Terms of sale and use — Sonnette
To be verified by a professional before any publication or signature:
- The liability cap (12 months of subscription fees) and the exclusions: a lawyer must confirm they hold up against a finding of an unfair term or a breach of an essential obligation, particularly for customers outside France.
- The VAT regime described (France / EU reverse charge / out of scope outside the EU) must be validated by the accountant once the first paid subscriptions are invoiced.
- The exclusive jurisdiction clause (Mulhouse commercial court) and the choice of French law for a customer located outside France: to be confirmed enforceable (Brussels I bis Regulation, any mandatory local law).
- The “company in formation” wording and the takeover of acts by the company once registered: to be validated by the notary/accountant handling the SASU’s incorporation, for the exact wording and the schedule of acts taken over.
- The data-erasure periods and procedures after termination (90 days, subject to legal obligations): to be cross-checked against the product’s actual retention practice before publication.
- The availability commitment (99.5%) and the maintenance notice period (24 hours): to be checked against what the infrastructure can actually sustain before publishing them.
Preamble
These terms of sale and use (“Terms”) govern access to and use of the Sonnette software by any customer hotel (“the Customer”). Sonnette is published by Sonnette, a company in formation, represented by Samuel Wieder (hereafter “Sonnette” or “the Publisher”), being registered as a single-shareholder simplified joint-stock company (SASU) with the trade and companies register of [city to be completed], with its registered office to be established at [address to be completed]. Acts entered into in the name of the company in formation will be taken over by it automatically upon its registration, in accordance with article L. 210-6 of the French Commercial Code; until that takeover, Samuel Wieder, as a private individual, is liable for commitments made in the name of the company in formation.
Acceptance of these Terms is a mandatory prerequisite to any subscription. It is recorded via a time-stamped checkbox at sign-up.
1. Purpose
Sonnette is a hotel management software (“the Software”) provided as a service (“SaaS”): reservations, planning, housekeeping, guest management, invoicing, payments and till, guest communication by email, messaging with booking platforms (OTAs), statistics, and accounting export. The Software interfaces with a third-party channel manager and booking engine (Beds24), brought and subscribed to separately by the Customer, and with an online payment provider (Stripe), also connected by the Customer through its Beds24 account. Sonnette is neither the channel manager nor the payment service provider: its liability under this contract covers only the Software itself.
2. Definitions
- Publisher / Sonnette: the company in formation represented by Samuel Wieder, and after its registration, Sonnette SASU.
- Customer: the independent hotel, whether an individual or a legal entity, that takes out a subscription.
- User: any individual authorized by the Customer to use the Software on its behalf (named credentials).
- Account: the environment dedicated to the Customer (its own subdomain, isolated database).
- Founders Offer: the offer described in article 4.2.
- Documentation: the built-in online help and knowledge base published by Sonnette.
3. Subscription
3.1. Sign-up happens online: company name, address, SIRET number, contact details, payment method. A dedicated account is created, and a setup wizard guides the Customer through configuring its property (rooms, rates, taxes, staff, Beds24 connection).
3.2. The Customer warrants the accuracy of the information provided and undertakes to keep it up to date, in particular its intra-EU VAT number if it has one and its billing address.
3.3. The contract takes effect upon validation of the sign-up and acceptance of these Terms.
4. Trial and Founders Offer
4.1. Standard trial: every new hotel gets a free three (3) month trial from the opening of its account, with no commitment, with access to all features. At the end of the trial, the paid subscription starts automatically under the pricing grid then in force (article 5), unless the Customer cancels before that date.
4.2. Founders Offer: the first ten (10) customer hotels get a free subscription for twelve
(12) months from the effective go-live of their account, in exchange for (i) regular usage
feedback during the first three months and (ii) permission given to Sonnette to name the
establishment as a reference (name, city, testimonial), unless the Customer expressly declines.
At the end of the twelve months, the subscription moves to the pricing grid then in force, with
no surprises and no “lifetime” rate. The detail of this offer is the subject of a separate
agreement (see convention-fondateur.md) which prevails over this article in the event of any
conflict.
