Terms of Use
PLEASE READ THESE TERMS OF USE AND CAREFULLY AS THEY CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION.
- Last Updated: 8-May-12
Flexiroom is an online platform that connects hosts who have rooms to rent with guests seeking to rent rooms. By registering on the Flexiroom site, you agree to comply with the following terms and conditions;
1. Scope, Amendments of Terms of Use
- a.i) These General Terms and Conditions (GTC) apply to the use of the platform www.flexiroom.co.uk.
- a.ii) By registering on the website or using our services, you consent to the application of these terms of use.
- a.iii) Flexiroom reserves the right to change the terms of use to take effect in the future. In this case, the changes then form part of the contractual obligation. It is sufficient for this purpose that Flexiroom updates a new version of the GTC to the website with a date of correction. It is the responsibility of the user to monitor any changes, however any changes which have a direct affect on payment terms and conditions will be emailed to the Users directly
2. Flexiroom’s services
- i. The website www.flexiroom.co.uk is an online platform. Natural or legal persons and business partnerships that have registered, and whose registration has been confirmed by Flexiroom (hereinafter: 'User'), can provide and rent apartments, rooms or other accommodations ('accommodation'). The conclusion of the user contract is free.
- ii. Flexiroom provides a website platform for posting content, presenting offers, making contacts, and preparing and concluding rental contracts. Rental contracts come to stand exclusively between the offering user (“provider”) and the renting user (“Guest”). Flexiroom does not provide accommodations and does not accept any offers. Flexiroom is not a party in the contact concluded between the users on the website. The realisation of the contracts concluded between users on the website is solely between users.
- iii. Rental offers and content posted by users on the website will not be verified by Flexiroom as to their legality, accuracy or completeness and do not represent the views of Flexiroom. Although Flexiroom will make every effort to verify, monitor and enforce high standards of practice, it is not responsible for third party offerings and content.
3. Registration, Formation of the user contract, Legal transaction declarations
- i. The use of Flexiroom’s services requires that the user has previously registered. Registration is free and requires that the user accepts the GTC. By receiving a confirmation e-mail at the user-specified e-mail address by Flexiroom, a contract between Flexiroom and the user to use Flexiroom’s services ('user contract') comes to stand. There is no legal right to conclude such a user contract.
- ii. Registration is only allowed to unrestricted, legal capacity natural persons, legal persons and partnerships, who must be named. Minors may not register with Flexiroom. During the registration, only individuals may be listed as the owner of the user account.
- iii. During the registration, the user is obligated to provide accurate, up-to-date and complete information as required by the registration form, especially first and last name, current address (a PO Box is not acceptable), a valid e-mail address and, where appropriate, to state the name of the company and an authorized representative. The data must be up-to-date and correct at all times. Multiple registrations under different member names are prohibited. Any user found to be doing so, will be notified via email and their profile may be blocked without warning.
- iv. During registration the user chooses a user ID and password. The member name may not be an e-mail or Internet address, may not be damaging to the names, trademarks or rights of others, nor be offensive to other users. After registration, the user receives a password and a name assigned to his or her membership account.
- v. Legal transaction declarations (e.g. confirmation messages, changes to the GTC) may be sent to user by e-mail.
4. User obligations: user account, system integrity
- i. The user is obligated to maintain up-to-date and accurate information in his membership accounts, and in the event of a change, to correct it immediately.
- ii. A user account is not transferable and not inheritable.
- iii. The user is obligated to ensure that his membership account is only used by himself and is obligated for this purpose to keep his password secret.
- iv. Users are liable for all activities that are carried out while their member account is used. The user is not liable if he was not responsible for the misuse of his membership account as long as the existing duty of care was not violated.
- v. If a user is made aware that third parties have access to their member account or have otherwise gained access to the member’s account, they must notify Flexiroom. Flexiroom shall then block the member's account until the situation has been clarified. The expenses incurred to the account until it was blocked shall be paid by the user, unless disclosure of the access data is due to a fault of Flexiroom.
- vi. Flexiroom only carries out a very limited review of registration data, as the identification of people in the Internet is only very restrictedly possible. Consequently, despite various security precautions, it is not possible to exclude that incorrect data was provided for a user account. Each user has to convince himself of the identity of his contractual party.
- vii. Users are obligated to set their systems and programs in connection with the use of Flexiroom’s services so that neither the security, integrity or the availability of systems set up by Flexiroom to provide their services, are affected. Users may not block Flexiroom generated content, rewrite, modify or in any way interfere with Flexiroom’s services. Flexiroom has the right to set up necessary measures (such as blocking access) that are necessary to ensure the system integrity of Flexiroom’s systems or third parties.
- viii. Users are responsible to archive on a storage medium independent of Flexiroom the visible information on the website and information stored by Flexiroom, which they deem necessary for their own purposes of evidence, accounting, etc.
