1. Acceptance of these terms
Welcome to PawStay. These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a legal agreement between you and PawStay Inc. ("PawStay," "we," "us," "our"). By creating an account, accessing, or using our website, mobile-web platform, and related services (the "Services"), you agree to be bound by these Terms and our Privacy Policy.
If you do not agree with any part of these Terms, please do not use the Services.
2. Eligibility
To use PawStay, you must:
- Be at least 18 years of age.
- Have the legal capacity to enter into a binding contract.
- Not be prohibited from using the Services under applicable law.
- Provide accurate, current information about yourself.
By using the Services, you represent that you meet these eligibility requirements.
3. Your account
3.1 Account creation
You need to create an account to book a sitter or offer sitting services. You're responsible for keeping your login credentials secure and for all activity that happens on your account. If you suspect unauthorised use, contact us right away.
3.2 Accuracy
Please keep your account information accurate and up to date. If we discover false or misleading information, we may suspend or terminate your account.
3.3 One account per person
You may not create multiple accounts, share your account with someone else, or transfer your account to another person without our written consent.
4. Pet owners & sitters
PawStay users fall into two main categories, and you may act in either or both:
4.1 Pet owners
As a pet owner, you use the platform to search for and book pet sitters. You're responsible for:
- Providing accurate information about your pet, including health, behaviour, and care instructions.
- Communicating clearly with your sitter before, during, and after the booking.
- Making sure your pet is safe and healthy at the time of handover.
- Paying for booked services through the PawStay platform.
- Reviewing your sitter honestly.
4.2 Pet sitters
As a sitter, you use the platform to offer independent pet-care services. You're responsible for:
- Maintaining an accurate profile including your experience, services, and pricing.
- Providing safe, attentive care that meets your commitments to owners.
- Communicating updates to owners during bookings.
- Complying with local laws, permits, and regulations (including any needed to operate as a pet-care provider in your area).
- Reporting your income and paying any taxes that apply.
- Reviewing owners honestly.
5. Bookings & payments
5.1 Booking process
When you request a booking, the sitter can accept or decline. Once accepted, the booking is confirmed. Owners are charged at the time of booking confirmation.
5.2 Fees
PawStay may charge service fees to owners and/or sitters. Applicable fees are shown before you confirm a booking. Sitters set their own rates; PawStay does not set the price of any service.
5.3 Payment processing
All payments must be made through the PawStay platform. Off-platform payments are strictly prohibited and are not covered by any platform protections. Payments are processed by our third-party payment provider.
5.4 Payouts to sitters
Sitters receive their earnings after the booking has been completed, minus any applicable platform fees. Payout timing and methods depend on the payment provider and the sitter's location.
5.5 Taxes
You are responsible for any taxes that apply to your use of the Services, including income tax on earnings received as a sitter.
6. Cancellations & refunds
Cancellation and refund policies for individual bookings are shown at the time of booking. Generally:
- Owner cancels well in advance: Full refund, minus any non-refundable service fees.
- Owner cancels close to the booking date: Partial refund or no refund, depending on the sitter's policy.
- Sitter cancels: The owner is refunded in full. Frequent sitter cancellations may result in profile penalties or removal.
- Emergencies: If a genuine emergency prevents the booking, contact us and we'll review the situation case-by-case.
7. User conduct
You agree to use the Services respectfully and lawfully. This means:
- Treating other users with kindness and honesty.
- Communicating only through the PawStay platform for booking-related matters until you've met in person.
- Providing accurate information in profiles, listings, and reviews.
- Following all applicable laws relating to pet care, transport, and local regulations.
- Reporting any suspected fraud, abuse, or unsafe behaviour.
8. Prohibited activities
You may not, and may not allow others to:
- Use the Services for any illegal purpose or in violation of any law.
- Impersonate any person or misrepresent your affiliation with anyone.
- Post false, misleading, defamatory, or harmful content.
- Solicit payment outside the PawStay platform.
- Attempt to circumvent the platform to book directly with a sitter you found through PawStay.
- Harass, threaten, discriminate against, or endanger any user.
- Post content that infringes intellectual property or violates privacy.
- Upload viruses, malware, or malicious code.
- Scrape, mine, or extract data from the Services without our written permission.
- Reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to obtain the source code of the Services.
