Conditions of use and legal notices

Between Ionenet SA, the company responsible for the website and agency www.casasparticulares.net, any of its representatives or agents, a given client and a given homeowner the following regulations are established:

1. Generalities

1. This page is valid as a contract and any operation made through this site implies an implicit acceptance of these regulations, which are automatically considered as read and accepted.
2. Ignorance of these rules does not exempt from them, nor from the conditions of this contract, an occurrence that would release us from all responsibility.
3. Most of these rules apply to the rental of houses and we refer to sales only where this is expressly stated.
4. We are a serious agency, managing a serious site, working with serious people and doing serious things. The first priority of our agency is to ensure compliance of both the owner and the client. Whoever organizes a trip to Cuba and has to plan it with days and sometimes months in advance, cannot waste time with informality. The raison d'être of this site is to offer to the client the possibility of being able to choose a house and to reserve it long before arriving to Cuba. Therefore the one who uses this service needs a total security on this house. On the other hand, the owner who rents, also needs to have a security that the client arrives on the agreed day and consumes the reserved destination. How many times does a renter lose clients and stop earning money by waiting for someone who, in the end, does not arrive? Renting houses in Cuba is a serious thing because taxes are paid just for having the right to rent. This site has been designed to avoid this kind of situation. And the best way to ensure the fulfillment of these objectives is to demand the payment of a warranty deposit. No reservation (except in special circumstances) can be considered outstanding without this payment.

2. About Warranty Deposits

1. The purpose of the warranty deposit is precisely to compensate Ionenet SA and eventually the landlord of the rent for any default by the client. It also aims to guarantee the client the total availability of the house for the agreed date and during the days agreed for the reservation. In case of default by the owner of the house our company is obliged to find another option of the same characteristics or to refund the client. However, such a deposit loses its importance if the distance from the date is close and it is almost never feasible for last minute rentals. Nor can it be necessary when the client is known and the owner of the house is fully trusted by the client. Other special cases may apply which will be interpreted in the most reasonable manner each time.
2. The guarantee deposit is always required if the house is not located in Havana City and, in most cases, the payment of the deposit is strictly necessary.
3. The guarantee deposit always corresponds to a portion of the price (generally 20% of the price of each room or apartment when renting the entire apartment), is paid in advance, is not reimbursed at the end of the trip, is not intended to cover damages, but is simply part of the rental price. It is a part of the payment that is made at the time of booking and is completed when you arrive at the house. Sometimes it corresponds to the payment of the first night, but it never exceeds 30% of the total price.
4. The company Ionenet SA is fully responsible for the guarantee deposits paid and is obliged to provide the service for which the deposit has been paid.
5. In cases where a house cannot meet its commitment, Ionenet SA is under the obligation to provide another valid and similar alternative in terms of quality, location and possibly price.
6. In all cases, the customer has 48 hours from the receipt of an available alternative offer to confirm whether to keep this offer or reject it (or to confirm at least one alternative in case there are several available). After this 48-hour period, the customer will have to take or leave the alternative option found, as the deposit is non-refundable. A customer who does not like an alternative does not have to wait more than 48 hours to say so. He must say so before the 48 hours and if there are no other options, he will be refunded. Otherwise the deposit is lost.
7. In case where no alternative available option exist, then Ionenet SA must fully refund the warranty deposit to the client.
8. The warranty deposit should not be confused with the payment in advance of a full reservation and therefore has no refund in the event that the customer does not consume the agreed service and does not arrive at the tourist destination on the agreed date.
9. The client can change a date of arrival if he does so at least ten (10) days before the trip. However, there is no guarantee that the availability of the rental will be maintained in case of change of date. We can look for an alternative option as a courtesy, but we are not responsible in case such alternative does not exist. The client loses the guarantee deposit as there are no alternative solutions in case of date change. The client also loses the deposit if he/she decides to change the date after these ten (10) days prior to the reservation and does not come on the agreed date.
10. However the client has the right to abandon his reservation without penalty in the following cases:
    • Increase in price more than 10% after that a reservation was made.
    • Any event of force majeure occurred in Cuba (for example a hurricane) that makes it impossible for the rent to be accomplished (by one or both parties) on the agreed date.
    • Any failure from the owner of the house regarding the reservation, without taking into account the relative quality of his service after the beginning of the rent.
11. In the cases mentioned in the previous point, the guarantee deposit is not refundable, but it is kept as a credit, for any change of date or plans, no matter how much time passes.
12. After the payment of the guarantee deposit the client will receive an official voucher signed by a representative of Ionenet S.A. with which he can claim at any time his right of reservation or refund.
13. The owner of any home is obligated to provide the agreed upon service after payment of the security deposit. However, in the occasional case where no payment is made, as there is a verbal reservation only, the owner's commitment remains exclusively of an ethical nature, without any legal character or obligation on the part of Ionenet SA.
14. Any security deposit sent by bank transfer or any other means other than online must arrive at your destination at least two (2) days before the trip. We are not responsible for any reservations until this deposit has been received.
15. The warranty deposit cannot be used for any other purpose, that is, it cannot be used as a fund to pay for days of rent that have not yet been paid or to pay for extra days that extend an already agreed upon rent period, or to cover any other services that may eventually be used.

