Terms and Conditions

1. Introduction and Acceptance

These Terms and Conditions ("Terms") constitute a legally binding agreement between you ("User", "you", "Guest" or "Café Partner" as the context requires) and Abhijith Shaju, Shashank Singh and Visvatharasan Saravanan, carrying on business together under the trade name "nextBooq" ("nextBooq", "we", "us"), having a place of business at Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar-Delhi G.T. Road (NH-1), Phagwara, Punjab 144411, governing your access to and use of the nextBooq website, dashboard, and booking widgets (collectively, the "Platform").

By clicking "I Agree", creating an account, confirming a reservation, or otherwise using the Platform, you affirmatively accept these Terms in accordance with Section 10 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872. If you do not agree, do not use the Platform.

2. Definitions

• "Platform" means the nextBooq website, café-owner dashboard, and any booking widget embedded on a Café Partner's own site.
• "Café Partner" means a café, restaurant, or food-service business that registers an organization/café account on the Platform to manage table layouts, availability, and reservations.
• "Guest" means an individual who uses the Platform to search for, hold, and reserve a table at a Café Partner's establishment.
• "Reservation" means a table booking made through the Platform, including any associated deposit.
• "Reservation Fee" means the amount a Guest pays at the time of booking to hold a table, as set by the Café Partner. Whether it is adjusted against the Guest's final bill, and whether it is refunded on cancellation, are configured by each Café Partner and disclosed to the Guest before payment.
• "Content" means all text, images, availability data, floor layouts, or other material made available through the Platform.

3. Role of nextBooq

nextBooq is a reservation-management technology platform. It enables Café Partners to publish real-time table availability, hold tables against a time-boxed window, and collect Reservation Fees directly into the Café Partner's own payment account. nextBooq is not the seller of food, beverages, or dining services — the Café Partner is solely responsible for honouring confirmed Reservations, the quality of food and service at its establishment, and its own cancellation, no-show, and refund policy communicated to Guests at the time of booking. nextBooq's role is limited to providing the booking technology and, where applicable, facilitating payment collection through the Café Partner's connected payment gateway account.

4. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years of age and competent to contract under the Indian Majority Act, 1875 and the Indian Contract Act, 1872 to use the Platform. A Café Partner registering an organization represents that it has the authority to bind that business to these Terms.

5. Account Registration

Café Partners must provide accurate business details (café name, address, GSTIN where applicable) and maintain the confidentiality of their dashboard login credentials. Guests may be required to provide a name, phone number, and email to complete a Reservation. You are responsible for all activity under your account and must notify nextbooq@gmail.com immediately of any unauthorized use.

6. Reservations, Fees, and Payment

• Reservation Fee amounts, floor/table assignment, and hold windows are configured by each Café Partner and displayed to the Guest before payment.
• Whether the Reservation Fee is adjusted against the Guest's final bill, and whether it is refunded on cancellation, are each configured by the Café Partner and displayed to the Guest on the Café Partner's booking page and at checkout before payment. These are not platform-wide terms. The terms in force at the time of booking are recorded against that Reservation and are the terms that apply to it, regardless of any later change the Café Partner makes to its settings.
• All Reservation Fee amounts shown at checkout are inclusive of applicable taxes and represent the total amount payable, in compliance with the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020.
• Payments are processed through the Café Partner's own Razorpay-registered payment account, a Reserve Bank of India–regulated payment aggregator. nextBooq does not store card, UPI, or bank credentials.
• A table hold expires automatically if payment is not completed within the time window shown at checkout, and the table is released back to availability.

