Booking Terms and Conditions

Effective on bookings from 1st January 2024

Introduction

These Booking Terms set out the terms and conditions that must apply to all Bookings made through our Website. When you make a Booking, you must accept these Booking Terms by checking the box to indicate your acceptance during the Booking Process. If you do not indicate your acceptance by checking the box, your booking will not be accepted by the Website.

Accommodation for Students Ltd is the operator of the Website. We are a company registered in England & Wales. Our registered office is located at Jactin House, Hood Street, Manchester, England, M4 6WX. and our registered number is 04111099.

Accommodation for Students Ltd (“we”, “us” or “our”) acts as online booking platform for students who wish to book accommodation.

  1. General

    1. Unless the context clearly indicates to the contrary, wherever you see an apparently Inappropriate Use of Capital Letters, the words or phrases concerned are defined for the purposes of these Booking Terms as follows:
      • Accommodation means a rental property that can be found on the Website.
      • Accommodation Booking means a booking that you have made of an Accommodation but in respect of which you are yet to enter into a Tenancy Agreement.
      • Agreement means the agreement between you and us, Accommodation for Students Ltd, on the basis of these Conditions.
      • Booking Terms means these Booking Terms.
      • Business Day is a day other than a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday in England when banks in London are open for business.
      • Cooling Off Period means a period of 3 business days starting on the day following the day on which an Accommodation Booking is made and ending at 23:59:59 on the fourteenth day following the date on which that Accommodation Booking was made.
      • Deposit means a sum set by the Accommodation Operator that can range from £1, €1, or $1 up to 3 weeks of rent of the Accommodation that you will pay to us when making an Accommodation Booking.
      • Accommodation Operator means the owner of the Accommodation (or another party entitled to enter into a Tenancy Agreement with you in relation to an Accommodation) for which you wish to make or have made an Accommodation Booking.
      • Services means the services that we deliver through the Website and, where required, offline.
      • Tenancy Agreement means the tenancy agreement that you will receive from the Accommodation Operator after making the Accommodation Booking (including making payment of the Deposit).
      • Tenancy means the duration of the Tenancy Agreement.
      • Website means the website we operate at an IP address corresponding to https://www.accommodationforstudents.com and to any mobile applications that we may provide from time to time that provide substantially the same functionality.
    2. Any reference in this Agreement to any provision of any Act of Parliament shall include reference to any subordinate legislation (as defined in the Interpretation Act 1978) made pursuant thereto and shall be deemed to be a reference to such Act of Parliament or subordinate legislation as amended, modified or re-enacted (whether before or after the date hereof) and any reference to any provision of any such Act or subordinate legislation shall also include where appropriate any provision of which it is a re-enactment (whether with or without modification).
    3. In this Agreement words denoting the masculine gender shall include the feminine and non-binary genders and vice versa and words denoting the singular number shall include the plural and vice versa and references to persons shall include bodies corporate unincorporated associations and partnerships.
    4. Unless otherwise stated, references to clauses and sub-clauses are references to clauses and sub-clauses of these Conditions. The clause headings are for ease of reference only and shall not affect the construction or interpretation of these Conditions.

  2. Accommodation Bookings and Deposits

    1. All Accommodation Bookings are subject to completion of a Tenancy Agreement in respect of that Accommodation. A Tenancy Agreement is completed when it is properly signed by you and the Accommodation Operator. Bear in mind that your signature may have to be witnessed.
    2. When making an Accommodation Booking, you will pay the Deposit to us, which we shall process on the Accommodation Operator’s behalf pending completion of the Cooling Off Period. An Accommodation Booking is not validly made until we have received your payment of the Deposit.
    3. We will hold the Deposit pending the completion of the Cooling Off Period. After the Cooling Off Period is completed, we will pay the Deposit to the Accommodation Operator. If you fail to complete the Tenancy Agreement prior to the date the Tenancy is due to commence, you will forfeit the Deposit, which we shall remit to the Accommodation Operator. Should the Accommodation Operator fail to complete the Tenancy Agreement before the Tenancy is due to commence, we shall upon request return the Deposit to you using the means of payment used by you to make payment to us and the Accommodation Booking will be cancelled.
    4. Once we have received the Deposit from you, we will mark the Accommodation as unavailable. In the event that the Tenancy Agreement is not completed by either or both you and the Accommodation Operator as stated in clause 2.3, we will remove that marker and will recommence marketing the Accommodation for the Accommodation Operator (unless instructed not to do so by the Accommodation Operator).
    5. We aim to provide an instant book facility in order to secure your room, but cannot guarantee the availability of any Accommodation through our Services, as this is managed by the Accommodation Operator in question. In the event of the Accommodation Booking being cancelled by the Accommodation Operator within or outside of the Cooling Off Period (with the exception of where you do not meet the eligibility criteria in clause 2.6), we will refund the Deposit to you in full and aim to provide you with a suitable alternative.
    6. To make an Accommodation Booking you:
      1. must be at least 18 years of age to make a Booking. If you are under 18, your Booking must be completed by your parent or guardian, who will contract on your behalf.
      2. must complete any identity verification procedure that we implement from time to time, including providing us with such evidence of your identity as we may require for that purpose.
      3. must be a student or prospective student, provide your educational institution at checkout and provide proof of student status to the Accommodation.
      4. must be eligible to enter and rent accommodation in the country where you make an Accommodation Booking and provide legal documentation to verify this.
      5. must be able to provide a guarantor (if applicable) which meets the requirements of the Accommodation, however this does not need to be arranged until after the Accommodation Booking is made.

