DRAFT — for attorney review. Not yet approved for publication or use.
Last updated: [DATE] · Version: draft 1
⚠ Read before finalizing: statutory rights come first
Zimbabwe’s Consumer Protection Act [Chapter 14:44] gives you a statutory
right to cancel an advance booking (Section 20) and provides for a cooling-off period on
electronic transactions (Section 53). Nothing in this Policy, or in any individual
Hotel’s cancellation terms, limits those statutory rights. Where a Hotel’s stated
cancellation fee would conflict with your statutory rights, your statutory rights prevail.
[Attorney note: the exact length of the Section 53 cooling-off period,
and the standard by which a cancellation fee is judged “reasonable” under Section 20,
must be confirmed and then reflected as an actual, enforced rule in the product (a cooling-off
window before any fee applies) — not just as this paragraph. This is the highest-priority open
item in the whole legal pack; do not publish this Policy with the placeholder above still
unresolved.]
1. Two different things: the booking service fee, and the room charge
Every booking has two components with different refund rules:
- Room charges are owed to the Hotel and refunded according to that
Hotel’s own cancellation policy, shown to you before you book and again on your
confirmation.
- The booking service fee is owed to StayHub for operating the platform and is
refunded according to Section 3 below, independently of the Hotel’s policy on room
charges.
2. Hotel cancellation policies
- Each Hotel sets its own cancellation policy, which may include tiered fees based on how close
to arrival you cancel (for example: free cancellation outside a stated window, then increasing
percentage fees closer to arrival, up to the full amount for late cancellations or
no-shows).
- The applicable tiers and percentages for your booking are shown at checkout and on your
confirmation — refer to those, not to a general example, since they vary by Hotel.
- Fees are calculated based on the number of days between your cancellation and your check-in
date, in the Hotel’s local time.
- No-shows (failing to arrive without cancelling) are treated under the Hotel’s policy the
same as a late cancellation, unless the Hotel states otherwise.
- Where a cancellation fee is charged, it is deducted from any amount you already paid, or
charged to your payment method if paid at the property, per the Hotel’s payment terms.
3. Booking service fee refunds
- The booking service fee is non-refundable once a booking is confirmed,
except: it is refunded in full if you cancel within the Hotel’s
free-cancellation window (i.e. where no Hotel fee applies either), or where StayHub cancels or
fails to properly process your booking due to a platform error.
- Where a Hotel cancels a confirmed booking (for example, due to overbooking), the booking
service fee is refunded in full regardless of timing.
[Business decision, not a legal requirement — confirm this is the
intended rule; see the cover memo.]
4. How refunds are paid
- Refunds are issued to the original payment method used, through the same payment gateway that
processed the original payment, and may take [3–10 business days, gateway-dependent] to appear depending on your bank or payment provider.
- Where a booking was paid in cash or by other means directly to the Hotel, refunds for the
room-charge portion are the Hotel’s responsibility to process; StayHub will still refund any
StayHub-collected booking service fee it owes under Section 3.
5. Payment gateway and processing fees
Where a payment gateway (Paynow, Stripe, PayPal, PayFast, Ozow, Flutterwave, Yoco) charges a
non-refundable processing fee on the original transaction, that fee may be deducted from your
refund where the gateway does not return it to StayHub or the Hotel. This will be disclosed at the
time of refund where it applies.
6. Disputes about a refund
- If you believe a cancellation fee was applied incorrectly, contact StayHub at
[SUPPORT CONTACT EMAIL] with your booking reference; we will review the fee
against the Hotel’s published policy and this Policy.
- You may also raise a complaint with the Hotel directly, or with the Consumer Protection
Commission under the Consumer Protection Act [Chapter 14:44], independently of or in
addition to contacting StayHub.
- Chargebacks/payment disputes filed directly with your bank or card issuer may result in your
StayHub account or future bookings being reviewed for fraud prevention purposes; this does not
affect your right to raise a legitimate dispute through your bank.
7. Changes to a booking (not a cancellation)
Changing dates, room type, or party size is treated as a modification, not a cancellation
— it may result in a price difference (charged or refunded) calculated the same way as a new
booking for the changed portion, and does not trigger the Hotel’s cancellation fee unless the
modification is made within a window the Hotel treats as equivalent to a cancellation (shown at the
time of the change request).
8. Changes to this Policy
We may update this Policy from time to time, including changes to default fee structures; changes
apply to bookings made after the update takes effect, not retroactively to bookings already
confirmed.
9. Contact
[STAYHUB LEGAL ENTITY NAME] — [SUPPORT CONTACT EMAIL]