Booking Policies

Sassi Villas Ltd (a company registered in England and Wales: “Sassi Villas”, “we”, “us”) operates the marketplace at sassivillas.com. The property’s Owner is the principal supplier of the accommodation and your counterparty under the rental contract; we act as the booking intermediary and, on properties we manage directly, as the Owner’s appointed manager. Confirmed bookings are personal to the lead guest and may not be transferred or resold without our written consent.

A reservation is created when you select available dates, accept these Booking Policies together with the listing’s house rules and cancellation policy, and submit payment in full at checkout. It becomes a confirmed booking only when payment is captured and you receive an electronic confirmation showing the booking reference, the property, the dates, the total charged, and the cancellation policy that applies. Enquiries, holding requests, and informal messages do not create a reservation or hold availability.

We may decline or cancel a reservation at our reasonable discretion: where it fails identity verification, where the listing becomes unavailable, where the Owner can no longer receive payouts, or where we reasonably suspect fraud, sanctions exposure, or misuse. Where we decline before payment is captured, no charge is taken; where we cancel a confirmed reservation, you are treated under “Cancellation by Sassi Villas or the Owner” below.

You pay once at checkout, in euros, for the stay itself: there is no deposit, no balance instalment, and no separate cleaning charge. The total covers the villa rental set by the Owner (with the end-of-stay clean and any seasonal surcharge included), the platform service fee, and any pre-booked add-ons. Where the comune applies a tourist tax (imposta di soggiorno), the guest pays it separately to the Owner at check-in; it does not run through Sassi Villas and does not form part of the checkout total. Payments are processed securely by Stripe; we never see or store your full card details. The total is shown in full before you authorise payment, and once a booking is confirmed it is fixed and is not adjusted for later rate changes by the Owner. The service fee is a flat pass-through charge that offsets the card-processing cost, the same for every guest regardless of card type or country of issue; Sassi Villas keeps none of it. If you pay with a non-EUR card, your bank sets the conversion rate and any cross-border fee. Quoted prices exclude travel, insurance, the tourist tax, and optional in-villa services arranged after booking. The full rate card, currency mechanics, and refund treatment are in our Payments & Payouts policy.

Where the property sits in a comune that applies an imposta di soggiorno (tourist tax), the guest pays it to the Owner directly, usually in person at check-in. It does not run through Sassi Villas: we do not collect it at checkout, and it does not form part of the total you pay online. The Owner, as host, remits the tax to the comune and files the comune’s declaration. How this works, and the Owner’s responsibility for it, is set out on our Italian Tax & Platform Reporting page. Reduced or zero rates may apply for children, residents, and certain categories of traveller, and where a comune applies no tax, none is due. The amount is set by the comune by reference to the number of guests, the nightly rate, and the chargeable nights, subject to local exemptions.

Each listing shows one of three cancellation policies, chosen by the Owner and displayed before you book. The policy in force when you book governs your refund, regardless of any later change to the listing default. The bands below apply to the villa rental.

Send cancellation requests to support@sassivillas.com or use the cancellation control in your account; the effective date is the date our system records receipt. Any tourist tax is settled directly with the Owner at check-in and does not form part of a refund from us. Processor fees are non-refundable, as set out in our Payments & Payouts policy.

In the rare event that the Owner can no longer honour a confirmed booking, or that Sassi Villas reasonably determines a stay can no longer proceed at the booked property (for example, substantial unforeseen damage, loss of statutory permissions, mid-flight loss of the Owner’s ability to receive payouts, or circumstances outside the Owner’s reasonable control), we will contact the guest as soon as reasonably practicable and offer, at the guest’s election: (i) an alternative property of equal or higher standard for the same dates at no additional cost; (ii) the same or an agreed alternative property for new dates within the following twelve months at the originally booked rate; or (iii) a full refund of all amounts paid to Sassi Villas, including the service fee. Where an accepted alternative is cheaper, the difference is refunded to the original payment method. Our obligations are limited to these choices. We are not liable for consequential costs incurred in reliance on the booking (airfare, ground transport, separately booked tours, visa fees), save where English law prohibits excluding such liability. Travel insurance is the appropriate route for these exposures.