5. Use of the website; Compliance with applicable laws and existing rights
- i. The user is responsible for ensuring that the accommodation he offers is described correctly and completely. He must at least provide the information in the mandatory fields in Flexiroom, so that the accommodation and the offer is adequately described. In addition, it is up to the provider to request additional conditions, such as a deposit amount, the cost of cleaning, the implications of cancelling. Please refer to the Flexiroom cancellation policies for further details.
- ii. Users are obligated to comply with applicable laws when using the website. Flexiroom therefore prohibits, for example, the offer of accommodations, whose offer violates statutory provisions, infringes on the rights of third parties or offends other users.
- iii. It is the sole responsibility of each user to ensure that his offers are legal and do not infringe on the rights of third parties.
- iv. Users may not use addresses, contact details and e-mail addresses, which they have obtained through the use of the Flexiroom site for any purpose other than for the pre-contractual and contractual communication. It is especially forbidden to sell this data or to use it to send advertising for any services not directly associated with our partner companies ie. Tersus Services Limited which provide discounted cleaning services to all Flexiroom Hosts.
- v. The website content stored by Flexiroom may not be copied or distributed without prior consent of the respective owners, or otherwise used or reproduced. This also applies to copying in the way of search engine technologies or via other automatic mechanisms.
6. Responsibility of the user, Flexiroom’s exemption of liability
- i. The user is solely responsible for offers and content, such as images, that he uploads on the website or otherwise makes publicly available or distributes. These may not be injurious to the rights of third parties, in particular, injure personality rights or copyrights of third parties.
- ii. The user exempts Flexiroom from all third party claims, which are made applicable against Flexiroom on the basis of content, violation of GTC or other conduct for which the user is responsible. The liability exemption includes any legal fees and court costs.
7. Rights of use
- i. By submitting content (text and images), the user grants Flexiroom the following non-exclusive, transferable, temporally and spatially unlimited rights (including the right to grant sub-licenses) to the posted content, for the purpose of the offering Flexiroom services:
- a.i. the archival and database rights, i.e. the right to archive the content in any form, and in particular to digitize it for database entry and save it on all known storage media and on any medium, and to connect it other work or work parts;
- a.ii. the reproduction and distribution rights and the right to public playing, i.e. the right to store the content as desired, to copy and to make it available or disseminate it in full or in part in electronic or other media (such as Internet, newspapers, magazines);
- a.iii. the legal process, i.e. the right to edit the content as desired, to change and in particular to reduce, to complement and link with other websites, and also prepare for use on mobile devices.
8. Availability and amendment of the website
- i. The right of users to use the website exists only in the context of the current state of the technology. Flexiroom temporarily restricts use if this is necessary regarding safety, integrity, capacity limitations or to the implementation of technical measures, and also when such restrictions serve to improve performance of the services used (maintenance). The legitimate interests of users are acknowledged by Flexiroom, for example, by communicating this information in advance. Flexiroom’s regulated liability will remain unaffected.
- ii. Flexiroom reserves the right to change the arrangement of the website, and takes users’ legitimate interest into reasonable consideration.
9. Offer settings, conclusion of a rental contract between users, provision of accommodation, commissions, cancellation
i. If a provider posts an accommodation on the Flexiroom website, this is a non-binding invitation to bid on the proposed property with the specified conditions (rent, etc.) and will conclude with a rental contract. The Guest can click the appropriate button to make a binding offer for conclusion of a rental contract by a certain date. The contract stands if the provider accepts the offer within 24 hours in appropriate Flexiroom procedure. If the provider does not accept the Guest's offer within 24 hours, he is no longer bound by this bid.- ii. If a contract is agreed and concluded between users, Flexiroom notifies the contract partners accordingly by sending an appropriate confirmation email. Flexiroom shall also communicate the necessary contract data, especially the duration use and total price. The total price consists of the price of the accommodation and Flexiroom's service fee of 10%.
- iii. The Guest then pays the total cost Flexiroom. Payment is to be made by credit card or PayPal and will be released to the Host, less the service fees agreed at the time of booking.
- iv. Should the amount receivable not be paid, the user must reimburse Flexiroom for the additional costs to the extent that it is his failure.
- v. Hosts are not allowed to add additional costs or fees, which were not specified in the tendered price, and then demand these from the Guest.
- vi. The registration as a user of Flexiroom is free. Flexiroom does not charge for listing offers. Should a rental contract be concluded between a Host and a Guest as result of provable service or brokering, which took place on the Flexiroom website, the Host is to pay Flexiroom a host fee of 4% of the total booking value, or risk being removed from the website for breach of the terms and conditions.
- vii. The service fee is taken at the point where the Guest pays for the room via credit card or PayPal. The total amount, including the Guest’s service fee will be debited by Flexiroom and the remainder will be forwarded to the Host.
