Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of these Terms

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) are a binding agreement between you and Poetria Company Limited, a company based at KK 4 Avenue, Kigali, Rwanda (“Poetria”, “we”, “us”, “our”). They govern your use of the Poetria website, mobile app and related services (together, the “Service”), through which customers (“Customers”) book vetted event professionals such as bartenders, servers, chefs, hosts, security, photographers, DJs and cleaners (“Crew”).

By creating an account, making a booking, accepting work, or otherwise using the Service, you accept these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Service. If you use the Service on behalf of a company or organisation, you confirm you have authority to bind it, and “you” includes that entity.

2. Eligibility

• You must be at least 18 years old and have full legal capacity to enter into contracts.
• You must not be barred from using the Service under any applicable law, and you must not have been previously suspended or removed from the Service.
• Crew must hold any licences, permits or qualifications legally required for the services they offer.

3. Poetria's role — a marketplace, not an employer

Poetria operates a technology marketplace that connects Customers with independent event professionals. Poetria is an intermediary only. Poetria is not an employment agency, staffing agency or employer of Crew, and nothing in these Terms creates an employment, agency, partnership or joint-venture relationship between Poetria and any Crew member or Customer.

• Crew are independent contractors. They decide which offers to accept, set their own rates within the platform, and provide services under their own direction and control.
• Crew are solely responsible for their own taxes, social-security contributions, licences, insurance and legal compliance, and for the quality and legality of the services they provide.
• The service contract for event work is formed directly between the Customer and the Crew member(s) assigned to the booking. Poetria facilitates matching, scheduling, payment collection and payout, but is not a party to that service contract.
• Poetria does not supervise, direct or control Crew at events and, to the maximum extent permitted by law, is not responsible for their acts or omissions.

4. Accounts, registration and security

• You must provide accurate, current and complete information when registering and keep it up to date at all times.
• You are responsible for all activity under your account and for keeping your credentials confidential. Notify us immediately at team.poetria@gmail.com of any unauthorised use.
• Some accounts (for example Crew accounts onboarded by our team) may be created by Poetria administrators with a temporary password. You must change any temporary password on first sign-in; until you do, you remain responsible for activity on the account.
• One person, one account. You may not share, sell or transfer your account, or impersonate anyone else.
• We may refuse, suspend or reclaim any account or username at our discretion, including where required for security, fraud prevention or legal compliance.

5. Bookings

• Customers request Crew for an event by submitting a booking with the event date, time, venue and required roles. A booking becomes binding when confirmed through the Service.
• Crew receive offers through the Service and may accept or decline them. An accepted offer commits the Crew member to the booking under these Terms.
• Pending-staff slots: where a specific Crew member is not yet assigned to a role in a booking, the slot is shown as pending and Poetria will work to staff it on a best-effort basis. Poetria does not guarantee that any pending slot will be filled, and unfilled slots are not charged.
• Poetria may substitute an assigned Crew member with another verified professional of an equivalent role where necessary (for example illness or cancellation), and will inform the Customer of any substitution.
• All bookings, communications and payments relating to work found through the Service must be made through the Service (see Section 10 on circumvention).

6. Pricing and fees

• Crew set their own hourly rates, which are displayed on their profiles.
• Team-lead uplift: where a Crew member acts as team lead for a booking, a 10% uplift applies to that member's rate.
• Service fee: Poetria charges a flat 5,000 RWF service fee per booking, shown at checkout before you confirm.
• Prices are locked at booking: the rates and fees applicable to a booking are those in effect when the booking is confirmed. Later rate changes by Crew do not affect confirmed bookings.
• All amounts are in Rwandan Francs (RWF) unless stated otherwise, and are inclusive or exclusive of taxes as indicated at checkout. Poetria may change its fee structure prospectively with notice; changes never apply retroactively to confirmed bookings.

7. Payments, holds and invoices

• Payment collection: Poetria collects payment from the Customer for each booking, acting as a limited payment-collection facilitator for the Crew. Payment to Poetria discharges the Customer's payment obligation to the Crew for the amounts collected.
• Funds held until confirmation: amounts paid are held and released to Crew after the event, once the Customer confirms the hours worked. If the Customer does not confirm or dispute the hours within 72 hours of the event ending, the recorded hours are deemed confirmed and funds may be released.
• Invoices: where Poetria issues invoices, payment is due within 14 days of the invoice date (Net 14) unless otherwise agreed in writing.
• Late payment: overdue amounts may accrue late-payment interest at the maximum rate permitted by Rwandan law, and Poetria may suspend the account, withhold future bookings and recover reasonable collection costs (including legal fees) until payment is made.
• Refunds: except where these Terms or mandatory law require otherwise, payments are non-refundable once services have been performed. Where a refund is due (for example a cancelled or unfilled booking), it will be issued to the original payment method within a reasonable period.
• Disputes about hours or service quality must be raised through the Service within 72 hours of the event. Poetria may, at its reasonable discretion, adjust, withhold or release held funds to resolve a dispute, and its determination is final as between the parties on the platform, without prejudice to their legal rights against each other.

