This Policy describes when and how a guest can cancel a Stays booking, what refund applies, and what happens when a host cancels.
1. Property-Level Policies
Each property listed on Stays selects one of three cancellation tiers, displayed clearly on the listing before you book. The tier governs how much of the booking total is refundable when you cancel.
| Tier | Free cancellation window | After the free window | Within 24 hours of check-in or after check-in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flexible | up to 24 hours before check-in | 50% refund of nightly total | no refund of nightly total |
| Moderate | up to 5 days before check-in | 50% refund of nightly total | no refund of nightly total |
| Strict | up to 7 days before check-in (only within 48 hours of booking) | 50% refund up to 7 days before; otherwise no refund | no refund of nightly total |
In all tiers:
- Service fees charged to the guest are refunded if cancellation is within the free-cancellation window of the tier; otherwise non-refundable.
- Cleaning fees are refundable if you cancel before the free-cancellation window; otherwise the host may retain them per their listed policy.
- Already-charged taxes are refunded proportionally to the refundable amount.
The exact refund is computed at the time you cancel and shown before you confirm.
2. How to Cancel
Cancel through the booking screen in the app. Cancellations are time-stamped against the property's local time zone and the cutoff in §1.
3. Cancellation by the Host
3.1 Hosts Cannot Cancel Directly
To protect guests from disruption, hosts cannot directly cancel a confirmed booking. A host who wishes to cancel a confirmed reservation must submit a cancellation request to Zuta. Your reservation remains active — and your dates remain held — until Zuta admin reviews the request and either approves or denies it.
3.2 If Zuta Approves the Host's Request
When Zuta admin approves a host cancellation request:
- You receive a full refund of the booking total automatically, including all nightly rate, service fees, cleaning fees, and taxes you paid.
- You are notified by push notification and email that your booking was cancelled by the host, along with the reason the host provided.
- The cancelled dates are placed on an internal hold. The host cannot immediately re-list those dates to another guest at a higher rate; only Zuta can release the hold after review.
Where Zuta has alternative inventory in the same area we may offer rebooking assistance, but you are not obligated to accept it.
3.3 If Zuta Denies the Host's Request
When Zuta admin denies a host cancellation request, your reservation continues as planned. The booking, your dates, and your payment are unchanged. The host is expected to honor the booking; if they fail to do so on arrival, §4 (Cancellation by Zuta) applies.
3.4 Emergencies and Safety
In a genuine emergency (e.g., property damage, safety hazard, natural disaster affecting the property), Zuta may expedite review or directly cancel the booking under §4 with full refund.
4. Cancellation by Zuta
Zuta may cancel a booking — with full refund — when there is evidence of fraud, listing misrepresentation, safety concerns at the property, regulatory or platform-policy violations, or operational failure.
5. Major Disruptions and Force Majeure
When a major external event (e.g., natural disaster, official travel restriction, or a similar event affecting the property's market) makes a stay impossible or unsafe, Zuta may apply a major-disruptions override that allows cancellation with full refund regardless of the property tier. The criteria for activating an override are documented internally and are applied uniformly across affected bookings.
6. No-Show
If you do not arrive and do not cancel by check-in time, the booking is treated as a no-show and is not refundable except where required by law.
7. Modifications
A change of dates is treated as a cancellation of the original booking and a new booking under the property's currently published policy. Where the host approves the change, Zuta may waive the cancellation portion at its discretion.
8. Refund Timing
Approved refunds are issued to your original payment method, typically within 5–10 business days depending on processor.
9. Repeated Cancellations and Abuse
Zuta may suspend the booking privilege or restrict the account when there is evidence of repeated last-minute cancellations, coordinated fraud, or chargeback abuse.
10. Host Reliability and Avoidable Cancellations
Zuta evaluates approved host cancellations to determine whether the cancellation was within the host's reasonable control. Cancellations deemed avoidable (e.g., the host accepted a higher-paying booking, the host overbooked the property across platforms, or the host failed to maintain the listing as advertised) may result in:
- A reduction in the host's reliability rating used by Zuta's search and ranking systems.
- Suspension of Superhost status, if applicable.
- Restriction of the host's ability to list new dates pending review.
Cancellations that are beyond the host's reasonable control (e.g., verified maintenance issues, natural disasters, documented emergencies, safety concerns) do not carry a reliability penalty.
Zuta admin makes the final determination at the time of approval.
11. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Policy. Material changes are versioned and may require re-acceptance before your next booking.