Terms of Service

Who we are

Painted Circle is run by Creatures of the Forest, LLC, a North Carolina company, doing business as Painted Circle®. When these Terms say “we” or “us”, they mean us. “You” means you, whether you’re a traveler, a Supporter or someone who runs a business on Painted Circle.

You can reach us any time at info@paintedcircle.com, or by mail at 102 College Station Drive, Suite 3 #250, Brevard, NC, USA.

These Terms are the agreement between you and us. You accept them when you tick the box as you create your account. If you just look around without an account, they still apply to that use. Our Privacy Policy explains what we do with your information, and it’s part of this agreement too.

What Painted Circle is, and isn’t

A guide, not a booking site. Every business on Painted Circle was invited by us or applied and was approved by us. We look at each one before it’s listed. But we don’t run their trips, we don’t inspect them in person, and we can’t check every claim they make. Being listed means we think a business belongs here. It isn’t a guarantee.

Your booking is with the business. We don’t take bookings or payments for trips, and we don’t earn a commission. When you book, you leave Painted Circle for the business’s own website (or a booking site it uses), and its own terms apply. If something goes wrong with a trip, such as a cancellation, a refund or an injury, that’s between you and the business. We’re always glad to hear about it, and it may affect their listing, but we can’t refund a trip or settle a dispute for you.

How listings are shown. Businesses join Painted Circle for free, and we never ask a business to pay to be on our guide. Some businesses may choose a paid business plan for extra features. Paying never moves a business higher in lists or search, and never changes its ratings or reviews. The order of lists depends on things like the place you’re looking at, what you searched for and the filters or sorting you choose. It never depends on payment. Ratings come only from travelers’ reviews:

• The star rating is the average of every published review.
• The “impact scores” rings show the average of travelers’ answers to three optional questions (feeling welcome, how memorable it was, and the effect on the local community), once at least three travelers have answered.
• “Traveler Verified” means at least 5 published reviews averaging 4.0 stars or more. “Recent” means at least 2 of those in the last 90 days.

Who can use Painted Circle

• You must be 18 or older to create an account.
• An account is for one person. Please don’t share it or make more than one.
• Use an email address that’s yours and that only you read.
• If you act for a business, you must be allowed to do so (for example, as its owner or manager).
• You can’t use Painted Circle if the law, including US sanctions law, doesn’t allow us to provide it to you.

Your account

Signing in. There are no passwords. We email you a sign-in link or code. That means anyone who can read your email can get into your account, so keep your inbox safe and use an address only you read. For a business, a shared inbox like info@ isn’t a good choice: we send security notices there.

Two-factor sign-in. You can add an authenticator app for a second step at sign-in, with backup codes in case you lose your phone. We recommend it for anyone who runs a business.

If you lose access to your email. You can move your account to a new address. With two-factor sign-in or a recovery code, the move is immediate, for every account, including ones that manage a business. Without either, the move waits 7 days, and we tell your old address so you can stop it if it wasn’t you. That 7-day route isn’t open to accounts that manage a business: they use “Business access” below.

Business access. If the person who manages a business’s listing has left, or can’t get in, someone else at the business can take over by proving they’re connected to it: with a code sent to an email at the business’s own web address, or a code placed on its website. Because a different person is taking over, a handover always waits 14 days, and the current manager is told so they can stop it. If that doesn’t work, write to us and we’ll help.

Please tell us at once if you think someone else has used your account.

Reviews

Who can write one. Anyone with an account can review a business they’ve used. If a business shows you its Painted Circle QR code, you can also write a review first and confirm your email with a code afterward.

What a review must be.

• About your own, real experience with that business.
• Honest, even when it’s critical. Critical reviews are welcome.
• Not written in exchange for anything: no discounts, gifts or payment.
• Not about a business you own, work for or manage, and not about a competitor.

A review has a star rating, and can have three optional scores, a written comment and up to three photos. You can review each business once. If you go back more than 30 days later, you can write a new review of your new visit.

How we check reviews. We don’t ask for proof that you booked. Here’s what we do instead:

• Every reviewer has confirmed their email address.
• People who manage a business on Painted Circle can’t review it.
• Before anything is published, an automatic check (Claude, made by Anthropic) reads every review and photo against these Terms. If it finds a problem you can fix, we’ll tell you what it is. If it thinks a review breaks our rules, a person on our team looks at it before anything else happens.
• Businesses can ask us to look at a review again (see “Replies and disputes”).

What we hold back or take down. We don’t publish a review, or we take it down, if it:

• makes negative or hurtful remarks about a specific person, named or easy to recognize (criticizing “the staff” or “the guides” in general is fine);
• insults anyone or calls them names;
• uses crude language;
• includes sexual content or sexual descriptions;
• describes graphic violence or gore;
• contains hate speech or slurs, or puts people down because of who they are;
• threatens anyone, or encourages hate, violence, self-harm or other harm;
• presents illegal activity as something to do;
• shares anyone’s contact details or other private information;
• advertises, includes links or discount codes, or promotes another business;
• isn’t about this business, or was written in exchange for something.

