Terms and Conditions - StayCentral

StayCentral Serviced Apartments of Melbourne

Guest Terms and Conditions Of Trade

To maintain a good, comfortable standard for our guests we require certain conditions to be complied with. We appreciate most of our guests will respect our property, but the occasional abuse requires that we state the following conditions.

Payment, Cancellation Policy, Security Deposits

Free Cancellation until 2 days prior to arrival date, regardless of the reason. Details below.
Payment of deposit or total fee for your booking indicates acceptance of these Terms and Conditions.
Payment will be made by credit card, by Internet banking or by international telegraphic transfer if agreed to by StayCentral, who is not responsible for the fees
All credit card payments will be made via our Verified SecureID payment link.
A deposit of 20% of our total fee is required to confirm your booking if you book more than 21 days prior to your arrival. (If you book less than 22 days prior to your arrival, the total fee (ie 100%) must be paid to confirm your booking). The security deposit is not required until 7 days prior to your arrival.
The balance of payment will need to be paid by our guests using the same credit card that was used to pay the deposit (unless we are informed otherwise), 7 days prior to your arrival.
You must only provide credit card details for which you are authorised to use.
We accept Amex, MasterCard or Visa credit cards. Note: 1.76% credit card (transaction) fees apply (as of June 2022). This percentage may change without notice.
If you are paying by EFT, our banking details will be supplied – (make sure you put your name and/or booking ID as a reference, and send us proof of payment from a laptop including the bank logo; not from a mobile device please):

Please note that (unless you are able to pay by OSKO instant banking) we cannot accept bank transfers if:

there are less than 2 business days left before your arrival
you want to extend your stay and there are less than 2 business days left before your initial departure date

In these cases, all payments can only be made by credit card.

A Security Deposit (bond) is required for your stay and should be paid by the guest no later than 7 days before arrival via our SecureCard verified ID link. The amount may vary depending on the apartment, number of people staying, with or without children and/or pets etc, but cannot be less than $600 for a one-bedroom or two-bedroom apartment, $1000 for a three-bedroom apartment and more for larger properties. It is higher than this for some properties.
These minimum bonds may increase for several reasons, including last-minute bookings and long stays. A claim may be made against your security deposit, to cover any additional costs incurred including but not limited to, any breakage, damage or excess cleaning requirements, missing property, costs incurred by StayCentral due to guest actions including needing to communicate with building managers or Owners Corporations over guest behaviour or damage, the smell of smoking in the property, extra guests beyond those declared, unauthorised late checkouts etc.
The bond will be forfeited in the case of loud gatherings or parties that disturb neighbours, damage or misuse of common property, or any breach that requires StayCentral to be involved with the Owners Corporation or the property owner.
Please enquire with us for more details. The bond can only be charged to the payment made on the credit card prior to arrival, to the credit card details provided on the guest registration form, or against an EFT payment already made for the security bond.
If there are insufficient funds or the credit card is invalid, StayCentral reserves the right to restrict access to the property until the bond is taken. The security deposit will be refunded after your departure (subject to damages and excess cleaning checks etc). We endeavour to do this within seven days of your departure. You are required to leave the property in the condition that you found it; barring normal cleaning. Small amounts of rubbish don’t need to be removed on departure, but excess cleaning including washing dishes etc, excessive rubbish removal, damages and missing property costs may be charged to the credit card payment or deposit left as security. Your bond may be withheld at the discretion of StayCentral if the terms and conditions are breached.
We endeavour to refund bonds within 7 days of the departure date. This may be extended if an amount has to be retained from the bond.
Late Arrivals (after 5.30 pm) may incur additional charges. Please contact StayCentral to find out more. Full details can be found on each property listing.
No shows. Our arrival instructions provide very clear guidelines regarding no shows. If you fail to notify your greeter that you will be arriving at a different time to that agreed, without a minimum of one hours notice, we will have to pass on the No-Show fee (of a minimum amount of $50) that StayCentral is charged by the greeting company that it uses.
Photo ID. For security reasons, we ask you to provide a photo ID of the guest, under whose name the property was booked. Please note that your personal information will not be shared with or distributed to any third party unless it is required by law or we have your explicit consent to do so. Please read our full privacy statement on our website.
Cancellation. If you cancel or reschedule your booking less than 2 days prior to the scheduled arrival date of your stay, or after your booking has commenced, your deposit and any other pre-payments made are not fully refundable if, after making all reasonable efforts to do so, we are unable to replace your booked days with an alternative booking of equal value. A cancellation fee of a minimum 20% of the total booking value, plus associated credit card fees and any extra costs associated with the new booking(s) will apply to all cancellations that are re-booked by another guest, or for rescheduled bookings.
If the booking has been made via a 3rd party booking agent, additional cancellation fees may apply to cover any commissions paid. We strongly recommend that you have travel insurance to cover you in the event of an unforeseeable cancellation.
If a booking has been made by a person or company on behalf of another person or company, client, colleague or employee, that person or company making the booking will be responsible for any damage, excess cleaning costs, missing property or any other costs incurred (by StayCentral), and caused by the person or company on whose behalf the booking was made. This includes excessive amounts of administrative time spent on managing the guest whom they made the booking for.
Security for payments required under these terms and conditions must be provided by credit card, and a signed credit card authorisation form may be required to be completed prior to, or on arrival, along with sighting of the credit card and the matching photo ID.
Invoices are issued, and payment must be made, in Australian dollars.
By making payment of the total fee, you have an exclusive licence to occupy the property; only for the days specified when you book (but not possession).
All payments are processed by our third-party ‘verified Secure ID’ payment provider. We do not store credit card details on our website.

