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Last Updated: September 2026
By accessing or using the Guidecall application, website, and associated services (collectively, the "Service"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service. If you are accepting these Terms on behalf of a company or other legal entity, you represent that you have the authority to bind that entity to these Terms. If you do not agree to all of the terms, you may not access the Service.
Guidecall acts strictly as a technology platform connecting independent outdoor guides ("Guides") with customers ("Clients"). Guidecall is not a guiding service, outfitter, charter operator, or transportation carrier. All guiding services are provided by independent contractors who are not employees of Guidecall.
By providing your phone number and expressly opting in via your account settings, you consent to receive SMS text messages from Guidecall relating to your account activity, bookings, trip reminders, secure messages, payouts, and calendar updates.
Deal Alerts (marketing messages). Separately from the account notifications above, you may opt in to Guidecall Deal Alerts on our public signup page — recurring automated marketing texts and/or emails about fishing-trip offers matching preferences you choose (location, species, minimum discount, and maximum frequency). Deal alert signups made on /deal-alerts are verified with a one-time code before any text is sent.
Separately, favoriting a captain or a specific trip enrolls your account in email alerts about that captain’s openings and deals by default, and you can turn that off at any time. Text alerts for favorites are off by default and require turning on the “Deals” text notification category in Account Settings, where its own disclosure is shown before your consent is recorded; texts then go to the phone number on your account. Favoriting a captain without an account, or through a captain’s own invite link, offers the same “Text me” choice with the same disclosure up front. Consent is not a condition of any purchase. Marketing texts are available for US mobile numbers only and are sent only during the hours permitted by your state’s law. Reply STOP to any alert to opt out of texts, use the manage link included in every message or the Alerts section of Account Settings to change preferences or unsubscribe entirely, and reply HELP or contact admin@guidecall.app for help. Message and data rates may apply.
You must be at least 18 years old to create an account. You are responsible for safeguarding your account credentials. Guides are solely responsible for acquiring and maintaining all necessary commercial licenses, insurance, permits, and certifications required by federal, state, and local laws (see Section 13).
Guides apply for one or more of three distinct products on the platform: In-Person Trips, Scheduled Calls, and On-Call sessions. Each product is reviewed independently by Guidecall admins. A Guide may be approved for some, all, or none of these products, and the approval set determines what the Guide may offer:
All payments are processed securely through our third-party payment processor. Guidecall collects all customer payments as the limited payment-collection agent of the Guide; your payment to Guidecall fully satisfies your payment obligation to the Guide for the booked service. Guides must complete payout setup (identity details, tax form, and bank-account details) before they can receive payouts. The following platform fees apply:
Payout Holds. Guide payouts for calls are held for 24 hours after call completion. Guide payouts for In-Person trips are held until the day after the trip date to allow refund disputes to be opened. Guidecall reserves the right to extend a hold, suspend a payout, or cancel a payout entirely in the event of suspected fraud, severe policy violations, or an open refund ticket.
Reversals. When a refund is issued, the corresponding Guide payout is automatically reversed or deducted from future payouts ("Reversals"). If a Reversal fails, the outstanding amount is deducted from the Guide's next eligible payout. If no future payout is available within sixty (60) days, Guidecall may charge the Guide's payment method on file or invoice the Guide for the outstanding balance, and the Guide agrees to pay any such amount within thirty (30) days of notice.
Payment Plans & Saved Cards. For In-Person Trips of $400 or more booked more than seven (7) days in advance, payment is collected on a schedule: a 50% deposit, 25% midway between booking and the Trip date, and the final 25% twenty-four (24) hours before the Trip. By booking with a payment plan you authorize Guidecall to securely save your card and automatically charge the scheduled installments to it when they come due, without you being present. No charge is captured more than ninety (90) days before the Trip date; for bookings made further in advance, your card is saved at booking and the deposit is charged when the Trip is ninety (90) days away. We send you an email and/or SMS reminder before each scheduled charge. If an installment fails, we notify you immediately with a secure link to update your payment method; unresolved payment failures are treated under Section 7.