For the smaller problems (like a remark about one staff member, or crude words) we’ll tell you what to change. The serious ones go straight to a person on our team.

We publish every review that follows these rules, good or bad. We never remove a review because it’s negative, and we never change your words. A business can’t pay us to hide a review.

Serious matters. If a review describes something serious, like a safety issue or harm to someone, we hold it while a person on our team looks at it. If someone is in danger, please contact the local authorities first.

Your name. Your review shows the display name you choose, never your email address.

Editing and withdrawing. After a review is published, you can edit it twice. Each edit is checked again. If the business had replied, the reply comes down when you edit, because it answered your earlier words. You can withdraw your review at any time: it’s hidden from everyone at once, no longer counts toward the business’s ratings, and is deleted for good 30 days later.

Translations. Readers can translate a review or reply into their own language with a “Translate” button. Translations are made by AI, are labelled “Translated by AI”, and may not be perfect. Your original words are what count.

Replies and disputes. A business can reply to a review in public. Replies are checked the same way as reviews, and can’t be edited once published. If a business believes a review breaks our rules, it can ask us to look at it once. If our check agrees, the review comes down while we decide. We may then ask you to rewrite it once, keep it down, or put it back.

Offers

Every business on Painted Circle offers something to Painted Circle travelers, such as a discount or an extra. The business decides what the offer is and its conditions.

Supporters can see the details of every offer at any time.

Free members take part in the Weekly Offer Share:

• You pick the kinds of travel and the places you’re interested in. We never guess them for you.
• Each week, we may share one offer that matches your interests or a business you’ve saved. You get 48 hours to save it or pass. A saved offer lasts 14 days, and you can have up to 3 saved at once.
• You won’t be offered the same business (or any of its other locations) more than once in a year, unless you save it to one of your lists after its last offer: then its offer can come to you again.
• Who gets which offer depends on the businesses you’ve saved, your interests, how long you’ve been waiting and a bit of chance. No one can pay for a better place in line.
• A business on a paid plan can share more offers each week, but its offers still go only to travelers whose interests match.
• You choose how you hear about offers in My circle → Settings: by email and in My circle, in My circle only, or not at all.

The offer is the business’s promise. Offers can have conditions, and businesses can change or end them. If a business doesn’t honor an offer, please tell us. We’ll take it up with them, but we can’t make them honor it or pay you for it. If a listing pauses, the business chooses whether to honor offers people have already saved.

Keep offer details to yourself. Offer codes and instructions are for you. Please don’t post, share or sell them. We may cancel an offer, or end someone’s access to offers, if they’re misused.

Supporters

Supporters help keep Painted Circle running and independent. In return, they see every offer, any time.

Plans and prices. The plans and their prices are shown on our Supporters page. Prices include any sales tax or VAT. You pay on Stripe’s own checkout page. We never see your card number.

Lifetime means for as long as Painted Circle is running, not for your own lifetime. Supporter plans are personal: they can’t be transferred to someone else.

Annual plans renew automatically each year at the price at the time, unless you cancel. We’ll email you two weeks before each renewal, and Stripe sends a reminder a week before. We’ll tell you about any price change at least 30 days before it applies to you. You can cancel at any time in My circle → Settings. You keep your Supporter access until the end of the year you’ve paid for.

Refunds. If you change your mind within 14 days of your most recent charge, we’ll refund that charge. Your Supporter access ends when the refund is made. Earlier renewals aren’t refunded. If you’ve already booked with a business using an offer, it’s up to the business whether it still honors it. If you live in the EU or UK, the law gives you 14 days to cancel an online purchase. This refund covers that right, and goes further, because it also applies to renewals.

If we ever end the Supporter plan or close Painted Circle, we’ll let you know. Annual Supporters get back the part of their payment for the time they haven’t used. Lifetime plans bought in the 60 days before we close or stop the Supporter plan are refunded in full. Other Lifetime plans aren’t refunded, because “Lifetime” means for as long as Painted Circle is running.

For businesses

Joining. Painted Circle is curated. You join by invitation, or by applying and being approved. We choose who’s listed, and we may say no without giving a detailed reason. Joining is free, and we never ask you to pay to be on our guide.

Paid business plans. You may choose a paid plan for extra features. A paid plan never moves you higher in lists or search and never changes your ratings or reviews. It can let you share more offers in the Weekly Offer Share, but those offers still go only to travelers whose interests match.

Proving it’s your business. When you claim a listing, you show you’re connected to the business, usually with a code sent to an email at your business’s own web address, or to the email we invited you on.