COVID-19 Policy

With the situation regarding the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, I wanted to give our guests some certainty regarding their travel plans.

I want to help our guests as much as we can during this difficult period of uncertainty, so I have added some flexibility to our cancellation policy. All bookings are able to be cancelled with a full refund, minus the service fee and any credit card fees if relevant, up until two days prior to the arrival date; regardless of the reason. Any bookings cancelled after that time, due to Covid-19 restrictions or any other reason will not receive a refund, but may at the discretion of StayCentral, receive a credit, which would need to be used within a 12-month period at any of our properties, subject to normal bookings constraints. A $150 cancellation fee will be applied.

I hope that this change of policy helped our guests who have been caught up in difficult circumstances.

Chris McDonald
Managing Director

House Rules

The number of guests staying at the property must not exceed the number agreed to in the booking details. In the event that any additional persons stay at the property, an additional fee may be charged according to our usual rates and/or we reserve the right to terminate the booking without refund.
All StayCentral serviced apartments are non-smoking indoors. This includes smoking in internal hallways and common areas, and on balconies or patios with the doors open. We reserve the right to terminate a guest’s stay without refund if we become aware of guests or their friends smoking or using incense indoors. There may also be additional cleaning fees to remove any smell of smoking or incense from the property, regardless of whether anyone smoked indoors; as the smell can still be transferred indoors on clothing or due to doors left open. We reserve the right to retain the entire bond if the property smells of cigarette smoke, as this is difficult to remove, and may prevent or cause the cancellation following bookings.
You will agree to any other reasonable house rules which may be made available to you at the property.
In the case of StayCentral properties which are part of a residential apartment complex, guest are required to enter and exit the property quietly.
For all properties, the noise level must be inaudible from neighbouring properties between 10pm and 8am Sun-Thu nights, and between 11pm and 9am Fri-Sat nights.
All guests are expected to behave in a manner that does not cause distress to neighbours or interfere in any way with their right to enjoy their properties. We reserve the right to remove guests who do not adhere to this code of behaviour. In these cases, no refund will be due, and we will not be responsible for finding or funding alternate accommodation. Nor will we be responsible for any other associated costs.
StayCentral has a ‘No-Party’ policy. Automatic $1,000 disturbance charges apply to any guest who disturbs neighbours with parties.
As per the current Victorian legislation, neighbours are not to be disturbed in any way whatsoever. The courts may impose $2,000 fines that may apply for each & every individual neighbour who is disturbed; on each and every occasion.
Guests may not engage in any illegal activity (or commercial activity without the approval of StayCentral) at the property. Frequent visits by people who are not guests in the property will be assumed to indicate a commercial operation is taking place.
StayCentral has a zero tolerance policy towards any kind of abuse to our staff, cleaners, meet and greet contractors, neighbours or other people associated with our business or our properties. Abuse includes shouting, aggression, intimidation, physical injury, emotional or psychological harm. If the receiving person feels that they have been abused in some way, this is sufficient grounds for the causation actions to be classed as abuse. Any enquiry, pending booking or current booking may be terminated immediately if any abuse has been reported to StayCentral.

