Terms of Service

Birch Smart Home · Effective 7 September 2026

1. About these terms

These Terms of Service (the “Terms”) govern use of the Birch Smart Home service provided by Birch Stays Ltd (“Birch Stays”, “we”, “us”, “our”), including this admin application and Google Nest / Google Home connections made through Google Device Access.

By authorising the connection on Google’s permission screen, or by using the service, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not connect or use the service.

Company number 13824705. Registered office: 76 Duddy Road, Disley, Stockport, England, SK12 2GB. hello@birchstays.com

2. What the service does

Birch Smart Home lets Birch operate heating in holiday lets we manage. That includes:

connecting a Google Nest / Google Home household via Device Access (SDM);
reading thermostat state and sending heat/mode commands;
linking a home to a Hostfully property and running booking-driven heating workflows.

Guest stays remain subject to the booking terms and rental conditions for that property. Those are separate from these Terms.

3. Google Nest authorisation

You confirm that:

you are the Google Home household owner, or you have authority to invite Birch and to grant Device Access for that household;
you understand Birch will control connected thermostats for operational heating (not for advertising);
Google’s own terms also apply to your use of Google Home, Nest and Device Access.

You may revoke access at any time in your Google Account permissions. Revoking stops new API calls; it does not undo heating changes already sent to a device.

4. Acceptable use

You must not:

connect a household you are not authorised to manage;
attempt to disrupt, reverse engineer or overload the service;
use the service for anything unlawful or unrelated to the managed property.

Birch staff must use this admin app only for Birch operations, keep credentials confidential, and complete two-factor authentication.

5. Availability and third parties

The service depends on Google, Hostfully and our hosting providers. We do not warrant uninterrupted access, or that a thermostat will always receive a command (for example during an internet, power or Google outage). Heating is provided “as is” and “as available”.

6. Liability

Nothing in these Terms excludes liability that cannot be excluded under English law, including for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud.

Subject to that, Birch Stays is not liable for loss of profit, business, goodwill, or any indirect or consequential loss, or for damage arising from Google or network failures, or from heating behaviour that results from revoked access, incorrect household membership, or device configuration outside our control.

7. Suspension and termination

We may suspend or disconnect a Google link if these Terms are breached, if continued access is a security risk, or if the underlying property management arrangement ends. You may disconnect as described in the Privacy Policy.

8. Changes

We may update the service and these Terms. The current version is published at this URL. Continued use after a change constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

9. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. The courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction, except that we may bring proceedings in another relevant country to protect our rights.