These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of Hawthorne ("the Service"), operated by [LEGAL ENTITY NAME] ("Hawthorne," "we," "us"). When you create an account, sign a Letter of Intent, or otherwise use the Service, you ("Customer," "you") agree to these Terms.
If you're using Hawthorne on behalf of a bar, restaurant, or other business, you represent that you are authorized to bind that business to these Terms.
Hawthorne is an operating-system platform for independent bars and small hospitality businesses. The Service includes — depending on the plan and features you enable — reservation management, walk-in waitlist, floor plan and host stand tools, employee scheduling, loyalty program, gift cards, event ticketing, customer messaging (email and SMS), Google review syncing, and related functionality.
We may add, change, or remove features over time. We'll communicate material changes — especially anything that affects pricing or your ability to run service — with reasonable advance notice (typically 30 days or more).
You're responsible for keeping your account credentials secure and for everything that happens under your account. Notify us promptly if you suspect unauthorized access. You agree to:
Pricing is published on our site and confirmed in your written agreement (Letter of Intent or subscription confirmation). Unless we agree otherwise in writing, fees are billed monthly in advance, in US dollars, by automatic charge to your stored payment method.
Founding-bar terms — applies to the first 10 bars to sign a Letter of Intent and onboard.
If you signed on as a founding bar, your monthly rate is locked for 24 months from your activation date. After 24 months, standard pricing applies, but we'll give you at least 60 days' notice and offer a renewal at terms no worse than the then-current pricing for new bars.
Founding bars may also have agreed to a one-time onboarding setup fee (typically [$500-$750 depending on whether we built a public site]). The setup fee is non-refundable once onboarding work begins.
If payment fails, we'll notify you and try again. If payment remains unpaid for 15 days, we may suspend the Service. Continued non-payment for 30 days may result in termination.
Stated prices do not include sales, use, or similar taxes. You are responsible for any applicable taxes (other than taxes on our income).
You can cancel your subscription at any time from the admin panel or by emailing us. Cancellations take effect at the end of the current billing period; we do not pro-rate refunds for partial months.
14-day satisfaction window for new bars: If you signed up and decide within the first 14 days that Hawthorne isn't for you, contact us and we'll refund your first month's subscription fee in full. The one-time onboarding setup fee is not refundable once work has begun.
You own your data. The customer records, reservation history, schedules, loyalty data, and other business data you build up in Hawthorne belong to you, not to us. We don't sell it, share it for marketing, or use it for anything other than providing the Service to you.
You're responsible for compliance. You're the data controller for your own customers' information. You're responsible for posting a privacy policy that accurately describes what you collect, for honoring access / deletion / opt-out requests, and for obtaining proper consent before sending SMS or marketing emails.
Data export. You can export your customer data, reservation history, and similar records at any time via the admin panel. If you cancel, you have 30 days to export anything you want to keep before we begin deleting it.
For details on how we handle data, see our Privacy Policy.
You agree not to use the Service to:
We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these rules.
Hawthorne provides tools to send transactional and marketing messages to your customers, but you are responsible for obtaining proper consent before any message is sent and for honoring opt-out requests (replying STOP to SMS, unsubscribing from email).
We track consent records in the Service and won't send messages to anyone who hasn't opted in. We also maintain a global suppression list — if a customer texts STOP, that number is suppressed across all bars on the platform, in line with TCPA best practice.
You are responsible for complying with the rules of message-rate-providers (Brevo, our carrier) and any applicable law in your jurisdiction. We can pause your messaging if we receive credible complaints of spam or non-consent-based messaging.
Hawthorne integrates with services like Stripe (payments), Brevo (messaging), Google (Maps, Business Profile), and others. Your use of those services is governed by their respective terms and privacy policies. We're not responsible for outages, data handling, or pricing changes by third parties beyond our control, though we'll act in good faith to mitigate disruption when we can.
We retain all rights, title, and interest in the Service — including the software, design, brand, and underlying technology. You receive a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the Service for your own business purposes during your subscription.
You retain all rights in your data — your customer records, your menu content, your photos, your brand. By using the Service, you grant us a limited license to host, store, transmit, display, and back up your data as needed to provide the Service to you.
These Terms apply for as long as you have an active account, plus any period required to wind down billing, data export, and legal recordkeeping.
You can terminate at any time as described in Section 5. We can terminate or suspend the Service for material breach of these Terms, for non-payment beyond 30 days, or if continuing to provide the Service would expose us to legal or regulatory risk. In any termination, you have at least 30 days to export your data unless otherwise required by law.
The Service is provided "as is" and "as available." We don't warrant that it will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure against every possible threat, or that every feature will fit every use case. We make no warranties beyond those required by law.
Specifically: Hawthorne is operational software, not legal or financial advice. We don't guarantee that using the Service will result in any specific business outcome (more reservations, fewer no-shows, higher revenue) — those depend on how you run your bar.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, our total liability arising from or related to these Terms or the Service will not exceed the greater of $500 or the fees you paid us in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim.
We are not liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, or punitive damages, including lost profits, lost revenue, lost data, or business interruption — even if we've been advised of the possibility.
Nothing in these Terms limits liability for things that can't legally be limited (gross negligence, willful misconduct, fraud, etc.).
You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Hawthorne, its operators, and its affiliates from any third-party claim arising out of: (a) your violation of these Terms; (b) your violation of any applicable law (including TCPA, CAN-SPAM, GDPR, CCPA); (c) your messaging or marketing practices; (d) content you upload to the Service; or (e) the way you handle your customers' data.
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of [STATE — typically Tennessee since Nashville-based], without regard to conflicts-of-law principles.
Any dispute arising under these Terms will be resolved exclusively in the state or federal courts located in [CITY, STATE — typically Nashville, TN], and both parties consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts.
Each party waives any right to a jury trial. Each party also agrees not to participate in any class action against the other arising out of these Terms.
We may update these Terms. When we do, we'll change the "Last updated" date at the top and, for material changes, notify you by email with at least 30 days' notice. If you continue to use the Service after the change takes effect, you've accepted the new Terms. If you don't agree to the new Terms, you can cancel at any time before they take effect.
Questions about these Terms — reach us at:
[CONTACT EMAIL]
[LEGAL ENTITY NAME]
[BUSINESS ADDRESS]
Hawthorne is currently operated by a single founder. These Terms are written in plain language because plain language is easier to honor than legalese. If anything feels unclear or unfair, email us — we'd rather know.