Host Agreement
Version 2026-09-19. Between Sierra Wander (sierrawander.com, Nevada City, California) and you, the host.
This is the agreement you accept when you submit a listing or sign in your host kit. Plain language on purpose. It is the whole deal, alongside the Terms of Service, the Weather and Smoke Policy and the Participant Waiver.
1. What each of us is
You are an independent business. You are not an employee, partner or agent of Sierra Wander, and nothing here creates those relationships. You decide what you offer, what you charge, when you run it and how you run it.
Sierra Wander is a booking platform. We list your experience, take the guest’s payment on your behalf as your limited payment collection agent, and pass your share to you. The experience itself is a contract between you and your guest. We are not the provider of it.
2. Fees
- Host commission. Sierra Wander keeps 10% of your listed price on each booking made through the site.
- Founding host rate. The first 10 hosts to join Sierra Wander pay 5% instead of 10%. That rate is locked for as long as your listings stay active on the site, and it does not change unless you agree in writing.
- Guest service fee. Guests pay an 8% service fee on top of your price, shown to them at checkout. It is charged to the guest and is never deducted from your share.
- Card processing fees. Paid by Sierra Wander out of its own share. They do not come out of your money.
- No listing fee, no monthly fee, no charge for photos or setup. If Sierra Wander ever adds a fee to hosts, you will be told at least 30 days ahead and you may leave before it starts.
3. How you get paid
Payments run through Stripe. You connect your own Stripe account from your host settings once. From then on Stripe splits each payment at the moment the guest pays: your share into your Stripe balance, Sierra Wander’s commission into ours. Stripe pays your balance out to your bank on its normal schedule, usually about two business days after each booking, with the first payout taking about a week while Stripe verifies you.
Sierra Wander does not hold your money and cannot spend it. If you have not connected Stripe yet, your bookings still work and Sierra Wander pays your share by check or transfer within 7 days of each completed date.
4. Taxes
You are responsible for your own taxes. Your earnings from Sierra Wander are your business income. Stripe issues you a Form 1099-K directly if your payouts cross the IRS reporting threshold, and the amounts Stripe reports are your gross bookings before our commission, so keep your own records of the commission as a business expense.
Sierra Wander reports only its commission as its own income. Any sales tax, transient occupancy tax or other tax that applies to what you sell is yours to collect and remit unless we have agreed in writing otherwise. Nothing here is tax advice; talk to your own accountant.
5. Your listing
Everything on your listing must be true: price, duration, group size, meeting point, what is included, what to bring, who is leading it, and your cancellation rule. You set and keep current your own schedule, capacity and availability. New listings are reviewed before they go live; edits after that publish immediately and are your responsibility.
6. Running the booking
Show up on time and run the activity as described. Communicate with guests through the site so there is a record. If you have to cancel, do it as early as you can; the guest receives a full refund and your share of that booking is reversed. Repeated cancellations or no-shows end this agreement.
7. Licenses, safety and insurance
You are responsible for every permit, license, certification and insurance policy your activity requires, including a business license where one applies, a Part 107 certificate for drone instruction, food handling permits, and liability insurance for guided outdoor activity. You agree to follow the Weather and Smoke Policy and to have guests complete the Participant Waiver where it applies. Sierra Wander does not provide insurance for you or your guests.
8. Responsibility between us
You are responsible for what happens on your experience. You agree to cover Sierra Wander for claims, damages and legal costs that arise out of what you offer, how you run it, or your failure to hold the licenses or insurance above, except to the extent the claim is caused by Sierra Wander’s own negligence or wrongdoing.
Sierra Wander’s total liability to you for anything connected with this agreement is limited to the commission it earned on your bookings in the three months before the claim. Neither of us is liable to the other for lost profits or indirect losses. Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited by California law.
9. Bookings that start on Sierra Wander
You may sell the same experience anywhere else you like, including your own site. The one rule: a guest who finds you through Sierra Wander books that experience through Sierra Wander. Moving those bookings off the site to avoid commission ends this agreement.
If you sell the same dates elsewhere, set your listing capacity to the seats you are giving Sierra Wander, or run everything through the site. Overselling is on you.
10. Your content
Your name, logo, words and photos stay yours. You give Sierra Wander permission to show and promote them on sierrawander.com, in its emails and on its social accounts while you are a host and for a reasonable wind-down after. You confirm you have the right to use every photo you upload.
11. Reviews
Guests may review your listing after their date and you may reply. Sierra Wander moderates for spam and abuse, not for star rating. Reviews are not removed because they are unflattering.
12. Changing or ending this
Either side may end this agreement with 30 days’ notice, in writing, including by email. Bookings already paid are honored or refunded. Sierra Wander may update these terms; material changes are sent to you at least 30 days before they take effect, and continuing to host after that date means you accept them. Your commission rate is the exception and never changes without your written agreement.
13. Signing electronically
You accept this agreement by ticking the box and typing your name in your host kit, or by ticking the box when you submit a listing. Under the federal ESIGN Act and the California Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, that has the same effect as a signature on paper. Sierra Wander records your name, your account email, the date and time, the version of these terms and the commission rate at signing, and will give you a copy on request.
14. Law and disputes
This agreement is governed by the laws of the State of California. If we cannot sort out a dispute between ourselves, it goes to the state or federal courts located in Nevada County, California, and we each agree to that venue. We will both try a direct conversation first.
15. Questions
Toph Heywood, Sierra Wander, Nevada City, California. toph.heywood@gmail.com, 530 263 8461.