Terms of Service

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account or use the Service. 18 is the age of majority in Sri Lanka under the Age of Majority Ordinance as amended by the Age of Majority (Amendment) Act, No. 17 of 1989, and a person under that age generally lacks capacity to enter into the contracts the Service involves. The Personal Data Protection Act, No. 9 of 2022 also treats a person under 18 as a child, whose personal data may only be processed with the consent of a parent or guardian.

By using the Service you represent that you meet this age requirement. If we learn that an account holder is under 18, we will close the account and delete the associated personal data. A parent or guardian may include a minor in a Booking they make and pay for; the adult remains responsible for the Booking and for the minor throughout.

You agree to:

• provide accurate, current and complete information about yourself, and keep it up to date;
• verify your email address, and your phone number where a feature requires it;
• keep your password and any one-time codes confidential;
• use a single account, unless we agree otherwise in writing;
• accept responsibility for everything done through your account.

You may register with an email address and password, or through a third-party sign-in provider. Where you use third-party sign-in, that provider’s own terms and privacy policy also apply to the sign-in itself.

Tell us immediately at support@oneceylon.space if you believe your account has been accessed without your authority. We are not liable for losses arising from unauthorised use of your account before you notify us, unless the unauthorised use was caused by our failure to take reasonable security measures. A login session lasts up to 30 days unless you sign out sooner.

Some features — in particular listing services, receiving Bookings and receiving payouts — require you to complete identity verification. This may include verifying your phone number by one-time code, submitting your National Identity Card number and a photograph of the document, submitting a photograph of yourself for comparison, and uploading business registrations, licences or permits.

We carry out these checks to protect travellers from fraud and to meet our obligations under the Financial Transactions Reporting Act, No. 6 of 2006 and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, No. 5 of 2006. We may decline verification, require further documents, or suspend a payout while verification is outstanding. Submitting a forged, altered or borrowed document is a serious breach of these Terms and may be reported to the authorities.

A verification badge means we have checked the documents presented to us. It is not a guarantee of a Provider’s competence, honesty, solvency, or continued compliance with any licence.

You may close your account at any time from your settings. Closure is scheduled and takes effect after a 30-day grace period, during which you can reverse it by signing in. What is deleted and what is retained is set out in our Privacy Policy. You cannot close an account while a Booking is in progress, a payment is outstanding, or a dispute is open.

You are solely responsible for your User Content and for the consequences of publishing it. You confirm that you own it or have all rights necessary to publish it, and that it does not infringe anyone else’s rights or break any law.

You must not post, upload or transmit content that:

• is unlawful under Sri Lankan law, including content that constitutes an offence under the Penal Code, the Computer Crime Act, No. 24 of 2007, the Online Safety Act, No. 9 of 2024, or the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Act, No. 56 of 2007 (advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred);
• is defamatory, or makes a false statement of fact about an identifiable person or business;
• accuses a named person or business of a crime or dishonesty without a genuine, first-hand factual basis — see section 5.4 on scam reports;
• is threatening, harassing, abusive, or incites violence or self-harm;
• is obscene, sexually explicit, or sexualises a child in any way;
• offends against the religious or racial sensibilities of any community, or shows disrespect to a place of religious worship, including images of the Buddha or of religious sites used inappropriately;
• infringes copyright, trade marks or other rights protected by the Intellectual Property Act, No. 36 of 2003;
• discloses another person’s personal data — including photographs, identity numbers, phone numbers, addresses or location — without their consent;
• is spam, undisclosed advertising, an affiliate scheme, or a solicitation to move a transaction off the platform to avoid fees;
• contains malware, or promotes illegal drugs, wildlife trafficking, prostitution, or the trade in protected antiquities or marine life;
• impersonates any person, business or public authority, including OneCeylon staff.