Bank (ACH) payments. When you choose to pay by bank account, you authorize Guidecall and its payment processor to initiate a one-time ACH debit from the designated account for the amount shown at checkout. Bank payments can take several business days to complete; your booking is confirmed at checkout, but if your bank returns or reverses the payment, we may cancel the associated booking or recover the amount owed, and you may incur returned-payment fees from your bank. Refunds of bank payments are returned to the originating account and typically appear within 5–10 business days after the original payment has cleared.
Guide Promotional Purchases. Guides may purchase optional promotional products from Guidecall, including slot-blast email credits (escalating pricing disclosed at purchase) and featured search placement (priced per week as disclosed at purchase). Promotional purchases are charged at the time of purchase (by card or platform credit balance), are delivered immediately or on the schedule described at purchase, carry no Guide payout component, and are non-refundable once delivery has begun, except where required by law or at Guidecall's discretion. Guidecall does not guarantee any specific results from promotional products, and the sole remedy for non-delivery is a credit for the purchase price.
Cancellation eligibility and refund treatment depends on when the cancellation occurs and which party initiates it. A detailed summary is published at guidecall.app/cancellation-policy for convenience. In the event of any conflict between that summary and the terms below, these Terms control.
Refund Tickets. Customers may open a refund ticket inside the platform. Guidecall admins review every ticket and may deny, partially approve, or fully approve a refund based on the evidence presented. Approved refunds are returned to the original payment method. Guides may dispute refund decisions within seven (7) days of the decision date; disputes are reviewed by Guidecall and resolved within five (5) business days.
Refunds are returned to your original payment method — card or bank account, whichever you paid with. Guidecall may issue promotional or goodwill credits at its sole discretion; these are not tied to any specific payment, cannot be transferred or redeemed for cash, and may expire.
Scheduled Calls are pre-booked video sessions between a Client and a Guide on a fixed date and time. Pricing is set by the Guide (Flat, Tier, or Per-Species pricing modes).
On-Call sessions are real-time video sessions a Client can request from any Guide who has marked themselves available. Pricing for On-Call sessions is set by the platform.
Video & Audio Recording. All Scheduled Calls and On-Call sessions are hosted by Daily.co inside private two-participant rooms. Every session is recorded to the cloud. Both participants confirm their consent to recording on a notice screen shown before each call begins; by proceeding past that screen and joining a session, both parties consent to being recorded. Recordings are retained for dispute resolution, refund review, and platform integrity. Recordings are accessible only to Guidecall admins for review purposes and to the call participants themselves on request. See our Privacy Policy Section 10 for retention details.
Customers may leave a tip for the Guide after an In-Person Trip is completed. Tipping is optional. Guides may opt out of receiving tips entirely from their profile settings.
You acknowledge that fishing, boating, and other outdoor activities arranged through the Guidecall platform are inherently dangerous and involve risks of physical injury, drowning, equipment failure, exposure to weather, encounters with wildlife, and other hazards that cannot be fully eliminated. By booking any trip, call, or service through Guidecall, you voluntarily assume all inherent risks of such activities for yourself and any guests in your party.
Guidecall is a marketplace, not a tour operator, captain, charter service, or transportation provider. We do not own or operate any vessels, vehicles, or equipment, and we do not supervise, train, or certify Guides. Guides are independent contractors solely responsible for the conduct, safety, equipment, insurance, licensing, and execution of every trip booked through the platform.
Customers are encouraged to confirm a Guide's licensing, insurance, vessel condition, and safety practices independently before any trip. Customers must also sign any waivers, liability releases, or assumption-of-risk documents requested by the Guide on the day of the trip.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, Guidecall and its officers, directors, employees, and affiliates shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, including loss of profits, loss of data, or loss of goodwill arising out of your use of the Service, any trip or call arranged through the platform, or any act or omission of a Guide or other user.
Liability Cap. In no event shall Guidecall's total cumulative liability to you under these Terms exceed the booking fee actually paid to Guidecall for the specific session at issue, or one hundred U.S. dollars ($100), whichever is less. This cap applies regardless of the theory of liability — contract, tort, strict liability, or otherwise.
