Welcome to Holiday Houses. By accessing and using this website, you agree these are the terms and conditions on which we, Trade Me Limited ("Trade Me") trading as Holiday Houses ("Holiday Houses") make available services through our site, holidayhouses.co.nz ("Website"). This includes, without limitation, our standard rental advertising, online booking services and any other services.
1.1 These terms and conditions are the terms on which Trade Me offers you access to the Website and accommodation booking services ("Services"). If you do not accept these terms and conditions, you must refrain from using the Services.
1.2 These terms and conditions may be amended in whole or in part by Trade Me at any time. Amendments will be effective immediately upon posting of the amended terms and conditions on this Website. You are responsible for ensuring you are familiar with the latest terms and conditions. These terms and conditions were last updated on: 1 August 2009. Your continued use of the Services represents your agreement to be bound by the terms and conditions as amended.
2.1 You may only use Holiday Houses if you can form a legally binding contract that is enforceable against you. You must be at least 18 years old.
2.2 You agree to provide complete, accurate and current personal information when listing or booking accommodation.
2.3 We reserve the right at our discretion to decline to provide you with any or all of the Services at any time without entering further discussions with you. Any such refusal or termination shall not affect any right or remedy to which Trade Me may be entitled.
2.4 Trade Me will send you emails relating to your transactions and other activities on the Website.
2.5 Trade Me may also send regular electronic newsletters to Holiday Houses users. Newsletters will contain clear and obvious instructions for how you can unsubscribe from the mailing list.
3.1 We put homeowners (or their agents) ("owners") in touch with short term holiday renters ("renters"). Our service is not for the use of long term renters or those looking for permanent accommodation.
3.2 Holiday Houses provides a venue to introduce potential holiday house renters to house owners or agents. We are not the agent of any owner listed on www.holidayhouses.co.nz, or of any renter, including where the online booking service is used. We do not endorse any owner or any property, and we have no control over the suitability, quality or rental price of anything anyone advertises on our site.
3.3 We are not involved, on behalf of either the owner or the renter, in any dispute resulting from use of the site, or rental of a property advertised on the site. Owners and renters contract directly with each other and must communicate and deal with each other directly to resolve any problems.
3.4 If a rental arrangement proceeds, it is up to the renter and the owner/agent to finalise rental terms and complete all financial transactions. We provide a template agreement on our site that owners and renters can choose to use for short term holiday rental. But we offer no guarantee that it is suitable for your purposes. We are not responsible for any use of that agreement that you make. We recommend obtaining legal advice as to the effect of the agreement. If any problems arise, owners and renters contract direct with each other and must communicate and deal with each other directly to resolve any problems.
3.5 Transactions and all other contact between you and any other Holiday House members are conducted entirely at your own risk. You agree that Holiday Houses takes no responsibility or liability for any misconduct of any of its members including, without limitation, misrepresentation of properties and fraudulent behaviour. Holiday Houses gives no undertakings, representations, or warranties in relation to the accuracy of information on the website.
3.6 You must only make a booking that you intend to use and pay for. You must not use the Website or Helpline to make speculative, false or fraudulent bookings.
4.1 Your use of the Holiday Houses services is at your sole risk. The Website and services are provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis and Trade Me does not give any warranties of any kind, whether express or implied. Trade Me makes no representation or warranty about, and takes no responsibility or liability for, the quality or suitability of any accommodation, product or service featured on the Website.
4.2 Trade Me takes steps to ensure that information displayed on, or provided through, the Website is accurate and complete, but does not guarantee that information on, or provided through, the Website is free from errors or omissions and does not accept liability for any errors or omissions. Trade Me reserves the right to alter information published on or through the Website if Trade Me considers it incorrect or misleading.
4.3 Trade Me is not responsible or liable for any unavailability of accommodation, products or services that an Operator indicates on the Website is or are available.
4.4 Trade Me may modify or discontinue this website, with or without notice to you. You agree that we will not be liable to you or any third party as a result of such modification or discontinuation.
4.5 Trade Me will use its reasonable endeavours to ensure the availability of the Website and the Services, subject to any downtime required for maintenance. However, Trade Me takes no responsibility for any system unavailability, or for any loss or damage that is suffered as a result of the Website or Services being unavailable for any reason. Trade Me does not warrant that the Website or the Services will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that the Website will be free from viruses or other harmful content. Further, Trade Me is not responsible or liable for the corruption of any data or information submitted via the Website or held by Trade Me.