You must not:

• create multiple accounts, or use another person’s account, to manipulate votes, reputation, reviews, listings or search ranking;
• scrape, crawl, harvest, or use automated means to access the Service, except a well-behaved search-engine crawler obeying our robots directives;
• use the Service, or content taken from it, to train a machine-learning model, without our prior written consent;
• probe, scan, or attempt to breach the security of the Service, or access any account, data or system without authorisation — conduct which may constitute an offence under the Computer Crime Act, No. 24 of 2007;
• interfere with the Service, place unreasonable load on it, or circumvent rate limits, paywalls or access controls;
• reverse engineer, decompile, or create derivative works from the Service;
• use the Service to send unsolicited commercial messages to other users;
• sell, rent, or transfer your account or your reputation.

The Service lets you report scams and unsafe practices so other travellers are forewarned. This is a genuine public good, and it is also the highest-risk content on the platform. Accordingly:

• report only what you experienced or witnessed yourself, and describe it factually;
• a report that accuses a named person or business of dishonesty is not published automatically — it is screened, and may be held, edited for the removal of identifying detail, or declined;
• we may decline or remove a report we consider unverifiable, retaliatory, discriminatory, or defamatory;
• a person or business named in a report may contact us at trust@oneceylon.space to respond, and we will consider the response fairly.

Publishing a false accusation can expose you to liability for defamation and, where it is a false statement of fact published online, to proceedings under the Online Safety Act, No. 9 of 2024. Screening by us is not legal advice and does not transfer that risk to us.

We may review, edit, refuse, label, demote, hide or remove User Content, and restrict or close an account, where we reasonably consider these Terms have been breached or where we are required to by law. We use both automated screening and human review. We are not obliged to monitor content, and doing so in some cases does not create a duty to do so in all.

Where we remove your content or restrict your account, we will tell you the reason unless telling you would break the law, prejudice an investigation, or risk someone’s safety. You may appeal to trust@oneceylon.space and a person will review the decision.

Reputation points, badges and privileges are a measure of contribution within the Service. They have no monetary value, are not property, cannot be bought, sold or transferred, and confer no right to payment. We may adjust, recalculate or withdraw them — including for content that is removed or votes we consider manipulated — and may change how the system works.

You retain all rights you already have in your User Content. These Terms do not transfer ownership of it to us.

You grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sub-licensable and transferable licence to host, store, reproduce, adapt (including resizing, cropping, transcoding and translating), publish, publicly display and distribute your User Content, for the purposes of operating, promoting and improving the Service. This licence lasts for as long as your content remains on the Service and for a reasonable period afterwards to allow for backups, caches and archives to expire.

We may use your public User Content in marketing the Service, with attribution to your display name. If you would rather we did not, email support@oneceylon.space and we will stop.

Questions, answers, comments, articles and public itineraries you publish are licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence. This is what allows the community knowledge base to be quoted, built on and kept useful.

This public licence does not apply to: private messages in Crews or Bookings; your SerendAI conversations; your private itineraries and drafts; Marketplace listing content and photographs; verification documents; or reviews, which are licensed to us for display on the Service only.

If you send us suggestions or ideas about the Service, we may use them without restriction, obligation or payment to you.

You agree that we may process your User Content using AI systems, including our own and those of our providers, in order to run the Service — for example to generate answers, screen content for safety, detect duplicates, translate, summarise, and build search indexes. We do not license your content to AI providers to train their general-purpose models.

You must independently verify anything you intend to act on, and in particular anything concerning:

• Immigration and visas — check the Department of Immigration and Emigration and your own country’s authorities;
• Health and medicine — consult a qualified medical practitioner;
• Safety, weather, sea conditions and wildlife — check the Department of Meteorology, the Disaster Management Centre and local authorities;
• Law, tax and customs — consult a qualified professional;
• Prices, fares, entry fees, schedules and opening hours — confirm with the operator;
• Religious and cultural observances, including Poya and other public holidays that affect opening hours and the sale of alcohol.

SerendAI does not provide medical, legal, financial or immigration advice, and nothing it produces creates a professional relationship of any kind.

Your messages, and any images, audio or trip details you supply, are sent to our AI providers to generate a response. Where you have an account, SerendAI may retain a short profile of stated preferences to personalise later answers; you can view and delete these from the assistant. Full detail — including which providers receive what, and for how long anything is kept — is in our Privacy Policy.