- viii. Should the debt recovery fail, the user must reimburse Flexiroom for the additional costs incurred to the extent that it is his failure.
- ix. Users may only set off due and/or future claims of Flexiroom service fees unless these claims are legally established or undisputed. The assignment of claims to third parties is not possible.
- x. Users are forbidden to bypass Flexiroom’s Host service fee and Guest fee structure.
- xi. Flexiroom can change the rate of the service fee at any time. Flexiroom will advise users by e-mail of any such changes taking effect on the website in due time. The change is effective for any provably obtained or brokered rental contracts, and unless the user objects within four weeks, Flexiroom shall notify users.
- xii. The user herewith assigns Flexiroom to pay the rental price, minus the service fee of Flexiroom, 24 hours after beginning of the stay in the Host’s rented property. The Guest has the right to revoke the transfer to Flexiroom should the accommodation not have been left to him in the agreed contractual state. In this case, the revocation is to be sent in due time through the contact form on info@flexiroom.co.uk with a brief explanation. The timeliness of receipt by Flexiroom is significant.
- xiii. The Host is solely responsible for the proper payment of applicable service charges.
- xiv. Hosts must be able to let the rented property to the Guest for the agreed time period. For this purpose, providers and Guests will agree on the necessary arrangements (location, time, etc.) soon after the conclusion of the contract and point of payment.
- xv. The accommodation description and the images used may not infringe on the rights of third parties, and must relate strictly to the accommodation offered. Advertising that does not refer to the accommodation on offer is prohibited.
- xvi. Hosts are forbidden to add links to other content in their offers.
- xvii. In the event of an agreed cancellation option, the current, contracted conditions under shall apply, as per the Flexiroom cancellation policy schedule.
10. Evaluation system
- i. The website allows users to evaluate each other after renting an accommodation. The evaluations shall provide a meaningful index of users’ trustworthiness. The evaluations are not reviewed by Flexiroom and may be inaccurate or misleading
- ii. The user is obligated to only make truthful statements in his evaluation and to comply with the law. The views expressed by him may not injure third party rights, nor, in particular, infringe on their basic rights. They must be objective and must not contain defamatory criticism.
- iii. Any use of the evaluation system contrary to the purpose of the evaluation system is prohibited. It is specifically prohibited for users to write evaluations about themselves or to arrange for third parties to incorporate circumstances into evaluations that are unrelated to the settlement of the underlying contracts or evaluations for any other purpose than the trade on the website.
- iv. Flexiroom does not intervene in the evaluation system. Evaluations are neither altered nor removed by Flexiroom. Evaluations cannot be altered after they have been posted. They are stored permanently in the feedback profile of a user, and can be viewed by all users. Users can be held legally responsible for the damage to the reputation of another user if feedback contains vulgar, obscene, racist, not permissible for minors or criminally offensive comments. Since Flexiroom neither censors nor reviews evaluations for accuracy, Flexiroom cannot be held legally responsible for posted comments, even if those comments are defamatory.
- v. Should there be an abuse of the evaluations by a user, Flexiroom has the exceptional right to remove the evaluation, and take appropriate measures such as;
- a) The comment contains vulgar, obscene, racist, not permissible for minors, or criminally offensive remarks;
- b) The evaluation must be removed because of an enforceable court decision against those who have created the post;
- c) The evaluation contains links or scripts;
- d) The evaluation contains another member's personal information, which includes, for example, name, address, phone number or e-mail address;
- e) If a user has inadvertently posted a negative evaluation to a user, has however already fixed this error and assigned ??the same evaluation to the correct user;
- f) The evaluation contains comments that indicate that law enforcement agencies or Flexiroom have initiated investigations;
- g) The evaluation has been made by a person who was not authorised at the time of the transaction or posting the evaluation (being underage);
- h) The evaluation is from users whose members account were blocked by Flexiroom within 90 days of registration. For member accounts that have been blocked, for example, due to non-payment of a commission or for situations where the users are given an opportunity to solve the problem and the member account is reinstated, the evaluation cannot be removed.
- vi. If both parties agree, they can retract the posted evaluation online. The evaluation post will be removed and does not enter into account’s evaluation profile. The comment will be retained and expanded to include a reference to the withdrawal.
11. Duration, Termination
- i. The user contract runs for an indefinite period of time.
- ii. The user may terminate the user contract at any time without notice. A termination notice to Flexiroom in writing (e.g. letter, e-mail) is sufficient. User’s existing proven or brokered rental contracts with other users remain unaffected by the termination of the agreement. Same applies for service fee claims already due.
- iii. Flexiroom may terminate the user contract with a notice period of two weeks. The right to block remains hereof unaffected.