Setting up. You sign the Welcoming Places Pledge, add a photo, answer our questions about your business, and add an offer and the places you work. Claude (our AI writing helper) drafts your listing text and your offer’s wording from your answers. You review them, change them and approve them before they go live. Once you approve it, it’s your listing: you’re responsible for it being true.

Keep it true and current. Your listing, places, spots, offer and booking link must be accurate. Your places are the towns, regions or natural areas where you work, which decide where travelers find you. Your spots are exact addresses travelers can go to, like a shop or a meeting point. Your booking link must go to your own website, or to a booking site we recognize or have checked. Please update your listing when things change, or pause it if you’re taking a break.

Your photo. When you upload a photo, you confirm that it’s a real photo of your business or what you offer (not a stock photo or someone else’s), that anyone who can be recognized in it has agreed to be shown, and that you have the right to use it.

Your team. If you add people from your team, you must have their permission to show their name, photo and words.

Your offer must be real, and you must honor it on the terms you set for as long as it’s shown.

You’re independent. Being listed doesn’t make you our employee, partner, agent or franchise, or us yours, and neither of us can act or speak for the other. Being listed doesn’t give you a right to stay listed or to any payment from us. You’re welcome to say you’re on Painted Circle, but not that we’ve inspected, certified or guaranteed your business.

Asking for reviews (including with your QR code). You may ask every guest for a review. You may not:

• offer anything in return for a review,
• ask only the guests you think are happy,
• write a review for a guest, or stand over them while they write one, or
• review your own business, or have your staff do it.

You also agree to these rules when you download your QR code.

Replying to reviews. Keep replies calm and about the experience. Never share a guest’s private details.

Your name and web address. We set your listing’s web address from your business name. You can rename your business twice a year. Old addresses keep working for 18 months. We may refuse a name that’s offensive or misleading, or that we need to keep for the site.

Emails. We’ll send you emails about your listing, your reviews and your account. You can switch off review emails in your dashboard, but not security emails.

The Welcoming Places Pledge

The pledge is a condition of listing. Every business listed on Painted Circle agrees to it when it joins. If we update the pledge, we’ll email every listed business.

Reporting a business. If you believe a business didn’t live up to the pledge, email us at info@paintedcircle.com. A report is information for us to look into. It isn’t a finding that the business broke the pledge.

How we look into reports. We may contact the traveler, the business, or both. We never tell the business who made a report. A report doesn’t remove or hide a listing on its own.

Pausing a listing. We may pause a listing if we believe the business isn’t living up to the pledge, whether or not anyone reported it. A paused listing is hidden from the directory and from search. We’ll contact the business about it. After looking into it, we may restore the listing, keep it paused, or remove it.

Misuse of the pledge. We may suspend or remove any business or traveler who misuses the pledge. That includes a business that signs it while knowingly not following it, or that misrepresents itself to travelers or to us. It also includes a traveler who makes a report they know is false, or who makes reports to harass or harm a business. We may suspend an account or listing while we look into it.

What we can and can’t promise. We’re a guide. We don’t run or supervise the businesses listed, and we can’t promise how any business will behave. We rely on each business’s commitment to the pledge, on reports from travelers and on our own review. The pledge isn’t a guarantee to any traveler about a particular business.

What’s not allowed

The following are not allowed anywhere on Painted Circle, including in reviews, replies, listings, offers, photos, names and messages to us:

• Anything illegal, or that helps someone break the law.
• False or misleading information, including fake reviews or made-up experiences.
• Hate, harassment, threats or bullying, or putting anyone down because of who they are.
• Sexual content, or violent or graphic images.
• Private information about other people, such as their address, phone number or health.
• Pretending to be someone else, or to speak for a business you don’t represent.
• Content you don’t have the right to share, like someone else’s photos.
• Ads, spam, or links that don’t belong.
• Getting around our limits or checks, for example with extra accounts, bots or scripts, copying the site in bulk, or trying to break or overload it.
• Collecting businesses’ or travelers’ details from the site, or using its content to build another directory or to train AI, without our permission.

What you share with us

What you write and upload stays yours. That includes a listing text we drafted with you from your answers: once you approve it, you’re free to use it elsewhere too. To run Painted Circle, you give us permission to store it, check it (with the help of the services named in our Privacy Policy), show it, resize photos and translate it on Painted Circle. You also let us share it when we tell people about Painted Circle, for example in our newsletter, or in an article or podcast about us: a business’s listing and photo, or a line from a published review, credited to the reviewer’s display name. The permission is worldwide and free. It ends when you delete the content or your account, except for copies that take time to clear (see the Privacy Policy) and things we’ve already shared.

If you send us ideas or suggestions, we may use them freely. Thank you.