7. Cancellation, No-Show, and Refund Policy

• Refundability: Whether a Reservation Fee is refunded on a timely cancellation is set by each Café Partner and disclosed to the Guest before payment. Where a Café Partner has marked its Reservation Fee non-refundable, no refund arises on cancellation, and this is displayed prominently at checkout.
• Guest-initiated cancellation: A Guest may cancel a Reservation themselves from My Bookings on the Café Partner's page, at any time before they check in. Cancelling releases the table immediately and cannot be undone. A Guest who has already checked in or been seated should speak to the Café Partner directly; so should a Guest who cannot access their account, who may instead reach nextBooq support at nextbooq@gmail.com.
• Whether the Reservation Fee is returned depends on the Café Partner's terms as they stood when the Reservation was made: the fee is placed on that Café Partner's refunds-owed queue only where those terms provide for a refund and the Guest cancelled at least the stated cancellation cut-off ahead of the Reservation. Cancelling later than the cut-off still releases the table but does not oblige the Café Partner to return the fee. The cut-off is shown to the Guest before the fee is charged.
• The Café Partner issues any refund from its own payment account to the original payment method; nextBooq does not hold the funds and cannot issue the refund on the Café Partner's behalf. Refunds are typically credited within 5–7 business days of being issued.
• No-show: If a Guest does not arrive within the grace period stated by the Café Partner at booking, the Reservation Fee may be forfeited to the Café Partner as per that Café Partner's stated policy.
• Café Partner–initiated cancellation: If a Café Partner cancels a confirmed Reservation (e.g., due to closure or an operational issue) from its dashboard, the full Reservation Fee is owed back to the Guest and the Reservation is placed on that Café Partner's refunds-owed queue.
• Payment failures/disputes: Where a payment succeeds but the Reservation could not be honoured due to a technical error, the amount is flagged for manual refund review and processed by the relevant Café Partner within 5–7 business days.
• Each Café Partner's specific cancellation window and no-show grace period are displayed to the Guest before the Reservation Fee is charged and form part of the Reservation contract between the Guest and that Café Partner. nextBooq intends to add a self-service cancellation option to the booking flow in future; until then, cancellation is handled manually as described above.

8. Café Partner Identity Disclosure

For every Reservation, the Platform displays: the Café Partner's business name, address, and contact details, in compliance with Rule 5 of the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020. nextBooq's own details are:

• Operated by: Abhijith Shaju, Shashank Singh and Visvatharasan Saravanan, trading as "nextBooq" (unregistered partnership — see note below)
• Business address: Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar-Delhi G.T. Road (NH-1), Phagwara, Punjab 144411
• Customer support email: nextbooq@gmail.com
• Customer support phone: +91 96300 23003 (Mon–Sat, 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM IST)
• GSTIN: Not applicable; turnover is below the GST registration threshold

9. User Obligations and Prohibited Conduct

You agree not to use the Platform to host, submit, or transmit any information that:

(a) belongs to another person and to which you have no right; (b) is defamatory, obscene, pornographic, invasive of privacy, or racially/ethnically objectionable; (c) is harmful to a child; (d) infringes any patent, trademark, copyright, or other proprietary right; (e) violates any law; (f) impersonates another person or Café Partner; (g) is false or misleading, including fraudulent Reservations or repeated no-shows intended to disrupt a Café Partner's operations; (h) threatens the unity, integrity, defence, security, or sovereignty of India; (i) contains software viruses or other harmful code.

nextBooq reserves the right to remove such content, cancel affected Reservations, and suspend or terminate the offending account, and to report unlawful content to appropriate authorities as required by law.

10. Intellectual Property

All Content on the Platform, excluding Café Partner–submitted data (menus, floor layouts, photos), is owned by or licensed to nextBooq and protected under the Copyright Act, 1957, the Trade Marks Act, 1999, and other applicable IP laws. No license is granted except as expressly stated in these Terms.

11. Café Partner Content License

By uploading floor layouts, table configurations, photos, or descriptions, a Café Partner grants nextBooq a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to display and use such content solely to operate and promote the Platform (including the Café Partner's booking widget and public listing).

12. Third-Party Services

The Platform integrates with third-party services, including Razorpay for payment processing. nextBooq is not responsible for the availability, security practices, or acts/omissions of these third-party services beyond its own integration obligations.

