FAQs

Starters for ten

What in the who is onefinestay?

onefinestay is a new service set up by three people who wanted to travel and experience different cities, without the boring tourism bits. And figured that there might be other people out there like them.

We believe that every city should feel like home, however long your stay there is. That’s why you can live like a local by staying in someone’s home while they’re away. We call it an unhotel.

  An hotel: what an unhotel isn’t.

What’s an unhotel?

Well, it’s a hotel. But without any of the bad stuff.

Which means it’s as easy to book a stay in one of the homes we list as it is to book a hotel room. And you can get the same standard of service that you’d expect from a hotel.

(Some of you might have spotted that we’ve borrowed some of the thinking behind the term ‘unhotel’ from unconference, which we’re big fans of.)

What does ‘London launch’ mean?

We’ll be expanding to cities around the world as soon as we can. But in the meantime we’re starting off in London, our home town.

Read more about our London launch.

How do you select the homes?

We’ve started the ball rolling by approaching people whose homes we’ve visited and stayed in and thought “wow”. We’ve also had people who’ve heard about the idea, and said, “That’s cool, can we join in?”

Then comes the tricky bit – picking the best places. We start by asking: is it exceptional? Does it unlock the unique flavour of a city? And would we want to stay in it?

For us to say yes, as a minimum it has to be comfy, in a great location, easy to get to and safe.

It also has to be something else. It has to be someone’s home.

We’re so confident in our keen eye for a distinctive place that we’ll make you this promise: if your choice of stay doesn’t live up to our description and your expectations, we’ll put you up in a good hotel instead. At our expense.

What services do you provide to guests?

The short answer is: all the good bits you’d expect from a hotel. You’ll always find the place clean and tidy, with fresh, five-star-quality linen and towels, and The White Company toiletries. We’ll even stock the fridge for you, if you like.

And because we know the hosts who offer their homes personally, we’ve asked them what makes their place special, and what makes their area interesting. With their help, we’ve discovered the best local shops and restaurants, characterful local bars, hidden gems and the intriguing local landmarks — things you won’t find in any guidebook. By passing those pearls on to you, we’ll help you escape the tourist traps and to experience the same city locals do – the city you'd see if you were staying with your friends.

Of course, we always go the extra mile. Just like a hotel, we’re always available at the end of a phone while you’re in town. Whether you need an extra toothbrush, a late-night sandwich, a top tip for a West End show or a nanny for the night, just give us a call.

What will you do with my details?

We hate spam. And we think it’s sleazy when companies share their user’s details with third parties without permission. So we don’t. Cross our hearts.

Booking your onefinestay

How do I make a booking?

Simply search for a home that excites you and meets your needs, and click the pink 'book' button and enter your details to seal the deal. Or, if you prefer, pick up the phone and call.

We arrange the bookings and provide services to you during your stay, although your contract for the accommodation is with the host.

To give you peace of mind, all bookings made at least seven days before your stay have a 24 hour cooling-off period, during which you can cancel, no questions asked. (You might hear us sobbing faintly, though.)

How far in advance can I book?

Pretty much up to two years in advance, for those of you with superior organisational skills. If you do book more than six months out, we’ll keep your details on file, but only process payment six months before your stay.

Can I book last minute?

Indeedily, you can. But please give us your mobile phone number so we can reach you if there are any problems with your booking.

How can I pay?

You can pay by debit or credit card: VISA, Mastercard and American Express will all do nicely.

When am l charged?

When you book, we’ll take a partial payment, normally 50% of the cost of your stay. When you arrive, we’ll then swipe your card for the rest, and to cover any optional services you consume during your stay &mdash things like room service and special equipment rental. If there is a security deposit on the home, at that point we will also pre-authorise your card for the appropriate amount.

Are there any extra charges?

Our policy is that the price you see on the site when you click ‘Book’ is the price you pay. No ifs, no buts.

Any extra charges you incur during your stay – like room service, for example – will be optional, obvious and clearly signposted. We’d rather you loved the experience, booked again and told your friends about it than chiselling a few extra quid out of you.

How do I get to the home?

