LEGAL: Rental website general terms of use

1. Scope and acceptance
1.1. Acceptance of terms and conditions: These terms and conditions are the terms on which Bookabach provides access to the website and the services provided. By registering as a member of Bookabach you agree to accept these terms and conditions. You agree to use the service for the intent and purpose specified, i.e. as an on-line facility for coordinating and managing a holiday home, obtaining rental interest, or finding holiday accommodation. If you do not accept these terms and conditions you must stop using the Bookabach service.
1.2. Changes to terms and conditions: Bookabach reserves the right to make changes and additions to the website, the services on offer, and these terms and conditions without prior notification. These terms and conditions replace any previous published terms and conditions and are the sole terms and conditions of trade. These terms and conditions were last updated on: 21st May 2008.
1.3. Terminology: In these terms and conditions the following expressions are used:
‘Bookabach’ refers to the website but can also refer to AA Bookabach Ltd.
‘Member’ means anyone who has registered on the Bookabach website.
‘Services’ means one or more service offerings provided by Bookabach.
‘We’, ‘us’ and ‘our’ are referring to AA Bookabach Ltd.
‘You’ and ‘your’ are referring to you.
‘Listing’ means a property listing (advertisement) on Bookabach.
‘Owner’ refers to a bach owner.
‘Agent’, ‘booking agent’ or ‘property manager’ refers to an individual or organisation acting as a rental booking agent or property manager for the property with explicit authority of the owner(s).
‘Rental Contact’ refers to the individual acting as primary contact for rental activities for a property.
‘Bach Members’ (formerly Bach Circle) refers to the immediate community of people who use or manager the property - excluding renters - including owner(s), family, friends, agents.
‘Content’ refers to any text or images on the website either viewable by the public, or in private member areas of the website.
2. Specific warnings
2.1. Services: Bookabach provides a service that puts potential holiday home renters in touch with bach owners or agents. We do not take part in the rental transaction itself, other than providing the website resource as a transactional forum. If a rental proceeds it is up to the renter and the owner/agent to finalize rental terms and complete all financial transactions. We do not act as an agent for either party and do not participate in the rental transaction.
2.2. At your own risk: All transactions carried out by you and any otheranother Bookabach member are conducted entirely at your own risk. You accept that Bookabach takes no responsibility or liability for any misconduct by members including but not limited to misrepresentation of properties and fraudulent behaviour. Bookabach makes no warranty as to the accuracy of information on the website.
2.3. Disclaimer: You expressly understand and agree that:
2.3.1. You accept that the website is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis and your use of the service is at your sole risk.
2.3.2. Bookabach does not warrant that the services provided will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error free, or that any information, (including listings, feedback and guest books) provided on the website is error-free or reliable.
2.3.3. No advice or information that is obtained by you from Bookabach or anyone else shall create any warranty by Bookabach that is not expressly stated in these terms and conditions.
2.3.4. Responsibility for listings on the website rests solely with the owner or agent related to that property. The placement of these listings does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by Bookabach for the product or servicex advertised. Each advertiser is solely responsible for any representation made in connection with their listing(s).
2.3.5. Bookabach 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. We reserve the right to remove accounts that are deemed non-active or have not been accessed for sometime.
2.4. Liability: You agree that, to the maximum extent permitted by law, any and all liability and responsibility of Bookabach to you or any other person under or in connection with these terms and conditions, or in connection with the services, this website, another Member’s acts or omissions, or your use of or inability to use, the services or this website, is excluded regardless of whether such liability arises in contract, tort (including negligence), equity, breach of statutory duty or otherwise. Bookabach’s liability and responsibility is excluded in respect of any and all loss or damage, whether direct or indirect, including, without limitation, loss of profits, loss of data, loss of business or anticipated savings, general and special damages, and consequential and incidental loss.
2.5. Indemnity: You agree to release, indemnify and keep indemnified Bookabach from and against all actions, claims, costs (including legal costs and expenses), losses, proceedings, damages, liabilities, or demands suffered or incurred by us to any person arising out of or in connection with your failure to comply with these terms and conditions.
3. Membership
3.1. Becoming a member: Becoming a member is free. You must be over 18 years old. By registering as a member you warrant that you can form a legally binding agreement.