4.3. The number of “Founders” spots is limited to ten and is not guaranteed beyond that limit; Sonnette informs the Customer of the number of spots remaining at the time of sign-up.
5. Price and price changes
5.1. Pricing grid in force at launch (excluding the Founders Offer), excl. tax, per hotel and per month:
| Hotel size | Monthly price excl. VAT |
|---|---|
| Up to 15 rooms | €59 |
| 16 to 50 rooms | €99 |
| Beyond 50 rooms | €199 |
5.2. This price includes all features of the Software, updates, email support, documentation, the initial data import and backups. It does not include: the Beds24 channel manager subscription (subscribed to and paid separately by the Customer to Beds24), payment processing fees (Stripe), nor, where applicable, the cost of connecting to an approved e-invoicing platform (billed at cost, see article 6.4).
5.3. There is no guaranteed lifetime rate. Sonnette may change its pricing grid, up or down, subject to three (3) months’ written notice sent to all Customers by email to their registered contact address. The new price applies from the first billing date following the expiry of the notice period. A Customer who declines a price increase may cancel free of charge before it takes effect, under the conditions of article 9.
5.4. No commission is charged on the hotel’s revenue, and no setup fee is billed.
6. Invoicing and payment
6.1. The subscription is billed monthly in advance, by automatic debit (card or SEPA) via Stripe Billing. The invoice, compliant with applicable tax requirements, is made available to the Customer in its account and sent by email.
6.2. VAT regime: for a Customer established in France, French VAT at the applicable rate is charged. For a professional Customer established in another EU Member State with a valid intra-EU VAT number, the reverse-charge mechanism applies (invoice excl. tax, with the corresponding legal notice). For a Customer established outside the European Union, the service is outside the scope of French VAT. The Customer undertakes to provide any information needed to correctly apply this regime and remains solely responsible for its own local tax obligations (see article 12.3).
6.3. In the event of a failed debit, a reminder is sent on D+3 and then D+10. After thirty (30) days without payment being regularized, access switches to read-only (viewing and exporting data remain possible) until payment is regularized or the contract is terminated.
6.4. Where connection to an approved e-invoicing platform is required (e-invoicing reform, issuing deadline of 1 September 2027 for SMEs), the cost of that platform is passed on to the Customer at cost, unless the Customer already has its own e-invoicing solution, in which case Sonnette accommodates it as far as reasonably possible.
7. Term, no minimum commitment, termination
7.1. The contract is entered into for an indefinite term, with no minimum commitment period.
7.2. The Customer may cancel at any time, effective at the end of the current monthly period, directly from its account (Settings), with no justification and no penalty.
7.3. Sonnette may terminate a Customer’s contract in the event of a serious breach not remedied within fifteen (15) days after formal notice (in particular: persistent non-payment, unlawful use of the Software, breach of the security of the service).
7.4. Termination, whatever its origin, opens the reversibility period described in article 10.
8. Availability, maintenance, backups
8.1. Sonnette targets 99.5% availability of the service on a monthly basis, excluding announced maintenance operations.
8.2. Any maintenance likely to interrupt the service is announced within the application at least 24 hours in advance, except in a security emergency.
8.3. The Customer’s data is subject to regular encrypted backups, including a copy stored off the main hosting site. These backups guarantee service continuity; they do not exempt the Customer from keeping, on its own side, the documents it is legally required to retain (see article 12.2).
9. Support
Support is provided by email to a dedicated address, with a target first response within a few business hours. The Software includes contextual help and a public knowledge base. There is no standard phone support.
10. Reversibility and fate of the data
10.1. At any point during the contractual relationship, and within forty-eight (48) hours of a request, the Customer may obtain a full export of its data in open formats (notably JSON, CSV, PDF for invoices).
10.2. In the event of termination, this export remains available during the notice period, after which, unless the Customer requests otherwise, the data is permanently erased ninety (90) days after the effective date of termination, except for records that Sonnette or the Customer must keep under a legal obligation (in particular accounting and tax records — see article 12.2), which are handed to the Customer in archived form before erasure.