You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Guidecall and its officers, directors, employees, and affiliates from and against any claims, damages, obligations, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of (a) your use of the Service, (b) your violation of these Terms or any law, (c) your violation of any third-party right, including any intellectual-property or privacy right, (d) any injury, illness, or property damage you or your guests suffer or cause during any Trip, call, or service booked through the platform, or (e) any dispute between you and a Guide or other user. Guidecall may, at its option and expense, assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter subject to indemnification by you, and you agree not to settle any such matter without Guidecall's prior written consent.
By onboarding as a Guide on the platform, you represent and warrant that you (a) hold all required federal, state, and local licenses, permits, and certifications applicable to your services, including any U.S. Coast Guard captain's license required for the waters in which you operate, (b) maintain commercial general liability insurance and any other coverages required by law or industry standard for the duration of your time on the platform, (c) operate vessels and equipment that meet all applicable Coast Guard, state, and local safety standards, (d) comply with all federal, state, and local laws, including environmental, fish-and-game, employment, and tax laws, and (e) will notify Guidecall in writing within twenty-four (24) hours of any lapse, suspension, or revocation of any of the foregoing.
Payout Setup. Guides must complete payout setup — accurate identity details, a completed IRS Form W-9, and a valid U.S. bank account — to be eligible for payouts. Guides who fail to complete payout setup may be unable to receive payouts until they do so. Additional verification may be required by Guidecall or its payment processor, and Guidecall is not responsible for delays caused by failed or incomplete verification.
Guides are solely responsible for collecting any trip-day waivers, liability releases, or safety acknowledgements from customers. Guidecall does not collect or store such documents on a Guide's behalf.
Pricing Parity. Guides agree that prices listed on Guidecall will be no higher than prices charged on their own website or direct booking channels for the same service. Guidecall may audit pricing; violations may result in a warning and, for repeat or significant violations, suspension or removal from the marketplace.
Guidecall permits customers to book sessions without creating an account by providing an email address, name, and phone number ("Guest Checkout"). The customer service fee described in Section 6 applies to all Guest Checkout transactions and is retained entirely by Guidecall.
Guest customers receive booking confirmations and management links by email. Anyone in possession of a confirmation link may view booking details; sensitive actions (cancellation, refund) require a separate one-time code emailed to the original guest email at the time of the action. Guests may request deletion of their data at any time via guidecall.app/privacy/delete.
You may request deletion of your contact information at any time. Logged-in users may do so from Account Settings. Guests and former users may use guidecall.app/privacy/delete. We will anonymize your name, email, and phone within thirty (30) days of confirmation, provided there are no pending bookings, open disputes, unresolved payment obligations, or active fraud investigations; in such cases, anonymization will occur promptly after resolution. This excludes the phone number and email address preserved in the marketing-SMS consent/opt-out log, which are retained for that log's own seven-year period as our suppression-list and compliance record. Records of past bookings, payments, and refunds remain in our systems in anonymized form to satisfy our obligations under federal, state, tax, and payment-network rules (including IRS retention and payment-network dispute-history requirements). See our Privacy Policy Section 10 for retention specifics.
We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be communicated by email or in-app notification at least thirty (30) days before they take effect. If you do not agree with a material change, you may close your account before the effective date. Your continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes your acceptance of the updated Terms.
Any controversy or claim arising out of or relating to this contract, or the breach thereof, shall be settled by arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association in accordance with its Commercial Arbitration Rules, and judgment on the award rendered by the arbitrator(s) may be entered in any court having jurisdiction thereof. The arbitration shall take place in New Jersey. Claims shall be heard by a single arbitrator selected by the American Arbitration Association.
You and Guidecall waive any right to a jury trial and to participate in any class, collective, or representative action.
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of New Jersey (and applicable federal maritime law as to In-Person Trips), without regard to conflict-of-laws principles and excluding the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. The Federal Arbitration Act governs the interpretation and enforcement of the arbitration and class-action waiver provisions in Section 17.
Questions about these Terms? Email admin@guidecall.app.