3.2. Accuracy of information supplied: You warrant that you have provided complete, accurate and current personal information when registering as a member. You agree to keep your personal details up to date. Bookabach may phone, email or mail you to verify these details. You must not register as a member under multiple identities or personas whether false or not.
3.3. Termination of membership: Bookabach reserves the right to terminate your membership and use of the website if we believes that you have violated or acted inconsistently with the letter or spirit of these terms and conditions, violated the rights of Bookabach or any third party, or for any reason we see fit with or without notice to you.
3.4. Security of your login information: You will receive a password in connection with your use of this website. You are responsible for keeping your login information (email and password) secure and secret. Without limiting the foregoing, you agree to not permit any other person to use your membership; and not to disclose information to others that would enable them to gain access to your membership.
3.5. Emails and newsletters: Bookabach reserves the right to send you emails related to your membership, transactions performed through the website, and for promoting other Bookabach products and services. Bookabach may also send regular electronic newsletters which you can opt out of using the instructions at the bottom of the newsletter.
4.General rules
4.1. General
4.1.1. All property listings and all communications made through the Bookabach system must be made in good faith.
4.1.2. You must not damage, interfere with or harm the website of services, or any network, or underlying system part there of, or attempt to do so.
4.1.3. You must not use a robot, spider, scaper or other automated means of accessing information from the website.
4.1.4 You shall not list your phone number, email address or name in your bach listing.
4.1.5. You shall not attempt to access secure or non-public areas of the website without appropriate authorization.
4.1.6. You must list your accommodation prices in New Zealand dollars for New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, and Australian Dollars for Australia. Prices must include GST. All tax obligations are your responsibility.
4.1.7. Bookabach operates a strict one-property one-listing policy. If a property is booked over a period an enquiry is made it is acceptable to suggest an alternate property but only if this property is also listed on the Bookabach website.
4.1.8. You are responsible for any actions taken through your membership. Bookabach memberships are non transferable and can not be sold, leased, let or traded.
4.1.9. Non solicitation: You must not solicit our members via the website for any products or services. Attempts to solicit our members may result in suspension or terminating of your membership at our discretion.
4.2. Supply of Content
4.2.1. You are responsible for the content you provide to us and are responsible for the consequences of your posting such content.
4.2.2. By providing content to us you warrant that you are the legitimate owner of this content and grant us non-exclusive, royalty free use of this content on the website and in any other marketing activities associated with promoting the website.
4.2.3. You must not post materials that are copyrighted, unless you are a copyright owner or have the permission of the copyright owner to post it.
4.2.4. Images uploaded to picture galleries, including but not limit to the rental listing picture gallery, must be “unmodified”, i.e. not digitally enhanced or modified in any way. This includes the addition of borders, arrows, outlines, logos, text or other enhancements.
4.2.5. You must not copy material from other listings on Bookabach.
4.3.6. You must not post material that violates any law or infringes on any other intellectual property rights of others or on the privacy or publicity rights of others
4.2.7. You must not post content that is obscene, defamatory, threatening, harassing, abusive, hateful, or embarrassing to another user or any other person or entity.
4.2.8. You must not post sexually-explicit images.
4.2.9. You must not post or transmit advertisements, promotional materials, “junk mail,” “spam,” chain letters, pyramid schemes or any other form of solicitation
4.2.10. We reserve the right to edit or remove any content you supply for any reason we deem necessary.
4.3. Representation:
4.3.1 You must not impersonate another person
4.3.2. You must not misrepresent your affiliation with any person or organization, or claim any endorsement you are not entitled to.
5. Specific obligations as an owner or agent
5.1. When listing a property:
5.1.1. You must own the property, be a family member representing the property owner, or be an appointed agent to list a property for rental on Bookabach.
5.1.2. Agents are required to provide contact information for the property owner(s) of any property you list on Bookabach.
5.1.3. Each property you register on Bookabach must represent an individual physical property. It is not permissible to use a single listing to funnel enquiries to other properties. It is permissible to move bookings from one property to another provided both properties have valid product plans and are actively listed.
5.2. You agree to respond to enquiries in a timely manner.
5.3. Bookabach relies on availability information from your calendar for availability based search. If you choose to use your calendar (the default) you agree to keep your calendar up to date. Failure to keep your calendar up to date may result in Bookabach disabling your calendar in which case your bach will no longer be shown in availability-based searches.