11. Intellectual property and license to use
11.1. The Software, its source code, its interfaces and its documentation are the exclusive property of Sonnette. Nothing in these Terms transfers any intellectual property right to the Customer.
11.2. Sonnette grants the Customer, for the term of the contract, a personal, non-exclusive, non-assignable and non-transferable right to use the Software, limited to its internal hotel management needs.
11.3. Data entered or imported by the Customer (bookings, guests, invoices, etc.) remains the Customer’s property. Sonnette uses it only to perform the contract and, in anonymized and aggregated form, to improve the Software.
12. Customer obligations
12.1. The Customer is responsible for the confidentiality of its credentials and those of its Users, and for any action taken from its account.
12.2. The Customer warrants the lawfulness of the data it processes in the Software (its own guests’ data, police registration forms, etc.) and compliance with its own legal obligations, in particular accounting and tax obligations, including the retention period for records that it is responsible for.
12.3. Customer established outside France: the Customer acknowledges that Sonnette only warrants the Software’s compliance with respect to French regulations on till/cash-register software (article 16 and the individual certificate, article 286-I-3° bis of the French General Tax Code, CGI). A Customer established in another country remains solely responsible for identifying and complying with the equivalent obligations of its own national law (for example, without this list being exhaustive: the TSE system in Germany, a GKS-certified cash register in Belgium for food service, the registratore telematico in Italy), as well as for the local configuration of tourist tax and VAT applicable in its country.
13. Liability
13.1. Sonnette uses reasonable means to ensure a service compliant with these Terms. Its liability can only be engaged in the event of proven fault that is a direct cause of direct damage.
13.2. Excluded from Sonnette’s warranty are: acts of the Customer or its Users, failures of third-party services not provided by Sonnette (in particular Beds24, Stripe, the Customer’s email hosting provider, booking platforms), cases of force majeure (article 14), and any indirect damage (loss of revenue, loss of custom, harm to reputation).
13.3. In all cases, Sonnette’s total liability under the contract, for all damages combined, is capped at the total amount actually paid by the Customer for its subscription over the twelve (12) months preceding the event giving rise to the claim.
14. Force majeure
Neither party may be held liable for a failure to perform its obligations resulting from an event of force majeure within the meaning of article 1218 of the French Civil Code and applicable case law.
15. Personal data
The processing of personal data of the hotel’s guests in connection with the use of the Software
is governed by the data processing agreement appended to these Terms
(“dpa-sous-traitance-rgpd.md”), which forms an integral part of them. Sonnette, as publisher of
the showcase website, also applies the privacy policy published on it for data collected outside
the use of the Software (contact form, trial request).
16. Tax compliance of the payment/till module
For establishments located in France, Sonnette issues each Customer an individual certificate
matching the model set out by the French tax administration (article 286-I-3° bis of the French
General Tax Code), certifying that Sonnette’s payment/till module meets the required conditions
of unalterability, security, retention and archiving of data. This certificate is issued per major
version of the Software’s tax scope and made available to the Customer in its account (Settings →
Compliance). It covers only the scope described in the certificate then in force (see
attestation-individuelle-v1.0.md) and does not, as it stands, extend to certification by an
accredited body.
17. Governing law and jurisdiction
These Terms are governed by French law. Any dispute relating to their validity, interpretation or performance that cannot be resolved amicably will be submitted to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Mulhouse commercial court, including in the event of multiple defendants or third-party proceedings, subject to the mandatory rules applicable to consumer Customers or Customers established in another State where the law grants them a different mandatory forum.
18. Changes to these Terms
Sonnette may amend these Terms. Any substantial change is notified to the Customer with reasonable notice and, for any clause relating to price, under the procedures set out in article 5.3. Continued use of the Software after the new Terms take effect constitutes acceptance.
Appended document: dpa-sous-traitance-rgpd.md (GDPR data processing agreement). For the first
ten hotels, see also convention-fondateur.md.