Terms of Service & Privacy Policy

Some things just have to be said in writing, ya know? So here we go, here are the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

Last updated: 4/27/2022

Please read these Terms of Use (“Terms”, “Terms of Use”) carefully before using the AyaAdvisors.org website (the “Service”, “AyaAdvisors”) operated by AyaAdvisors.org (“us”, “we”, or “our”).

Your access to and use of the Service is conditioned on your acceptance of and compliance with these Terms. These Terms apply to all visitors, users and others who access or use the Service.

By accessing or using the Service you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you disagree with any part of the terms then you may not access the Service.

Definitions

Breaching of confidentiality” means exposing the name, image, contact information, or any other personally identifiable information of a person or entity.

Listing” means a page or post on the site for people to leave reviews about a particular business, organization, or entity.

Reviewer” means any user of the site that leaves a review.

Retreat Center” means any organization that has a listing on the site.

Spam” means unsolicited advertising or promotion of content on other sites, or content that is otherwise not related to the content of this site, or is generally annoying or disruptive.

Accounts

When you create an account with us, you must provide us information that is accurate, complete, and current at all times. Failure to do so constitutes a breach of the Terms, which may result in immediate termination of your account on our Service.

You are responsible for safeguarding the password that you use to access the Service and for any activities or actions under your password, whether your password is with our Service or a third-party service.

You agree not to disclose your password to any third party. You must notify us immediately upon becoming aware of any breach of security or unauthorized use of your account.

Intellectual Property

The Service and its original content, features and functionality are and will remain the exclusive property of AyaAdvisors.org and its licensors.

Links To Other Web Sites

Our Service may contain links to third-party web sites or services that are not owned or controlled by AyaAdvisors.org.

AyaAdvisors has no control over, and assumes no responsibility for, the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third party web sites or services. You further acknowledge and agree that AyaAdvisors.org shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with use of or reliance on any such content, goods or services available on or through any such web sites or services.

We strongly advise you to read the terms and conditions and privacy policies of any third-party web sites or services that you visit.

Termination

We may terminate or suspend your account immediately, without prior notice or liability, for any reason whatsoever, including without limitation if you breach the Terms.

Upon termination, your right to use the Service will immediately cease. If you wish to terminate your account, you may simply discontinue using the Service.

All provisions of the Terms which by their nature should survive termination shall survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity and limitations of liability.

Disclaimer

Your use of the Service is at your sole risk. The Service is provided on an “AS IS” and “AS AVAILABLE” basis. The Service is provided without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement or course of performance.

Governing Law

These Terms shall be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of the United States of America, without regard to its conflict of law provisions.

Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not be considered a waiver of those rights. If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable by a court, the remaining provisions of these Terms will remain in effect. These Terms constitute the entire agreement between us regarding our Service, and supersede and replace any prior agreements we might have between us regarding the Service.

Changes

We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to modify or replace these Terms at any time. If a revision is material we will try to provide at least days notice prior to any new terms taking effect. What constitutes a material change will be determined at our sole discretion.

By continuing to access or use our Service after those revisions become effective, you agree to be bound by the revised terms. If you do not agree to the new terms, please stop using the Service.

General Rules of Conduct

  • Any spam or disruptive automation of any kind are grounds for immediate banning. Nobody likes that, and it’s a waste of time, which is our most valuable resource.
  • At the risk of stating the obvious, Retreat Centers are forbidden from ever submitting reviews for themselves. That’s a major no-no, as it would undermine the integrity of the review system, which is the whole point of this website.
    • On the other hand, if a former volunteer or staff member of a retreat center would like to leave a review of their former employer/host organization, that is allowed and welcomed, especially since they probably have better a better finger on the pulse of a place, so to speak.
  • It should go without saying, but while we absolutely welcome any guest’s review of a Retreat Center they attended, Reviewers are forbidden from submitting more than one review for the same Retreat Center. Just one review, please 🙂
  • Also, respectfully, just one review per household/location is permitted, with possible exceptions for couples, in which case please mention that in your review or contact us ahead of time to give us a heads-up. Otherwise, the second one just won’t be approved, and this is to help prevent padding of reviews, which again helps to ensure the integrity of the review system, which is paramount around here and for good reason! It’s so crucial that a person makes a well-informed decision based on other peoples’ experiences. They can vary wildly, and so can reviews. And that’s okay!
  • We welcome your honest feedback without any sugar-coating necessary, but tact is always appreciated, if you can muster it. It’s easier said than done when emotions are running high though. We get it.
  • Actually constructive feedback though can genuinely help a retreat center improve themselves, so you could actually be returning the favor by gentling providing ideas for improvement for future guests.
  • Another major tenant around here is that Retreat Centers shouldn’t ever breach the confidentiality of their guests (who are Reviewers) for any reason. Just don’t do it, please, no matter how tempting it might be to call someone out. It crosses a line when it’s said in this sort of publicly-visible setting, and no matter how much of a jerk they might be acting like, their confidentiality is still really important.
  • Reviewers are free to mention retreat center owners by name if it’s actually relevant to the review, but as a courtesy, we may redact their last name upon request, in which case it will be noted at the base of the review that the last name was removed at their request.
  • Reviewers shouldn’t ever breach the confidentiality of fellow retreat participants without their permission, of course.
  • And once a review has been submitted for a retreat center, that listing may never be deleted or removed. This ensures that no one can simply delete reviews they don’t like, especially with a newer listing.

Because the confidentiality of the reviewers and the integrity of the reviews on this site are paramount and precious, breaking any of the above rules will likely result in immediate termination of your account, and in the case of Retreat Centers, your listing would revert to a free listing without any benefits of membership like being shown in the section at the very top of the homepage. But on a case-by-case basis, we may opt to give you a warning first.

If any Retreat Center or Reviewer breaks these rules, they also forfeit any remaining balances, credits, or discounts of any sort. However, if terms are not broken and a membership is simply ended upon request, then any deposits made will be refunded after any outstanding charges are deducted, including payment processing fees.

Paid Messaging

For some free listings, we offer the option to contact the retreat owner for a fee, in cases where we have an email address for the owner, either provided to us by previous correspondence with the owner or when the free listing was requested. We can’t guarantee that the retreat owner will respond to these messages, nor do we offer refunds if no response is received. We hope you can appreciate the nearly-free service though.

Refunds

We don’t automatically offer refunds of any kind. However, if you ask nicely and have a valid reason, we may honor your request. We can’t guarantee the timeliness of the refund though, and we reserve the right to take up to 60 days to issue refunds, or in the case of annual memberships or any amounts larger than $500, up to 120 days.

Pricing

Because of inflation alone, costs to operate this site will likely always go up, so it’s likely that we’ll have to adjust our pricing on occasion, but it wouldn’t be pleasant for anyone if this happened often, so we will do our best minimize that as much as possible.

If a Retreat Center pays for an annual membership, for example, either that price will be honored for the full term, or we may opt to provide a partial refund for the remaining part of the membership term.

If a partial refund is offered, it’s calculated by taking the number of days already expired in your current membership, divided by the number of days in the full term to get a percentage of completion, and then multiplying the membership amount by the remaining percentage (1 minus the percentage of completion).

For example, if you paid for an annual membership, and a refund is offered 300 days after the membership term began, then the percentage of completion would be 300/365 or 82.2%. So then the refund would be 1 – 82.2%, or 17.8% of the original membership amount (minus any applicable payment processing fees).

 

If you have any questions about these Terms, please contact us, and in the meantime, stay safe out there  🙂