By uploading an image, recording audio, or sharing your location, you confirm that:

• you own it or are entitled to share it, and sharing it does not breach anyone’s privacy;
• where an identifiable person appears in a photograph or recording, you have their consent;
• it does not contain nudity, graphic violence, or anything else prohibited by section 5.2;
• you consent to it being transmitted to our AI providers for analysis.

Do not upload identity documents, bank cards, medical records or other sensitive documents to the assistant.

AI features are subject to usage limits so the Service stays available and affordable for everyone. Current limits:

You must not circumvent these limits, resell access to SerendAI, or use it as a backend for another product except through an arrangement we have agreed in writing.

Where you use AI to help draft an article, answer, listing or itinerary, you remain the author and are responsible for the published result, including its accuracy and its effect on others. Check AI-drafted text before you publish it.

We use automated systems to screen content for harm, to hold questionable reports for review, to detect abuse, and to flag Bookings and payouts for human checking. Where an automated decision significantly affects you, you may ask for human review by writing to trust@oneceylon.space. Your rights in relation to automated decision-making under the Personal Data Protection Act, No. 9 of 2022 are set out in our Privacy Policy.

When a Booking is confirmed, a Provider Contract is formed directly between the Traveller and the Provider for the supply of that service. OneCeylon is not a party to it. Our contract with each of you is limited to providing the platform, taking payment as the Provider’s collection agent, and the protections set out in these Terms.

The terms of the Provider Contract consist of: the listing as displayed at the time of booking; anything the Provider and Traveller expressly agree through the Booking messages; any tour terms the Provider has published on the listing; and, for accommodation, the property’s cancellation policy. Where those conflict with these Terms on a matter these Terms govern — fees, payment, the platform cancellation floor, disputes — these Terms prevail.

1. The Traveller sends a request, or books an available slot, specifying dates, party size and requirements.
2. The Provider accepts, declines, or proposes different terms. A request that is neither accepted nor paid may expire.
3. The Traveller pays, in full or by deposit where the listing offers one. The Booking is confirmed on successful payment.
4. Where a deposit was paid, the balance falls due as stated on the listing. An unpaid balance may result in cancellation.
5. The Provider supplies the service and marks it delivered. The Booking completes as described in section 11.

Availability shown is indicative until a Booking is confirmed. We are not liable if a Provider is unable to honour a request that has not yet been confirmed and paid.

• Give accurate details, including the number and ages of travellers, mobility needs, dietary and medical requirements relevant to the service, and a contactable phone number.
• Turn up at the agreed time and place, and carry any documents the service requires.
• Comply with the Provider’s reasonable safety instructions, with Sri Lankan law, and with the rules of any national park, reserve, temple or protected site you visit.
• Behave lawfully and respectfully toward the Provider, their staff, other guests, local communities and wildlife.
• Hold travel insurance appropriate to the activity. We strongly recommend cover for medical treatment, evacuation, and adventure activities such as surfing, diving, hiking and safari.
• Pay for damage you cause to a Provider’s property or vehicle.

Booking-related communication must stay within the Service until the Booking is confirmed. Taking a transaction off-platform to avoid the Service Fee is a breach of these Terms, removes every protection described in sections 10 and 11, and may result in loss of reputation, delisting, withholding of payouts, or closure of your account.

The Service also displays information about, and may link you to, businesses that are not Providers on the Marketplace. Where you transact with such a business, you do so entirely at your own risk and outside these Terms; we receive no payment, hold no funds, and offer no dispute process for it.

Prices are set by the Provider and shown on the listing, ordinarily in United States dollars. Amounts shown in another currency are an indicative conversion for your convenience; the amount actually charged is in the currency stated at checkout, and your bank’s own conversion rate and any foreign-transaction fee it charges are between you and your bank.

The price includes what the listing says it includes. Entry fees, fuel surcharges, permits, meals, tips and taxes payable locally are excluded unless stated. Sri Lankan taxes and levies — including value added tax under the Value Added Tax Act, No. 14 of 2002 — are added where applicable and shown before you pay.

We charge a Service Fee of 10% of the booking total, and a payment processing charge of 2%, both deducted from the amount payable to the Provider. The Provider therefore receives the booking total less 12%.

