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Village Miles connects travelers with reviewed local hosts who offer a stay and clearly described local services or experiences. It is designed for villages, rural areas, and overlooked places across India—not only established tourist destinations.

Not yet. The current pilot does not collect real money or promise a commercial reservation. Public pages will clearly change when compliant payments and final booking rules are enabled.

Yes. Anyone can browse published journeys and read Help and policies. You must sign in for private actions such as messaging, requesting dates, hosting, verification, or support.

General help is available here. A signed-in traveler or host can open booking-specific support from the relevant reservation. For immediate danger, contact local emergency services first.

Start by sharing host interest. Village Miles reviews the basic information and may send a private invitation. Invited hosts complete their profile and verification, create a detailed listing, upload evidence, submit it for review, and publish only after approval.

An adult resident, owner, authorized family representative, lawful tenant, or local operator may express interest. Applying does not guarantee an invitation or approval. The person must be legally authorized to offer the stay and every included service.

The initial scope covers accommodation, ordinary local meals, low-risk local guidance, permitted local road transport, and clearly described rural or cultural activities. Higher-risk, illegal, licensed-but-unlicensed, medical, childcare, alcohol-centered, or adventure services are excluded.

The workflow may include unique phone verification, government ID, local address or connection, authority to offer the property, disclosed co-hosts, and listing evidence. Each status says exactly what was reviewed and is not a general safety guarantee.

Only with documented lawful permission that allows hosting. Ownership, lease authority, owner authorization, family authorization, or a reviewed rural-record exception must be truthful and current.

Saving creates a private draft. Submission locks it for review. It becomes public only after Village Miles approves the required identity, authority, safety, content, price, and listing checks.

Yes, but material changes create a reviewable revision. The currently approved version stays public until the revision is approved, so confirmed guests are not silently given different promises.

A host may invite up to two active co-hosts. Each accepts using the intended verified phone number, signs in through their own account, completes required identity checks, and must be disclosed for the booking where they will interact with guests.

No. Instagram can provide optional social context. It does not prove identity, ownership, legal authority, service quality, availability, or safety, and it never replaces Village Miles verification.

Choose available dates, services, and adult and child counts first. The organizer must meet the account, phone and policy requirements. The host reviews dates and headcount; the initial request holds no dates. After provisional acceptance, complete the private guest roster and required verification by the displayed deadline. When every required check passes, the request becomes approved. Final confirmation remains separate.

No. Requested means the host has not decided. Awaiting verification means the host provisionally accepted and is holding dates while the group completes its checks. Approved means the required checks passed, but the enabled payment or authorized no-money pilot-confirmation step is still needed. No payment is taken by completing guest verification.

The timer starts when the host provisionally accepts. Using the property's India calendar date, check-in seven or more days away gives 48 hours; two to six days gives eight hours; next-day or same-day gives four hours. The window must fit before check-in. Same-day acceptance also requires the organizer's approved ID and six hours before check-in. Submit the complete party and required ID evidence by the displayed deadline. An on-time submission gets up to two more hours for review, capped at check-in. Missed guest and unfinished staff-review deadlines are reported separately; either releases the provisional dates.

From Trips, the organizer opens the accepted booking's guest details and shares a private invitation with each intended adult. Each adult uses their own verified-email account to provide full name, current age in completed years and an optional private phone number. A compatible current ID approval can be reused; otherwise submit the required ID evidence. Optional phone entry is not phone verification and does not opt anyone into messages. The organizer sees completion status rather than other adults' private profile fields.

Hosts need to know who will enter their home, and Village Miles must link each adult to their own verified account before confirmation. Undeclared adults and account sharing are prohibited.

Guests under 18 at check-in do not create accounts in this flow. The organizer assigns a traveling parent or legal guardian, who provides the child's name and age at check-in and confirms the relationship and authorization. For ages 13–17, Guardian confirmed records that adult's declaration; it does not mean government-ID or guardianship documents were verified.

In-app notices cover the start, midpoint and approaching verification deadline. Check Trips for the current deadline. Email and WhatsApp reminders require your own verified contact, a separate opt-in and an enabled, approved provider budget; external delivery is not available by default. Change your choices in Reminder preferences. Reminders stop after the party is submitted or the hold ends. A provider accepting a message does not prove delivery.

Not silently. Dates, prices, services, material house rules, and disclosed participants must remain clear. A material change requires your informed agreement or a new booking record; otherwise you may decline or report it.

The request ends without payment. The dates are not confirmed, and you may choose another journey. A host must not discriminate or retaliate when deciding.

Keep planning and material promises in Village Miles messages. Off-platform payment or contact-sharing can remove useful evidence and increase fraud risk.

The host must cancel promptly and must not pressure you to cancel for them. During the no-money pilot, dates are released and no refund exists because nothing was charged. Paid-launch rules will require refund and rebooking treatment shown before payment.

No. Village Miles reviews submitted identity, authority, listing, and evidence records. That is not a professional building, fire, food, vehicle, or legal inspection. Hosts retain their legal and safety duties.

Sleeping and bathroom arrangements, privacy, locks, water, electricity, network coverage, road and terrain access, animals and insects, weather, mobility limitations, host presence, nearest medical help, transport dependencies, and material hazards.

Contact police, ambulance, fire, or another appropriate local emergency service first. Then use Village Miles support when safe. Village Miles is not an emergency dispatcher and cannot guarantee rescue in a remote area.

Use the booking’s support option, describe what happened, preserve relevant platform messages and non-sensitive evidence, and state what help you need. A report starts a review; it does not automatically prove fault.

No. Disruptive gatherings, violence, threats, weapons misuse, illegal drugs, sexual exploitation, trafficking, discrimination, stalking, harassment, undisclosed surveillance, and retaliation can result in immediate protective action and lawful reporting.

No. Current confirmations are controlled no-money pilot records. Do not pay a host privately and do not treat a test confirmation as proof that payment protection or insurance exists.

The current product direction is no separate guest platform fee, but host commission, taxes, payment charges, and the final price model are not approved. Before paid launch, the complete payable total must be shown before confirmation.

Paid-launch rules must show the exact cancellation and refund outcome before payment. Host cancellation, material listing mismatch, missing services, unsafe conditions, and major disruptive events may override an ordinary cancellation rule where law or policy requires.

Report promptly with proportionate evidence. Normal wear is not damage. Neither side may invent, inflate, threaten, or privately force payment. Village Miles reviews the record, but insurance and real damage collection are not enabled in the pilot.

It confirms possession of one unique Indian mobile number and reduces duplicate-account abuse. It does not prove legal identity or personal safety, and the number is not displayed to other users.

The pilot accepts a passport, driving licence, voter ID, or masked Aadhaar with the first eight digits hidden, plus a guided selfie. Full Aadhaar is not accepted.

Only authorized Village Miles administrators through audited, non-cached review routes. Other users see limited verification status and booking-relevant disclosures—not document images, document numbers, phone, email, or the private exact address.

The ID-verification selfie and government-ID images are private to authorized review. You may separately upload an optional arrival photo for review, then choose whether to share it with the listing owner for a particular booking after the whole party passes its current checks. Co-hosts do not receive it. You can stop sharing; if a preservation hold applies, file erasure may need support review.

A staff account is for administration and does not receive marketplace verification. Personal travel or hosting should use a separate marketplace account so participant safeguards remain accurate.