6. Feedback & Guestbooks
6.1. The feedback or guest book entries you provide on members and properties must not contain offensive, defamatory or inappropriate language. Bookabach reserves the sole right to determine what is considered offensive, defamatory or inappropriate language.
6.2. You may only give feedback related to a specific transaction.
6.3. You must not post feedback about yourself
6.4. 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.
6.5. Feedback is provided for the sole purpose of establishing trust on the Bookabach website. Save as permitted below, you must not copy or export your feedback to any other website or printed material. You are not permitted to embed or frame your feedback in any other website. You ARE allowed to link to your feedback page from another website provided you include the words “Bookabach” in the link text.
7. Fees and accounts
7.1. Bookabach charges fees for use of the website. Our current fees are shown on the “list a property” page.
7.2. Before taking out a service or plan on Bookabach you should make yourself aware of any associated fees you will incur.
7.3. Bookabach reserves the right to change the fees charged for any services at any time. For new services the fee will apply from the time the service is released.
7.4. For New Zealand residents all fees are shown in NZ dollars and exclusive of GST, unless otherwise stated. If you are not a New Zealand resident all fees are shown in NZ dollars and do not include GST. Unless otherwise stated in these terms and conditions no interest or financial charges apply to Bookabach account balances.
7.5. Bookabach reserves the right to investigate any refunds applied for including contacting other members and any other relevant party.
7.6. Bookabach maintains credit accounts for each member. Members pay fees using the credit in their account. Accounts cannot be used for any other purpose, other than to purchases services provided by Bookabach.
7.7. You must settle any negative account balance within 7-days. Bookabach reserves the right to take action against you to settle any outstanding debts. You are liable for all expenses (including legal fees) that Bookabach incurs when collecting that debt.
7.8. If your membership is terminated Bookabach will refund the balance of your credit account, less a NZ$10 manual processing fee. Consequently, no refund will be issued for account balances less than NZ$10. If your membership is removed due to breach of these terms and conditions it is at our discretion whether you are eligible for a refund.
7.9. If you have not logged into our website for a period of 24 months, your membership will be deemed lapsed. Your members will be suspended and any account balance forfeited to Bookabach.
8. Product Plan-specific terms
8.1 Performance Plan: By choosing to use the Performance Plan on Bookabach you agree to abide by the specific terms governing the use of this plan, namely:
8.1.1. You agree to pay a per night success fee on all confirmed rental bookings obtained via Bookabach that result in a stay at your property, but excluding rental bookings you manually add to your calendar (rental bookings from another source); or bookings where a stay did not proceed.
8.1.2.The amount charged will be based on the success fee nominated at the time the booking request (or question converted into booking requests) was lodged by the guest.
8.1.3. The total amount is calculated from the per night success fee multiplied by the number of nights the guest stayed, up to a maximum of 14-nights, less any applicable discounts or rebates (e.g. multi-listing discount).
8.1.4. Success fees will be charged to your Bookabach account the day after the final night’s stay
8.1.5. Success fees are to be paid within 14 days.
8.1.6. You agree to keep your calendar up to date so that it reflects the true state of all bookings. Specifically, you agree to Confirm any rental bookings received via Bookabach that result in a rental stay.
8.1.7. Bookabach reserves the right to cross-check with rental guests or otherwise investigate where we feel a calendar is not being kept up to date to avoid payment of success fees.
8.1.8. A new Performance Plan success fee can be nominated at any time. The new success fee applies to booking requests (or questions converted into booking requests) received from that point onwards.
8.1.9 Bookabach may, at our sole discretion, choose to refund success fees if a stay did not go ahead or was not completed provided the member adheres to our refund process. Bookabach will only offer refunds in the form of a credit to the member’s account. Cash refunds will not be issued. A $10 administrative fee applies to any refunds issued.
8.1.10. If you decide to change from the Performance Plan to some other product plan on Bookabach you are still obligated to pay the success fees associated with any Performance Plan bookings you’ve received up until your move to the different plan.
8.2. Subscription Plan: By choosing to use the Subscription Plan on Bookabach you agree to abide by the specific terms governing the use of this plan, namely:
8.2.1. Bookabach operates a strict one-property one-listing policy. If a property is booked over a period an enquiry is made it is acceptable to suggest an alternate property but only if this property is also listed on the Bookabach website.
