Recently, a big problem arouse in a court case between a vacation rental owner and their guest. It made me think of possibly having a security for us owners. Is there any way that on the page that they click to reserve the booking our Cancellation Policy is displayed. Hence, there is NO WAY that they did not see the Cancellation Policy, before booking? Can you just have a field that we can enter our Cancellation Policy (brought over from our Rental AGreement or somewhere we can just enter it for this purpose and display everytime this page comes up) and show that this is the Policy. No excuses that it was not seen since it was with all the other items in the Rental Agreement.
You know what I mean? Maybe have it display or not display, depending on the owner and if they want this displayed on the screen. This, I believe, will hold up in court, that the Cancellation Policy was RIGHT THERE when they reserved.
Would this be an easy fix?
Claudia
Here is a second part to why I ask for this. This just came from the person having problems in this regard, with VISA...
"It is with great sadness that we have now lost $771.75, plus countless hours of frustration and time. The cardholder is being refunded in full, and we are not going to risk the $1000 Processing Fee by proceeding with arbitration.
I spoke to the cardholders bank directly, and the supervisor who reviewed the case. Even if I had sent the 2nd page of the contract, they still would have ruled in favour of the guest. In other words, it doesn't matter what your contract says. Yes -- your contract can stand up in a court of law, but not with VISA (and I assume MC has a similar policy).
If you take online bookings, your Cancellation Policy MUST be on the same page as the 'Click to Accept' button. It's not good enough to include a link to another page."
Thanks,
Claudia
Hi Claudia,
Something we're thinking about doing, which will help alleviate this worry, is a feature called Legal Callouts.
Basically, when the guest gets to the Renter Agreement page, in addition to the normal thing they'll also see a list of checkboxes that they have to select in order to move forward with the acceptance process. The list of checkboxes will be customizable by you (the owner). So you'll be able to have a list of checkboxes like:
- I realize that the cancelation policy is...[x]
- I realize that pets are not allowed
- I realize that this property is on the river which may be dangerous
...and so on
Those same Legal Callouts will also be listed on the final confirmation page. This is a way to "call out" certain important aspects that the guest should be VERY aware of.
Do you think that would solve the problem?
-Michelle
That sounds great! When you say the final confirmation page, which page is that? Is that where they agree to pay, whether it is check or credit card?
When do you think that will be going in?
Claudia
Hello,
Just wondering if there is an update on this :)
Good question. I was JST talking with my sister about this option the other day and didn't know what happened to that. She hasn't signed up yet until she has more assurance that the guest saw certain things on her rental agreement.
Is there an update on this?
Thanks,
Claudia
Hi Ella and Claudia,
No updates on this yet, but it's still on the roadmap.
-Michelle