8. Cancellations

• Customers may cancel a booking free of charge up to 24 hours before the scheduled call time.
• Cancellations within 24 hours of call time incur charges as shown at the time of cancellation, up to the full booked amount, to compensate Crew who reserved the time.
• If Crew cancel, Poetria will attempt to arrange a replacement under Section 9. Repeated or late cancellations by Crew may lead to penalties, reduced visibility or deactivation.
• Poetria may cancel any booking where required for safety, fraud prevention, legal reasons or inability to staff the event; in that case the Customer receives a full refund of amounts paid for the cancelled portion, which is the Customer's sole remedy.

9. No-shows and the replacement guarantee

If an assigned Crew member fails to show up for a confirmed booking, Poetria will use commercially reasonable efforts to find a replacement of an equivalent role. This “replacement guarantee” is expressly limited to those efforts: Poetria does not warrant that a replacement will be found, and its total liability for any no-show or unfilled slot is capped at the refund of the amounts paid for the affected slot. Poetria is not liable for any other loss, cost or damage arising from a no-show, late arrival or unfilled position, to the maximum extent permitted by law.

10. Crew obligations

As Crew, you agree to:

• Keep your profile, rates, skills and availability accurate and up to date, and only accept offers you are able and legally permitted to fulfil.
• Arrive on time for accepted bookings, work the agreed hours, follow reasonable lawful instructions of the Customer relevant to the event, and behave professionally and sober at all times.
• Provide services with reasonable skill and care, comply with all applicable laws (including hygiene, safety and licensing requirements for your role), and carry any insurance required for your work.
• Handle your own tax registration, declarations and payments; Poetria does not withhold or remit taxes on your behalf.
• No circumvention: for 12 months after your last booking with a Customer introduced to you through the Service, you must not solicit, accept or perform work for that Customer off the platform, or encourage them to book you outside the Service. If you do, you agree to pay Poetria a circumvention fee equal to the service fees Poetria would have earned on the off-platform work, or 500,000 RWF per occurrence, whichever is greater, without prejudice to Poetria's other remedies including deactivation.

11. Customer obligations

As a Customer, you agree to:

• Provide a safe, lawful working environment for Crew, including compliance with health, safety and licensing requirements at your venue.
• Give accurate and complete event details — date, times, venue, expected guest numbers, duties and any special requirements — and update them promptly if they change.
• Treat Crew with respect and not ask them to perform tasks outside the booked role, illegal tasks, or tasks that endanger anyone.
• Comply with all laws applicable to your event, including permits, noise regulations and alcohol-service laws.
• Confirm hours worked promptly and honestly after the event, and pay all amounts due under these Terms.
• No circumvention: not solicit or engage Crew introduced through the Service for off-platform work for 12 months after their last booking with you, on the same terms as Section 10.

12. Prohibited conduct

You must not, in connection with the Service:

• Break any law, or infringe anyone's rights, including privacy and intellectual-property rights.
• Provide false, misleading or fraudulent information, including fake profiles, credentials, reviews or bookings.
• Harass, threaten, discriminate against or abuse any user, or engage in any violent, sexual or otherwise inappropriate conduct at events.
• Circumvent the platform, its fees or its payment flows (see Sections 10 and 11).
• Scrape, copy, reverse-engineer, interfere with or attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Service, other accounts, or our systems and data.
• Use the Service to send spam, distribute malware, or for any purpose other than legitimate event staffing.

13. Content and intellectual property

• The Service — including its software, design, branding, logos and content created by Poetria — belongs to Poetria and its licensors. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the Service for its intended purpose. All other rights are reserved.
• You keep ownership of content you submit (profile photos, bios, reviews, event descriptions and similar, “User Content”). You grant Poetria a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable licence to host, store, reproduce, adapt, publish and display your User Content for operating, promoting and improving the Service. For Crew, this includes displaying profile photos and details publicly on the marketplace, which is how the Service works by design.
• You warrant that you have all rights needed to submit your User Content and that it does not infringe anyone's rights or any law. We may remove or refuse any content at our discretion.
• “Poetria” and associated marks may not be used without our prior written consent.

