Terms of service

What YouAndHost is

A place to book a stay directly with the host. Hosts list their properties, set their own prices and rules, and keep the relationship with their guests. We provide the software, take the payment, hold it until check-in, and pay the host. An assistant answers guests using what the host has told it about the property.

Your account

• You must be 18 or over, and the details you give us must be true.
• We email you a link to activate a new account. Until you click it, the account does nothing.
• We ask you to confirm a phone number before your first booking, and before a listing goes live.
• Keep your password to yourself. Tell us if you think someone else has been in your account.
• One person, one account. Do not create an account for someone else without their say-so.

If you host

• You must have the right to rent the property out, and you must follow the local rules about doing so, including any permit, tax or lease conditions.
• A listing goes live only after we have confirmed who you are and that you control the property. We may ask for documents, and we may refuse or pause a listing.
• Your listing must describe the place accurately, and your photos must be of that place.
• Keep your calendar honest. If you cancel a confirmed stay, the guest is refunded from the money we are holding, and repeated cancellations can cost you your listing.
• You decide your prices, fees, house rules and cancellation policy, and you are responsible for the taxes on what you earn.

If you book

• A booking is an agreement between you and the host, on the host’s terms and cancellation policy, which are shown before you pay.
• Pay through the site. Anyone asking you to pay another way is doing something wrong, and you should tell us.
• Treat the place and the neighbours well, follow the house rules, and leave when the booking ends.
• You are responsible for damage you cause beyond ordinary wear.

Money

• Guests pay a service fee on top of the host’s price. It is shown as its own line before you pay.
• Hosts pay the cost of processing the payment and a small platform percentage, taken out of the payout.
• We hold the guest’s payment and send the host their share the day after check-in.
• Refunds follow the cancellation policy on the listing, and come out of the money we are holding.
• Some hosting features are a paid plan, billed once a year from the bank account the host already linked for payouts. Everything needed to take a booking stays free.

The assistant

The assistant answers guests from what the host has given it, and it can take certain actions when the host has allowed them. It is software, and it can be wrong. The host remains responsible for their listing, their guests and anything the assistant does on their behalf. Hosts can have it draft replies for approval instead of sending them.

What you must not do

• List a property you have no right to rent, or a property that does not exist.
• Move a booking off the site to avoid fees, or ask anyone to pay outside it.
• Use someone else’s identity, payment method or photographs.
• Harass anyone, write a review you did not earn, or scrape the site.
• Try to break, overload or get around the security of the service.

Suspension

We can pause or close an account, and take a listing down, when these rules are broken, when a verification fails, or when we have good reason to think someone is being defrauded. Where we can, we tell you why and what to do about it. Money owed to you for stays that already happened is still yours.

What we promise, and what we do not

We run the service with care, but we do not own the properties and we are not the host. We do not guarantee a listing is as described, that a stay will be available, or that the site will always be up. Nothing here takes away rights you have under the law where you live.

Closing your account

You can leave at any time once you have no upcoming stays and no live listings. The steps are on the delete your data page, and what happens to your information is in the privacy page.

Changes and contact

If these terms change we will update the date at the top, and tell you by email when the change matters to you. Questions go to support@youandhost.com.