For security reasons, and so as not to spoil the surprise, we don’t provide full details of the locations of any of the homes online. We’ll give you the specific address as well as directions to the front door when you complete your booking.

What is your cancellation policy?

Here it is.

The skinny on your stay

How do I get the keys?

After you’ve completed your booking, we’ll send you details of the home, including suggestions for when and where we can meet you. Normally it’s easiest to do this at the home, or a nearby café. One of our staff will meet you, help you with your luggage and show you round the place.

Do I have to pay a deposit?

All of our homes require you to pay a security deposit. The amount will vary – the checkout page will have the specific details for the home you’ve chosen. When you pay for the balance of your stay, we’ll also authorise but not charge your debit or credit card for the deposit.

How do you deal with breakages?

Because we want our guests and hosts to trust each other, we want you to ’fess up to any damage, inadvertent or otherwise, at the end of your stay.

Obviously, some wear and tear is natural, so if you do point out anything that’s amiss, we’ll waive the first £5 per night of any damage done, and contribute 20% to the cost of any damage beyond that, up to £100.

If you don’t come forward, and we find damage, you’ll be charged the full cost of putting it right, plus an administration fee.

Are there no-go areas? House rules?

Some properties do have reasonable house rules attached to them (no shoes on the carpets, say) which we ask you to respect. You’ll be given details of any important rules before you finalise your booking.

And it’ll be easy to see if any parts of the home are off limits or no-go areas. We’ll put ‘tamper tape’ down. If it’s broken, we’ll know and – at the host’s discretion – you may forfeit part of your security deposit.

Is it safe?

All the properties shown on our site are also private homes. Since the host will normally be out of town, you (and who you’re travelling with) will be the only people staying in them during your booking. Which means it's safer than a hotel, because housekeeping won't be entering without knocking every two hours.

It’s better maintained, too, because someone lives there the rest of the time. And did we mention cheaper? And about three times the size?

What do I do if there is a problem during my stay?

We’re at the end of a phone, 24/7. We’ll provide full details when you book.

If anything goes seriously wrong with the home meaning you can’t stay in it (we’re thinking catastrophic sewerage failure, for example), we’ll put you up in suitable alternative accommodation at our expense until the problem’s solved.

For those with a place to share

Can I list my home?

If you live in London, think your home is the acme of style, and your neighbourhood is top of the salubriousness charts, onefinestay wants to hear from you: read on.

How much will I make?

In short, it depends. Well be able to give you a proper quote once we’ve seen your place. But typically, it’ll be comparable to the value of renting your home out for those longer periods that you’re out of town. Which is usually more than enough to cover any mortgage, say – or the cost of accommodation overseas.

So you get a free holiday. And the undoubted love of your fellow onefinestay members.

How safe is it to list my home?

We want you to sleep well at night – just like your guests will. We know that means you need complete transparency, security and safety.

onefinestay ensures you’ll always know exactly who is staying in your home. Before we hand over a key, we’ll have seen a passport, swiped a credit card and looked the fella’ (or lady) in the eye.

What’s more, we even back it up with a completely unique insurance guarantee. And we also have facilities to take security deposits from guests to provide you with extra reassurance.

We’re here in person for guests when they arrive and pick up the keys. We’re at the end of a phone 24/7 during each stay. We’re here on email and online if there’s any problem before the stay, or after you return to your home. And of course you’re more than welcome to drop by the onefinestay folly for a natter.

Because all of that allows us to get comfortable, we can pass our peace of mind on to you in turn. So sweet dreams all round.

How do I protect my valuables / privacy / priceless collection of molluscs?

There are really two answers to this, and which satisfies you the most depends on who you are.

The first answer is: never let your valuables leave your sight. In fact, don’t leave home. Eat and sleep in the midst of your worldly possessions. Carry a 12-gauge.

If that sounds like you, there are some great sites we can recommend.

The second answer is: security matters, and we know it matters, so we’ve developed a ‘five layer strategy’ (we’re working on trademarking that phrase) for creating the same degree of trust between you and your guest as you’d have with a close friend or member of your family.

Here’s how the layers stack up:

First, have knowledge. We know who your guest is. You know who your guest is. We’ve seen their passport. We even have their credit card details. We – literally – know where they live.