Requests to change the dates, guest count, or property on a confirmed booking are accommodated on a best-efforts basis, subject to availability and the Owner’s agreement. Modifications must be submitted in writing to support@sassivillas.com or through the booking management interface, and are binding only when we confirm them in writing and any rebalancing payment or refund has been processed. Within the original booking’s free-cancellation window, no administrative charge applies. Outside that window, modifications may be permitted at the Owner’s discretion; where they are, the cancellation policy is not waived, any uplift in price is payable by the guest, and any reduction is treated as a partial cancellation and refunded under the relevant policy. Date changes into a higher-rated season carry the higher rate; changes into a lower-rated season do not generate an extra refund beyond any partial-cancellation entitlement. Each booking may be modified up to two times; further changes generally require cancellation and rebooking. Any tourist tax is settled separately with the Owner at check-in and is not collected or reconciled by Sassi Villas.

Standard check-in is from 16:00 local time and check-out by 10:00, unless the listing says otherwise. Arrival details (address, key collection or self-check-in, your local contact, and any property-specific instructions) are sent by email and to your account at least seven days before check-in. Tell us and the Owner about any change to your arrival time; arrivals after 22:00 without notice may find the welcome arrangements adjusted. Italian law requires the host to register every overnight guest with the police shortly after check-in, so you must provide a valid passport or national identity document for everyone in the party, including children; we cannot lawfully accommodate an unregistered guest, and failure to provide this may forfeit the unsupplied nights. How this registration works is set out on our Italian Tax & Platform Reporting page. Damage found after check-out is handled under the Damage Policy.

Every listing specifies a maximum occupancy, expressed as the total number of guests permitted to stay overnight, including infants and children. The maximum reflects the property’s bedding configuration, the Owner’s insurance position, fire-safety calculations, and local short-term-let regulations. Exceeding the stated maximum without prior written approval from Sassi Villas is a breach of these Booking Policies and may result in immediate termination without refund, and in a damage assessment for any additional cleaning, wear, or compliance cost caused. Where a guest wishes to host non-resident day visitors (for example, for a meal or an afternoon by the pool), this must be agreed with the Owner via Sassi Villas in advance; capacity for day visitors is at the Owner’s discretion and is in addition to, not in substitution for, the overnight maximum. Day visitors who do not stay overnight generate no tourist-tax liability but remain bound by the house rules, and the lead guest remains responsible for their conduct. Events, gatherings, weddings, parties, and any commercial use of the property are dealt with in the Damage Policy and require prior written approval regardless of headcount.

Minimum stay requirements vary by property and by season and are displayed on each listing’s availability calendar. A typical configuration requires a minimum of three (3) nights outside peak season and a minimum of seven (7) nights during the peak season (broadly June through September) and during high-demand holiday windows around Easter, Christmas, and New Year. Certain properties impose a longer minimum stay year-round at the Owner’s discretion, shown on the listing. Sassi Villas does not waive the minimum stay set by the Owner without the Owner’s prior agreement, and any shorter availability shown for short-notice bookings (for example, a one-off gap between two existing bookings) appears only where the Owner has expressly opened it. Guests may not abridge a confirmed stay to fall below the minimum in order to obtain a partial refund; departures earlier than the booked check-out are treated as no-shows for the unused nights and refunded only as the applicable cancellation policy provides.

We run proportionate, risk-based checks on every booking: confirming the lead guest’s name and contact details against the payment method, screening against published UK, EU, and UN sanctions lists, reviewing for indicators of payment fraud, and, where appropriate, requesting a photographic identity document. We may decline or cancel a booking where the lead guest cannot be verified, where a sanctions match cannot be cleared, or where we reasonably suspect fraud; in each case any payment captured is refunded in full, subject only to non-refundable processor fees. We share only the minimum necessary with the Owner, and any identity-document data is handled under our Privacy Policy.

We strongly encourage every guest to take out comprehensive travel insurance at booking (trip cancellation and curtailment, medical expenses and repatriation, personal liability, and belongings), ideally for the full booking value including any non-refundable element; we are not an insurance intermediary and do not recommend a specific provider. Pets are allowed only where the listing permits: declare each pet at booking for written approval, an undeclared pet may end the stay, and a cleaning supplement of EUR 100 to EUR 250 typically applies and is shown at checkout. You are responsible for your pets’ conduct and any damage; assistance animals are accommodated wherever lawful. Neither party is in breach where performance is prevented by an event outside its reasonable control (natural disaster, severe weather, fire, flood, earthquake, pandemic, government action, civil unrest, strike, terrorism, or utility or payment-network failure); in that case you may take alternative dates within twelve months at the booked rate, an equivalent credit, or a refund to the extent funds have not been disbursed. Force majeure does not cover circumstances known or foreseeable at booking.