Terms of Service

1. About These Terms

These terms are the agreement between you and Purchet when you use our website and services. By creating an account or using Purchet, you agree to them. If you do not agree, please do not use Purchet.

They sit alongside our Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, Refund Policy and Community Policy, which are part of this agreement.

2. What Purchet Is

Purchet is an online platform that helps students find accommodation near universities in Ghana, and helps accommodation providers (hosts) list, manage and take bookings for their rooms.

Purchet is not a landlord, an estate agent or a party to any tenancy. We do not own, manage or inspect the properties listed. The tenancy is between the host and the tenant, on the terms of the tenancy agreement both accept when a booking is made.

We check listings before they are published and we act on reports, but we cannot guarantee that every detail of every listing is accurate. Visit a property, or book a viewing, before committing where you can.

3. Your Account

• You must be at least 18 years old, or otherwise legally able to enter into a contract.
• Give accurate information when you register and keep it up to date. We ask you to verify your email address and phone number.
• Students may be asked for their university details, an emergency contact and an identity document before booking.
• Keep your password to yourself. You are responsible for what is done through your account. We recommend turning on two-factor authentication, and it is required for administrators and for some organisation members.
• Tell us straight away if you think someone else has used your account.

4. Hosts and Organisations

A host account belongs to an organisation: the business or person offering accommodation. The organisation's owner can invite other people to help run it and decides what each of them may do (for example a manager, a finance member, support staff, or an outside auditor who can only read financial records).

The owner is responsible for everyone they invite and for what those people do on the organisation's behalf. Access given to a member can be limited to a period of time and can be removed by the owner at any time.

5. Listings

• A host may only list accommodation they own or have the right to let. We may ask for a document showing this.
• Listings must be accurate: the location, the rooms, the number of spaces, the price, any extra fee, the security deposit, the photographs and the rules.
• Every listing is reviewed by Purchet before it is published. We may decline, unpublish or suspend a listing that breaks these terms or the Community Policy, or while we look into a report about it.
• The host sets the tenancy terms for each listing, including the minimum and maximum length of stay. These become part of the tenancy agreement.
• Keep availability up to date. A host who accepts a booking must honour it.

6. Bookings

7. Prices, Fees and Tax

• The price of a booking is the room price for the length of stay, plus any extra fee the host has set for the listing (shown by name, for example a cleaning fee).
• Purchet charges the tenant a service fee on top of that price, and charges the host a service fee that is taken from what the host receives. Both are shown before you commit: to the tenant at checkout, and to the host in their dashboard.
• Service fees can change. The fee that applies to a booking is the one shown when the booking was made, and it is recorded with the payment.
• Where tax applies to a booking or to a payout, it is shown separately.
• Booking a viewing of a property may carry a viewing fee, shown before you pay.

8. Payments and Payouts

• Payments are processed by Paystack. Purchet never sees or stores your full card number or your mobile money PIN. If you save a payment method, Paystack holds it and we keep only a reference to it and its last four digits.
• When a tenant pays, Paystack pays the host's share directly to the payout account the host has set up, on Paystack's own settlement schedule, and pays Purchet its service fees. Purchet does not hold the host's share.
• A host must add a payout account before their listings can take bookings, and is responsible for its details being correct.
• If money is later refunded to a tenant for a payment the host has already received, the host's share of that refund is owed back by the host and may be recovered from the host's future earnings on Purchet.
• We keep a permanent record of every payment, refund and payout. These financial records are not deleted.

9. Cancellations and Refunds

The rules for cancelling a booking and for refunds are in our Refund Policy (purchet.com/refunds). In short: a tenant is refunded in full if the host declines or does not answer in time, or if the tenant cancels within 20 hours of booking and before check-in.

10. Security Deposits

A host may require a refundable security deposit. The amount is shown on the listing and in the tenancy agreement.

At present the security deposit is not collected through Purchet: it is paid to and held by the host under the tenancy agreement, and Purchet does not hold it or return it. Before deducting from a deposit, the host must file a damage report through Purchet's Resolution Centre, so that there is a dated record the tenant can answer.

11. Problems, Damage Reports and Disputes

• A tenant can report a problem with their stay from the booking. It goes to the host, who is expected to answer it. Purchet staff can see every report and may step in.
• A host can file a damage report against a tenant from the Resolution Centre, with photographs. The tenant is told and can confirm or dispute it.
• For anything the other side cannot or will not resolve, or for a problem with Purchet itself, open a support ticket and our team will look into it.
• We will try to help both sides reach a fair outcome, and we may refund a tenant where we find it justified. We are not a court and cannot force a host or a tenant to pay the other.

12. Reviews

• Only someone with a completed booking can review a property or a host, and a host can review a tenant who stayed with them.
• Reviews must be honest, about your own experience, and follow the Community Policy.
• Hosts can reply to reviews. Anyone can report a review they believe breaks the rules. We may hide or remove reviews that do.

13. Your Content

You keep ownership of what you upload: photographs, descriptions, reviews and messages. You give Purchet permission to store, display and share it as needed to run the service and to promote listings on Purchet.

Only upload content you have the right to use. Photographs, documents and messages sent as part of a booking, a report or a verification may be kept as a record even after you remove them from view, because they can be evidence in a dispute.

The Purchet name, logo, website and software belong to Purchet.

14. Acceptable Use

You agree to follow our Community Policy (purchet.com/community). It covers honest listings, respectful behaviour, fair reviews and what is not allowed on Purchet.

15. Suspension and Closing an Account

• We may suspend or close an account, or suspend a listing, that breaks these terms or the Community Policy, that puts other people at risk, or where we are required to by law. We will tell you the reason unless the law prevents it.
• When an account is suspended, it is signed out everywhere.
• You can ask us to close your account at any time by contacting us. Bookings already made, and the financial records of them, remain.

16. Our Responsibility

• We work to keep Purchet available, accurate and secure, but we provide it as it is and cannot promise it will always be free of errors or interruptions.
• Hosts are responsible for their properties and for keeping to the tenancy agreement. Tenants are responsible for their conduct during a stay. Purchet is not responsible for the condition of a property or for the acts of a host or a tenant.
• To the extent the law allows, our liability to you is limited to direct losses caused by our own breach of these terms, and to no more than the service fees you paid us for the booking concerned.
• Nothing in these terms limits any right you have that cannot be limited by law.

17. Changes to These Terms

We may update these terms as Purchet changes. The date at the top shows the latest version. If a change is significant we will tell you through the platform or by email. Continuing to use Purchet after a change means you accept the updated terms. A booking is governed by the terms in force when it was made.

18. Governing Law

These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of Ghana, and the courts of Ghana have jurisdiction over any dispute about them. Please contact us first: most problems can be settled without a court.

19. Contact

Purchet operates online and does not yet have a public office.

• Email: hello@purchet.com
• Phone: +233 20 010 1594
• Support: open a support ticket from your account for anything about a booking.