documents or images
• You will not conduct any systemic or automatic data mining activities on the system

This acceptable use policy applies to your use of the system, and to all data and content that you enter on to the system either for administrative purposes or on display to the public. If you are unsure about any content or usage scenarios we recommend contacting us prior to publication.

Cancellation / Termination

Kernel Data Ltd reserves the right to terminate your use of the system at any time or any reason with 2 weeks (14 days) notice in writing. In cases of severe violation of these terms, we reserve the right to terminate your use of this system immediately without notice.

Your license to use Kernel Booking shall end if you fail to pay for that license as agreed. We will usually notify you should you violate our terms and conditions of use, and request that you correct any violations. We do, however, reserve the right to terminate your account should we deem it in the best interests of the platform and its reputation.

You have the right to cancel your subscription to the service at any time. This should be done in writing to your usual contact. Should you cancel your service midway through a billing period, you will be liable for any charges accrued up to the point of cancellation. On cancellation, Kernel Data Ltd will restrict access to the system, and reserves the right to remove your data from the platform. It is your responsibility at this time to ensure you have a back up of all necessary data.

Indemnity

Kernel Data Ltd has no liability for you and you shall hold Kernel Data Ltd harmless from any claims that arise from:

• Use of a modified version of Kernel Booking
• Use of Kernel Booking in combination with any software or service not provided by Kernel Data Ltd or specifically approved in writing by Kernel Data Ltd
• Use of anything other than the latest version of Kernel Booking
• Use of Kernel Booking for any purpose other than that for which it was designed

Warranty / Limits of Liability

Kernel Booking is provided 'as is' and without any warranty or condition. You agree that Kernel Booking may not be suitable for your particular requirements, may not hold all of the features you require, may not be free from errors or offer uninterrupted service, due to the nature of the service itself and the dependence upon factors outside of our control.

Kernel Data Ltd shall not be liable in any way for direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages due to loss of data or the ability to use the system, stoppage of work, loss of profit or goodwill, based on use of the system.

You agree that Kernel Data Ltd is not liable for any failures or delays due to events or circumstances that fall outside of its control. This may include government acts, war, sabotage, flood, fire, strike, failure in third party services, labour supply or loss of power. It may also be due to other reasons beyond reasonable control not listed here.

Kernel Data Ltd's total aggregate liability for damages under these terms during the course of any single calendar year shall be limited to a maximum of the value of payments made by you for the service during the 12 month period directly preceding the claim. The purpose of this limit is for both parties to agree on the maximum potential liability in relation to the value of fees paid for the service, which would have to be significantly greater should you the customer require a greater liability.

Disclaimer

Due to the nature of the service provided, and the risks that exist with all internet-based technology, Kernel Data Ltd does not guarantee that the Kernel Booking service will be completely uninterrupted, error free or completely secure. By use of the system you acknowledge this. While all reasonable measures will be taken by Kernel Data Ltd to ensure the security and continuity of the service, you remain responsible for determining the system's suitability for your ongoing requirements.

 

Last Updated: 25th July 2022