We may change these rates. We will give Providers at least 30 days’ notice by email before an increase takes effect, and the rate applying to a Booking is the rate in force when the Booking was confirmed. Fees are non-refundable except where we refund a Booking in full, in which case we refund our Service Fee too.

Card payments are processed by a third-party payment processor. We never see or store your full card number. Your use of the processor is subject to its own terms. We store only enough information to identify the payment: a processor reference, the amount, the currency and the status.

Each Provider appoints OneCeylon as its limited payment collection agent for the sole purpose of accepting payment from Travellers. This has two consequences:

• A Traveller’s payment obligation to the Provider is discharged when we receive the money, even if we have not yet paid the Provider. A Provider cannot pursue a Traveller for a sum we have received.
• We hold that money for the Provider, subject to the refund, completion and dispute rules in sections 10 and 11.

OneCeylon is not a bank, finance company or licensed payment service provider. We do not operate a payment system requiring authorisation under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, No. 28 of 2005. Money we hold is not a deposit, earns no interest for you, and is not covered by any deposit-protection scheme.

Once a Booking completes, the net amount becomes payable to the Provider. Payouts are made to a verified payout account in the Provider’s own name — the name must match the Provider’s identity document. Where a Provider is paid to a Sri Lankan bank account, payouts are made in Sri Lankan rupees in a weekly batch, and the rupee amount depends on the exchange rate applied at conversion.

We may hold a payout for human review before release — in particular a Provider’s first payout, a payout at or above USD 300, or a payout to a Provider with an unresolved dispute or an outstanding recovery. We may also withhold, set off or recover a payout where a refund, chargeback, Service Fee, penalty or overpayment is owed to us or to a Traveller.

Cross-border payments and receipts are subject to the Foreign Exchange Act, No. 12 of 2017 and directions issued by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. We may delay or decline a payout where necessary to comply with them, or with sanctions or anti-money-laundering law.

Each Provider is solely responsible for determining, declaring and paying its own taxes on income earned through the Marketplace, including income tax under the Inland Revenue Act, No. 24 of 2017 (as amended), value added tax, and any applicable levy. We do not provide tax advice.

Where Sri Lankan law requires us to withhold or deduct tax from a payment, we will do so and remit it to the Department of Inland Revenue, and the Provider will receive the net amount. Providers must supply their Taxpayer Identification Number and any other information we reasonably require to comply. We may report transaction information to the tax authorities where obliged to.

If any amount you owe us is unpaid, we may suspend your access, deduct it from money we hold for you, offset it against future payouts, and recover it as a debt.

Unless the listing sets its own policy under section 10.2, a Traveller who cancels receives:

Refunds are made to the original payment method. Your bank may take several working days to show it. Where a deposit and balance were paid separately, both are refunded in the same proportion.

Accommodation hosts set their own cancellation policy per property — typically Flexible, Moderate, Strict or Non-refundable. The policy in force is displayed on the listing and shown again before you pay, and it replaces the table in section 10.1 for that Booking. Read it before booking a non-refundable rate.

A Provider who cancels a confirmed Booking must do so as early as possible. The Traveller receives a full refund in every case. Repeated or late cancellation by a Provider is a serious matter: we may charge a cancellation fee, remove the listing from search, withhold payouts, or close the account. Where we can, we will help the Traveller find an alternative, but we do not guarantee one and we are not liable for the cost of one.

A Traveller who does not appear at the agreed time and place, without cancelling, is not entitled to a refund. A Provider who does not appear, or supplies something materially different from the listing, must refund the Traveller in full; if the Provider does not, open a dispute under section 11.

Where a Booking cannot proceed because of an event outside both parties’ control — severe weather, flood, landslide, closure of a road, park or site, civil disturbance, curfew, strike, fuel shortage, epidemic, or an act or direction of a public authority — we will refund the Traveller in full, less any cost the Provider has already irrecoverably incurred and can evidence. We may vary the cancellation rules published here in response to such an event, and will publish the variation.

Nothing in this section limits any right you have under the Consumer Affairs Authority Act, No. 09 of 2003 or any other Sri Lankan law that cannot lawfully be excluded or restricted.

