The deal, in plain language

Ostler Desktop is made and sold by Greulich Labs LLC. “We” and “us” below mean Greulich Labs LLC; “you” means the hotel or person buying the license. Reach us at support@getostler.com.

One purchase ($499) buys a perpetual, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to run Ostler Desktop for one hotel property on one computer at a time. There is no subscription and no renewal. The license covers every update we release for Ostler Desktop: the app checks our website for updates each time it opens, downloads any it finds, and installs it the next time it restarts. You can also check anytime from Settings → License.

When you activate, and every six hours while it runs, Ostler confirms your license with us over the internet. That check sends your license key, a random identifier for the installation and the app’s version number — never your reservations, guests or any other data — and we answer with a signed confirmation that lasts 48 hours. If a check can’t reach us, Ostler keeps working until that confirmation runs out, then pauses until a check succeeds. In practice: an internet outage never stops the front desk, but Ostler does need a connection at least once every two days.

Moving to a new computer is simple: install Ostler there, restore a backup, and activate with your key. The new computer takes over, and the old one keeps working for 48 hours so you can move at your own pace, then stops. If the license ends up on the wrong computer, Settings → License offers “Use this computer instead”. Moving between computers more than three times in 30 days is treated as sharing the license: the new activation is refused, and the license stays on the computer it is on until you write to us. Running one license on two computers at once is not allowed; a second front-desk computer needs a second license.

You may not share, sell, lend or publish your license key, or use it to activate Ostler for another business. You may not copy, redistribute, rent or sell the software; work around its activation; or reverse-engineer, decompile or modify it, except where the law expressly allows. You may not remove or alter any copyright or ownership notice in it.

If you buy and Ostler doesn’t work for your hotel, write to support@getostler.com within 30 days of purchase and we’ll refund it. A refunded key stops being confirmed at its next check, so the app pauses; your data stays on your computer, and the app’s export and backup tools still work. We may also stop confirming a key that is being shared, resold, or used against these terms, after writing to you first.

Your data lives on your machine, so backups matter: the app automates them and nags you gently, but keeping at least one backup somewhere other than the front-desk computer is your job. Your email account, and any other outside account you connect, is yours — its fees and terms are between you and that provider.

We build Ostler carefully — money is integer-arithmetic, every change is journaled, the database is snapshotted before updates — but no software is faultless. Ostler is provided as-is, without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. To the extent the law allows, our liability is capped at what you paid for the license, and we are not liable for indirect, incidental or consequential loss, including lost bookings, lost revenue or lost data. Nothing in these terms removes protections your local law gives you that cannot be waived.

The license check and updates are the only things that ever touch Ostler’s infrastructure. Nothing else — bookings, email, payments, backups — goes through us, and we have no way to see any of it. If we ever have to take the license service down for longer than a day, we extend every confirmation ahead of time so no hotel is interrupted.

These terms last as long as you use Ostler. They end if your license is refunded, or if you break them and do not put that right after we write to you; then we stop confirming the license, the app pauses, and you should remove it. Your data stays yours, on your computer — export or back it up first. If we change the software license agreement, the app shows the new version once and asks you to accept it; it applies to updates you install after accepting. We do not change the terms of a license you have already paid for.