Terms of Stay

Making a booking

A booking exists when we have written to you confirming specific dates and a specific room, and you have paid the advance. Nothing on this website constitutes an offer until that has happened — there is no automated system that can accidentally sell you a room that is already taken.

The minimum stay is three nights. We do not make exceptions to this, and the reason is on the FAQ page: two nights after a seven-hour drive is one real day here, and guests who did that consistently left feeling short-changed.

We hold a provisional date for forty-eight hours without payment. After that it goes back into the pot, and we will tell you before it does.

Payment

Thirty per cent of the total confirms the booking, by UPI or bank transfer. The balance is due on arrival, in cash or by UPI.

We do not accept credit or debit cards. There is no card machine here and the nearest reliable one is in Pithoragarh, fifty-five kilometres away.

We will never ask you for card numbers, CVV codes or one-time passwords, by any channel, for any reason. If somebody claiming to be us does, it is not us — please tell us immediately.

Rates quoted include all meals and every experience that does not require a vehicle. There is no service charge and no resort fee. GST is not applicable at our tariff levels under current rules; if that changes we will tell you before you pay, not after.

Arrival and departure

Arrive in daylight. There is no formal check-in time, but the last eleven kilometres are rough and unlit, and between November and February the light goes at about half past five.

Departure is normally after breakfast, around ten. If your car is coming later, stay — we will tell you if somebody is arriving that afternoon.

Indian law requires us to record government photo identification for every adult guest. Please carry it. We write the number in a paper register and do not retain a copy.

The house

Six things we ask, none of which anyone has ever objected to:

• Dinner is at seven, at one table. You do not have to come. Tell us on the first evening if you would rather eat on your terrace and it will be entirely normal.
• No alcohol in the courtyard during the day. The neighbours' children are usually in it. Your terrace and the bonfire are your business. We do not stock or serve alcohol.
• Smoke outside, away from the courtyard, and take the ends with you. There is no ashtray on the property and that is deliberate.
• Ask before photographing people. Faces, houses and anything inside a temple. Almost everyone says yes.
• Take your rubbish down with you. There is no collection above the bazaar. We have been free of single-use plastic since 2019.
• Do not give money to children in the village. It creates a begging economy where there is not one. If you want to give, give to the school and ask us how.

Children, pets and extra guests

Children are genuinely welcome. There are cows, a dog and four other children in the lane. We have no cots, high chairs or children's menu — Kamla simply cooks something milder. The stairs to the upper rooms are steep and the upper terrace is unfenced, so parents of under-fives should plan accordingly.

Children under six stay free. Above that, an extra person is ₹800 per night including all meals.

Dogs are welcome with advance notice, at no charge, provided they are comfortable around Bhalu — who is territorial for about an hour and then permanently delighted. Please keep them out of the cow shed.

Guests who have not been booked cannot stay overnight. This is not a policy about morality; it is that Kamla cooks for a number and the register has to be accurate.

Changes by us

Very occasionally we have to move a guest between rooms — a heater fails, a roof leaks, a family needs the ground-floor room more than you do. If that happens we will tell you before you travel wherever possible, offer you an equivalent or better room, and refund the difference if it is not.

If we have to cancel your booking entirely for a reason within our control, you get everything back, immediately, and we will help you find somewhere else and pay the difference if it costs you more.

Things nobody controls

Roads close. It has happened four times in ten years, from snow and from landslide. If the road closes while you are here, you stay at no charge for the extra nights and we will help you rebook whatever needs rebooking.

If the road closes before you arrive and you cannot get here, we refund everything you have paid. We do not retain an advance for weather.

Power cuts, water interruptions and internet outages happen. We run an inverter and a 4G failover, and we publish our uptime honestly on the Workation page. None of these constitute grounds for a refund, but if something has genuinely spoiled your stay, tell us at the time and we will do something about it.

Weather and views

We cannot sell you a mountain. Between October and December the peaks are visible on roughly nine mornings in ten; in monsoon it is closer to one in ten. We publish those odds by month and we will tell you the realistic expectation for your dates before you pay.

A stay is not refundable because the weather did not cooperate. It is refundable, under the cancellation policy, if you change your mind in time — and if you write to us before booking and ask whether your dates suit what you want, we will give you an honest answer even when the answer costs us the booking.

Liability

You are in the mountains. The paths are uneven, the terraces are unfenced, the water is cold and fast in monsoon, and there is wildlife in the forest including leopard and, in autumn, black bear.

We will brief you, we will guide you, and we will tell you plainly when we think something is a bad idea. What we cannot do is accept liability for injury arising from your own choices on walks and activities, or for loss or damage to your belongings beyond what the law requires of us.

We carry the insurance required of a registered homestay. It does not extend to your personal travel, medical costs or belongings, and we strongly recommend you have your own travel insurance, particularly if you are coming for the trekking.

Nothing in this section limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our own negligence, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited.

Damage

Things get broken. A glass, a lamp, a chair — do not worry about it and please do not offer to pay. We would rather you were comfortable than careful.

Serious or deliberate damage is a different matter and will be charged at what it costs us to repair, which will be a local price with no margin on it.

Law and disputes

These terms are governed by Indian law and the courts of Uttarakhand have jurisdiction.

Before anything reaches a court, please talk to us. In ten years and 2,140 guests we have never had a dispute we could not settle at the kitchen table, usually within about four minutes. Deepak is on WhatsApp and answers.