Nearabouts: Terms

DRAFT FOR REVIEW — not yet in force. This document is working boilerplate prepared for review by Matt and, where appropriate, a solicitor before launch. Bracketed items are deliberately unconfirmed. Nothing here has been published to operators as binding.

Effective: [date — on launch]
Version 1.0

These Terms govern use of Nearabouts. They are in three parts:

  • Part A: Website Terms of Use. Applies to everyone who uses the site.
  • Part B: Listing Agreement. Applies to operators who claim a listing, whether on the free plan or the paid Standard plan.
  • Part C: Inclusion, Correction and Removal Policy. Explains how listings are created, and how to have one corrected, disputed or removed.

In these Terms, "we", "us" and "Nearabouts" means [operator legal name and company details — to confirm before launch], operating the Nearabouts guide. "You" means the person or business using the site or holding a listing.

The Site means nearabouts.co.uk, including its vertical editions served as subdomains of nearabouts.co.uk (Snug, Table, Grounds, Larder, Cellar, Workshop, Counter, Rest, Culture and Way), together with any successor or additional site we operate under the Nearabouts name.

This summary is provided for convenience. It is not part of the agreement and does not override anything below.

  • We are an editorial directory of independent places in the UK. We choose what goes in and we write the descriptions ourselves.
  • Listings are created editorially, without payment and without asking. Most listings have never been claimed or paid for.
  • Claiming your listing is free. It verifies your ownership and lets you keep the facts — hours, contact details, your cover photo and your description — up to date. You never have to pay to correct a fact.
  • Paying for the Standard plan adds tools: the photo gallery, more live events, offers, Q&A and reporting. It does not buy inclusion, placement, ranking, prominence or editorial coverage. Nothing does.
  • We keep editorial control of the guide, including your entry's description, at every plan level.
  • The first 1,000 claimed listings receive the Standard plan free for one year. No card is taken; when the year ends the listing simply returns to the free plan unless you choose to subscribe.
  • Cancelling does not delete your listing. It reverts to the free plan, and an unclaimed editorial listing if you release your claim. If you want it gone entirely, ask us and we will follow Part C.
  • The Standard plan is £195 a year [VAT treatment — to confirm], renewing annually. Cancel any time.

Part A: Website Terms of Use

By accessing or using the Site you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Site.

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account or enter into an agreement with us.

If you are agreeing to these Terms for a business, you warrant that you are authorised to bind that business.

The Site is an editorial directory of independently operated places, makers and experiences in the United Kingdom. We select and describe the entries ourselves, according to our editorial standards.

We are not a booking agent, travel agent, reseller or intermediary. We do not take reservations, process payments on behalf of listed businesses, or take commissions on transactions between you and a listed business. Any dealing you have with a listed business is between you and that business.

We work to keep the guide accurate, and Part C explains how to have an error corrected free of charge. Details such as opening hours, prices and availability change at the listed business's discretion, and we cannot promise that every detail is current at the moment you read it. Check directly with the business before travelling a long way or making plans that depend on a detail.

Where a description was generated with the assistance of automated tools and has not yet been verified by the business, the page says so.

You may not:

  • use the Site for any unlawful purpose, or in breach of any applicable law or regulation;
  • scrape, harvest or bulk-extract content or data from the Site for republication or for building a competing directory, beyond what our published robots and crawler policies permit;
  • attempt to gain unauthorised access to any account, system or data;
  • misrepresent your identity or your connection to a listed business, including claiming a listing you are not authorised to manage;
  • interfere with the operation of the Site, including by knowingly introducing malicious code or placing unreasonable load on it;
  • use the Site to send unsolicited marketing.

We may suspend or withdraw access for breach of this clause.

The Site and its content — including descriptions, editorial writing, collections, trails, design and code — are protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights owned by us or our licensors. You may view, share links to, and print pages for personal, non-commercial use. Any other reproduction requires our permission.

Listed business names and marks belong to their owners. A listing is not an endorsement by the business of Nearabouts, nor by Nearabouts of the business beyond our editorial judgment that it belongs in the guide.

You are responsible for keeping your sign-in credentials confidential and for activity under your account. Tell us promptly at listings@nearabouts.co.uk if you believe your account has been compromised. We may suspend an account used in breach of these Terms.