4.6 None of these terms limit your rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993.
5.1 Trade Me is not liable under any circumstances (including, but not limited to, negligence) for any direct or indirect loss or damage (including, but not limited to, general, consequential, special or incidental loss or damages, loss of profits or loss of savings) suffered by you or anyone else arising from the direct or indirect use of the Website or the Services or from the use of, or inability to use, any accommodation, product or service booked or paid for using the Website, even if Trade Me has been advised of the possibility of such loss or damages. In any event, if, notwithstanding these terms and conditions, Trade Me is held liable then Trade Me's total liability to you and those claiming through you under any and all causes of action, whether in contract, tort or otherwise, shall not exceed the amount paid by you, if any, for using the Website.
6.1 All property listings, and all communications made through Holiday Houses shall be made in good faith.
6.2 You must not damage, interfere with or harm the Website or Services, or any network, or system underlying or connected to them, or attempt to do so.
6.3 You may not use a robot, spider, scraper or other automated means to access the Website or information featured on it for any purpose.
6.4 You must list your accommodation prices in New Zealand dollars and include GST in the price. All tax obligations are your responsibility.
7.1 You must comply with all laws relevant to the short term rental of the properties you advertise on our site. All information about your property and rates must be accurate at all times.
7.2 You will only list a property for rent if you are authorised to do so. If you are a co-owner of a property, you must ensure that all other co-owners agree to you renting out the property.
7.3 Each property you register on Holiday Houses must represent an individual physical property.
7.4 You agree to respond to enquiries and online booking requests in a timely manner.
7.5 Holiday Houses relies on availability information from your calendar for availability based search. You agree to keep your calendar up to date. Failure to keep your calendar up to date may result in Trade Me disabling your calendar in which case your house will no longer be shown in availability based searches.
7.6 If you register and are approved to use the online booking service, you must not place your contact details in the body of your listing.
7.7 You shall receive an electronic voucher by email when notified of a confirmed booking (and any subsequent amendment) made using the online booking service. You agree to accept from any renter, a current sales voucher generated through the service, as proof that the renter has paid for the relevant accommodation.
7.6 While our site shows probable availability of some properties, it is not a guarantee that a specific property is available at a certain time. You must always check directly with the owner.
7.7 Owners may have particular requirements or restrictions on their properties. If so, these are a matter between you and the owner.
8.1 The feedback or comments entries you provide on Holiday Houses users and properties must not contain offensive, defamatory, unlawful, misleading, deceptive or inappropriate language.
8.2 Trade Me is not responsible for any of the opinions expressed in the Comment facility. By posting a comment you agree to take full legal responsibility and liability for your comments and to indemnify Trade Me from all liability, loss, damages, costs or expenses suffered by Trade Me in connection with your comment.
8.3 You may only give feedback related to a specific stay in a Holiday Houses listed on the Website that was either booked through the Website, or was a result of an enquiry through the Website.
8.4 You must not include any personal information in the feedback or guest books including but not limited to names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses.
8.5 Trade Me reserves the right to remove any comments that it considers inappropriate or in breach of these terms and conditions.
8.6 Comments submitted to the Website are provided for the sole purpose of facilitating the operation of the Website and the Services. You must not market or export any comments on the Website to any other venue or website.
9.1 We charge owners fees for the use of our website as a way for owners and renters to contact each other and to facilitate online bookings ("fees"). Our current fees are listed on our fees and charges page.
9.2 If you are a renter, you do not pay us for the standard enquiry service we provide.
9.3 If you are the owner, you must pay us the fees associated with your advertising on our site. If you choose to offer online bookings through the website, these bookings will incur a commission payable to Trade Me, as detailed on our fees and charges page.
9.4 We may change the fees charged for services at any time. In the event that we introduce a new service, the fees for that service are effective at the launch of the service, unless otherwise stated.
10.1 Some listings provide for online bookings (in addition to booking enquiries). Owners can choose to provide instant confirmation for online bookings, or can choose to view and then confirm online booking requests. Payment will only be charged once a booking is confirmed.
10.2 For online bookings, owners can choose to require full payment, or just a deposit, to be made by credit card at the time of booking. If only a deposit is charged initially, full payment will subsequently be deducted from the renter’s credit card 10 days before the rental commences.