After the service has been supplied, the Provider marks the Booking delivered. The Booking then completes when either the Traveller confirms the service was received, or 72 hours pass after the service end date without the Traveller confirming or raising a dispute. We hold the Traveller’s money until completion — which is what makes it worth booking through the platform rather than paying cash in advance.

If something goes wrong, tell the Provider first through the Booking messages — most problems are resolved there. If it is not resolved, open a dispute before the 72-hour confirmation window closes, or as soon as reasonably possible where the problem could not have been discovered earlier. Explain what was agreed, what happened, and what you want, and attach evidence: photographs, messages, receipts.

We will review the Booking record, the listing as it stood, the messages between you, and the evidence supplied, and may ask for more. We may refund the Traveller in whole or in part, release payment to the Provider, or decline to intervene where the dispute is really a disagreement about taste or expectation rather than about what was promised.

Our decision is an exercise of our discretion as the holder of the funds. It is not an arbitral award, does not determine the Provider Contract between you, and does not prevent either of you from pursuing your rights in court or through the Consumer Affairs Authority.

If you have a problem, raise it with us rather than with your card issuer — we can usually resolve it faster. Where a chargeback is raised, we will supply the card scheme with the Booking record and evidence.

If a chargeback succeeds after a Provider has been paid, or a Provider is otherwise overpaid, the amount becomes immediately repayable to us. We may recover it from money we hold, from future payouts, or as a debt. Providers must not raise or encourage a fraudulent chargeback claim, and Travellers must not use chargebacks to obtain a service without paying for it.

Depending on what you offer, this may include:

• registration with the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority under the Tourism Act, No. 38 of 2005 and its regulations — required for tourist accommodation, tour operators, travel agents and licensed tourist guides;
• a valid tourist guide licence of the appropriate class, where you guide tourists;
• a valid driving licence for the class of vehicle, compulsory third-party motor insurance, a current revenue licence and fitness certificate under the Motor Traffic Act, and any passenger-carriage permit required by the National Transport Commission Act, No. 37 of 1991 or the relevant provincial passenger transport authority;
• local authority approvals, health and food-hygiene approvals, and fire and building safety compliance for premises;
• permits for regulated activities — including diving, whale watching, and any activity within a national park, forest reserve or protected area;
• business registration, and registration for tax where your turnover requires it.

You warrant that you hold all of these and will tell us within seven days if any lapses, is suspended or is withdrawn. Supplying a service without a required licence is your breach, not ours, and you indemnify us for it under section 23.

Your listing must be accurate and must not mislead. Specifically:

• describe honestly what is included and what is not;
• use photographs of your own service, taken recently, that you own or have the right to use — stock or borrowed images passed off as yours are grounds for removal;
• state the total price you require, with no undisclosed additions payable later;
• disclose material limitations — steep walking, unsuitability for young children, absence of air conditioning, shared facilities, seasonal closure;
• keep availability current, and honour a Booking you have accepted.

Listings are reviewed before publication and may be declined or required to be amended. Approval is a check for obvious problems, not an endorsement or a verification of what you claim.

• Supply the service with reasonable care and skill, and to the standard your listing describes.
• Do not divert Travellers to shops, gem dealers, spice gardens or other businesses for commission unless the Traveller has asked to go and you have disclosed the arrangement.
• Do not solicit payment outside the platform for a Booking made on it, and do not ask a Traveller to cancel and rebook privately.
• Do not demand tips, or represent a tip as compulsory.
• Treat Travellers without discrimination on grounds of race, religion, caste, nationality, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability, marital status or age, save where a genuine safety or legal requirement applies.
• Report any accident, injury, allegation of misconduct, or police involvement concerning a Booking to trust@oneceylon.space without delay.

You are strongly advised to hold public liability insurance appropriate to what you supply, and you must hold any insurance the law requires. You have no cover under any policy of ours, and we do not provide, arrange or guarantee insurance for you or for Travellers.

You supply your services on your own account. You are not an employee, worker, agent or partner of OneCeylon; you have no entitlement to wages, leave, gratuity, EPF or ETF contributions, or any other employment benefit from us; and you decide how and when to work, subject to the Bookings you accept.