- iv. The right to terminate for just cause, as well as the individually agreed upon termination rights of the user remain hereof unaffected. Just cause for Flexiroom exists in particular if:
- 1. The user does not comply with a considerable payment obligation in whole or in part, despite a reminder with an appropriate deadline having been sent to the user-specified e-mail address;
- 2. The user violates his obligations in this user contract, and despite a reminder with a timely deadline, does not take action to remedy. A reminder is not needed if this is deemed not promising or the breach is so serious, or holding the contract is so restrictive as to be unreasonable for Flexiroom. Thereby, a serious breach is assumed when regular violations of the obligations under articles 5 and 6 ("user requirements") occur. Furthermore, the severity of the offense can also result from the fact that the user has already been warned several times due to a comparable violation;
- 3. The user contradicts changes according to the GTC as required by the law, a court or an authority shows that the use of the site can no longer be offered in this form
- 4. Flexiroom terminates its website or its business; insolvency proceedings are opened against user's assets.
12. Measures taken in case of legal and / or contractual breach of behavior by user
- i. If there is sufficient indication that a user culpably breached legal provisions, rights of third parties or GTC, or if Flexiroom otherwise has a legitimate interest, in particular to protect members from fraudulent activities, Flexiroom can, pending a conditional cancellation, take one or more of the following actions:
- Warn the user;
- Delete user’s offers or other content;
- Restrict user’s use of website;
- Temporarily or permanently block user from website.
- ii. Flexiroom takes the legitimate interests of the user in question into consideration when choosing these measures.
- i. Rental contracts, which have already been concluded between the user and other users, are not affected by deletion of an offer. Same applies to claims already due commission. If, an offer that was not accepted by a user, is deleted by Flexiroom no effective rental contract is concluded.
- ii. Flexiroom has the right to permanently exclude (block) a user from using the website in each of the following cases. In as far as it is reasonable, the user is given prior notification by Flexiroom so that he has the opportunity to dispel suspicion or seek help. If a previous warning is not reasonable, for example, because the exclusion is necessary to prevent possible damage at Flexiroom or other media and their users, the user will immediately be informed by Flexiroom, and then be given the opportunity to comment and receive help.
- iii. The right to block a user exists when:
- 1.There is a breach of the evaluation system according the GTC
- 2.A user receives repeated negative evaluations and the blocking is necessary to safeguard the interests of other market participants;
- 3.There is false contact information in a member account, in particular, a false or invalid e-mail address;
- 4.A member account is transferred to another party;
- 5.user’s accommodations and/or furnishings are significantly damaged, destroyed, stolen, etc:. There is good cause due to comparable risk and responsibility of the user.
- iv. Once a user has been permanently blocked by Flexiroom, he is not entitled to re-establishment of the blocked user account or the evaluation profile. The user may not use the website with any other member accounts nor re-register.
13. Flexiroom’s liability
- i. Flexiroom is not liable for the behaviour of users. In particular, Flexiroom shall not be liable for the fulfilling of obligations under the rental contracts concluded between the users, and therefore not for the contractual service provisions in these contracts and/or lease of a responsible party for damages of any kind.
- ii. In the case of slight negligent breach of a primary obligation, or a secondary obligation, which jeopardizes the purpose of the contract, or makes possible the proper execution of the contract in the first place, and compliance with which the customer should be familiar, the liability of Flexiroom is limited to typical, foreseeable damages at contract conclusion.
- iii. Flexiroom is not liable for the slight negligent breach of accessory obligations, which are not essential accessory obligations
- iv. The exclusions of liability do not apply to fraudulent concealment or acceptance of a guarantee of quality, or for the liability of claims on the basis of product liability and for damages resulting from injury to life, body and health.
- v. Flexiroom shall only be liable for the recovery of data only if the user regularly and with caution made backup copies, which were kept in a safe place, and it is ensured that the data can be reconstructed from these backups at a reasonable cost. In this case, the user carries the burden of proof. Any further liability for data loss is excluded.
- vi. With the exception of claims arising from tort liability, user’s claims for compensation, for which liability is limited according to this article, fall under the statute of limitations clause one year from the statutory limitation period.
- vii. In as far Flexiroom’s liability is excluded or limited, same also applies to the personal liability of its employees, workers and other staff and vicarious agents
14. Closing provisions
- i. The headings in this contract are for convenience only and are not to be considered in the construction of the contract.
- ii. Flexiroom has the right to transfer its rights and obligations in this contract in whole or part to a third party.
- iii. Should any individual provision of these GTC be or become wholly or partially invalid, the remaining GTC’s are still valid. In the event of such invalidity, the parties will replace the invalid provision with a similar, legally binding substitute provision.
- iv. All statements within the context of the concluding a user contract must be sent in writing or by e-mail to info@flexiroom.co.uk. The postal address and e-mail address of a user must be those that are specified as current contact data in the user’s member account.
15. Privacy Policy
- i. We do not store credit card details nor do we share customer details with any 3rd parties.