VacationMate Renter Protection Policy
Booking through VacationMate means you can book in complete confidence. We want you to to enjoy the complete experience from booking your holiday home to enjoying your holiday. On very rare occasions, something may go wrong with your booking. We take serious measures to verify the property ownership and property documents exists prior to advertising on our platform. Before you make a claim under our Policy, you must contact the owner and seek to resolve the matter, or be able to demonstrate to us that you have used all reasonable efforts to contact the owner to resolve the matter. This is because when you make a booking, you make the contract with the owner and it is the owner who is responsible for ensuring that the Property is provided to you as described in their listing. It is a condition of our Policy that you act reasonably and fairly in your dealings with the owner.
Holidaymakers who use our website are offered the opportunity to find holiday accommodation by searching through ads placed on the website. The rental property search is performed independently by the traveler. We act only as an advertising service through which advertisers can advertise properties to holidaymakers and holidaymakers can search for the rental properties advertised by the owners or persons that are acting on the owners behalf. The platform acts only as a venue for users to interact with each other. VacationMate is not, and does not become, a party to any contractual relationship between the holidaymaker and the advertiser, and does not mediate between the holidaymaker and the advertiser in the event of any dispute arising between them.
If you do not make your booking through our website at vacationmate.com you are not entitled to claim under this policy. We will only entertain claims under this policy if the renter makes the claim strictly in accordance with the terms of the policy.
Before you make a claim under our Policy
If you do not agree to any aspect of these Terms and Conditions then you have no right to apply for reimbursement under this Policy.
If you are unable to resolve the matter with the owner, or are unable to contact the owner, having made reasonable efforts to do so, you may make a claim for a refund under our Renter Protection Policy if the matter qualifies for a refund claim under our Policy.
Anti-Phishing Policy
‘Phishing’ is the illegal collection of personal information over the internet by criminal organisations/individuals who pretend to be official companies. Typically they use two types of email scam:
A) asking for personal information to be sent back via email to an official-sounding email address.
B) putting links in an email to a spoof website designed to look like a well-known official one, and then asking people to input personal information.
These details are then collected and used for illegal purposes such as credit card fraud or identity theft. However with simple precautions you can minimize the risk to yourself. We maintain certain standards so you can identify our emails as genuine and not Phishing. We will:
Never ask you to tell us the password for your online account.
Never send you programs to install on your computer.
Always mask your password ‘*’ symbols to hide their true form on our website.
Always use Secure pages for collecting information from you.
If you are in any doubt about the legitimacy of an email which appears to be from us, please use the ‘Contact Us’ feature of this website to check or phone one of our support staff so we can confirm that the email was sent from us at VacationMate.
Fraudulent activities – for example: the owner e-mail address (or the one belonging to the person on his/her behalf) has been forged by a third party for nefarious purposes therefore damaging the guest during the payment session.
If you are hijacked by a scammer and monies has been transferred by this method to the scammer then we cannot be held responsible in the event of any refund being processed by our company. VacationMate do not have any monetary contract with the owners regarding booking transactions, this is solely done between the holiday renter and the owner. We will reject any claims for any refund if you have scammed by phishing or any other scamming method.
What qualifies for a refund claim?
Each of the following circumstances qualifies for a refund claim under our Policy:
1) The Property does not exist;
2) The Owner cancels the booking prior to check-in and offers no alternative property or a refund
3) The Owner fails to provide access to the Property the Renter booked within a reasonable period of time after the time scheduled for check-in and you do not then stay in the property.
When to make a claim under our Policy
To make a refund claim, the Renter must contact us no later than midday on the day after the day on which you are scheduled to check-in at the Property. We do not entertain claims under our Renter Protection Policy after this time. Our time limit is strict, because if you notify us within this time period, we may be able to resolve the situation with the renter.
Proof of payment
We will require all details and proof of payment and the money transactions/transfers/credit card payments that was made between the owner and renter of the booking which was made through our website. We will honor any truthful claim that a renter has shown that he or she has not been able to have access to the holiday home that was advertised through our website in the circumstances listed below under the heading “What qualifies for a refund claim.