- Use the Services to compete with PawStay or build a competing service.
Violation of these rules may result in suspension or termination of your account and, where appropriate, referral to law enforcement.
9. Your content
You may post content on PawStay including profile information, photos, reviews, and messages ("User Content"). You retain ownership of your User Content, but you grant PawStay a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, display, reproduce, modify (for formatting purposes), and distribute your User Content solely for the purpose of operating and improving the Services.
You are solely responsible for the accuracy and legality of your User Content. We may remove content that violates these Terms or that we consider inappropriate, at our discretion.
10. Intellectual property
The Services — including the PawStay name, logo, website, code, design, and content we create — are owned by PawStay Inc. and protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual-property laws. Except for the limited licence granted by these Terms, you receive no ownership or licence rights in our intellectual property.
11. Disclaimers
Specifically:
- PawStay is not a pet-care provider. We are a platform that connects owners with independent sitters. Sitters are not our employees or agents. We do not perform pet-care services ourselves.
- We do not conduct background checks. While sitters create profiles that owners can review, PawStay does not verify criminal records, employment history, or references. Owners are responsible for their own due diligence, including reading reviews, messaging sitters, and arranging meet-and-greets.
- We do not provide insurance. PawStay does not offer pet insurance, liability insurance, or property-damage coverage. Owners and sitters are responsible for arranging any insurance they may need.
- We do not guarantee outcomes. We do not guarantee the quality, safety, legality, or accuracy of any sitter, service, or listing. Reviews reflect user opinion and are not endorsements by PawStay.
- We do not guarantee availability. The Services may be unavailable, delayed, or have errors from time to time. We do not warrant that the Services will be uninterrupted or error-free.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, PawStay disclaims all implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and any warranties arising from course of dealing or usage of trade.
12. Limitation of liability
To the maximum extent permitted by law, PawStay, its officers, directors, employees, and agents will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits, revenues, data, use, goodwill, or other intangible losses, arising from or related to:
- Your use of, or inability to use, the Services.
- Any conduct or content of any user — including any sitter or owner — on the Services.
- Any injury, illness, death, loss, or damage to any pet, person, or property.
- Any unauthorised access to, alteration of, or use of your transmissions or content.
PawStay's total liability to you for any claim arising from or related to the Services will not exceed the greater of (a) the total fees you paid to PawStay in the six months before the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) CAD $100.
13. Indemnification
You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold PawStay and its officers, directors, employees, and agents harmless from any claim, demand, damage, or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or related to (a) your use of the Services, (b) your violation of these Terms, (c) your violation of any law or of the rights of any third party, or (d) any dispute between you and another user.
14. Termination
You may close your account at any time by contacting us or using the account settings in the app.
We may suspend or terminate your account, with or without notice, if we believe you have violated these Terms, engaged in fraud or abuse, or if we discontinue the Services. On termination, your right to access and use the Services immediately ends. Provisions that by their nature should survive termination will survive — including disclaimers, limitations of liability, indemnification, and dispute-resolution provisions.
15. Governing law & disputes
15.1 Governing law
These Terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the applicable federal laws of Canada, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles.
15.2 Informal resolution first
Before starting any formal proceeding, you agree to try to resolve the dispute informally by contacting us at [email protected]. We'll try to resolve the dispute within 60 days of receiving your notice.
15.3 Jurisdiction
Any dispute not resolved informally will be brought exclusively in the courts of Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada, and you consent to their personal jurisdiction. Where applicable law gives you the right to bring a claim in your local courts, this section does not limit that right.
16. Other terms
16.1 Changes to these Terms
We may update these Terms from time to time. When we make material changes, we will notify you by email or through a notice on the Services before the changes take effect. Your continued use of the Services after the effective date means you accept the updated Terms.
16.2 Entire agreement
These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and PawStay regarding the Services and supersede any prior agreements.
16.3 Severability
If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in full effect.
16.4 No waiver
Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms is not a waiver of that right or provision.
16.5 Assignment
You may not assign or transfer these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign these Terms freely.
17. Contact us
Questions about these Terms? Reach out:
- Legal: [email protected]
- General support: [email protected]
- Mail: PawStay Inc., 140 Columbia Street West, Suite 250, Waterloo, ON N2L 3K8, Canada