HouseTrip Terms of Use

HouseTrip.com website (hereinafter referred to as the "Site") is operated by HouseTrip SA ("HouseTrip", "Us" or "We") as a service to our users and visitors. It consists of a collection of online resources for stays in travel accommodations and various email services (collectively "Service").

1. Acceptance of Terms

   1. By accessing our Site and/or using our Service, whether or not you become a registered user ("User", "You"), You agree to be bound to the following terms of use ("Terms"), which You acknowledge to have read and understood.
   2. We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to change, modify or otherwise alter these Terms at any time. You must review these Terms on a regular basis to keep yourself apprised of any changes.
   3. By using this Site, You agree that the posting of new or revised Terms on the Site shall constitute adequate and constructive notice to You of any and all revisions and changes. Continued use of the Service after any such changes or after explicitly accepting the new Terms upon logging into the Site shall constitute Your consent to such changes.

2. Platform

   1. You understand and agree that (i) the Site merely is a platform that enables You and other Users to conclude rental transactions among registered Users and, consequently that (ii) HouseTrip is not a party to any rental transaction. We do not own nor can We contract for any holiday rental property listed on the Site. Instead, the Site acts as a platform to allow registered Users to offer for rent a specific holiday rental space ("Host") to potential renters ("Guests"). We are not involved in the actual transaction between Hosts and Guests. Rental transactions are only binding among the concerned Users, who are solely and entirely responsible for their performance.

3. Eligibility and Accounts

   1. To register for a User account (an "Account"), go to the Site and provide the requested information. By registering, You represent and warrant that (a) You are eligible for an Account as set forth in these Terms; and (b) the information You include as part of the registration process is accurate and not misleading. Accounts may be obtained and used only by (i) individual, independent professionals who are eighteen (18) years or of legal age in their country of residence if such age exceeds eighteen (18) and (ii) individuals with the right and authority to act on behalf of an organization or entity for purposes of using the Service provided on the Site.
   2. Upon obtaining an Account, You shall have access to the Service and the functionality that We may establish and maintain from time to time and in our sole discretion. We may add, delete or change some or all of the Service provided for free as part of the Account at any time. You will be notified of any charges and given the option to continue use or to terminate Your Account. You are responsible for paying all applicable taxes and for all hardware, software, service and any other costs that You incur to access Your Account. You may not transfer or share Your Account with anyone.
   3. As a registered User, You further agree to update Your Personal Information (as defined in the Privacy Policy) if needed.

4. Account Restrictions

   1. You agree to use Your Account for Your personal use only, and not to redistribute any of the content on this Website. You agree to comply with all applicable laws regarding use or access of Your Account. Any use of an Account (a) to post false, outdated, misleading information; (b) to post information that in our sole discretion is inappropriate to our Users (including, but not limited to obscene, libellous, slanderous or similarly inappropriate postings) or (c) to post information in breach of the policies published on the Site are grounds for immediate termination of an Account.
   2. You may not distribute unsolicited commercial messages ("spam") through Your Account or take any other action that imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure. At our option and without further notice, We (or our suppliers) may use anti-spam technologies that may terminate Your messages without delivering them or prevent messages from reaching You. We expect all of our Users to conduct themselves in a courteous, professional manner at all times. Personal attacks, "flaming", and other forms of discourteous and unprofessional online conduct are grounds for the immediate suspension or termination of the offending party's Account, in our sole discretion.

5. Content

   1. You understand and agree that all postings, messages, text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, or other materials ("Content") posted on, transmitted through, or linked from the Service, are the sole responsibility of the User from whom such Content originates.
   2. The Site provides unfiltered access to Content. You understand and agree that We are only acting as a venue and that We have no liability related to Content posted on the Site, whether arising under intellectual property laws, libel, privacy, obscenity, or otherwise. We cannot, nor do We undertake any obligation to, control the Content that is posted. By its very nature, the information on the Site is changed frequently, may be inaccurate and in some cases may be mislabelled or deceptively labelled. We do not make any representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the accuracy, timeliness, or completeness of such information, nor do We undertake to verify, update or correct such information. We recommend that You confirm all information You obtain from the Site. We also do not make any representation or warranty, express or implied, regarding any posting or requests by Users. You agree that any agreement between You and such individual or organization shall be solely on the terms negotiated and agreed by You and Your counterparty and shall be done at Your own risk.
   3. HouseTrip grants Users a limited, revocable, non-exclusive license to access the Site to, as applicable, advertise holiday rental properties and/or research, view or make legitimate inquiries to Users regarding their interest in particular holiday rental properties for their personal use, all in accordance with these Terms.
   4. Any other use of the Site is expressly prohibited. Importantly, this license does not include any right of collection, aggregation, copying, duplication, display or derivative use of the Site nor any right of use of data mining, robots, spiders or similar data gathering and extraction tools without our prior written permission; provided, however, that a limited exception from the foregoing exclusion is provided to general purpose internet search engines and non-commercial public archives that use tools to gather information for the sole purpose of displaying hyperlinks to the Site, provided they each do so from a stable IP address or range of IP addresses using an easily identifiable agent. "General purpose internet search engine" does not include a website or search engine or other service that provide classified listings or property rental advertisements, or any subset of the same, or which is in the business of providing holiday property rental services.

