Host Agreement

This Host Agreement supplements our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy. It sets out the specific obligations that apply to you (“Host”) when you list a property on Offer2Stay. If there is any conflict, this Host Agreement governs host-specific matters and the Terms & Conditions govern everything else.

1. Eligibility

• You are aged 18 or over and resident in the United Kingdom, or you are a UK-registered entity acting through an authorised representative.
• You have the legal right to let the property — whether as freeholder, leaseholder with landlord consent, tenant with written landlord consent, or authorised agent.
• Where planning permission or a short-term-let licence is required (e.g. Greater London's 90-night rule, Scottish short-term-let licensing, Northern Ireland tourism certificates), you have obtained it and will maintain it throughout your listing period.

2. Listing Accuracy

Your listing (photos, descriptions, amenities, sleeping capacity, pricing, house rules, cancellation tier) must be accurate, current, and not misleading. Photos must represent the actual property, be taken within the last 24 months, and not be stock imagery. Claims about amenities (Wi-Fi speed, parking, accessibility features) must be substantiated on request.

Offer2Stay may remove or suspend listings we reasonably consider inaccurate, misleading, or non-compliant with these obligations.

3. Insurance

You must maintain, at your own cost, insurance appropriate to short-term paid occupation. At minimum this means:

• Public liability cover of at least £2,000,000 for personal injury and property damage suffered by guests or third parties.
• A holiday-let or short-term-let endorsement on your buildings and contents policy (standard residential policies typically exclude paying guests).
• Where you employ cleaners or handy-persons, appropriate employer's liability coveras required by the Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969.

Offer2Stay does not provide insurance on your behalf and is not liable for losses that you fail to insure against. We may request evidence of cover from time to time and may suspend your listings if evidence is not provided within 14 days.

4. Safety & Legal Compliance

You are responsible for ensuring your property complies with:

• The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 — a current Gas Safety Certificate from a Gas Safe registered engineer where gas appliances are present.
• The Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 or equivalent — an Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) within the last 5 years and PAT testing of portable appliances where appropriate.
• The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 — a working smoke alarm on every floor, a carbon-monoxide alarm in every room with a fuel-burning appliance, appropriate fire extinguishers and fire-blankets where required, and a clear escape route.
• The Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988 — all upholstered furniture carries a compliant label.
• Local council registration, Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) licensing, and any short-term-let scheme applicable to your location.

You warrant that you will provide the above evidence to Offer2Stay, or the relevant authority, within 14 days of a reasonable request.

5. Payouts and Platform Fee

Payouts are processed via Stripe Connect using destination charges. Offer2Stay collects the guest's payment, deducts the 10% platform fee, and transfers the balance to your connected Stripe account. Your first completed booking is fee-free as a promotional offer.

Payout timing.Stripe holds your share of guest payments in your connected Stripe account until 24 hours after the guest's scheduled check-in date. At that point, Offer2Stay automatically releases the funds to your linked bank account. Standard Stripe / banking processing time then applies (typically 1–2 business days for UK accounts). Until the release time, refunds may be issued to guests directly from your connected balance if the booking is cancelled or modified. After the release time, refunds for cancellations during the stay window may be recovered from your future payouts.

You must keep your Stripe Connect account in good standing, including providing any information Stripe requires for its ongoing Know Your Customer (KYC) and anti-money-laundering checks.

6. Tax Responsibilities

• You are solely responsible for declaring and paying income tax (or corporation tax) on earnings from Offer2Stay. The Furnished Holiday Lettings regime abolition (effective 6 April 2025) means most UK short-term letting income is now taxed as ordinary rental income.
• You are responsible for registering for and accounting for VAT if your taxable turnover exceeds the UK VAT registration threshold.
• Offer2Stay does not withhold or remit tax on your behalf.

VAT invoices issued on your behalf. If you mark yourself as VAT-registered in your account settings and supply a valid VAT registration number, you authorise Offer2Stay to generate VAT invoices on your behalf when a guest's company requests one. These invoices are legally yours — they carry your name, address, and VAT registration number as the supplier — and Offer2Stay acts only as the administrative agent generating and delivering the document. You remain solely responsible for: (a) the accuracy of the VAT details you supply; (b) accounting for the VAT element of every booking on your VAT return; and (c) remitting that VAT to HMRC. We do not withhold the VAT element from your payout — your payout is the gross amount the guest paid less our 10% commission, and the VAT portion of that gross is yours to remit. You can revoke this authorisation at any time by toggling VAT-registered status off; invoices already issued remain valid. See the VAT guide for VAT-registered hosts for the full operational detail.

Bank transfer payments by guests. Where a corporate guest pays by bank transfer rather than card, Offer2Stay reconciles and confirms the booking only after funds clear in our nominated account. No obligation is created on you (calendar availability, cancellation window, payout timeline) until the booking moves from "pending" to "confirmed". The standard 24-hour-after-check-in payout release applies regardless of how the guest paid.