Secondly, be secure. If they want one, we offer all our hosts a personal pin-code safe, just like the ones you get in hotel rooms. They’re heavy, and can be screwed into the wall.

Thirdly, set limits. We use ‘tamper tape’ seals. It’s pretty clever stuff, which was originally designed for securing aeroplanes. You put a little piece of magic tape across the seal of any cupboard or door which is private or personal, to show areas of your place which are out of bounds. Of course, a guest could always choose to break a seal. But (a) you’d know, (b) they’d know you’d know, and (c) we’d know, because you’d tell us. And because our guests have made a promise to us that they won’t ever break tamper tape, they’ll be in breach of our terms, and will (at your discretion) face a fine.

Fourthly, be insured. We offer a unique insurance service that supplements any existing contents insurance you have and protects your things in case of a burglary.

Fifthly and finally, be sensible. If you have very valuable, portable items, consider taking them with you when you travel, leaving them with a trusted friend or neighbour, or asking us to put them into storage for you.

It’s worth adding: if you have irreplaceable, fragile, non-portable items which you think that someone might steal (even though we know who they are) or break (even though they’ve put down a security deposit and we have their credit card details), then onefinestay may not be for you.

Do you provide insurance?

Yes. We provide house and content insurance for all of the properties listed on our site. That covers everything from accidental damage to criminal negligence. Read more about our cover

What happens if something goes wrong?

Things do happen. Glasses get broken, keys get lost, light bulbs blow.

We’ll deal with as much of these types of things as we can without bothering you, and usually without charging you, the host.

In the case of broken appliances we’ll always try to contact you before incurring any costs. We want to keep you as a member, so we will do our best to sort things out as efficiently as possible by using reliable tradesmen known to us.

If there are bigger problems which make your home dangerous or uninhabitable – a major leak or flood, for instance – it’s in both our interests to fix them quickly and cost-effectively. (We’ll be incurring the cost of putting up a guest in temporary alternative accommodation, after all.) Again, we’ll always try to contact you before proceeding with any repair work.

And because of the insurance policy we offer, we can often claim the costs of such emergencies without charging you anything.

Is it hard to prepare my place for a guest?

Not at all. In fact, we’ll help you do it.

When we take on your home, we’ll walk through your place with you room-by-room to make a list of all the things that will need to happen prior to someone staying. These might include securing personal effects and priceless Ming vases, all the way to watering plants and clearing the draining rack. (Demetrios likes to call the process ‘ingestion’, but that word kind of scares the rest of us a little bit.)

The list will always include things like taking your linen off the beds and putting it into temporary storage, putting fresh towels in the bathroom (and putting yours away safely until you return), and making sure there’s a bit of storage space for someone in town for a few days.

When we’ve compiled the list, we’ll then divide it up between you and us. Divide it up unequally, that is -- we’ll take the (much) longer and more tedious part, because, well, we’re funny like that.

Then we shake hands on it. And that’s that.

Because we take the routine and tedious work off your hands, it greatly reduces the hassle you would otherwise experience preparing to have a house guest. Providing your place is reasonably tidy, you will pretty much be able to leave at a moment’s notice (only pausing on the way to update your online calendar to tell us you’re going to be out of town). Then, Piff Paff Poof, we’ll do the rest.

Best of all, because we’ve learned from you about all the little fiddly things like how to turn the heating on, and where your fuse box is, you don’t need to waste time repeating yourself every time you have someone to stay, or deal with annoying calls while you’re away.

We think of it as offering you ‘cash without the hassle’.

Who cleans up afterwards?

That’ll be us.

We’ll make sure your home is professionally cleaned before you return to it.

And once it’s cleaned, but before you return to it, we’ll reverse all those boring steps we took to make it suitable for guests: put your toiletries back where we found them, your linen back on your beds and so on.

So you’ll find the place just as you left it. But less dusty.

Isn't all that moving things around a lot of work for you?

It’s a bit fiddly, sure, but that’s what we’re here for. And Demetrios lives for this kind of stuff. Precision is his middle name. How many people do you know who were in the army, worked for the World Bank and then founded logistics technology businesses?

