Terms of service

Kaia (kaia.cr) is operated by Papagayo Studio, Costa Rica. In these terms: the traveler is whoever searches, books, and pays for experiences; the operator is the business or independent guide who lists and runs experiences; an experience is the tourism service listed on the marketplace.

Kaia is a marketplace: it connects travelers with Costa Rican tour operators, processes the booking and the payment, and holds the money in escrow until the experience is completed.

Kaia does not run tours of its own, and it is neither a travel agency nor the provider of the experiences. Every experience is run by an independent operator, who is directly responsible for delivering it. The contract for the tourism service forms between you and the operator; Kaia is the intermediary that makes it possible.

To book or to list you need an account with truthful, up-to-date information. You must be 18 or older. You can register with email and password or with Google, Apple, or Microsoft. You are responsible for keeping your credentials confidential and for the activity that happens on your account.

Kaia runs on a booking request model: the operator confirms real availability before the booking becomes firm. The full cycle is:

1. 1Request created. You pick an experience, date, and party size, and send the request. There is no final charge yet.
2. 2Pending. The operator receives your request and checks real availability. If they decline it, any captured amount is refunded automatically.
3. 3Confirmed. The operator confirmed the date. From this point on, their cancellation policy applies.
4. 4Paid. Your payment cleared and is held in escrow by Kaia. The operator does not receive it yet.
5. 5Completed. The experience happened. Kaia releases the payment to the operator, minus the commission and processing costs.
6. 6Reviewed. You can leave your verified review — only someone who completed and paid can review.

Two exits from the flow: if the operator declines a pending request, the refund of any captured amount is automatic; if a confirmed booking is cancelled, the refund follows the operator's cancellation policy, published on the experience.

Prices are shown per person and in US dollars (USD) unless stated otherwise. You can pay by card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, or PayPal (processed by Stripe) and with crypto (processed by MoonPay). SINPE Móvil will be enabled as a local payment method.

Your payment is held in escrow by Kaia from the moment it clears until the experience is completed. Only then is it released to the operator. This escrow protects the traveler: if the experience doesn't happen for a reason attributable to the operator, the amount is refunded.

Crypto payments are converted through MoonPay; cryptocurrency fluctuations before the payment clears are borne by the traveler, per MoonPay's terms.

Kaia charges the operator a 10% commission on the value of every completed booking, with no hidden costs. The payout the operator receives is the booking total minus Kaia's commission and the payment method's processing costs. If Kaia applies a service fee to the traveler, it is shown itemized before you confirm payment.

• Declined request. Automatic 100% refund of any captured amount, to the same payment method.
• Cancelling a confirmed booking. The operator's cancellation policy published on the experience applies (deadlines and percentages). Kaia executes whatever refund that policy dictates.
• Operator cancellation or non-delivery. If the operator cancels a confirmed booking, or the experience is not delivered for a reason attributable to them, the traveler is refunded 100%.
• Force majeure. If weather or safety conditions make the experience impossible, the operator may reschedule by mutual agreement or cancel with a refund.

Refund settlement times depend on the payment processor (Stripe or MoonPay) and on your bank.

• List truthful information: description, real photos, price, duration, meeting point, and what the experience includes.
• Hold the permits, licenses, insurance policies and — where applicable — the ICT certification required to operate legally in Costa Rica.
• Confirm requests only against real availability, and honor confirmed bookings.
• Operate to reasonable safety standards, including proper equipment and staff trained for the activity.
• Meet their tax obligations, including invoicing the traveler where required.

Kaia verifies operators (identity and, where applicable, ICT certification) before activating them, and may suspend or remove those who breach these obligations.

• Provide truthful information when booking (party size, ages, contact details).
• Show up at the meeting point on time; a no-show is governed by the operator's cancellation policy.
• Follow the operator's safety instructions during the experience, and disclose relevant physical conditions when the activity calls for it.

Only someone who completed and paid for a booking through Kaia can leave a review. Posting fake reviews, buying reviews, reviewing your own experience, or pressuring travelers to alter a review is prohibited. Kaia may remove reviews that break these rules or that contain illegal or abusive content, but it does not edit reviews for being negative.

Tourism experiences — ziplining, rafting, hiking, diving, and the like — carry inherent risks. The independent operator running the experience is directly responsible for delivering it, for the safety of the activity, and for carrying the applicable insurance.

Kaia's role is limited to intermediation: listing, reasonable operator verification, payment processing, and escrow until the experience completes. To the maximum extent permitted by Costa Rican law, Kaia is not liable for damages, injuries, or losses occurring during the delivery of an experience; Kaia's total liability to the traveler is capped at the amount paid for the booking in question.

If a dispute arises between traveler and operator, Kaia's support team mediates and may settle refunds against the escrowed amount. Nothing in this section limits non-waivable rights granted to you by Costa Rican consumer protection law.

• No going around the platform: contacting an operator you found through Kaia to close the same booking off-platform deprives the marketplace of the commission that sustains it and strips away the escrow protection.
• No using Kaia for fraud, money laundering, or illegal activity.
• No automated data extraction (scraping), no interfering with the site's security, and no impersonating other people.

Kaia may suspend or close accounts that break these rules.

The Kaia brand, the site's design, and its content belong to Papagayo Studio. Operators keep the rights to the photos and copy they publish, and grant Kaia a license to display them on the marketplace and in the marketplace's own promotional material.

Kaia is in active development: features like SINPE Móvil and AI recommendations will keep coming online. We may modify these terms; if a change is substantial, we will give reasonable notice by email or inside the platform. Using Kaia after the change means you accept it.

These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of Costa Rica. Any dispute not resolved through Kaia's support channel will be submitted to the competent courts of Costa Rica.

Papagayo Studio — Kaia · Costa Rica · hola@kaia.cr. You can also reach us through the contact page. Our privacy policy explains how we handle your data.