  3. Tenancy Agreements

    1. Following receipt of your Accommodation Booking and payment of the Deposit, we shall notify the Accommodation Operator who will forward to you a copy of the Tenancy Agreement.
    2. On receiving the Accommodation Operator’s Tenancy Agreement, you should take time to read it properly and understand what is expected of you. This is your responsibility and you acknowledge that we are not responsible for the content of the Tenancy Agreement and have no sight of its content prior to its transmission to you.
    3. You will complete the Tenancy Agreement as soon as reasonably practicable after you receive it, ensuring that any requests have been settled with the Accommodation. You may need to have your signature witnessed. If so, make sure that the witness is present to see you sign (or enter your signature, if you are doing this electronically).
    4. You understand that once a Tenancy Agreement has been signed, you will have entered a legal agreement between yourself and the Accommodation Operator. At this point, we are no longer able to cancel or change your booking and any cancellations or requests will need to be resolved directly with the Accommodation Operator.

  4. Cancellation Terms

    1. You can cancel the Accommodation Booking for free at any time during the Cooling Off Period unless you have signed the tenancy agreement where clause 3.4 will apply. If you want to cancel your Accommodation Booking, you will need to contact us directly via the Website.
    2. You can cancel an Accommodation Booking at any time after the Cooling Off Period until the Tenancy Agreement relating to your Accommodation Booking has been completed, but you will need to contact the Accommodation Operator directly. If you cancel after the Cooling Off Period ends, you will forfeit the Deposit you have paid.
    3. If you have completed your Tenancy Agreement with the Accommodation Operator, you will need to speak to the Accommodation Operator about cancellation, since our role in administering the process will be over.
    4. If the Accommodation Operator cancels the Accommodation Booking or fails to send or complete the Tenancy Agreement by the date on which the Tenancy was due to commence, we will, once notified, cancel the Accommodation Booking and return the Deposit to you.

  5. Intellectual Property

    1. All the intellectual property rights in the Website and the Services are owned or controlled by Accommodation for Students Ltd.
    2. All the intellectual property rights in Accommodation descriptions and images are owned or controlled by the Accommodation Operator or someone authorised by them, one or other of whom has licensed those intellectual property rights to us for the purpose of delivering the Services.
    3. You are not permitted to edit, copy, duplicate or save any of the images or extracts found on this Website.

  6. Limitation of Liability

    1. The information you find on the Website regarding the Accommodation is generated by the Accommodation Operator. Consequently, we cannot state categorically whether any information you find is either accurate or up to date and you should not take reliance on anything you find on the Website without checking it first. Indicated dates of availability are subject to confirmation in the Tenancy Agreement.
    2. Although we monitor what is published on the Website, we shall not be liable for any possible false or misleading information that has been published on it nor shall we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your use of the Website.
    3. In addition to the exclusions of liability set out at clauses 6.1 and 6.2 above, we will not be liable in any circumstances (save as provided for at clause 6.5) for any indirect or consequential loss, such as loss of data or loss of opportunity.
    4. Save as provided for at clause 6.5 below, our liability to you in respect of our breach of contract will be limited to an amount equivalent to the Deposit.
    5. These limitations of liability should not be interpreted as excluding or limiting in any way our liability for death or personal injury resulting from our negligence or for fraud or for any other issue for which it would be unlawful for us to exclude or limit our liability.

  7. Data Protection

    1. We shall comply at all times with all the provisions and obligations imposed by the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 and any successor legislation thereto (Data Protection Laws) when storing and processing Personal Data, that being information that relates to you or to another identified or identifiable individual, as further defined in the Data Protection laws.
    2. We shall also comply with the terms set out in our Privacy Notice and with all internal policies and processes that we have in place to govern our use of Personal Data.
    3. In entering into this Agreement, you confirm that we may use your Personal Data (including Personal Data defined at Article 9.1 of the GDPR as special category data) for the purposes of delivering the Services to you.
    4. There is more information about how we use your Personal Data and also about your rights in respect of the Personal Data that we hold about you in our Privacy Notice.

