Terms of Service

1.1 Butler is provided by Blackbox Studios Limited (New Zealand company number 9368525, NZBN 9429053095091), trading as Butler ("Butler", "we", "us"), of Auckland, New Zealand. Contact: legal@butlerhost.com.

1.2 "Customer" or "your organisation" means the business that subscribes to Butler. "User" or "you" means anyone who signs in with an account that organisation created.

1.3 These Terms apply to the organisation and to each User. An owner who accepts them accepts on the organisation's behalf and confirms they have authority to do so. Every User accepts them for themselves. Where an Order Form (a signed order, pilot letter or plan selection) says something different, the Order Form wins.

2.1 Butler is an operations tool that sits on top of your property management system (PMS): guest messaging with AI drafting, arrivals and access, cleaning and turnaround, maintenance, damages and bond claims, parking, owner statements and staff timesheets.

2.2 Butler is not a PMS, channel manager, booking engine, payment processor, pricing tool, guest-screening service, payroll provider or employer. Your PMS stays the source of truth for reservations, and guest payments run through your own accounts.

2.3 We may add, change or retire features. We will give reasonable notice before removing something material during a paid term.

3.1 Your organisation's owners and managers create User accounts. The organisation is responsible for who it gives access to, for sharing one-time passwords safely and for removing people who leave.

3.2 Keep your password to yourself, sign out on shared devices, and tell us at support@butlerhost.com if you think an account has been misused.

3.3 You can ask us to delete your own account from Settings in the Butler app (or by email). Deletion happens 14 days later unless you cancel by signing in. Your organisation's owners and managers are told, and records your organisation must keep by law (such as timesheets) stay with the organisation.

4.1 Everything your organisation puts into Butler or connects to it (guest and booking details, messages, call recordings and transcripts, photos, notes, timesheets, owner and tradesperson details) is "Customer Data". Your organisation owns it.

4.2 We hold Customer Data for your organisation, as its agent under the Privacy Act 2020 and its processor under the GDPR where that applies. We use it only to provide, secure and support Butler for your organisation, and to produce de-identified statistics. We do not sell it, share it between customers or use it to train AI models, and our providers may not either.

4.3 The providers that help us run Butler, where your data is stored (Sydney, Australia, with some processing in the United States) and how long we keep it are set out in the Privacy Policy. We will tell your organisation's owners about any change of provider 30 days ahead, and about any security breach affecting Customer Data within 48 hours of becoming aware of it.

4.4 You can ask us for an export of your organisation's data at any time, and for 30 days after the agreement ends. We delete Customer Data within 60 days after that, except records we must keep by law (acceptance records for 7 years; financial records for as long as tax law requires). Backups expire within a further 35 days. Call audio held by our telephony provider and transcripts held by our transcription provider are deleted on your instruction.

4.5 Your organisation is responsible for the lawfulness of the data it puts into Butler and for the notices and consents its guests, callers, owners, staff and contractors need. That includes telling guests how their information is used (including that AI helps draft replies and that calls may be recorded), getting consent before sending marketing messages, and keeping within the terms of the booking channels it uses.

5.1 Butler uses AI providers to draft and translate messages, extract information from documents and suggest review replies. To do this it sends the relevant messages, booking context and property information to those providers.

5.2 AI output is a suggestion. A person reviews and decides what is sent; Butler does not send a message to a guest on its own. Check codes, amounts and dates before sending.

5.3 Do not use AI features to decide whether to accept, refuse or screen a guest, or to make any decision with a legal or similarly significant effect on a person.

6.1 If your organisation uses Voice, answered calls are recorded and transcribed by default. Your organisation is responsible for telling callers and for any consent the law requires where they are. A recording announcement must be played on calls involving Australian numbers. Ask us if you want recording turned off.

7.1 Butler connects to services your organisation chooses (your PMS, guest portal, smart locks, email and your own Stripe account) using credentials you give us. Those services' own terms govern them. Give us the narrowest access that works; for Stripe, a restricted read-only key.

7.2 Links Butler creates for tradespeople and guests (job completion links, bond reports) work for anyone who has them. Your organisation decides who receives them.

8.1 Do not use Butler to break the law, send unlawful or unwanted messages, harass anyone, record people covertly, upload malicious code, probe or overload the service, access another organisation's data, or resell Butler.

8.2 Do not use guest details from a booking channel for marketing, or to move bookings off that channel.

9.1 Your organisation pays the fees in its Order Form or on our pricing page: a subscription charged monthly in advance, based on the number of properties connected to Butler, plus any usage charges (for example call minutes) billed in arrears. Fees exclude GST, which we add for New Zealand customers. We issue tax invoices.

9.2 Invoices are due within 14 days unless paid by card. If an invoice is overdue we will remind you. After 14 days overdue we may suspend access until it is paid, and after 60 days we may end the agreement. Your organisation can still ask for an export while suspended.

9.3 We can change prices with 30 days' notice, and you can cancel before the change takes effect. Fees already paid are not refunded unless the law requires it or we end the agreement for a reason other than your breach.

10.1 We provide support by email at support@butlerhost.com during New Zealand business hours. We aim to keep Butler available and reliable but do not guarantee uninterrupted service, and there is no uptime credit unless your Order Form says so.

11.1 Butler is provided with reasonable care and skill, but otherwise as is. Neither party is liable to the other for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of profit, revenue or data. Each party's total liability under this agreement in any 12-month period is limited to the fees your organisation paid for that period. These limits do not apply to fraud or deliberate misconduct, to a party's breach of clause 4 or clause 8, or to rights that cannot be excluded by law.

11.2 Your organisation acquires Butler for business purposes. The parties agree that the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 does not apply, and that sections 9, 12A and 13 of the Fair Trading Act 1986 do not apply as far as section 5D of that Act allows. Both parties consider this fair and reasonable.

11.3 Your organisation is responsible to us for claims by third parties that arise from its Customer Data, its instructions or its breach of these Terms.

12.1 The agreement runs month to month from the day your organisation first uses Butler (or as its Order Form says) and renews until ended. Either party may end it with 30 days' written notice, or immediately if the other party materially breaches these Terms and does not fix the breach within 14 days of notice.

12.2 When the agreement ends, access stops and clause 4.4 applies to your data.

13.1 We may update these Terms. For material changes we will give your organisation's owners 30 days' notice by email and in Butler. If you do not accept the change you may end the agreement before it takes effect, and we will refund any unused prepaid fees. Users are asked to accept the current Terms when they next sign in after a change.

14.1 These Terms are governed by New Zealand law and the New Zealand courts. Notices to us go to legal@butlerhost.com; notices to your organisation go to its owners' email addresses. This document, the Order Form and the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement. If part of it is unenforceable the rest still applies. Neither party may assign the agreement without the other's consent, except to a buyer of its business.

14.2 Each party will keep the other's non-public information confidential and use it only for this agreement.

14.3 The Butler iOS app is also subject to Apple's standard licence terms. Apple is not a party to these Terms, is not responsible for the app or its support, and may enforce these Terms as a third-party beneficiary.

14.4 Acceptance is recorded electronically (document version, time, user, organisation and connection details) as our evidence of the agreement.