Assisting us:
It is a condition of our Policy and of our obligation to make a refund that the Renter shall use all reasonable efforts to assist us to verify that you qualify for a refund claim in accordance with our Policy. We recommend that you make a note of what has happened and, as appropriate, obtain the names and contact details of everyone that is involved and take photographs to substantiate what has gone wrong.
What can you claim for?
You can only claim a refund of monies that have been paid for booking of the Property via our platform up to the limit of €2000 euros. Our Policy does not cover any monies that you pay for travel to and from the holiday property.
Chargebacks
You must tell us if you make or intend to make a claim for a refund from your credit card or debit card provider. If you do so, we will not be eligible to make a payment to you under this Policy. Confirmation in writing that you have not and will not make a claim for a refund from your credit card or debit card provider or other provider of finance
Making a claim
To make a claim you must contact us no later than 12:00 GMT on the day after your scheduled check in at the Property with the following information:
The name of the Renter;
The address of the Property you booked;
A contact number for you;
The email address your booking was made under;
Your booking reference number;
Your check in and out dates;
Your reason for refund claim;
Any photographic evidence and notes you have of what has gone wrong; and
Circumstances not covered under this Policy
We will not provide any reimbursement for loss of funds due to circumstances that are not included in the covered circumstances. For clarification, we will not cover losses in any of the following circumstances.
5) Any indirect losses; losses associated with travel arrangements, such as airfare or other transportation costs; opportunity losses; contractual losses; consequential losses; losses due to the weather or natural disasters; any losses other than the Qualifying Payment (subject to the Coverage Limit).
6) If the Owner offer you alternative accommodation in lieu of the Rental and you accept the alternative accommodation (which will be inferred if you stay at least one night at such alternative accommodation), you will not be able to claim in respect of any sums paid for the original Rental.
7) Any damage deposits or other funds paid to the Owner using the Platform that are not returned due to damage or non-compliance with the Owner’s booking contract and/or cancellation policy.
8) Any payments made in cash
9) If you have a close personal connection with the Owner, for example, you are friends or members of the same family.
10) Phising or any other method of scamming as descript in the policy, anti-phising.
After you make a claim
We assess each claim on an individual basis. Once a claim has been submitted we will be in contact within 48 hours to discuss the next steps.
Making a refund
We will deal only with the person who made the payment to the Owner and in the currency in which you made the payment. We will make any refund to the credit card, debit card or other payment system that was used to make payments to us.Though we use all reasonable efforts to make refunds promptly, we will only make a refund payment after we, acting reasonably, are satisfied that the conditions of our Policy are met.
Amendments to our Policy
We may, in our sole discretion, make changes to this policy from time to time. We will display clearly on our website when our Policy has changed.
Governing law and jurisdiction
This Policy and any claims that are made under it are subject to the laws of Spain. You agree that all claims arising under the Policy or in connection with it, shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Spain.
Our decisions shall be final
In our sole discretion, we shall make all decisions regarding claim and documentation requirements and eligibility under the Policy. Our decisions shall be final and binding on you.
Definitions In this Policy:
Owner
means any one of (i) the person who owns the Property or, if there is more than one owner, the owner who is authorized to rent the Property via the Website, (ii) an agent for the person(s) who own the Property.
Policy
refers to this Policy.
Property
means a hotel, apartment block, apartment, house, villa, or other building or accommodation including any premises, any swimming pool, ancillary building and annex, made available for temporary occupation by a Renter via our Website.
Renter
means the person who makes the booking to stay in a Property via our Website
Renter’s Party
means the individuals named in the booking contract as those who will occupy the Property on a temporary basis (including any additional person(s) or substitute person(s) agreed with the Owner).
Stay
means the period during which the Renter or member of the Renter’s Party agrees to occupy the Property on a temporary basis.
We/us/our
refers to VacationMate Group SL., a private company, limited by shares and incorporated in Spain;
Website/Platform
refers to www.VacationMate.com the website operated by us.