  8. Notices

    1. Notices will be valid only when given in writing. “Writing” includes email or other equivalent forms of electronic messaging but when that notice is sent by you to us the notice is only validly delivered where it is the subject of an automated read receipt or an express acknowledgement of receipt from the intended recipient.
    2. Notices may also be sent by post or hand-delivered at our registered office or by email to [email protected]. We may send notices to the postal address you have registered with us or electronically to the email address or phone number that you have registered with us. We may also deliver notices to you by providing notifications for you on the Website. Usually, we will deliver notices by email but this depends on the circumstances.
    3. A notice sent electronically (including, where delivered by us, a notification on the Website) or delivered by hand will be deemed to have been received at 09:00 GMT/BST on the first Business Day after the day on which it was sent. A notice sent by post will be deemed to have been received at 09:00 GMT/BST on the third Business Day after the day on which it was posted.

  9. Complaints Procedure

    1. We always aim to deal with all Accommodation Bookings to a high standard of care and professionalism. However, if you are unhappy then please contact us immediately to discuss your concerns. We shall try to solve the problem quickly and informally.
    2. If you are not satisfied with the result of our informal discussions then please register a formal complaint in writing (as provided for at clause 8 above) to ‘The Directors, Accommodation for Students Ltd’ and mark your complaint as ‘Private and Confidential’.
    3. We shall aim to respond to all formal complaints as soon as reasonably practicable and in any event within five Business Days of receipt.

  10. Entire Agreement

    1. These Booking Terms outline the entire agreement between us and supersedes and extinguishes all previous agreement, promises, assurances and representations made previously by either of us.
    2. Tenancy Agreements are between you and the Accommodation Operator and we are not a party to them. You hereby warrant and represent that you understand that our role is simply to arrange or undertake the marketing of Accommodations and the administration of Accommodation Bookings received. In respect of each Accommodation Booking, once that process has been undertaken, subject to clause 6.5 we shall have no further liability to you.

  11. Force Majeure

    1. We shall not be liable for any event that is outside our reasonable control that may cause a default of one of our obligations under these Booking Terms. This includes but is not limited to faults or problems with the internet, hacker attacks, viruses, power failures, changes to the law and acts of god.

  12. Severance & Waiver

    1. If a court finds any part of these Booking Terms illegal, the rest will continue in force. Each clause of these Booking Terms will operate separately unless specifically mentioned in the Booking Terms, subject to such changes as a presiding court may deem appropriate in order to achieve the clearly intended purpose of the said clause.
    2. If we waive your breach or default of any of these Booking Terms, this will not be deemed to be a waiver of any further breach of the same or other provisions. Likewise, if we delay or do not exercise any right, power or privilege that we may have under these Booking Terms, this will not be deemed to be a waiver of any breach or default.

  13. Assignment

    1. We may assign our agreement with you (including all our obligations to you) at any time and if we do so, we will inform you by email of that assignment and the third party to whom we have assigned our agreement with you.
    2. You may not assign your agreement with us to any third party at any time save with our express consent and should you attempt to do so, we may accept your purported assignment as a material breach of these Booking Terms for which we may be entitled to terminate our agreement with you (including all further obligations as yet unfulfilled) with immediate effect.

  14. Variation

    1. We may change these Booking Terms from time to time at our discretion and when we do so, we will notify you in advance of the change as soon as it is reasonably practicable for us to do so. Such changes will take effect from the date specified in the notice in respect of any Accommodation Booking that has yet to be the subject of a completed Tenancy Agreement. If you have made an Accommodation Booking that has yet to be the subject of a completed Tenancy Agreement, we will contact you by email to clarify whether you wish to continue. Should you fail to respond to our email by close of business on the second Business Day following the day upon which our email was sent, your Accommodation Booking shall proceed to confirmation on the basis of the new version of these Booking Terms.

  15. Termination

    1. We may terminate this Agreement on written notice with immediate effect at any time should you enter into any form of insolvency process including personal bankruptcy or any voluntary arrangement with your creditors.
    2. We may terminate our agreement with you on written notice with immediate effect at any time should we suspect that you are a participant in any kind of fraud or that you intend to use an Accommodation for purposes for which it is not intended.
    3. Should we terminate our agreement with you, we shall be entitled to retain the Deposit and we shall be relieved of all further obligation towards you in respect of the services to which this agreement relates. Clauses 1, 5 to 8 and 10 to 17 shall remain in force notwithstanding our termination of the agreement.

  16. Third Party Rights

    1. Nobody has any right under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce or enjoy the benefit of any term of the Agreement provided that this does not affect any right or remedy of third parties that exists or is available apart from that Act.

  17. Law and Jurisdiction

    1. These terms and conditions are subject to the laws of England and Wales.
    2. Any legal action or claim arising out of these terms and conditions, shall be the subject of exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.