7. HMRC Digital Platform Reporting

Under the Platform Operators (Due Diligence and Reporting Requirements) Regulations 2023 — the UK's implementation of the OECD's Digital Platform Reporting (DPI) rules — Offer2Stay must collect and annually report to HMRC information about hosts who meet the “reportable seller” criteria, including:

• Your full legal name and primary residence address.
• Your date of birth (individuals) or company registration number (entities).
• Your UK taxpayer reference number (Unique Taxpayer Reference or National Insurance number; VAT number if applicable).
• Each property's address and, where available, HMRC-registered land/Unique Property Reference Number.
• Total consideration paid to you, the number of bookings, and any fees we withheld, per calendar quarter.

You agree to provide accurate data for these purposes and to update it whenever it changes. Failure to provide required information may result in Offer2Stay suspending your payouts or listings until compliance is achieved, consistent with our regulatory obligations.

HMRC shares this data with other OECD tax authorities where relevant. The first reporting period covered UK sellers' calendar-year 2024 earnings, reported to HMRC by 31 January 2025; reporting continues annually thereafter.

8. Trade-Account Bookings

8.1 What this means for hosts. From time to time, you will receive enquiries and offers from buyers operating under trade-account terms (typically limited companies with a high volume of bookings, but sole traders and partnerships are also eligible). The buyer is identified to you with a “Trade account” indicator on every screen where you see their enquiry or offer.

8.2 Your payout is unchanged. You receive your offer total less Offer2Stay's standard 10% platform fee on the existing payout schedule (delayed payout 24 hours after check-in or the existing post-stay schedule for delayed payouts). The buyer reconciles via their monthly consolidated statement — this does not affect your payout timing or amount.

8.3 No additional obligations. Trade-account bookings carry the same cancellation, refund, conduct, and quality expectations as any other booking. You are not contractually involved in the buyer's monthly consolidated statement, and Offer2Stay handles all billing and collection from the buyer.

8.4 VAT invoicing. If you are VAT-registered, your VAT details continue to appear on each booking line of the buyer's consolidated invoice (as a separately identified supply). The existing per-booking VAT invoice flow (clause 6) remains available unchanged — VAT invoices can still be requested for individual bookings.

8.5 Refunds and credit notes. Where a booking is refunded after appearing on a sent consolidated invoice, Offer2Stay issues a credit note to the buyer referencing the original invoice. This does not alter your host-side refund or recovery process under clause 10 — host obligations on refunds are unchanged.

9. Guest Data & Data Protection

When Offer2Stay shares guest personal data with you to facilitate a booking (name, contact details, arrival information), you act as an independent data controller and must comply with UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 in relation to that data. You must not use guest data for marketing purposes without a lawful basis, and must delete it within a reasonable period after it is no longer needed to service the booking.

If you suffer a personal data breach affecting guest data, you must notify Offer2Stay at privacy@offer2stay.co.uk without undue delay and within 72 hours of becoming aware of it.

10. Cancellations and Performance

You must honour confirmed bookings except in extraordinary circumstances (property becomes uninhabitable, force majeure events, illness preventing hosting). Unjustified host cancellations may result in:

• A full guest refund at your cost.
• Offer2Stay covering reasonable rehousing costs for the guest and recovering these from your future payouts.
• Temporary or permanent removal from Offer2Stay for repeat incidents.

11. No Circumvention

You must not encourage or accept off-platform payments from guests introduced through Offer2Stay, including for bookings where the initial contact originated on the platform. We may charge the equivalent platform fee, plus costs, for confirmed breaches.

12. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify Offer2Stay against reasonable third-party claims, losses, and costs arising from: (a) breach of this Host Agreement; (b) injury or damage caused by your property, your failure to maintain required safety standards, or your conduct; (c) your failure to hold required licences or insurance; and (d) your breach of applicable tax law or guest data protection obligations. This indemnity does not apply where loss is caused by our negligence or wilful misconduct.

13. Suspension and Termination

We may suspend or terminate your account on reasonable notice, or immediately for material breach (including safety, insurance, DPI non-compliance, or repeat cancellations). On termination:

• Confirmed future bookings proceed to check-in and payout.
• Outstanding reportable data continues to be held and reported to HMRC as required by law.
• You may request deletion of non-reportable personal data at privacy@offer2stay.co.uk.

14. Changes

We may update this Host Agreement from time to time. Material changes will be notified by email and via a prominent notice in the host dashboard at least 14 days before taking effect. Continued use of the platform after that date constitutes acceptance.

15. Contact

Questions about this Host Agreement: enquiries@offer2stay.co.uk.

16. BACS payout commercial agent relationship

If you elect to receive payouts via BACS bank transfer (rather than via Stripe Connect), Offer2Stay acts as your limited commercial agent for the sole purpose of receiving guest payments on your behalf, deducting the agreed 10% commission, and remitting the balance to your nominated UK bank account via BACS within 24 hours of the guest's check-in.

This agency relationship is limited to payment receipt and remittance; Offer2Stay is not your general agent for any other purpose.

Funds held in our nominated UK business bank account (Tide) between guest payment and host payout are held on your behalf as agent. If Offer2Stay is unable to remit funds within the 24-hour SLA due to bank holidays, payment system outages, or similar operational delays, we will notify you and remit at the next available business opportunity.