13. Disclaimers and Limitation of Liability

The Platform is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis without warranties of any kind, express or implied, to the maximum extent permitted by law. nextBooq does not guarantee the quality of food, beverages, service, or premises at any Café Partner's establishment. To the fullest extent permitted under applicable law, nextBooq's aggregate liability for any claim arising out of or relating to the Platform shall not exceed the platform service fee (if any) paid by the relevant party in the preceding 12 months.

Carve-out (required): Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability for fraud, gross negligence, wilful misconduct, or death or personal injury caused by negligence, as such exclusions are void and unenforceable under Indian law.

14. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless nextBooq, its officers, directors, and employees from any claims, damages, or expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your breach of these Terms, your misuse of the Platform, or (for Café Partners) your failure to honour a confirmed Reservation or your own posted cancellation/refund policy.

15. Termination

nextBooq may suspend or terminate a Café Partner's or Guest's access to the Platform, with or without notice, for violation of these Terms, fraudulent Reservation activity, or non-payment of applicable platform fees. Upon termination, pending Reservations will be honoured or refunded per Section 7, and provisions that by their nature should survive (IP, indemnification, limitation of liability, governing law) will survive.

16. Data Protection and Privacy

Your personal data (including name, phone number, email, and Reservation history) is processed in accordance with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, and our Privacy Policy available at https://www.nextbooq.in/legal/privacy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference. By using the Platform, you consent to the collection and processing of your personal data for the purposes described in the Privacy Policy, including sharing Reservation details with the relevant Café Partner to fulfil your booking. As a Data Principal under the DPDP Act you have the right to access a summary of your personal data and how it is processed, to correct or complete inaccurate data, to have data erased once the purpose is served, to nominate another individual to exercise these rights in the event of your death or incapacity, and to a readily available grievance-redressal mechanism. You may withdraw consent at any time, as easily as it was given; withdrawal does not affect processing already carried out, and may prevent us from fulfilling existing Reservations. These rights are exercised by contacting the Grievance Officer named in Section 17; the procedure is set out in the Privacy Policy. You can correct your own name, email address and phone number directly from your profile at any time.

17. Grievance Redressal

In accordance with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 and the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, the name and contact details of the Grievance Officer are provided below:

• Grievance Officer: Shashank Singh
• Designation: Grievance Officer & Managing Partner
• Email: shashanksingh9048@gmail.com
• Phone: +91 96300 23003
• Address: Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar-Delhi G.T. Road (NH-1), Phagwara, Punjab 144411

The Grievance Officer will acknowledge complaints within 24 hours and resolve them within 15 days of receipt, or within such shorter period as prescribed by law for specific categories of complaints. Complaints specifically about a Reservation experience at a Café Partner's establishment (e.g., food quality, service) should first be raised with that Café Partner; nextBooq will assist in escalating unresolved platform-related disputes.

18. Force Majeure

Neither party shall be liable for delay or failure to perform obligations due to events beyond its reasonable control, including natural disasters, war, strikes, internet/telecom outages, or government action.

19. Governing Law and Jurisdiction

These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of India. The courts at Phagwara, Punjab shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any disputes arising out of or in connection with these Terms.

20. Amendment

nextBooq reserves the right to modify these Terms at any time. Material changes will be notified by email to registered Café Partners at least 15 days in advance, and the revised Terms published at this URL with an updated "Last Updated" date. Continued use of the Platform after such notice constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

21. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is held invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect.

22. Contact Information

For questions about these Terms, contact: nextbooq@gmail.com, +91 96300 23003, Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar-Delhi G.T. Road (NH-1), Phagwara, Punjab 144411.

---

This document is a drafting scaffold produced with placeholders for entity-specific details (legal name, registered address, GSTIN, Grievance Officer, city of jurisdiction, and cancellation/refund timelines). It must be reviewed by a licensed Indian advocate before publication, and supplemented with any additional clauses required once nextBooq's payment-aggregator/marketplace classification and incorporation status are finalized.