Can I leave town at short notice?

Sure. Tim’s built an amazing ‘availability calendar’ thing. It sends e-mails, makes coffee, attends Davos, all sorts of useful stuff.

As soon as we know your place is available, we’ll start marketing it on the website for you. If you want, and providing you are flexible about taking off at short notice, we’ll even list your place while you’re in town, and let you know when you get a booking so you can pack an overnight bag, safe in the knowledge that the cash will cover the cost of your trip.

Am I allowed to do this?

In general, yes. Providing, of course, you’ve not received a specific legal injunction or enforcement notice not to (and boo hiss if you have).

Offering a license to guests is permitted by most long-leases and mortgages. Neighbours and tenant associations also generally can’t prevent you from doing it (though as a good neighbour, you may like to let them know).

Ultimately you have to make your own decision. As every official you’ve ever met has said, you should seek your own advice if you’re in doubt.

How about health and safety?

Well, obviously, we won’t compromise on the safety of our guests.

So the most important thing is make sure your home is safe. That means no risk of gas leaks, no dodgy old electrical appliances and no highly combustible sofas. In our experience most well-kept apartments and houses in London should be fine. And we work closely with all our new hosts to help them meet these standards in case there’s any doubt.

In particular, you should have Corgi certifications for your gas, and your electrics must have been done by a qualified electrician. Also you should make sure that your furniture is fire-safe. It’s a good idea to ensure that smoke alarms are fitted (new build properties are legally obliged to have these anyway).

What if I have pets?

Usually we don’t take properties with pets, but if your feathery, furry or reptilian friend is persuasive we may let them meet the guests.

What if I house-share or have lodgers?

We can only take on properties that are unoccupied for the period they’re listed as available on the site. If all your housemates or lodgers will also vacate in the case of a booking, then it’s not an issue.

Are you taking on properties outside London?

Our plans to rule the world are in rapid development, but first we’ll take London. So the answer is soon, but not yet – sorry. Please let us know your interest and we’ll make sure you are the first to know when we annexe your city.

Who knows, we may even try to get there sooner...

What are the risks?

As we see it, if you’d be happy letting your second cousin stay when you’re out of town – you know, the one in IT who lives in Nova Scotia who you’ve never met – then why not someone who has a faultless reputation and who’s willing to put down a security deposit? (And who, unlike your second cousin, won’t leave nose hairs in the basin.)

For guests, well, it goes without saying: as a visitor to someone’s house, the main thing is to treat the place with just as much care and respect as you would your own home. Except at home you can’t leave your hair in the sink.

What’s your agency fee?

The short answer is: it depends. We don’t really think of it in those terms. In the end, our profits (what’s left after we pay our hosts, and cover all our costs) depend a great deal upon how much we charge for the homes. And that in turn depends on the time of year, the day of the week and the occupancy level of the home.

We want to provide cash to our hosts without the hassle, and we do all that we can to make that happen.

What’s in it for onefinestay?

Apart from the chance to have a nose round some fabulous house and make some money while we’re at it? Well, we reckon four things:

1. Firstly, create a fun, supportive and dynamic working environment for our staff, look after them, and pay them a fair wage.
2. Secondly, provide our hosts with an extra source of income for giving up their space when they’re not using it, and the small piece of them and their family that always lives in it. For our guests, we want them to have a break that beats the best hotel they’ve never stayed in: bigger, more interesting and infinitely more chic than anything you’ll find in the pages of Condé Nast Traveller.
3. Thirdly, help everyone make better use of the world’s increasingly limited resources by making sure the cities and houses we live in get used properly, are appreciated – and don’t sit around empty just because we’re too lazy to fill them.
4. And fourthly, make a profit for our shareholders every year, and reinvest it in the business. It’s how we, as a private company, will survive and thrive.

We think that if we get the first three right, the fourth will follow automatically. But don’t tell our investors. They’re too busy counting their cashmere socks to read this far through an FAQ, anyway – and ignorance, as we know, is bliss.

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And finally...

Any more for any more?

If you have any other questions, about anything at all*, just drop us a line.

* We reserve the right to demand a glass of champagne from you if you successfully use our answers on TV quiz shows.

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