Last updated: May 8, 2026
These Terms of Service govern your use of the Surf Booking platform ("we", "the Platform" or "surfbooking.eu"). By creating an account or using our services, you agree to these terms in full. They apply to end users (students), partner surf schools, instructors on the Marketplace and affiliates.
Surf Booking is a registered trademark with the Portuguese INPI under number 766421. The platform is available in 175 countries, including the 27 EU member states (Apple App Store DSA trader status confirmed on 8 May 2026).
By accessing or using the Surf Booking platform, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with any part, you must not use the platform.
Surf Booking is a digital intermediation platform that connects students with certified surf schools. We enable:
Surf Booking is a technology intermediary. We are not a surf school and do not directly provide instruction services. Lessons are provided by the partner schools, which are solely responsible for their content, quality and safety.
To use the platform, you must create an account with truthful, complete and up-to-date information. You are responsible for keeping your password (minimum 12 characters) confidential and for all activity carried out under your account.
Minimum age for personal account: 13 years (Portuguese Law 58/2019 Art. 16). Children under 13 cannot have an account — bookings are made by the legal guardian. "Kids" level lessons (children under 12, SurfBooking ratio 1:4) require a digital guardian signature on the waiver before the lesson.
Email is verified by numeric code or magic link. Phone may be verified by SMS. Unverified accounts have limited functionality.
When you book a lesson, you enter into a contract directly with the chosen surf school. Surf Booking facilitates the transaction as a technology intermediary, collecting payment, retaining its platform commission and transferring the remainder to the school via Stripe Connect (destination charges).
All payments are processed by Stripe (PCI DSS Level 1). Surf Booking does not store or process card data. Schools must complete Stripe Connect KYC and onboarding to receive payouts.
Packs and bundles have an expiration date set by the school. Lessons not used after expiration are non-refundable. Bundles group a fixed number of lessons at a discounted price.
The express flow (beach QR / in-app QR) lets a walk-up student book and pay immediately. The same cancellation and refund rules apply.
SurfBooking OS has no monthly fee, and the Channel Manager has no monthly fee either. Access to the Channel Manager has no end date.
The Channel Manager is provided to schools that keep lessons on sale in the Surf Booking marketplace. The reference is one lesson in every six months of activity — a month of activity means a month in which the school created at least one lesson, on any channel. Months in which the school does not operate (a winter break, for example) do not count. Schools that have not yet completed six months of activity are not covered by this reference.
Surf Booking will give at least 90 days notice of any change to these conditions, and the school may cancel without penalty.
The 20% platform commission is independent of Channel Manager access: it applies only to marketplace bookings and is collected on the transaction. School Direct Channel bookings (clause 4.7) pay no platform commission.
A school may activate its own channel — a permanent QR code and link of its own, used on its own means (front desk, social media, its own website). The school chooses which of its lessons to place on this channel.
If you cancel within 24 hours of booking and the lesson is more than 96 hours (4 days) away, you are entitled to a full refund (100%), regardless of the table above. The consumer's statutory withdrawal right (Decreto-Lei 24/2014) does not fully apply when you expressly request execution of the service on a specific date before the 14-day window — this voluntary 24h policy is the alternative we offer.
When the school cancels, the student always receives a 100% refund. The school may propose rescheduling; the student may accept or request a full refund.
The marine environment is variable. Cancellations due to adverse conditions (big surf, strong wind, storm, yellow/red alert) are the school's decision based on its safety assessment. As a rule, the school proposes rescheduling; if not feasible, a full refund is issued. Surf Booking does not interfere with the school's safety decision.
Check-in window: opens 3 hours before the lesson starts and closes 3 hours after the lesson ends.
Who can perform check-in: the student can self-check-in via the app (check-in button on the booking, or by showing the QR code / 6-digit code to the instructor); the school can validate the student's attendance from SurfBooking OS, retroactively, within the same 3-hour post-lesson window — when the student didn't self-check-in, when there wasn't practical time before the lesson, or whenever it was otherwise impossible.
No-show: failure to attend without prior cancellation is treated as a last-minute cancellation — no refund. Marked by the school after the lesson.
Review eligibility: check-in is the validation instrument that distinguishes real students from bad actors (purchases made solely to leave reviews, or ratings without a valid booking). For that reason, only students with check-in completed (their own or via the school) can review a lesson. Students marked as no-show, or whose bookings were refunded, cannot leave a review. This rule is enforced by the system at the time the review is submitted.
