Terms & Conditions — KedarnathStays

KedarnathStays ("the Platform", "we") is an online booking service operated by [full legal name of proprietor], proprietor of Hotel Bharatpur House, [address line], Kedarnath, District Rudraprayag, Uttarakhand, India — an unregistered family-run business. Contact: +91 84393 31979 (phone and WhatsApp, 6 AM – 10 PM) · [email].

The Platform lets you discover and book private rooms and related services at properties listed on it. The stay itself is provided by the listed property, not by the Platform. Your accommodation contract is with the property named on your booking; the Platform facilitates the booking, payment, and communication. Bookings made through third-party sites (Booking.com, MakeMyTrip, etc.) are governed by those platforms' terms, not these.

You sign in with your mobile number using a one-time password (OTP) sent on WhatsApp — for Indian and international numbers alike. A number that is not on WhatsApp cannot receive the code and so cannot sign in. There are no account passwords. You are responsible for keeping your phone and active sessions secure; you can review and log out of sessions from your account at any time. You must be 18 or older to hold an account. One account per person.

• Hold: when you proceed to pay, the room is held for you for a short, limited time. If payment is not completed in that time, the hold expires automatically and the room is released, with nothing owed.
• Confirmation: a booking is confirmed only when (a) payment is successfully captured through our payment gateway, or (b) where UPI-reference payment is offered, the property has verified your payment reference. Your booking voucher is always available in My Bookings.
• Prices are shown in INR; room prices are per room per night, as labelled at the time of booking. The price shown on the review screen before you pay is the price you pay.
• Check-in time and house rules are set by each property and shown on its page and on your voucher.

Website bookings are fully prepaid — no balance is due at check-in for the rooms you booked online.

• Online payments (UPI, cards, net banking) are processed by Razorpay; we never receive or store your card or bank credentials. These payments are received into the Platform's bank account on behalf of the property, and the Platform then transfers the property's share to the owner's bank account.
• UPI-reference payments, where offered, are paid directly to the property. Your booking is confirmed once the property verifies your transaction reference within the service window shown at payment.
• Extra services taken at the property (extra persons, etc.) are payable directly to the property.

• Original government photo ID for every guest (Aadhaar, Passport, Driving Licence, or Voter ID) — checked at Char Dham yatra checkpoints and at check-in. We never ask for or record ID numbers.
• Accurate guest details at booking (names, ages) matching the persons who stay.
• No smoking and no alcohol on the premises or anywhere in Kedarnath Dham, and compliance with the property's own house rules. Charges apply for extra persons; guests are responsible for damage they cause.
• Mandatory Char Dham yatra registration is the guest's responsibility.

Cancellation terms vary by stay — each hotel owner sets their own. The policy is shown on the property page and again before you pay, and the policy shown to you before payment is the one that applies to your booking, even if the owner changes it later. No-shows are treated under that same policy. A confirmed booking may have its dates changed once, online, from My Bookings. Our Cancellation & Refund Policy explains how cancelling works, our standard policy, date changes, and refund methods and timelines.

Kedarnath is a high-altitude pilgrimage site (3,583 m). Route closures, landslides, extreme weather, and administrative closures occur. If your booking is cancelled because the route or your property is closed for your dates, you receive a full refund, whatever your booking's cancellation policy says. The Platform and the property are not liable for travel costs, yatra disruption, altitude-related illness, or events beyond reasonable control; guests undertake high-altitude travel at their own risk and should assess their own fitness.

Owners listing properties confirm that their information, photos, prices, and documents are accurate, that they hold applicable registrations, and that they will honour every confirmed booking as listed. The Platform may verify documents, approve or reject listings and photos, and suspend or delist properties.

When you list a property, you receive guests' personal data through the Platform — the names, ages, and genders on a booking, its dates, and any payment screenshot a guest sends you — and you may enter guests yourself (walk-ins and bookings from other sites). For that data, you are responsible, alongside us, for handling it as India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 requires. You agree to:

• Use it only to host the guest and to meet your legal duties — your guest register, and police or foreigner registration where the law requires it. Never for marketing, and never sold, rented, or passed to anyone else unless the law requires it.
• Keep it safe: only you and staff who need it may see it; keep printed registers out of public view, and the devices you sign in on locked. Do not copy it out of the Platform beyond what running your stay needs.
• Tell guests you enter yourself that their details are recorded on KedarnathStays and why, and point them to our Privacy Policy. Enter only what the stay needs — never ID numbers.
• Not keep it longer than needed: copies you make outside the Platform are deleted once the stay and your legal record-keeping no longer need them.
• Tell us immediately — and within 6 hours of noticing — if you suspect guest data has been lost, stolen, or seen by someone who should not have it, including a lost phone signed in to the owner panel, so we can protect guests and report it as the law requires.
• Help with guests' requests to see, correct, or erase their data, when we pass one to you.

Your own data as an owner is covered by our Privacy Policy. We may suspend a listing, or end your use of the Platform, if guest data is misused.

We send booking messages — OTPs, confirmations, vouchers, payment and refund updates, and reminders about your stay — on WhatsApp and SMS, and by email if you have added one. These are part of the service and relate only to your bookings; we do not send promotional messages.

No fraudulent bookings, false payment references, abusive conduct toward hotel owners or staff, scraping, or interference with the Platform. We may cancel bookings or close accounts involved in fraud or abuse.

To the extent permitted by law, the Platform's aggregate liability for any booking is limited to the amount paid for that booking. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited under Indian law, including under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.

For any problem with a booking, message us first on WhatsApp at +91 84393 31979 — most issues are fixed fastest there. For a formal complaint, write to our Grievance Officer, [name of grievance officer], at [email] or [address line], Kedarnath, District Rudraprayag, Uttarakhand. We acknowledge every complaint within 48 hours and resolve it within one month of receiving it.

We may update these terms; the "Last updated" date changes when we do, and material changes will be notified. A booking already confirmed keeps the cancellation policy it was made under. These terms are governed by the laws of India; courts at Rudraprayag / [district], Uttarakhand have jurisdiction, without limiting your rights under consumer protection law.