8.2.2. Subscription fees are charged at time of listing and are non-refundable.
8.2.3. Bookabach may, at our sole discretion, choose to refund subscriptions or part-subscriptions under certain circumstances.
8.3. Family & Friends Plan: By choosing to use the Family and Friends Plan on Bookabach you agree to abide by the specific terms governing the use of this plan. Namely:
8.3.1. You agree to use Bookabach solely for managing occupany across family and friends. Use of Bookabach for managing rental occupancy requires selection of a rental plan.
8. General provisions
8.1. System Integrity: Bookabach will make all effort to ensure availability of the website and services, subject to any downtime required for routine maintenance and upgrades. However, Bookabach takes no responsibility for any system unavailability, or for any losses incurred as a result of the website or services being unavailable. Furthermore, Bookabach assumes no responsibility for the corruption of any data or information held by Bookabach.
8.2. Dispute resolution process: As Bookabach is not a party to any rental transaction between you and another member, you agree not to involve or attempt to involve Bookabach in any dispute or in the resolution of disputes that arise between you and another member as a result of the services provided.
8.3. Force Majeure: Bookabach has no liability for any lack of performance, unavailability or failure of the services or the website, or for any failure of Bookabach to comply with these terms and conditions where the same arises from any cause reasonably beyond the control of Bookabach.
8.4. No Waiver: If we choose not to exercise or enforce any right available to us under these terms and conditions it does not constitute a waiver of those rights.
8.5. Partial Invalidity: 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.
8.6. Governing Law: 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.
8.7. Intellectual Property Rights: Bookabach (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, video and sound recordings) and the software and other material underlying and forming part of the services and the website. You may not without our prior written permission, by any form or by any means:
8.7.1. Adapt, reproduce, copy, store, distribute, print, display, perform, publish or create derivative works for any part of this website; or
8.7.2. Commercialise, copy, or on-sell any information, or items obtained from any part of this website.
8.8. Entire Agreement: These terms and conditions supersede all previous conditions, understandings, commitments, agreements and representation whatsoever whether oral or written, and constitute the entire agreement, between parties, relating to the subject matter of these terms and conditions.
8.9. Privacy: Bookabach collects personal information about your through the use of the services and the website, including: your registration details; information related to the your use of the website and the information you access.
8.9.1. You agree that Bookabach may use this personal information or assist us in providing the services to you, for internal research purposes, to verify your identity, for promoting and marketing other Bookabach products and services to you and for any other use that you authorise. You agree to allow your membership transaction feedback to be published.
8.9.2. Bookabach will not sell, license or allow third parties to access your personal information without explicit consent. Not withstanding, you agree that Bookabach may release personal information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with law; facilitate court proceedings; enforce or apply our terms and conditions; or protect the rights, property or safety of AA Bookabach Ltd, our users, or others. For more information, please see our Privacy Policy.
9. AA Rewards program terms and conditions
9.1. Owner/Manager eligible transactions: Bookabach will provide 1 point per NZ$20 spent on a any Subscription Plan listed property and 1 point per NZ$10 spent on any Performance Plan listed property.
9.2. Rental guest eligible transactions: Bookabach will provide 5 points per night’s stay at a qualifying property. The following conditions apply:
9.2.1. The property must be Performance Plan listed at the time a booking request was made. (No points are awarded for stays on Subscription Plan properties). Performance Plan properties clearly display the AA Rewards mark.
9.2.2. The bach owner or property manager must indicate to Bookabach that the booking was confirmed and that the stay went ahead, i.e. a confirmed and completed booking on their calendar.
9.3. Eligibility: To receive AA Rewards Points on Bookabach you must me an AA Member and have your AA Membership number in your personal profile at the time the eligible transaction takes place. Bookabach does not award points retro-actively.
9.4. AA Rewards Discount Vouchers: Bookabach accepts AA Rewards Discount Vouchers under the following terms:
9.4.1. Vouchers can only be used to apply credit to a Bookabach account. Vouchers can not be redeemed for cash.
9.4.2. When sending Discount Vouchers to Bookabach you must clearly indicate your name and membership number on the back of each voucher. Bookabach will not be held liable for vouchers that can not be attributed to a specific member.
9.5. Full AA Rewards Program terms and conditions are available at www.aarewards.co.nz