Any locally-based micro-entrepreneur or small business who offers tourism-related services to tourists while visiting the community 's Points of Interest (POI) or tourists destinations. Called Micro Tourism Service Providers (MTSP) by HopAround, they can register their service or services as an individual or as a representative of a group.

You can register any of the following tourism-related services:

Minimum requirements for registration are a cellphone and
any of these two: an Accreditation Code issued by the Local Tourism Body the MTSP
is affiliated with OR a bank account in the MTSP's name.

Depending on prior arrangements made with HopAround, an existing Local Tourism Body of the POI where the MTSP is associated with can issue an Accreditation Code to the MTSP who would like to register. This Accreditation signifies that he is a bona fide MTSP, capable of rendering the service he will register with HopAround.

Bank accounts (savings or checking account) with any of the following banks are acceptable to HopAround: Equitable PCI (ECPI), Land Bank of the Phils (LBP), Phil Nat'l Bank (PNB), Bank of Commerce (BOC), MetroBank (MBTC), Banco de Oro (BDO) and Bank of the Phil. Islands (BPI). Submission of the details of an existing bank account is required if you would like to use HopAround's Payment Facility.

When you have successfully registered, you are initially classified a "Free Lister" and immediately given the following webpages and basic services, free of charge:

1. One (1) Public Page – This is the page where you present yourself and your business to the tourist. The contact details you submitted at registration are listed here. There will enough space for you to present yourself, describe your business and the services you offer, your location and the Points of Interest you can service and other pertinent details which will make your service interesting and attractive to the tourist.

2. Service Page/s – This is page where you describe your service that corresponds to the price you will post or enter in the Service Price box per Service Unit. Please refer to Question No. 8 for more details.

3. A "Chat" window located in your Service Page. As an interactive feature of HopAround, this is one option the tourist can use to contact you and inquire about your service.

4. Advisories sent via email when inquiries have been posted in your chat window. To find out if an inquiry has been posted by an interested tourist, you would have to regularly monitor or check on your email inbox;

5. The use of HopAround's Payment Facility. Question No. 11 & 12 discusses
   this in detail.

Your basic and initial registration with HopAround is free, which is why you are called a "Free Lister". However, there are other listing options on how your Service Name and/or Business Name will look and where it will be listed in the pages of HopAround. These options will make your Service Name and/or Business Name stand out in the MTSP listing, thereby increasing the probability the tourist will notice and click on your name to view your services. These listing categories are:

1. Free Listers – Free of charge
• Basic services only as described in Question 6;
2. Paying Listers – Annual charge of P 500.00
• Basic service as described in Question 6;
• Plus SMS advisory on summary of inquiries sent to you once a day;
• Plus Service Name and/or Business Name posted in all listings
  pages will be in bold font format.
3. Sponsoring Listers – P 250.00/month, 3 months minimum booking
• Basic service as described in Question 6;
• Plus SMS advisory sent instantly;
• Plus Service Name and/or Business Name posted in all listing pages
  will be in bold font format;
  Plus the Service Name of MTSP will be posted prominently at the lower section of the POI Description Page.
  A link will also be created that will bring the interested tourist directly to the MTSP's service page
• Under this category only 15 slots are available for all kinds of service providers,
  further increasing your visibility and uniqueness to the tourist.
  
  
  Note:   URL of POI Description Page:
      http://hoparound.net/HopAround/public/tourist/poi_level3_view.page?level3Id=142

Yes, you can register more than one service. To simplify the listing of a wide variety of services offered in so many Points of Interest (POI), the following guidelines should be followed when registering more than one service:

1. Each service name will have only one price per service unit. Each service name is paired to the price posted at the price window. If MTSP Pedro rents out kayaks for P 250 per hour or P 750.00 per day, then Pedro will register 2 service offerings – one offering kayaks for P 250 per hour and another offering P 750.00 per day. He will have to go through the " Add new service " process twice under the same service category but with different prices for each process.

2. To add a service under another service category associated with your present POIs, click on the service category of your new service in the Edit Services Page. Fill out all the necessary boxes, then click on the " Save " button to add your service.

3. To add a service based in another province, you have to register under another User Name. In this case, you may still use the same Profile and Bank Details as with your previous registration. With this feature, you can be an MTSP who offers Baguio Guided Tours and at the same time, offer Mountain Bike Tours around Taal Lake.

The interested tourist has several options on how he can get in touch with you. He can use the contact details listed in your public page or he can opt to use one of the interactive features of HopAround – the " chat and confirm " window. Imbedded in your Services Page, this allows the tourist to put in his inquiries regarding your service directly in your Services webpage. When this feature is used, the inquiry will trigger our computer system to send you advisories via your email address and/or cellphone number, depending on which listing option you are listed under (Please refer to Listing Options in Question 7).

This depends on how the tourist would like to continue interacting or communicating with you. After posting his inquiry in "chat" window of your service page, he may opt to continue using this feature or use your contact details listed in your public page. The important thing here is to check your Service Page and immediately respond to the inquiry in the most appropriate way. In this way, the tourist will know that you are around to respond to his inquiry and you are interested to do business with him.

If the tourist contacted you via your contact details, then HopAround would not be a party to whatever arrangements or transactions you make with the tourist. It would be up to you and the tourist to make the necessary arrangements especially how he would send you payments for reservation and how you receive it.

