Terms and conditions of stay

1. Booking and payment

A booking is made on this website and is confirmed when payment is received, or when the owner confirms it in writing where payment is arranged another way. Until then the dates are held for 30 minutes and released if payment does not arrive. Rates are quoted in Botswana pula and include water, electricity, Wi-Fi, linen and housekeeping on every third day of the stay. Extras are quoted separately and added to the booking total once requested.

Card payments are processed by DPO on their own secure pages, in the currency you choose on the payment screen. The owner never sees or stores card details. Where a stay is paid another way, the arrangement is confirmed with you in writing and only the outcome is recorded against the booking.

2. Rates and length of stay

The rate card shows a nightly and a weekly rate. Your total is worked out as the cheapest combination of those rates for the nights you book — a full week is charged at the weekly rate, not at seven nightly rates. Stays of a month or longer are quoted on request: you reserve your dates and the owner advises your price before you are asked to pay. Stays run from the arrival date to the departure date shown on your booking; the night before departure is your last night in the apartment.

3. Cancellation and refunds

Cancellation is free within 24 hours of booking, and you are refunded in full, including any deposit. After that the booking is non-refundable, because the nights are taken off the market for you. If the owner has to cancel a confirmed stay — for maintenance, safety or any other reason — you are refunded in full or offered alternative dates, whichever you prefer. Moving a stay to other dates is possible when the apartment is free, and any difference in rate is settled with the owner.

A card refund is paid back to the card that paid, through DPO, normally within 5 to 10 business days; a bank transfer is returned to the account it came from within 3 to 5 business days. The refund and cancellation policy sets out every case, the timelines and what happens if you think a refund is wrong.

4. Check-in, check-out and who may stay

Check-in is between 3:00 and 6:00 PM and check-out before 10:00 AM, unless another arrangement is agreed in writing. The guest named on the booking shows photo ID at check-in and signs these terms. A maximum of two guests may stay, and only the guests named on the booking may sleep in the apartment. Visitors during the day are welcome with the owner's knowledge; overnight visitors are not permitted.

The apartment is a private home let for short stays. It is not a venue, and it is not offered for parties, events, filming or business use beyond a quiet working stay.

5. House rules

The house rules form part of these terms: no parties or events, no smoking anywhere on the property including the patio and the garden, no commercial photography or filming without written permission, and consideration for a quiet residential neighbourhood in the evening and overnight. Serious breach of the house rules ends the stay without refund.

6. Damage, deposit and liability

A refundable damage deposit is confirmed in writing before arrival. Ordinary wear is not charged. Breakages, missing items, specialist cleaning and any cost of putting right smoking on the property are charged at repair or replacement cost against the deposit, with receipts shown; the balance is returned within 7 days after check-out. The owner is not liable for guests' personal belongings, vehicles or losses, nor for interruptions caused by utility providers beyond the owner's control; faults are put right as soon as reasonably possible.

Guests are asked to report a breakage as soon as they notice it, using the form on their booking page. The report is time-stamped, so nothing is left to memory at check-out.

7. Your details and privacy

Your name, contact details, dates and signed terms are kept only to manage your stay, to reach you during it and to keep the records the law requires. They are not sold or shared, except with the payment provider where you pay by card and with the services needed to run the booking. The privacy policy sets out the full detail under the Data Protection Act, 2018 — what is collected, why, who else has to see it, how long it is kept, and how to ask for it to be corrected or erased — and it forms part of these terms.

8. Electronic signature

Typing your full name on this site, or on the guest link the owner sends you, is your digital signature. It is stored with the booking together with the date and time you signed and a one-way hash of the connection you signed from, and it covers these terms, the house rules, the refund and cancellation policy and the breakages terms. A signature given this way has the same effect as one written on paper.

9. Complaints and applicable law

If something goes wrong, tell the owner straight away — during your stay if possible, so it can be put right. Write to [email protected] or message +267 72 728 227 and you will have a written answer within 5 business days.

These terms are governed by the laws of Botswana, and the courts of Botswana have jurisdiction over any dispute arising from them. Nothing in these terms removes a right you have under Botswana law, including your rights over your personal data under the Data Protection Act, 2018.