If you send us suggestions, corrections, photographs or other material (other than under a Listing Agreement, which Part B covers), you grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use it in operating and publishing the guide. Only send material you have the right to share. We are not obliged to use anything you send.

If you create an account or claim a listing, we send service emails about that account or claim (for example verification links, claim decisions and billing notices). Marketing communications are sent only in accordance with our Privacy Policy and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), and every marketing email contains a working unsubscribe.

The Site links to listed businesses' own websites and may embed third-party services such as maps. We are not responsible for third-party sites or services, and linking to them is not an endorsement.

We develop the Site continuously. Features may be added, changed or withdrawn. Where a change materially reduces what a paying operator receives, clause B14 applies.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot be excluded or limited under the law of England and Wales, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud.

Subject to that: the Site is provided free of charge to visitors, and we accept no liability to visitors for loss arising from use of the Site or reliance on its content. For operators, clause B17 sets out the position under a Listing Agreement.

We are not liable for loss of profits, loss of business, business interruption or loss of business opportunity suffered by a business in connection with its listing, except as set out in Part B.

If you are a consumer, these Terms do not affect your statutory rights.

We may update Part A from time to time. The current version is always published at nearabouts.co.uk/terms with its effective date and version number. Continued use of the Site after a change takes effect is acceptance of the revised Terms.

These Terms, and any dispute or claim arising out of them, are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction — save that if you are a consumer resident in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you may also bring proceedings in your local courts.

Part B: Listing Agreement

Listing — an entry for a place or business in the guide.
Claim — the verified connection between a Listing and the account of a person authorised to manage that business.
Free plan — the plan every successful Claim holds by default, at no charge.
Standard plan — the paid plan, currently £195 a year [VAT treatment — to confirm].
Founding year — a promotional period of the Standard plan granted free under clause B6.

Claiming is free. To claim, you must hold a Nearabouts account, submit the claim from that account, and satisfy our verification checks. You warrant that you are authorised to manage the business the Listing describes.

We may refuse, revoke or transfer a Claim where we reasonably conclude it was made without authority, obtained by misrepresentation, or is being misused. Where a Claim is disputed between two people connected to the same business, we may suspend management access while the dispute is resolved and will follow the documented ownership evidence.

A successful Claim, without any payment:

  • marks the Listing as verified with its operator;
  • lets you keep the facts current — name, opening hours, contact details, how visitors find you — and set one cover photograph;
  • lets you maintain your description through our editorial review;
  • lets you run one live event at a time;
  • shows you core readership statistics.

You never have to pay to correct a factual error in your Listing, whether or not you have claimed it (see Part C).

The Standard plan adds management and visibility tools, as described on the Site at the time you subscribe — currently including a moderated photo gallery, a featured video, additional concurrent events, current offers, venue Q&A, search and readership reporting, and related features. The published feature table at nearabouts.co.uk/for-venues is the definitive current list.

Payment does not buy inclusion in the guide, search placement, ranking, prominence, editorial coverage or a favourable description. Inclusion and editorial judgments are ours alone, at every plan level. We do not accept payment to include a business, and we do not remove truthful editorial content in exchange for payment.

The first 1,000 Listings to be claimed receive the Standard plan free for twelve months from the date of grant (the founding year). No payment details are taken. The founding year:

  • attaches to the Listing's Claim and is not transferable or redeemable for money;
  • ends automatically on its end date, at which point the Listing returns to the free plan unless a Standard subscription has been started;
  • may be ended early by us where the Claim is revoked under clause B2 or these Terms are materially breached.

We will state the end date when the founding year is granted and remind you before it ends. Starting a paid subscription during the founding year ends the free period and begins the paid term.

The Standard plan runs for one year and renews automatically at each anniversary, at the then-current price, until cancelled. You can cancel at any time from the dashboard; cancellation takes effect at the end of the paid period, and the Listing then reverts to the free plan. We will tell you about a price change before it applies to a renewal.

Fees are payable in pounds sterling by the payment methods offered at checkout. Payment processing is handled by Stripe; we do not see or store full card details. If a renewal payment fails, we retry it and tell you; if it continues to fail, the Listing reverts to the free plan.

