Provide as much accurate information to the holidaymaker about your property, its location, and its contents on your listing. However, it is better in the long term to acknowledge, when necessary, that your property may not be suitable for a particular holidaymaker. If you take a booking knowing it is not a suitable fit, your guests will not only have a less than desirable experience but there is potential that they may leave a negative review.
Make sure your property listing includes as much information about your property as possible and answers all potential holidaymaker questions. Make sure your photos are well lit and are a suitable resolution/size. Below is a list of suggestions that you could include in your description to help holidaymakers:
Some countries and regions have legislation specifically relating to holiday rental properties and this is subject to change. It is important that you identify exactly what is needed by way of licences in your location and continually review such legal responsibilities to ensure that you are operating within your area’s legal framework. You can include any license numbers on your listing to give holidaymaker confidence that you are a legitimate owner.
When logging into Simply Owners you must ensure the address in full is:
https://www.simplyowners.net/login
and that your browser indicates that you have a secure connection, normally by means of a padlock
icon.
You should not enter your Simply Owners login details into any other address.
Simply Owners guarantees 100% payment protection for your holidaymakers at no extra cost, providing
that the
prescribed method of making payments has been followed carefully and precisely, by both the holiday
homeowner
and the holidaymaker. (For more detailed terms see Terms and Conditions.)
Don't allow scammers to phish or hack your emails to redirect your payments to their accounts.
Only use emails to receive general enquiries and send general information.
Only give instructions and details on payment methods during the receipt of a phone call from the
holidaymaker
on the unique phone number you provided to Simply Owners
Never make the call to a holidaymaker to discuss payments!
Your phone number is unique to you and this method protects both you the holiday-home owner and the
holidaymaker.
Protect your phone from abuse and never allow any unauthorized person to use it to deal with
payments from holidaymakers.
Always take payments on a recognized credit/debit card, bank transfer or via an organization such as
Paypal.
For our payment protection certificate to be valid for your holidaymaker you must issue it
at
the time of entering the booking into your calendar and be in compliance with all of our terms
and conditions.
Simply Owners does not have the resources, in terms of time or legal expertise, to investigate
disputes between owners and holidaymakers. We are unable to collect all the information, assess the
legitimacy of it and make judgments as to who is right or wrong.
If disputes cannot be resolved amicably between both parties, then the ultimate place for a ruling
on matters is in the courts. Simply Owners will support both parties as best we can with any
information we have but will have very little weight to bear on legal matters as we are not party
to the contract.
If Simply Owners becomes aware that criminal proceedings are being issued against an owner
then we would suspend that owner’s listing as a neutral act until the case had been ruled upon.
It would be remiss of us to allow future holidaymakers to follow in the footsteps of a situation
that was found to be illegal.
It is important therefore to try to avoid disputes by providing as much detail as possible in the
booking, payment and cancellation terms and conditions so that both parties understand and agree on the
position of things from the start.
We have supported many owners that have sold their property while having future bookings. It is critical you take our advice to avoid unnecessary court costs for breaching contracts.
The holidaymaker’s contract is with you the owner and they have agreed to rent your property based on the advert you created, and they viewed, at the time of booking. Further, any verbal or written communication or agreements have been made on the basis that you will be the owner when their holiday takes place. Should you need to sell your property while it has future bookings you need to take appropriate steps.
Option 1. – Selling a property with future bookings
Ensure your buyer is contractually obligated to meet the future bookings on the same terms and
conditions as those currently agreed with future guests. The benefit of contracting the new owner to
honour the future bookings is it can remove any concerns of the future guests and mitigate cash flow
issues. The downside is it could reduce the level of interest in the sale.
You should offer your future guests a full refund or the option to leave the booking in place with
the new owner, assuring them that their holiday will be under the same terms and conditions as it is
currently.
Option 2. – Selling a property outright
If you are selling a property outright, in an ideal situation you would not have any future bookings. If you have the unfortunate circumstance that you must sell your property and cannot honour future bookings, you must refund future guests as soon as possible. Guests could have organised travel arrangements and could incur significant costs to find alternative accommodation.
Owners should never sell their property and attempt to defraud or deceive holidaymakers. Simply
Owners take pride in being a trusted platform and we will put considerable resources behind legal
efforts and tracing agents against any owner trying to defraud holidaymakers. Ultimately, we will
ensure owners end up paying all costs incurred by holidaymakers if they have behaved inappropriately
when selling their property. These costs could include court costs, travel arrangements, alternative
accommodation, finder fees etc. This can amount to several thousands of pounds.
Any owners behaving in this way would also be in breach of contract with Simply Owners for bringing
the company into disrepute and we would pursue this through the courts.
The best way to sell your property is with no future bookings. The second-best option is to maintain trust with any holidaymakers that have future bookings and offer them a full refund in the first instance.
Simply Owners only provide advertising space for holiday-home owners and connect potential
holidaymakers with them directly.
It does not vet any properties nor verify any comments or content entered in the advert by you,
the holiday-home owner.
It is you, the holiday-home owner, therefore that is solely responsible for the representations
made in the advert placed with Simply Owners.
Also, as Simply Owners does not have any kind of contract with any holidaymaker, financial or
otherwise, it cannot be considered a ‘renter’
and drawn into any form of rental agreements, licences or any form of contract with the
holidaymaker or third party.
Coronavirus Information
Dear Holidaymaker,
We are aware that many people are concerned about their bookings and the impact of coronavirus on their holiday.
We have received many enquiries about booking terms and conditions
Holidaymaker bookings are made directly with property owners. Each property owner will have individual cancellation policies and local coronavirus information.
Please enquire directly with the respective owners as to the current situation with any bookings.
As we receive new information and guidance from government we will update this information.
Kind regards,
The Simply Owners Team