Traveller details we release to you — name, contact details, party details, arrival information — are provided for the sole purpose of supplying the Booking. You must keep them secure, must not use them for marketing without consent, must not disclose them to anyone else, and must delete them when you no longer need them. When you handle this data you have your own obligations under the Personal Data Protection Act, No. 9 of 2022.

When you invite others to an itinerary, they can see and — depending on the role you give them — change its contents, including dates, stops, notes and budget figures. Give edit rights only to people you trust. Where you publish an itinerary, it becomes public User Content under section 6.3.

Crews are group spaces for coordinating a trip. Messages within a Crew are visible to its members, and members may screenshot or repeat them; do not treat a Crew as confidential or secure. Crew content is subject to the content standards in section 5.2, is automatically screened for harm, and may be reviewed by us following a report. Any member may report a message or a member, and we may remove content, remove a member, or close a Crew.

Report concerning behaviour to trust@oneceylon.space. If you are in immediate danger, contact the Police on 119.

Fare estimates, price reports and crowd reports are contributed by users and are indicative only. They are not an offer, a quotation, or a guarantee that any operator will charge that amount. Submit only prices you actually paid or were actually quoted.

The Service — its software, design, text, graphics, compilations, databases, the SerendAI name and the OneCeylon name and logo — is owned by us or licensed to us and is protected by the Intellectual Property Act, No. 36 of 2003 and equivalent laws elsewhere. Nothing in these Terms transfers any of it to you. You may use the Service only as these Terms permit.

If you believe content on the Service infringes your copyright or trade mark, write to legal@oneceylon.space with:

• your name, address and contact details;
• identification of the work and of the right you hold in it;
• the exact URL of the infringing content;
• a statement that you believe in good faith that the use is not authorised by you, your agent or the law;
• a statement that the information you have given is accurate;
• your signature, electronic or physical.

We will review the notice, may remove or disable access to the content, and will notify the user who posted it, who may respond. We may close the accounts of users who infringe repeatedly.

These Terms, and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them or their subject matter (including non-contractual disputes), are governed by the laws of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, without regard to conflict-of-law rules.

Most disputes are resolved quickly by email. Before starting formal proceedings, write to legal@oneceylon.space setting out the problem and what you want. We will respond within 30 days and try in good faith to settle it.

Subject to section 25.4, the courts of Colombo, Sri Lanka have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute arising out of or in connection with these Terms.

Where both parties agree in writing, a dispute may instead be referred to arbitration under the Arbitration Act, No. 11 of 1995, before a single arbitrator, seated in Colombo, conducted in English. This section does not require either party to arbitrate, and does not prevent either party from seeking urgent interim relief from a court.

Nothing here prevents a consumer from complaining to the Consumer Affairs Authority, or from bringing a claim in a court that has jurisdiction over them under the law of their own country where that right cannot be excluded by agreement.

Claims must be brought in your individual capacity, and not as a claimant or class member in any purported class or representative proceeding, to the extent Sri Lankan law permits this restriction.

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy and any additional terms you accept for a specific feature, are the entire agreement between us about the Service and replace any earlier version. Nothing here excludes liability for fraudulent misrepresentation.

If any provision is held invalid or unenforceable, it is severed or limited to the minimum extent necessary, and the rest remains in force.

A failure or delay in enforcing any provision is not a waiver of it, and a single or partial exercise of a right does not prevent its further exercise.

You may not assign or transfer your rights under these Terms without our written consent. We may assign ours to a group company or in connection with a merger, reorganisation or sale of the business, provided your rights are not prejudiced.

No one other than you and us has any right to enforce these Terms, except that the indemnity in section 23 is enforceable by the persons it names.

We give notice to you by email to your registered address, or by a notice within the Service; it is treated as received the day after sending. You give notice to us at the addresses in section 28.

These Terms are made in English. Any translation is for convenience only, and the English version prevails in the event of a conflict.

The Service is operated from Sri Lanka and directed principally at travel to and within Sri Lanka. If you access it from elsewhere, you do so on your own initiative and are responsible for compliance with your own local law.