[Refund policy — to confirm before launch. Working draft: a full refund within 14 days of first payment on request; refunds after that at our discretion; statutory rights unaffected.]

You must:

  • provide and maintain accurate information about the business;
  • hold the rights to any photographs or other material you upload, and warrant that uploads infringe no one's rights, are not defamatory, and that identifiable people in them have consented;
  • not use management access to publish unlawful, misleading or deceptive content;
  • keep your account secure.

#B11. Licence to your content

You retain ownership of material you upload. You grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to host, display, reproduce and adapt it (for example resizing images) for the purpose of operating and publishing the guide and promoting it. The licence ends when the material is removed from the guide, except for archival copies and material already lawfully shared.

We keep editorial control of the guide at every plan level. We may edit descriptions for accuracy, length, house style and legal safety; decline or remove uploaded material; and decline edits that would make a Listing misleading. Where we decline an operator's factual correction, we will say why.

If your subscription ends, the Listing reverts to the free plan; your Claim and the facts you maintain remain. If your Claim is released or revoked, the Listing remains as an unclaimed editorial entry. If you want the Listing removed from the guide entirely, Part C applies.

Content available only on the Standard plan stops being displayed when the plan ends. We are not obliged to retain it indefinitely, but where practicable it is restored if you rejoin.

We may improve or change what each plan includes. If a change materially reduces what you receive on a paid plan mid-term, we will tell you, and you may cancel with a pro-rata refund of the unused period.

We may update this Part from time to time; material changes will be notified to the email on your account before they take effect at your next renewal.

We do not promise any level of traffic, enquiries, custom or revenue from a Listing on any plan.

Neither of us is liable for delay or failure caused by events outside reasonable control. If such an event materially interrupts a paid service for more than 30 days, either of us may cancel and we will refund the unused period.

Nothing in this Part limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited. Subject to that, our total liability to you under or in connection with a Listing Agreement, however arising, is capped at the fees you paid us in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim, and neither of us is liable to the other for indirect or consequential loss, loss of profits or loss of business opportunity.

This Part, with Parts A and C and the Privacy Policy, is the whole agreement about your Listing. If a clause is found unenforceable, the rest stands. A failure to enforce a clause is not a waiver. You may not assign a Claim except as part of a genuine transfer of the underlying business, notified to us. We may assign this agreement as part of a transfer of the guide, on notice. These Terms do not create a partnership, agency or employment relationship. The Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 does not give anyone else rights under it.

As clause A14.

Part C: Inclusion, Correction and Removal Policy

Listings are created editorially, by us, without payment and without asking permission — the same way a guidebook or a newspaper listings page is written. Being listed is not a commercial relationship, and most listed businesses have never dealt with us.

Listings are compiled from public sources: the business's own website and public pages, official registers, mapping data, and our own research and visits. Website addresses are never invented: they come from the business, from verified public data, or they are left blank.

Corrections are free, for everyone, always. If a fact in a Listing is wrong — hours, address, contact details, closure, anything — tell us at listings@nearabouts.co.uk or claim the Listing and fix it directly. Nobody is ever asked to pay to correct an error, and a correction request is never converted into a sales conversation.

If you are authorised to act for a listed business and want the Listing removed, email listings@nearabouts.co.uk from an address we can connect to the business, or contact us through a claimed account. We will verify the request and, once verified, remove the Listing within a reasonable period. We may decline removal requests that come from someone we cannot connect to the business, and we will say so.

When we learn a listed business has permanently closed, we verify it against at least two independent sources and then delist it. Tell us about closures at listings@nearabouts.co.uk.

#C6. Complaints about content

If you believe content in the guide about you or your business is inaccurate or unfair, contact listings@nearabouts.co.uk with the page, the words complained of, and the facts as you see them. We review complaints promptly, correct what is wrong, and where reasonable offer a right of reply. This policy does not require us to remove editorial opinion honestly held.

The guide lists independently operated places. If a listed business believes we have wrongly described its ownership or independence, clause C6 applies; if we have it wrong, we will correct or delist as appropriate.

You can suggest a place — your own or someone else's — through the Site. Suggestions are welcome and carry no fee, and no fee will get a suggestion accepted. Inclusion remains an editorial decision under clause B5.