How we check what’s shared

To keep Painted Circle trustworthy, we check photos, listing text, offers, business names, reviews and replies before they’re shown.

• Automatic checks. Claude (an AI made by Anthropic) reads each item against these Terms (business and place names are checked against a list of offensive words instead). It can approve an item or ask for a change. When a business disputes a review and the check agrees, it can take that review down while a person decides. It can’t block a business, remove an account or stop anyone from reviewing: those decisions are always made by a person.
• People. Anything the check is unsure about, or thinks breaks our rules, goes to a person on our team.
• Reports. Anyone can tell us about a problem by emailing info@paintedcircle.com. For our destination pictures, there’s also a report form on our “About our artwork” page.
• Our decisions. We may refuse, take down or hide anything that breaks these Terms. When we do, we’ll tell you what and why (unless the law stops us, or telling you would put someone at risk). If you think we got it wrong, reply to our email and a person will look again.

Our destination pictures

The pictures of places on Painted Circle are made with AI (by OpenAI), in our own style. Wherever they’re shown, a “Learn about our AI artwork” link says so. They’re artwork, not photos, so details may not match the real place exactly. They never show recognizable real people. If one looks wrong or disrespectful, please tell us: follow the link under the picture to the report form on our “About our artwork” page. Please ask us before reusing them.

Pausing, leaving and deleting

Businesses can pause a listing at any time from the dashboard. It’s hidden until you switch it back on, and we’ll check in every 6 months. You can also delete a location or the whole business. It’s hidden at once. You confirm by email within 48 hours (if you don’t, it comes back as it was), and it’s erased 14 days after you confirm. Until then you can change your mind. Reviews of a deleted business are no longer shown to the public. Their writers can still see them in their own account.

Travelers can delete their account at any time in My circle → Settings. You confirm by email, and everything is erased 14 days later, including your reviews. Until then you can change your mind. Annual Supporters can choose to keep their account until the end of the year they’ve paid for.

What we keep after deleting, and for how long, is in the Privacy Policy.

When we may suspend or remove an account or listing

We may suspend or remove an account, a listing or a business, or stop someone from writing reviews, if they break these Terms or the law, or put travelers, businesses or Painted Circle at risk. Unless it’s serious or urgent, we’ll tell you first and give you a chance to fix it. If we end a Supporter plan because someone broke these Terms, we don’t refund it.

We may also change Painted Circle, or stop offering part of it. If a change takes away something important to you, we’ll let you know.

Not advice

Information on Painted Circle comes from businesses, travelers and, in places, AI. It may be incomplete or out of date. It isn’t legal, medical or financial advice. For visas, health, insurance and safety, check official sources and the business itself. Travel and outdoor activities carry risks. You decide what’s right for you, and you should follow the business’s safety instructions.

The limits of our responsibility

We work hard to keep Painted Circle accurate and running, but we provide it “as is”. We can’t promise it will always be available or free of mistakes.

We aren’t responsible for what businesses do, for their trips or products, or for offers they don’t honor. As far as the law allows, we aren’t responsible for indirect losses (such as lost profits or a missed trip), and our total responsibility to you is limited to what you paid us in the 12 months before the claim (for a Lifetime Supporter, the Lifetime fee).

Nothing in these Terms limits responsibility that the law doesn’t allow to be limited, such as for fraud, or for death or injury caused by our own negligence. If you live in the EU or UK, you also keep every right your local consumer law gives you.

If you run a business on Painted Circle and a claim is made against us because of your listing, your offer, your trips or your breaking these Terms, you’re responsible for it, including reasonable legal costs.

If there’s a disagreement

Please talk to us first, at info@paintedcircle.com. Most problems can be sorted out that way, and we ask for 30 days to try.

These Terms are governed by the laws of North Carolina and the United States. Any court case goes to the state courts in Transylvania County, North Carolina, or the federal court for the Western District of North Carolina, or to small claims court where it qualifies. If you live in the EU or UK, you can also bring a case in your own country’s courts, and your own consumer laws still protect you.

Changes to these Terms

If we change these Terms, we’ll email you at least 30 days before the changes apply (sooner only if the law requires it, or to deal with misuse). You won’t need to tick anything again. If you don’t agree with a change, you can delete your account before it applies. Using Painted Circle after that date means you accept the new Terms.

Other legal bits

• If one part of these Terms can’t be enforced, the rest still applies.
• If we don’t enforce a part straight away, we can still enforce it later.
• We may hand these Terms over to whoever takes over Painted Circle. We’ll tell you if that happens.
• These Terms, the Privacy Policy and the Welcoming Places Pledge are the whole agreement between you and us about Painted Circle.
• Painted Circle® is a registered trademark of Creatures of the Forest, LLC. Please don’t use our name or logo in a way that suggests we endorse something, without asking us first.