10.3 Renters are responsible for ensuring they have read the owner's terms for rental prior to making a booking.
10.4 We will email renters a booking confirmation, reference number and booking voucher for each confirmed online booking.
10.6 Renter payments for bookings will be received by credit card transaction through Trade Me’s BookIt system. Trade Me will hold the money received from buyers on a bare trust, in an interest bearing account until payment is made to the owner. Trade Me is authorised to deduct its fees and retain any interest. The owner will not earn interest on monies held by Trade Me.
10.7 Payment of a renter’s payment from the Trade Me bare trust account to the owner will be by electronic transfer to the owner’s nominated bank account, less any fees and commissions payable, within 5 working days of full payment being made by the renter.
10.8 Confirmed bookings will generate IRD approved buyer-created invoices / remittances for all transactions which will be sent to the owner.
11.1 Cancellation policies are specific to each owner and may be viewed through a link from the payment confirmation page prior to final booking confirmation. A non-refundable fee of NZD$20 applies to all cancellations regardless of the owner’s cancellation policy. Where you are entitled to a refund, the refund will be made to the same credit card that you used to confirm the booking.
11.2 Renters should contact the owner directly to discuss any desired cancellations, changes or refunds. Additional charges, or a refund, may apply depending on the nature of the booking amendment.
11.3 If renters wish to cancel an online booking request prior to it being confirmed, they can do so by notifying the owner directly. Cancellations prior to booking confirmation do not incur fees.
12.1 Trade Me uses fraud detection techniques that are designed to protect owners. As a result, Trade Me will sometimes hold or reverse payments or take other steps to prevent credit card fraud. While Trade Me has systems in place to reduce the risk of credit card fraud, Trade Me is not responsible for protecting the owner from credit card fraud or chargebacks.
12.2 While Trade Me will use all reasonable efforts to detect fraud, Trade Me is not liable for fraudulent transactions, or for letting through transactions that result in chargebacks and loss for the owner.
13.1 In the event of a chargeback, Trade Me will provide reasonable evidence to the bank about the transaction. The owner may also be asked to provide additional information.
13.2 Trade Me has the right to, and may, reverse the full booking payment made to the owner should a chargeback or an erroneous payment occur.
13.3 If Trade Me cannot reverse the booking payment made to the owner, Trade Me will debit the booking amount so that the amount is deducted from the owner’s next payment. Alternatively, Trade Me may invoice the owner for the full amount of the booking payment, payable within 30 days of invoice.
As Trade Me is not a party to any rental transaction between you and another member, you agree not to involve, or attempt to involve, us in any dispute or in the resolution of disputes that arise between you and another member as a result of the Services provided.
14.1 If either you or we have a dispute, then each party must use the mediation procedure to resolve a dispute before commencing legal proceedings. The mediation procedure is:
14.2 The terms of settlement are binding on the parties and override the terms of the contract if there is any conflict.
14.3 Either party may commence legal proceedings when mediation ceases under clause 14.1f.
14.4 The provisions of clause 14.1 will not apply to an application by either party seeking urgent interlocutory relief from any court.
Trade Me has no liability for any lack of performance, unavailability or failure of the Services or the Website, or for any failure of Trade Me to comply with these terms and conditions where the same arises from any cause reasonably beyond the control of Trade Me.
If we do not exercise or enforce any right available to us under these terms and conditions, it does not constitute a waiver of those rights.
If any provision of these terms and conditions becomes or is held to be invalid, unenforceable or illegal for any reason, and in any respect, that provision shall be severed from the remaining terms and conditions, which shall continue in full force and effect.
These terms and conditions are governed by the laws of New Zealand. You submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of New Zealand.
Trade Me (and its licensors or suppliers, as the case may be) owns all proprietary and intellectual property rights in the Website (including text, graphics, logos, icons and sound recordings) and the software and other material underlying and forming part of the Services and the Website.
These terms and conditions supersede all previous conditions, understandings, commitments, agreements and representations whatsoever whether oral or written, and constitutes the entire agreement, between the parties, relating to the subject matter of these terms and conditions.
Trade Me collects personal information about you through your use of the Services and the Website, including:
21.1 You agree that Trade Me may use this personal information to assist us to provide the Services to you, for internal research purposes, to verify your identity, for promoting and marketing other Holiday Houses Services to you, and for any other use that you authorise.
21.2 We release account and other personal information only when we believe release is appropriate for legal compliance and law enforcement.
Please review our Privacy Policy.