Terms of Use

These terms are the agreement between you and Merhaba Istanbul. They cover the Merhaba Istanbul mobile app and the website at www.merhabaist.com.

By creating a plan, buying a plan, or otherwise using the app, you accept these terms. If you do not accept them, please do not use the app.

Questions: [email protected]

1. Who can use Merhaba Istanbul

You must be at least 16 years old.

You need an account to create a plan. You can sign in with a code sent to your email, with Apple, or with Google. Keep access to your sign-in method secure. Anything done through your account is treated as done by you.

One account per person. Do not create additional accounts to get around the limits in these terms.

2. What Merhaba Istanbul is

Merhaba Istanbul helps you plan a trip around Istanbul. It suggests places, builds a day-by-day itinerary, shows routes on a map, and answers questions through an AI chat assistant.

It is a planning tool. We do not sell tickets, take bookings, or act for any venue, hotel, restaurant, or event organiser. Where an event links to an outside site, that site is not ours and we are not part of anything you do there.

3. Free and paid plans

Every account gets one free plan, limited to a single day with a small number of stops and a small chat allowance.

After that, each new plan is a separate one-time purchase. There is no subscription and nothing renews. Paid tiers differ in how many chat messages you get with that plan. The current price, tier names, and allowances are shown in the app before you pay, and those are the ones that apply to your purchase.

Do not try to get around the free plan limit, whether by making extra accounts or by any technical means. We may remove plans obtained that way.

4. Paying

Purchases are processed by the App Store or Google Play, depending on where you installed the app. They handle the payment and hold your payment details. We never see your card.

Your purchase unlocks one plan on the account you were signed into when you bought it.

5. Refunds

Refunds are handled by Apple and Google, not by us. We cannot issue a refund, because we do not process the payment.

If you want a refund, request it through the App Store or Google Play using their process. Their rules and time limits apply. This does not affect any refund right you have under the law of your own country.

If something is broken, tell us at [email protected]. We would rather fix it.

6. Plans are fixed once generated

When a plan is generated, its stops and route are set. You can mark stops complete, pin a plan, or delete it, but you cannot edit or regenerate it. If you want something different, generate a new plan. A new paid plan is a new purchase.

Deleting a plan removes it from your app. Our privacy policy explains what happens to it after that.

7. AI features

The app uses an AI assistant to generate itineraries and answer questions about your trip. Each plan comes with a set number of chat messages based on its tier. When that allowance is used, the chat for that plan ends.

AI output can be wrong. Opening hours, prices, closures, travel times, and whether a place still exists all change, and the assistant may be out of date or simply mistaken. Treat everything it tells you as a suggestion to check, not a fact to rely on.

Do not rely on the app for anything where being wrong would matter: safety, health, legal or immigration questions, or getting somewhere on time. Check with the venue or an official source before you act.

Do not use the chat to send unlawful, abusive, or harmful content, or to attempt to make it produce such content.

8. Content you send us

The app has two optional forms: sending a cat picture, and suggesting a place.

When you send a cat picture and tick the sharing box, you give us permission to publish your picture, your story, and your Instagram username publicly, including on our social media and our website, and to resize or crop the image so it fits. You keep ownership of your photo. We are not obliged to publish anything, and we may take something down at any time.

Once a picture is published, it stays published. If you later delete your account or ask us to remove your details, we will remove your name and contact details from our records, but a picture already posted publicly will remain. Please only send a picture you are comfortable leaving up.

If you want a picture removed before we have published it, or want us to try to take down something already posted, email us and we will do what we reasonably can.

When you send anything to us, you confirm that it is yours to send, that you took the photo or have permission to share it, and that anyone clearly identifiable in it agreed. Do not send anything unlawful, offensive, or that belongs to someone else.

Place suggestions are reviewed by us and are not published with your name attached.

9. What you may not do

Do not:

• copy, scrape, or bulk-extract the places, events, or other content in the app
• reverse engineer the app or try to access our systems, servers, or database beyond normal use
• use bots or automated tools against the app or our servers
• get around limits on free plans, chat messages, or submissions
• resell or redistribute plans, content, or access
• use the app for anything unlawful, or in a way that harms other users or us

10. Our content

The app, its design, its written content, and the place and event information in it belong to us or to whoever licensed it to us. Buying a plan gives you the right to use that plan for your own trip. It does not transfer ownership of anything.

You may not use our name or logo without asking first.

11. Third-party services

The app uses services we do not control:

• Google Maps provides maps, routes, and travel times. Your use of those features is also covered by Google's own terms and privacy policy.
• Apple and Google handle sign-in if you use those options, and process all purchases.
• Events may link to outside websites for tickets or details. Those sites have their own terms and we are not responsible for them.

We are not responsible for these services being unavailable, or for anything they get wrong.

12. Availability and changes

We do our best to keep the app running but do not promise it will always be available or error free. We may update it, change how features work, or stop offering parts of it.

If we discontinue something you have already paid for, we will try to give you reasonable notice. Plans you have already generated stay available in your account.

13. Ending your use

You can stop at any time. Deleting your account from Profile removes your account and everything in it immediately, including plans you have paid for. This cannot be undone.

We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, particularly for abusing the free plan, scraping content, or automated access. Where it is reasonable to do so, we will tell you first.

14. Disclaimers and liability

The app is provided as it is. To the extent the law allows, we do not give warranties that it will be uninterrupted, accurate, or fit for any particular purpose.

We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for anything arising from your reliance on AI output, place information, or travel times. Our total liability to you for any claim is limited to what you paid us in the twelve months before the claim.

Nothing here removes rights you have under the law of your own country that cannot be excluded by agreement, including consumer rights.

15. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. The date at the top shows the current version.

If a change materially affects your rights, we will tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect. Continuing to use the app after a change means you accept the updated terms. If you do not accept them, stop using the app and delete your account.

16. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Kuwait, and the courts of Kuwait have jurisdiction over any dispute.

This does not remove any right you have to bring a claim in the country where you live, or any consumer protection that applies to you there.

17. Terms that apply to the iPhone and iPad version

These apply only if you downloaded Merhaba Istanbul from the Apple App Store.

1. This agreement is between you and us. It is not with Apple, and Apple is not responsible for the app or its content.
2. Your licence to use the app covers Apple-branded devices you own or control, as set out in the App Store Terms of Service.
3. We are solely responsible for support. Apple has no obligation to provide any support for the app.
4. We are solely responsible for any warranty. If the app fails to meet an applicable warranty, you may tell Apple, and Apple will refund what you paid for it. Apple has no other warranty obligation.
5. We, not Apple, are responsible for any claim relating to the app, including product liability, any failure to meet a legal requirement, and claims under consumer protection or privacy law.
6. We, not Apple, are responsible for investigating and resolving any claim that the app infringes someone else's intellectual property.
7. You confirm that you are not in a country subject to a United States embargo or designated as supporting terrorism, and that you are not on any United States list of prohibited or restricted parties.
8. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms and may enforce them against you.
9. You must comply with any applicable third-party terms when using the app.

18. Contact

Email: [email protected]
Web: www.merhabaist.com