6. Your Content

   1. Although HouseTrip does not own nor control any of the Content that You post, You agree that, by posting Content on the Site, You automatically grant Us, and You represent and warrant that You have the right to grant HouseTrip, an irrevocable, perpetual, non exclusive, fully paid, worldwide license to use, copy, perform, display, adapt, modify, distribute, to have distributed and promoted said Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing. Furthermore, by posting Content on the Site, You automatically grant HouseTrip all rights necessary to prohibit any subsequent aggregation, display, copying or exploitation of Content on the Site by any party for any purpose.
   2. You are solely responsible for content or any other information You provide, distribute, post, include, link to, or otherwise upload to the Website ("Your Content"), and You agree that We are only acting as a passive conduit for Your online distribution and publication of Your Content. We reserve the right (but not the obligation) to take any action with respect to Your Content if we believe that it may create liability for Us or may cause Us to lose the services of our ISPs or other suppliers. You represent and warrant that Your Content and any content You request to receive (directly or indirectly): (a) shall not infringe any copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, or other proprietary right or right of publicity or privacy; (b) shall not violate any law or regulation; (c) shall not be defamatory or trade libellous; (d) shall not be obscene or contain child pornography; (e) shall not include incomplete, false or inaccurate information about Yourself or any information about any other individual; and (f) shall not contain any viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancelbots or other computer programming routines that are intended to damage, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system, data or personal information.
   3. You understand and agree that HouseTrip has no obligation to post any Content from You or anyone else. In addition, We may, in our sole discretion, edit, remove or delete any Content that You post or submit. In particular, We reserve the right to determine the final design, layout and functionality of our Site, which may involve the review, formatting and editing of such Content. You understand and agree to release HouseTrip from any liability for any loss or damage resulting from the design or positioning of such Content.

7. Booking

   1. Any rental offering shall be addressed by the concerned Host to the Guests.
   2. If You request a booking for an accommodation You are interested in, You will be asked to provide Your credit card information and billing address. HouseTrip will obtain a pre-authorization on Your credit card for the total amount of Your request to ensure that You have the necessary amount of funds available to cover the transaction, but will not charge Your card at that time. If Your booking is accepted by the Host for the dates set forth in your request, the payment process described under para. 8 will apply.
   3. If You provide Us with a confirmation from the Host that Your booking has been duly cancelled, HouseTrip will return the advanced payment provided for under para. 8.b; provided, however, that such cancellation occurs up to three days prior to the beginning of Your stay as agreed upon in the booking confirmation. No refunds will be provided after this deadline by HouseTrip. Furthermore, Our fees are non-refundable. You will be solely responsible to solve any dispute arising out of or related to the stay directly with the Host.

8. Payment

   1. Apart from any booking as a Guest, the access to our Site and use of our Service is entirely free.
   2. Should you decide to book a stay, HouseTrip is entitled to a fee defined as (i) a commission of 10% of the total rental rate set by the Host (i.e. 90% of the total rental rate will be received by the Host) and (ii) an administrative fee of 3% added to the advance payment for payment processing and various internal procedures linked to handling bookings ("Fee"), taxes excluded.
   3. Unless otherwise stated, the Fee is quoted in Euros.
   4. As a Host, You agree to have HouseTrip deduct the Fee from the advanced payment to be paid by the Guest in consideration for the booked stay.
   5. HouseTrip shall transfer the advanced payment minus the Fee to the bank account of the Host five days after the first day of the stay as agreed upon in the booking confirmation. As a Host, You understand and agree that it is up to You to collect the balance between the price agreed upon for the stay and the advanced payment minus the Fee directly from the Guest.
   6. As a Guest, You agree to have HouseTrip debit Your credit card of the amount of the advanced payment asked by the Host with whom You have chosen to stay upon confirmation of Your booking. You also agree to pay the difference (total price minus advance payment) to the Host when You arrive at the property or as otherwise agreed with the Host.
   7. Advanced payment shall exclusively be performed via a debit of the amount set by the Host (para. 8.b) from the credit card (Eurocard/MasterCard, Visa, AmericanExpress or Diners Card) indicated by the Host during the booking procedure (see para. 7.b). Payment via cash or check shall not be accepted, and accordingly HouseTrip cannot be held liable for any loss of cash or checks.
   8. As a Guest, You agree that You shall be billed for all HouseTrip services accessed through Your Account, irrespective of whether the Service was accessed by You or by a third party using Your Account. It is Your responsibility to take all measures that are necessary to ensure that Your password remains secret and to prevent the use or misuse of such password by any unauthorised person. You shall notify HouseTrip promptly if You discover or suspect that Your password has become accessible to or has been misused by any unauthorised third party, so that We can block Your account. As a consequence, You shall indemnify HouseTrip for any costs or expenses arising from or related to the unauthorised use or misuse of Your Account. In addition to the aforementioned, You shall indemnify the Host and HouseTrip for any loss or damage resulting from the unauthorised use of supplementary or modified printouts, reproductions, copies or counterfeits of bookings.

9. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES

   1. IF YOU ACCESS OUR SITE AND USE OUR SERVICE, YOU DO SO AT YOUR SOLE RISK. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT HOUSETRIP DOES NOT CHECK ANY GUEST, HOST, OR OTHER USER'S BACKGROUND OR RECORD. HOUSETRIP IS A REPUTATION-BASED SYSTEM. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OTHER USERS' COMMENTS AND THIRD-PARTY REFERRALS ON HOSTS AND GUESTS. USE COMMON SENSE. BE AWARE AND BE SAFE. OUR SERVICE IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS. WE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM, AND YOU WAIVE, ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.
   2. HOUSETRIP DOES NOT WARRANT THAT (A) OUR SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS; (B) OUR SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE; (C) ANY INFORMATION THAT YOU MAY OBTAIN THROUGH OUR SERVICE WILL BE ACCURATE OR RELIABLE; (D) THE QUALITY OF ANY PRODUCTS, SERVICES, INFORMATION OR OTHER MATERIAL PURCHASED OR OBTAINED BY YOU THROUGH OUR SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS; OR (E) ANY ERRORS IN ANY DATA OR SOFTWARE WILL BE CORRECTED.

10. RELEASE

    1. BY USING THE SITE OR SERVICE AND CONCLUDING, RESPECTIVELY PERFORMING A RENTAL TRANSACTION, YOU AGREE THAT ANY LEGAL REMEDY OR LIABILITY THAT YOU SEEK TO OBTAIN FOR ACTIONS OR OMISSIONS OF OTHER USERS WITH REGARDS TO SUCH INTERACTIONS AND TRANSACTIONS WILL BE LIMITED TO A CLAIM AGAINST THE PARTICULAR USER OR USERS WHO CAUSED YOU HARM OR THE PARTY TO THE RENTAL TRANSACTION AT THE EXCLUSION OF HOUSETRIP.
    2. AS A CONSEQUENCE, YOU AGREE NOT TO ATTEMPT TO IMPOSE LIABILITY ON, OR SEEK ANY LEGAL REMEDY FROM HOUSETRIP, ITS OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, REPRESENTATIVES, AGENTS AND SUCCESSORS IN RIGHTS.
    3. YOU SHALL INDEMNIFY AND HOLD HARMLESS HOUSETRIP AND ITS OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, REPRESENTATIVES, AGENTS AND SUCCESSORS IN RIGHTS FROM ANY AND ALL CLAIMS AND DAMAGES, OF EVERY KIND AND NATURE, ARISING OUT OF OR IN ANY WAY CONNECTED WITH YOUR INTERACTIONS WITH OTHER USERS ON THE SITE OR YOUR EXPERIENCE AS A GUEST OR HOST IN CONNECTION WITH THE PERFORMANCE OF RENTAL TRANSACTIONS CONCLUDED THROUGH THE SERVICE.

11. Data privacy

    1. Your privacy is very important to Us. By accepting this Agreement, You expressly consent to certain disclosures of Your Personal Information (as defined in Privacy policy) to Us and the other Users, as described in our Privacy policy, which is incorporated herein by reference.

12. Termination

    1. We may, in our discretion and without liability to You, with or without cause, with or without prior notice and at any time: (a) terminate Your access to Our Service, (b) deactivate or delete any of your Accounts and all related information and files in such accounts as well as Content originating from You and (c) bar Your access to any of such files or Service.

13. Invalidity

    1. If any provision of these Terms is held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be void, invalid or unenforceable for any reason, such provision shall be enforced to the maximum extent possible so as to reflect the intent of the parties.
    2. The remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect without being impaired or invalidated in any way.

14. APPLICABLE LAW AND JURISDICTION

    1. THESE TERMS AND ALL MATTERS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS SHALL BE GOVERNED BY THE SUBSTANTIVE LAWS OF SWITZERLAND, WITHOUT REGARDS TO CONFLICTS OF LAWS AND PRINCIPLES THEREOF.
    2. ANY CONTROVERSY, CLAIM OR DISPUTE BETWEEN A USER AND HOUSETRIP ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS SHALL BE SUBJECT TO THE EXCLUSIVE JURISDICTION OF THE COUR CIVILE DU TRIBUNAL CANTONAL VAUDOIS IN LAUSANNE, AND EACH PARTY HEREBY IRREVOCABLY CONSENT TO THE JURISDICTION AND VENUE OF SUCH COURT.