14. Reviews

• Customers and Crew may review each other after completed bookings. Reviews must be honest, based on genuine first-hand experience, and free of unlawful, defamatory, discriminatory or abusive content.
• You may not offer or accept anything of value in exchange for reviews, review yourself, or coordinate fake or retaliatory reviews.
• Reviews reflect their authors' opinions, not Poetria's. We may moderate, remove or decline to publish reviews that violate these Terms, but we are not obliged to monitor them and are not liable for their content.

15. Verification and vetting disclaimer

Poetria performs vetting steps on Crew, which may include identity-document checks, interviews and reference checks. These checks are performed in good faith but are inherently limited: verification is not an endorsement, certification or guarantee of any person's identity, qualifications, reliability, honesty or future conduct. Badges such as “verified” mean only that the described check was completed at a point in time. You interact with other users at your own risk and should exercise your own judgement.

16. Disclaimer of warranties

The Service is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and any warranty arising from course of dealing or usage. Poetria does not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free, that any booking will be filled, that Crew will perform to any standard, or that any user information is accurate. Nothing in these Terms excludes warranties that cannot be excluded under mandatory Rwandan law.

17. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law:

• Aggregate cap: Poetria's total aggregate liability to you for all claims arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms shall not exceed the total service fees you paid to Poetria in the three (3) months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim.
• No indirect damages: Poetria shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, punitive or exemplary damages, or for loss of profits, revenue, business, goodwill, data or anticipated savings, even if advised of the possibility.
• Crew acts and omissions: Poetria is not liable for the acts, errors, omissions, conduct, negligence, injuries, damage, theft or losses caused by Crew, Customers or any other user, at events or otherwise. Claims arising from event services lie between the Customer and the Crew concerned.
• Events and venues: Poetria is not liable for anything occurring at events or venues, including property damage, personal injury, food safety issues or regulatory breaches.
• These limitations apply regardless of the theory of liability (contract, tort, statute or otherwise) and even if a limited remedy fails of its essential purpose. Nothing in these Terms excludes liability that cannot be excluded under mandatory Rwandan law, such as liability for fraud or intentional misconduct.

18. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless Poetria Company Limited and its directors, officers, employees and agents from and against any claims, demands, damages, losses, liabilities, costs and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or relating to: (a) your use or misuse of the Service; (b) your breach of these Terms or any law; (c) your User Content; (d) services provided or received at events, including any injury, damage or loss occurring there; and (e) any dispute between you and another user. Poetria may assume the exclusive defence of any matter subject to indemnification, in which case you agree to cooperate.

19. Suspension and termination

• You may stop using the Service and delete your account at any time via the app.
• Poetria may suspend, restrict or terminate your access, deactivate Crew profiles, remove listings, cancel bookings or withhold pending payouts (to the extent permitted by law) at any time, with or without notice, where we reasonably believe you have breached these Terms, pose a risk to users or the platform, or where required by law.
• Obligations that by their nature survive termination — including accrued payment obligations, circumvention fees, content licences, disclaimers, limitations of liability, indemnities and dispute-resolution provisions — survive it.

20. Force majeure

Poetria is not liable for any failure or delay in performance caused by events beyond its reasonable control, including natural disasters, epidemics, war, civil unrest, government action, power or internet failures, strikes, or failures of third-party providers. Obligations are suspended for the duration of the event, and we will use reasonable efforts to resume performance.

21. Governing law and dispute resolution

• These Terms and any dispute arising out of or in connection with them or the Service are governed by the laws of the Republic of Rwanda.
• Before starting formal proceedings, the parties agree to attempt in good faith to resolve any dispute by negotiation, initiated by written notice to team.poetria@gmail.com, for at least 30 days.
• If negotiation fails, disputes shall be submitted to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent courts of Rwanda, sitting in Kigali, without prejudice to any mandatory consumer rights to bring claims elsewhere.

22. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is held invalid or unenforceable, it will be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable, or severed if it cannot be, and the remaining provisions remain in full force and effect.

23. Entire agreement; assignment; waiver

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any booking confirmations issued through the Service, are the entire agreement between you and Poetria regarding the Service and supersede all prior agreements on the subject. You may not assign these Terms without our written consent; Poetria may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition or sale of assets. A failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of the right to enforce it later.

24. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. For material changes we will give notice through the app, by email or on the website before the changes take effect, and update the effective date below. Changes do not apply retroactively to bookings confirmed before they take effect. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance; if you do not agree, stop using the Service and delete your account.

25. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Contact Poetria Company Limited, KK 4 Avenue, Kigali, Rwanda — team.poetria@gmail.com or +250 789 549 977.