Writing your Booking Terms & Conditions

DISCLAIMER: SCRUMPY takes no responsibility for the following suggestions, and recommends that all businesses seek legal advice when writing their own terms and conditions.

T’s & C’s for your self-catering business

Every guest who wants to stay at your holiday let will need to both read and agree to your Terms and Conditions, this is an important part of the booking process and forms the contract between you the owner and your customer. What you and your business decides to include is completely up to you, we have listed below key areas for consideration, so you can tailor your own T’s & C’s to your needs.

The Contract - Your Booking Terms and Conditions act as an agreement between you and your customers. It enables you to control liability and protect your business. Stating as such will help to reinforce that the ‘rules are not there to be broken’.

Eg. “The Contract for a short-term holiday rental will be between {{yourcompany}}, the lead booker, and all members of the holiday party."

Definitions - Any Terms & Conditions statement needs to explain who is being addressed and referred to throughout the contract. Having a “Definitions” type section at the beginning will help to define commonly used terms through the document.

Eg. " The “Owner" means owner of the property being rented. "Applicant" means clients applying to rent the property. "Tenants" means Applicants that have taken up residence in a property.”

Booking Process - You should include the way or ways a guest can book, along with at what point an interaction from a customer officially becomes a booking.

Eg. “Applicants can provisionally reserve the property over the telephone but no contract shall exist between the Applicant and the Owner until the terms and conditions have been agreed and the Owner has received the deposit payment”

Payments - You are likely to want the full balance paid in full prior to the guest arriving. If this is so, you should state when payments are expected to be paid.

Eg. “The balance of the full amount due and any additional charges are due 12 weeks before the holiday rental commencement date… Payments can be made out to…”

Amendments - To give your business time to accommodate for any changes made to a booking, it might be worth while stating that there is a cut off time for any amendments.

Eg. “Any requests made for the booking, such as for there to be additional equipment made available like a travel cot, must be requested and agreed to by the Owner at least 7 days prior to arrival”

Period of hire - You should dictate your standardised check in and check out times, stating when your guests should arrive and when they should vacate the property by.

Eg. “You should not arrive before 4pm on the commencement date, and leave by 10am on the day of departure. Failure to do so may result in you being charged a further day’s rental.”

Cancellations - You need to be clear with your policy, state under what circumstances you allow cancellations and what will be refunded. It is also sensible to recommend that your guests purchase cancellation insurance.

Eg. “Any request to cancel the booking must be made in writing. We will do our utmost to fill the dates, and will refund any monies paid if another reservation can be made”

Liability - Safeguard your business by including a clause within your terms that states that you are not liable in the event of an accident, theft etc.

Eg. “{{yourcompany}} and it’s representatives shall not be held liable for loss or damage to property however arising. You must take all necessary steps to safeguard yourselves and your possessions.”

Damages/Security Deposit - If you require a separate deposit to cover the potential loss for any breakages, you should include a statement that explains that.

Eg. “The Property requires a security bond (damages deposit), which is payable with the final balance. You are responsible and liable for any breakages or damages, which you cause, to the accommodation or its contents and this will be deducted from your security bond”

Facilities - If you have the likes of a swimming pool, hot tub, sauna or gym on site, you will likely need a section that covers specific rules, health & safety and the use of these facilities.

Eg. "Guests should note that some pools have a shallow end and a deep end and for your own safety diving is strictly prohibited. Signs will indicate pool depth..."

Right of entry - You should inform guests if you require access to the property, if for instance the holiday let is adjacent to your own residence or if there are shared parking facilities etc.

Eg. “We shall be allowed the right of entry to the property at all reasonable times for purposes of inspection or to carry out any necessary repairs or maintenance.”

Complaints - Whilst no business would want to receive a complaint for a customer, you should prepare for such situations and clearly state that they guest reports anything directly to the relevant person.

Eg. “Every effort has been made to ensure that you have an enjoyable stay. However, if you have any problem or cause for complaint, it is essential that you contact us immediately to give us the chance to resolve it.”

Pets - Regardless of whether you do or do not accept pets, you need a section that covers this and any subsequent issues. Think along the lines of

Eg. “We welcome 1 well behaved dog, when arranged as part of the booking process… Dogs are not allowed on beds and furniture… If we find pet hairs on bedding, we shall retain monies from the security deposit”

Pandemic - This has never been so relevant since the arrival of COVID-19 and you need to clearly state your stance during and in the event of. You will likely need to keep this section of your terms regularly updated as Governement guidance & rules changes.

Eg. “In the event of a pandemic, where the local Government ruling dictates that travel or holiday accommodation cannot take place, we will work in accordance with the Government advice to rearrange the booking where possible…”

See our collection of advisory articles with links out to official guidance on COVID-19 here https://help.scrumpy.co.uk/category/133-covid-19

Adding T's & C's

Please see here for our guide to add your Booking Terms and Conditions to a property on your SCRUMPY website https://help.scrumpy.co.uk/article/128-booking-terms-and-conditions

Displaying on your site

Once you have added your booking terms & conditions, the SCRUMPY website platform allows you to easily display a copy of on your website. By enabling a tickbox, an auto generated “Terms” page will sit on your Property Listing as a Content Page.

Simply navigate to: Properties > Select a Property > Edit > Configuration > "Show terms on property page"
This will then allow your website visitors to view and read your terms whilst browsing. They will of course be required to read and confirm by ticking when they reach the checkout process to complete a booking.

Example

You can also view an example of T’s & C’s here https://help.scrumpy.co.uk/article/36-terms-conditions-example, if you intend on using this for your business, we strongly recommend that you amend it to suit your own needs.