Terms and Conditions

Local Home Stays, owned by LCH, Lda., with its office in Lisbon, Portugal operates an information platform system accessible at the localhomestays.com domain. 

Local Home Stays (LHS) lets owners, managers, and tenants of premises suitable for accommodation offer such premises for rent to persons who are interested in renting Accommodations under short and mid-term leases. 

1. About Local Home Stays

1.1 Local Home Stays contains basic information on the properties, such as detailed photographs, a brief description of the accommodation and the respective rental rates.

Local Home Stays allows Accommodation Seekers to browse the properties on offer; registered Accommodation Seekers then may enter into an Agreement with individual Housing Providers on the use and enjoyment of the Accommodations on offer. 

1.2 When signing up for Local Home Stays, Accommodation Seekers tick a box to confirm that they have read and accepted these Terms & Conditions (T&C). Accommodation Seekers are liable for making true and complete statements during registration, as required. Entering misleading data qualifies as a material breach of the subsequently concluded Lease Agreement and may lead to serious legal consequences, in particular the invalidity of the Lease Agreement and the right to a compensation. Local Home Stays reserves the right to cancel reservations and to deactivate a user account in the case of violation of the LHS rules. 

1.3 By ticking the relevant box, the Accommodation Seeker consents to the processing of their personal data by LHS. 

1.4 Local Home Stays acts as intermediary facilitating the conclusion of a Lease Agreement both by the property Seeker and the property Provider. Lease Agreements, once made, are easily managed within LHS; rent may be paid primarily via cashless transfer or by card through Local Home Stays. The Accommodation Seeker is fully liable to the Housing Provider for damages caused in the Accommodation during the lease. 

2. Marketing

2.1 Local Home Stays will market and promote the property listings through; LHS website, blogs, press releases, industry associations, newsletters, social media, email campaigns, and other related outlets to promote the properties available to be booked through Local Home Stays. 

3. Reservation Procedure and Payment Terms

3.1 Should the Property provider, during the Term, alter prices, availability, schedules, and other terms and conditions related to their properties, any existing reservations will not be subject to these changes. This does not apply to extension requests. Extensions will be subject to availability and prices may differ.

3.2  Currency for quotes and payment for all properties will be subject to the country the property is located unless specified differently.

3.3 If a registered Accommodation Seeker is interested in renting a particular Accommodation, they shall send a reservation request (the “Reservation Request”) to the Housing Provider via Local Home Stays, along with the Accommodation Seeker’s registration data (to the extent that this is necessary for the Housing Provider to decide whether or not to accommodate the Reservation Request). 

3.5 The Housing Provider has 24 hours to accept the Reservation Request (whereas this time period may be extended by another 24 hours upon instruction by the Accommodation Seeker). The Housing Provider may reject the Reservation Request even without giving reasons. 

3.8 By accepting the Reservation Request, the Housing Provider makes an offer to enter into a Lease Agreement, which is being sent to the Accommodation Seeker for acceptance via Local Home Stays. The wording of this Lease Agreement must in all material aspects correspond to the language posted on Local Home Stays as a part of the given offer of a Accommodation. The number of persons specified in the reservation is binding and may not exceed the maximum capacity of the Accommodation, otherwise the Housing Provider may terminate the Lease Agreement with immediate effect on the date of delivery of the written notice. 

3.9 The offer to enter into the Lease Agreement is deemed accepted by the Accommodation Seeker as of the moment in which the last of the following requirements has been satisfied: 

(a) The Accommodation Seeker fills in the required particulars on Local Home Stays, which will then be inserted into the draft Lease Agreement (the final wording of which is then being generated for the Accommodation Seeker to review), 

(b) On Local Home Stays, the Accommodation Seeker clicks on the button “Sign the Lease”, and 

(c) By entering the confirmation code which the Accommodation Seeker receives via verification text message, the Accommodation Seeker accepts the offer of the Lease Agreement (by clicking on the button “I accept the proposed Lease Agreement”). In the next step, the Accommodation Seeker uploads a scan copy of their personal ID (ID card, passport) to Local Home Stays. As of this moment, the Lease Agreement comes into valid existence; however, its effectiveness is being suspended and subject to a condition subsequent. 

3.10 The Accommodation Seeker must pay an amount to the LHS equal to the first rent payment under the Lease Agreement (“First Rent Installment”), and must do so promptly upon entering into the Lease Agreement and in any case no later than within 24 hours from acceptance of the Reservation Request by the Housing Provider. As of the moment in which the First Rent Installment has been duly and fully paid, the Lease Agreement becomes effective. The above time period may be extended by an additional 24 hours upon the Housing Provider’s instruction. For the first 24 hours after acceptance, the Housing Provider must not let the Apartment in question to another Accommodation Seeker or to any third party. The Accommodation Seeker must pay a service fee for using Local Home Stays ® (“Service Fee”) at the same time as the First Rent Installment. The Service fee (amount and maturity) is specified by the LHS before conclusion of the Lease agreement. The final text of the Lease Agreement is available on Local Home Stays and sent to the user’s email.  

3.11 The Housing Provider may terminate the Lease Agreement without any reason and without a notice period pursuant to a written notice before the day of the handover of the Accommodation. The Reservation Fee, the First Rent and the Service Fee are returned to the Accommodation seeker in full. The housing provider is obliged to pay the Accommodation seeker a contractual penalty in the amount of (a) 50% of the First Rent Installment, if the termination occurred on the 29. – 14. day (including these days) before the commencement of the lease; (b) 100% of the First Rent Installment, if termination occurs 13 and less days before the commencement of the lease. 

3.12 If the Lease Agreement terminates prematurely after moving in, the Service Fee will not be refunded. If the Rental Agreement is prematurely terminated by the Accommodation Provider, the Accommodation seeker is entitled to a discount on another Service Fee in a proportionate part corresponding to the shortened period of the originally agreed Lease Agreement. 

3.13 Fees related to payments (currency conversions etc.) are always paid by the transferor. 

3.14 The House Rules and the handover protocol (including all schedules) are an integral part of the Lease Agreement. These documents shall be submitted by the Property Provider to the Accommodation seeker. 

4. Additional Terms

4.1 The property provider agrees to maintain its properties in excellent working order with full inventory items expected to be in a furnished apartment.

4.2 Local Home Stays shall not be liable to the other parties for any loss, injury, delay, damages or other casualty suffered or incurred by the latter due to strikes, riots, storms, fires, explosions, acts of God, war, action of any government or any other cause beyond the reasonable control of the party (“Force Majeure”). 

4.3 The offerings of Accommodations published on Local Home Stays contain data provided by the individual Housing Providers. LHS is not liable for the accuracy, completeness, and truthfulness of the offers and the information contained therein. However, the LHS provides the Accommodation Seeker with a warranty for such cases, in accordance with these T&C. 

4.4 The offers of Accommodations on Local Home Stays are non-binding. The Accommodation Seeker acknowledges that the contractual relationship created by the Lease Agreement is strictly between them and the Housing Provider. LHS assumes no liability vis-a-vis the Accommodation Seeker for a violation of duties of the Housing Provider under the Lease Agreement. 

4.5 LHS is entitled to change these T&C. Local Home Stays users must be notified by e-mail are entitled to decline the changes within 10 days of the notification. The new T&C must be published on www.localhomestays.com. The changes become effective as of the date of the change.