Valuable reviews — Google handoff: when a student leaves a 4- or 5-star review and the school has its Google Maps Place ID configured in SurfBooking OS, the system automatically invites the student to share the review on Google as well. This handoff only triggers for positive reviews (4-5★), so lower ratings stay within Surf Booking's internal mediation space where the school can respond. The school controls this integration by linking or unlinking its Place ID at SurfBooking OS → Team → Reviews.
On partial refunds (50%, 75%) the platform commission is proportionally refunded to the student (scaled) — the student receives the amount paid in the indicated proportion. On full school-initiated refunds, the commission is also refunded.
Refunds are processed by Stripe automatically and go back to the same payment method — timing to appear in your account depends on your issuing bank.
Surf schools registered on the platform are responsible for:
Every booking includes the student:instructor ratio shown at the moment of purchase (e.g. "5 students · 1 instructor"). That ratio is binding: a lesson sold as 5 students × 1 instructor cannot turn into 10 students × 1 instructor (nor 10 students × 2 instructors) on arrival — it isn't the experience promised nor what the user paid for.
Logistics are the school's responsibility. Each school must split groups, schedule instructors and organise time slots so the delivered experience matches the sold one. If a given day has more demand, the school must open an additional lesson, propose another time slot, or pause bookings — never water down the ratio.
The user's voice matters. If the lesson delivered does not match what you booked, it is your duty to report it to Surf Booking within 7 days at [email protected], with photos or video whenever possible. We investigate with the school and seek a fair resolution (rescheduling, extra lesson, or other compensation). Refunds are assessed case by case. In repeat patterns, we may review the school's presence on the platform.
Instructors may create a verified portable profile at /sou-instrutor and be discovered by schools. Rules:
The program lets partners (individual or corporate) refer schools to the platform and earn commission. Terms:
Surf Booking uses a partner attribution system to support the local tourism network. This process is strictly financial and administrative. No personal data, location history or activity itinerary is shared with affiliates, hotels, restaurants or any other third-party partners. Inside their private portal, the affiliate sees only aggregated counters — number of clicks on their link, total bookings attributed, accrued commission and payout status. The matching between a visitor and the affiliate happens exclusively on Surf Booking's server, anonymously, tied to the user's Surf Booking account (not to device fingerprinting or third-party cookies). Users keep their full privacy; partners have no technical or contractual way to know where the user went next, which beach they surfed, which school they spent at, or what other purchases they made — they only know a transaction was attributed to their link. This policy complies with the GDPR data minimisation principle (Art. 5(1)(c)) and protects the user from any sense of behavioural monitoring by third parties.
Schools may connect external iCal feeds (Airbnb Experiences, Booking.com Things-to-do, GetYourGuide, Viator, Bókun, Google Calendar, Outlook) to sync external bookings into SurfBooking OS. Terms:
The Surf Passport is auto-generated from your confirmed lessons. You can share it publicly via a revocable token. Reviews and ratings you leave on schools and instructors may be displayed publicly in aggregated form, without revealing your full name. You retain rights over your texts and photos; you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to display them on the platform and related materials.
Surf Booking is a technology intermediation platform. To the maximum extent permitted by law:
All platform content (design, code, text, logos, the SurfBooking ® brand) is the property of Surf Booking or its licensors and is protected by copyright, registered trademark (INPI nº 766421) and applicable laws. Reproduction, redistribution or creation of derivative works without prior written authorisation is not permitted.
Content uploaded by schools (gallery, descriptions) remains the property of the school; we are granted a non-exclusive licence to display it on the platform.
Copyright infringement notification: if you believe content on the platform infringes your rights, send a notice to [email protected] with: (a) identification of the work; (b) location of the content on the platform; (c) your contact details; (d) a good-faith statement. We will remove confirmed content within a reasonable time and notify the publisher.
We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate these terms, including: fraud, abuse, spam, scraping, schools exfiltrating student data, conduct endangering other users, or abuse of the affiliate program.
You may close your account at any time in Settings → Delete Account. Your data will be handled per the Privacy Policy.
These Terms are governed by Portuguese law. The parties shall first seek to resolve disputes through direct contact at [email protected]. Failing that, any dispute shall be submitted to the courts of the Comarca de Lisboa, without prejudice to the consumer's right to bring proceedings in their place of residence or to use the European online dispute resolution platform (ODR — ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr).
We may update these terms. We will notify you of material changes by email and in-app at least 15 days in advance. Continued use after the changes take effect constitutes acceptance. If you do not agree, you may close your account without penalty.
For questions about these terms, partnerships, schools or affiliates:
Email: [email protected]
Address: Ericeira, Portugal