However, HopAround/s Payment Facility addresses this concern. This interactive facility has been designed for the convenience of both the tourist and the service provider. This allows the tourist to pay you the Reservation Guarantee Fee using his credit card. The fee is equivalent to 30% of posted price of your service and your share of the remittance will be sent to the account you registered with us, without making any special arrangement with your bank or any other third party. As mentioned earlier in the paragraph, this only requires the registration of a bank account with us (as stated in Question 5).

The Reservation Guarantee Fee is the payment of 30% of the service price the tourist arranged or contracted with you. As the name implies, when the tourist pays this fee, he is guaranteed of the availability of the service when he arrives as per your agreement. At the same time, the service provider is paid a down payment to make sure his service is available on the contracted date and time. When you meet up with the tourist, on demand, you can already ask for the payment of the balance even before you render the service.

Although very convenient to you and the tourist, using this facility entails remittance transactions charges. As a matter of policy, HopAround do not pass on these costs to the service provider. However, to defray them, we advise the inclusion of an 18% surcharge on the price of your services. They are to cover the following costs:

• 5% Collection Service Fee for the use of the HopAround Payment Facility;

• Miscellaneous Internet Payment Gateway Fees for the remittance of the payment from the tourist via the Internet Payment Gateway and the usual service fees charged by the banks in their acceptance of deposits for your account which will probably be in another branch of the bank.

After we have confirmation of payment, HopAround will remit to your bank account your share of the payment. This will serve as the reservation fee for your service.

For your reference, a sample computation is provided. In this example, the original price of your service is P 2,500.00. The addition of P450.00 or 18% surcharge resulted in your full recovery of your original price. This means you did not spend for the convenience you enjoyed using the Payment Facility.

Yes you can. We advise you to immediately edit or change the posted price when applicable. The posted price is the price that you posted in your Service Page. This is the price that will be seen by the tourist when he visits your Service Page. The interested tourist may not anymore pursue negotiations with you if you tell him that you have increased your posted price.

If the tourist is a no-show on the agreed date and time and you did not require him to pay the Reservation Guarantee Fee, then that is business opportunity lost for you. However, if you made him pay it but he fails to properly notify you of his change of plans, then he loses the Reservation Guarantee Fee he paid when he reserved your service as this is non-refundable. You get to keep your share we remitted to you for your trouble.

In the Philippines, there are still plenty of opportunities to improve the Internet visibility of so many beautiful tourist destinations. More importantly, the number of Points of Interest (POIs) in a particular destination should be increased and existing and potential tourism service providers in these Points of Interest organized.

HopAround was created to provide better internet presence for these POIs and service providers. Through the Local Tourism Bodies (Provincial and/or Barangay Tourism Councils, Convention and Travel Bureaus), private individuals, micro-entrepreneurs, business establishments, gov't officials, and advocacy groups involved in tourism are encouraged to develop or build a Network of Tourism–Oriented Communities (NTOC) that benefits from this internet presence.

1. Identify potential but lesser known POIs and work for its development as a viable tourist attraction;
2. Encourage individuals around all POIs to become Micro Tourism Service Providers (MTSPs) and thus making these POIs accessible to the tourists;
3. Spearhead the networking of these MTSPs into a community;
4. Maintain and build the MTSP Community Members Directory for all POIs or Tourist Destination in their Area.
5. Explore ways or venues where the services of the MTSP can be marketed to the tourists, as what HopAround.net is offering.

With this set-up, HopAround.net can be viewed as the network's "service center". The portal provides the venue for exposure and interaction between the tourist and the MTSP, system information on use, portal maintenance and marketing, services listing and registry control of the MTSPs, communication and feedback channel, and settlement or payment gateway for the NTOCs at minimal cost to its members.

The more points of interests and the more service providers listed THE BETTER YOUR LOCAL TOURISM INDUSTRY WILL BE. And since tourism has a great multiplier impact, this will benefit the LOCAL ECONOMY AND THE LOCAL PEOPLE.

HopAround's primary objective is to provide the venue where you and the tourist can meet and talk business. If the Payment facility is used, HopAround is also acting as a collecting agent only. It is not and shall not be responsible for the delivery and quality of the products and services of the MTSPs, including but not limited to the reliability, performance, availability, capability/ies and/or features thereof, as well as their legality and compliance with all applicable laws and rules of the jurisdictions where such services and products are sold, offered for sale, availed of or used.

It shall be the MTSP's responsibility defend, indemnify and hold free and harmless HopAround, its employees, officers, directors and agents, from any and all claims, losses, liabilities, damages, expenses, and costs (including reasonable attorney's fees and expenses), arising from or related to any claim by any party in connection with the quality, performance, reliability, availability, capability/ies, and/or features of the Service Provider's services and products, as well as any claim or issue relating to compliance with law, including claims arising from or related to any representations that may have been made by the Service Provider, its employees, agents, officers or directors in respect of its services and products.

In the event any party making payment thru HopAround makes any complaint of any nature whatsoever regarding the MTSP's services or products, the MTSP shall promptly inform HopAround.net of such complaint. HopAround.net shall have the right to withhold remittance to the concerned MTSP of any amounts that may have been paid by such complaining party until the issue shall have been resolved; provided that HopAround.net shall have the option, at its sole discretion, to return any payment to the payor in the event the issue remains unresolved within thirty (30) days from receipt of a complaint, whether verbal or otherwise.