3. Non-compliances, scores and penalties

1. Our site uses a ranking algorithm called HouseRank which calculates, for a combination of quality and popularity parameters of a house, a score that will determine its visibility and its ranking on our site. A house is said to be 'featured' when it has acquired a particularly high score, a high popularity, or a high rate of reservation requests.
2. A non-compliance by the home owner can have negative consequences on the ranking of the house, on its visibility and on the possibility of receiving reservations in the future. While a breach of the guarantee deposit will inevitably lead to a penalty for the house.
3. A penalized house is present on the site, but has the minimum rank and status, it has been denigrated of all its privileges (see the section "Fremium Services and Home Registrations", for more details on the meaning of these privileges), and the profile of this house will have a message that clearly states that the house has been penalized and cannot be booked.
4. A house can be penalized for several reasons, but they always have to do with serious breaches towards Ionenet SA or towards some client. We reserve the right to establish the circumstances of a penalty, as well as its reconsideration. A house may also be penalized for repeated and continuous communication problems. In this case it would not lose its score, only the possibility of being booked. Of course, all these changes are internal. The external client will only see that a house has been penalized, without having details about the causes. A house penalized because of lack of communication, would still maintain its position in the search results, even if penalized.
5. Any illegal activity from the client, such as providing false or misleading information to both our agency and the owner of a house, as well as any other legal breach, can lead to the denial of service or the loss of the security deposit.

4. Responsibilities of the parties

1. All communication between clients and the houses presented on this site must be done exclusively through the site or its representatives, at least until a reservation has been confirmed by the payment of a security deposit.
2. Our role of responsability ends with the beginning of the lease. We decline any responsibility about any problem that may occur between the home owner and the client after the arrival of this latter. Obviously the customer may complain with us or publish a negative comment in our site if the home owner violates any engagement concerning his/her service and if we notice an evidence that the customer is right, we may take measures by penalizing the house in respect with our future relationship with this one. But we don't respond about the owner's behaviour or the client's conduct.
3. Issues relating to the licensing or legality of the lease of a home are the full responsibility of the homeowner. While we require every owner on our site to have their license in order, we are not a control or inspection organization and therefore do not take any responsibility for the legal affairs of a house.
4. We decline any responsibility about any legal issue occurring after the client's arrival. For example, but not limited to: any undeclared Cuban companion or home employee(s), problems with rental license, undeclared chambers or any other violation of renting and immigration Cuban laws. In this business, each actor has the responsability to take care of the matters that concern him or her.
5. In the same way, we don't respond of any legal problem that may occur after the sale of any house, apartment, estate, manoir, ground, farm, and so on made throughout our web site.
6. The responsibility of this site is limited to connecting the parties and making any reservation or sale happen in a serious and professional manner. We are not responsible for any litigation, accident or event that may occur to either party, neigther in renting or sale matters, or outside of these contexts.

5. Fremium Services and Home Registrations

1. This site, besides being a rental agency of houses and eventually other tourist services is also a platform for promoting properties using the formula fremium, ie whose basic service is free, with the possibility of receiving additional privileges through payments or compensation. This service is available exclusively to homeowners, who can obtain further information by requesting a home registration.
2. The various privileges of the fremium formula are not limited to the listing of new houses. Any existing house can be upgraded by paying the respective fee. The payment privileges only affect visibility and also preferential treatment from our agency, they do not affect the score based on quality and popularity, which is calculated algorithmically and based on the merit of each house.
3. Any failure by a homeowner to comply with a client may result in the loss of some or all of those privileges, without refund. The penalty, as mentioned above, involves the loss of all privileges and points purchased or earned, except if it is a penalty due to communication problems.
4. The privileges of our fremium formulas do not guarantee a greater number of clients, but only greater visibility and preferential treatment of the agency when it comes to locating clients. As with all advertising, the fact of being more visible does not guarantee the sale of the product to all clients, although it is supposed to be greater.

6. Payment platforms and related services

1. Ionenet SA has an online payment system using a secure third party banking API to process payment for reservations and security deposits.
2. We also provide this online payment service to third parties, for example to a house that wants to charge a reservation to a client of yours or in the case of any other payment service we may offer.
3. In these cases we pay for the reservations of third party clients in the course of the current calendar month.

7. Miscellanea

1. In case of sale, the owner has the obligation to sign a simple contract with one of our representatives, a sales contract that will have legal value and that proves that the operation was carried out through our site.
2. We reserve the right to refuse to process any reservation or request if the information provided or submitted by either party is found to be inconsistent or false.
3. In accordance with international legislation on data confidentiality, computer science and freedoms, the user has the right at any time to modify, delete or change any of his personal data. By "user" here we mean anyone who interacts directly or through our representatives with our site, for example the owner of a house with his photos and data, the client who fills out a form, the visitor who writes to us or the webmaster who has a link published on our site and so on without limitation, all remain owners of their personal data.
4. However, the removal, cancellation, penalty or deletion of any house from our site is at our sole discretion.
5. In addition, any photo or content produced by Ionenet SA is protected by copyright and remains the intellectual property of its respective owners. Any reproduction, whether in whole, in part or inspired, is strictly prohibited. A homeowner has the right to modify, add, change or delete photos, because the photos represent the personal data of his or her home. But if the photos have been produced by our agency, they remain our intellectual property and our authorization is required for their use outside our site.
6. The previous point is not valid if the photos have been provided by the owner of the house or by any other third party. In this case they are not ours.
7. This site may contain comments and opinions of other users about the houses or articles. The fact that we publish these comments does not necessarily mean that we share the same criteria and we are not responsible for their conclusions.
8. A comment should aim to share opinions or experiences about a house or an article on our site. Comments that include personal questions, political or religious views or off-topic in nature are not accepted. All comments are reviewed before being published.
9. We reserve the right to consider appropriate or inappropriate any comments submitted by users. No registration is required to upload a comment. But all comments are subject to moderation.

The staff

www.casasparticulares.net