Terms of Service

Last updated: July 23, 2026

1. Acceptance of Terms

Welcome to Vaylume. These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a legal agreement between you and Christian Zakhour, an individual ("Vaylume," "we," "us," or "our"), governing your access to and use of the Vaylume mobile application and related services (collectively, the "Service").

By creating an account or otherwise using Vaylume, you agree to these Terms. If you don't agree, please don't use the Service. If you're using Vaylume on behalf of someone else or as part of a group, you're confirming you have the authority to bind that group to these Terms as well.

2. Description of the Service

Vaylume is a social trip-planning and travel-companion marketplace. Through the App, users ("Hosts") can create and publish listings for group trips, and other users ("Travelers") can browse, join, and book those trips. Vaylume provides supporting tools including in-app group chat, push notifications, ratings and reviews, an optional real-time location-sharing feature ("Companion Radar"), and payment processing for bookings and deposits via Stripe.

Vaylume is a platform that connects Hosts and Travelers — we are not a travel agency, tour operator, or party to the trips themselves, and we do not guarantee the quality, safety, legality, or outcome of any trip listed on the platform, except as otherwise stated in these Terms.

3. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account or use Vaylume. By using the Service, you represent that you meet this requirement and that you have the legal capacity to enter into these Terms. Vaylume is not directed at, and should not be used by, anyone under 18.

You're responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account. Let us know immediately at support@vaylume.app if you suspect unauthorized use of your account.

4. User Conduct

Vaylume only works if the community stays trustworthy, and we want to keep it a place where people feel safe planning and taking trips together. When using the Service, you agree that you will not:

• Harass, threaten, stalk, discriminate against, or abuse other users
• Post hate speech, or content that promotes violence or discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or similar characteristics
• Create fraudulent, misleading, or fake trip listings, reviews, or profiles
• Post listings for anything illegal, or that facilitate illegal activity, in the relevant jurisdiction
• Attempt to solicit payment outside of Vaylume's payment system in order to avoid platform fees, or to circumvent our trust and safety mechanisms
• Impersonate another person or misrepresent your identity or affiliation
• Upload content that infringes someone else's intellectual property or privacy rights
• Use the Service to collect or harvest information about other users beyond what's needed for normal trip coordination
• Introduce malware, attempt to interfere with the Service's operation, or attempt to gain unauthorized access to accounts or systems
• Use Companion Radar or any location feature to track, stalk, or monitor another user outside the legitimate context of a shared trip they've agreed to join

We reserve the right to investigate and take action — including content removal, warnings, suspension, or termination — against accounts that violate this section or our Community Guidelines.

5. Companion Radar

Companion Radar is an optional, opt-in feature that allows you to share your real-time, precise location with the other members of a specific trip you're part of, to help everyone coordinate meetups and stay aware of each other's whereabouts during that trip.

Please understand the following about Companion Radar:

• It is a coordination tool, not a safety guarantee. Companion Radar is designed to help travelers keep track of each other during a trip. It is not a personal safety device, emergency service, or substitute for your own judgment, situational awareness, or common-sense precautions while traveling.
• Vaylume does not actively monitor location feeds. We do not have staff watching Companion Radar location data in real time, and we cannot promise an immediate response if something goes wrong. If you're in an emergency, contact local emergency services directly.
• It is visible only to your trip companions, and only while enabled. You can turn Companion Radar on or off at any time; when off, your precise location is not shared.
• Use good judgment. Only share your location with people you're actually comfortable sharing it with, and rely on your own judgment about personal safety in addition to any tools we provide.

6. User Content and License Grant

"User Content" means any listings, photos, chat messages, reviews, ratings, profile information, or other material you submit or upload to Vaylume.

You retain ownership of your User Content. By posting User Content on Vaylume, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable license to host, store, reproduce, display, and distribute that content solely as necessary to operate, provide, and promote the Service (for example, showing your listing to potential travelers, or displaying your review on a host's profile). This license ends when you delete the content or your account, except to the extent it has already been shared with other users as part of normal use (for example, a chat message already delivered to a trip group, or a review already visible to the community) or where retention is otherwise permitted under our Privacy Policy.

You're solely responsible for your User Content, and you represent that you have the rights necessary to post it and that it doesn't violate these Terms, any law, or any third party's rights.

7. Payments, Commission, and Payouts

Vaylume uses Stripe and Stripe Connect to process bookings, deposits, and payouts. By booking a trip or listing as a Host, you agree to Stripe's terms of service in addition to these Terms.

Commission structure for Hosts. Vaylume charges Hosts a commission on completed trips booked through the platform, on a tiered basis tied to a Host's completed-trip history:

• 0% commission on a Host's first 5 completed trips
• 3% commission on a Host's 6th through 10th completed trips
• 8% commission on a Host's 11th completed trip onward

Payout timing. Funds collected from Travelers for a trip are held by Vaylume (via Stripe) and released to the Host's connected Stripe account 24 hours after the trip's start date. This short hold exists to accommodate early-arrival issues, disputes, or cancellations that may arise right at the start of a trip, and is a standard escrow-style practice for marketplaces like ours.

Host verification. Hosts must complete Stripe's identity verification (KYC) process as part of onboarding to a connected Stripe account before they can receive payouts. This is handled directly by Stripe under its own verification standards.

Cancellations and refunds. Cancellation and refund terms for a given trip are governed by the cancellation policy stated on that trip's listing at the time of booking. Please review the specific cancellation policy shown before completing a booking, as terms may vary by listing.

8. Prohibited Uses

In addition to the conduct rules in Section 4, you agree not to use Vaylume to:

• Violate any applicable law or regulation
• Circumvent, disable, or interfere with security features of the Service
• Reverse-engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract the source code of the App, except as permitted by law
• Scrape, crawl, or use automated means to access the Service without our written permission
• Resell, sublicense, or commercially exploit the Service itself (as opposed to legitimately hosting trips) without our permission

9. Account Termination

You may delete your account at any time through the App's account settings, or by contacting support@vaylume.app.

We may suspend or terminate your account, at our discretion, if we believe you've violated these Terms, our Community Guidelines, or applicable law, or if we believe your conduct poses a risk to other users or to the Service. Where practical, we'll aim to notify you of the reason. Certain provisions of these Terms (such as content licenses already granted, payment obligations, and limitation of liability) survive termination.

10. Disclaimers

Vaylume is provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement, to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Vaylume does not guarantee that trips listed on the platform will meet your expectations, that Hosts or Travelers will behave as represented, that the Service will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that any particular outcome will result from using Companion Radar or any other safety-related feature. You use the Service, and participate in any trip arranged through it, at your own risk.

11. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Vaylume and its officers, employees, and agents will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits, data, or goodwill, arising out of or related to your use of the Service, even if we've been advised of the possibility of such damages.

To the extent permitted by law, our total liability to you for any claim arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service will not exceed the greater of (a) the amount of fees you paid to Vaylume in the 12 months before the claim arose, or (b) one hundred U.S. dollars ($100).

Some jurisdictions don't allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages, so some of the above limitations may not apply to you.

12. Dispute Resolution

Informal resolution first. If you have a dispute with Vaylume, we ask that you first contact us at support@vaylume.app so we can try to resolve it informally. Most concerns can be worked out this way.

Arbitration / small claims. If we can't resolve a dispute informally within a reasonable time, either party may bring the claim in small claims court (if it qualifies), or through binding individual arbitration, rather than in court, except that either party may seek injunctive or other equitable relief in court to prevent actual or threatened infringement, misappropriation, or violation of intellectual property rights. Any arbitration will be conducted on an individual basis, and not as part of a class, consolidated, or representative action, to the extent permitted by law.

Governing law. These Terms are governed by the laws of Germany, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles, except to the extent superseded by applicable arbitration law. If you are a consumer residing in the European Union, you may also benefit from any mandatory consumer-protection provisions of the law of your country of residence, to the extent applicable.

13. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we'll notify you through the App and/or by email, and update the "Last updated" date above. Continuing to use Vaylume after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms. If you don't agree to the changes, you should stop using the Service and may delete your account.

14. General

These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, Host Agreement (if applicable to you), and Community Guidelines, make up the entire agreement between you and Vaylume regarding the Service. If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in full effect. Our failure to enforce a provision isn't a waiver of our right to do so later. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them freely in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.

15. Contact Us

Questions about these Terms? Reach us at:

Email: support@vaylume.app
Website: vaylume.app

These Terms were prepared with the help of AI drafting tools to provide clear, practical policies for Vaylume at its current stage. They are not a substitute for advice from a licensed attorney, and we recommend a professional legal review as the business grows.