Pet stays

If pets are entering the property or staying at the property (only allowable for pet friendly properties), all pet guests must be disclosed at the time of booking, or we reserve the right to terminate the booking without refund. In that case we will not be responsible for finding or funding alternative accommodation.
All disclosed pet stays will be referred to on your invoice and there is a minimum pet-stay fee for pet guests; regardless of what may be stated on third party websites. This fee includes allowance for a small amount of additional cleaning time that may be required for a pet stay. If extensive additional cleaning is required, this will be charged for using the security deposit. The general house rules for pet guests are as follows.
All pets must:
Be approved by us
Be toilet trained to go outside (no training/piddle pads).
Have their own toys, bowls and bedding, and not be allowed on furniture or bedding
Be supervised at all times, and not be left unattended at the property
Be bathed, groomed odour-free before arrival
Not cause any nuisance (eg. excessive barking)
If there’s pet hair on any linen, cushions or towels, fees apply for extra laundry services to get rid of all hair.

Check In and Check Out

Check-in and Checkout procedures will be detailed in the arrival instructions forwarded to you following payment of the security deposit, or seven days prior to arrival; whichever is the latter.
Failure to adhere to those procedures could result in the incurring of additional costs, or delays in accessing your property.
Whilst we are more than happy to provide early Check-in and late Checkout wherever possible, this may only be confirmed at the last minute as it is dependent on cleaning of our properties and other bookings at the time.

Breakages, Losses and Guest Charges

You are responsible for leaving the property in the state in which you found it on arrival. Small amounts of rubbish don’t need to be removed on departure, but excess cleaning, excess rubbish removal, damages and missing property costs may be charged to the credit card payment or deposit left as security. Anything that has been used or moved must be returned to where it came from. This includes anything that has been washed in the dishwasher.
All breakages or losses must be reported immediately to us. Whilst we will not pursue reimbursement for minor accidental damage or normal wear and tear, the total cost of making good any other damage or loss to the property, garden or contents will be charged for using the credit card payment provided for security. Please note this includes the removal of consumable items from the property which are provided for guest use whilst in-house and are not intended as individual use presentations (examples include laundry powder, dishwashing liquid, rolls of foil, toiletries provided in dispensers etc).
If a booking has been made by a person or company on behalf of another person or company, client, colleague or employee, that person or company making the booking will be responsible for any damage, excess cleaning costs, missing property or any other costs incurred (by StayCentral), and caused by the person or company on whose behalf the booking was made. This includes excessive amounts of administrative time spent on managing the guest whom they made the booking for.
It is our policy to have all locks and keys changed if keys are lost or not returned. All associated costs will be charged to the credit card provided for payment (or left for security) if this occurs. Similarly any remote controls will be replaced at your cost if lost or not returned.
Bookings may also include interim cleaning services for stays of longer than 28 days. This will be detailed in your pre-arrival information. Guests are expected to leave the properties in a neat and tidy state without the need for extensive, excessive cleaning. You are responsible for all cleaning charges in the event that the property is left in a state that requires more than standard cleaning. This will be charged to the credit card payment left for security, or to the cash payment made for the security bond.
Neither StayCentral nor the owners of the property are liable for loss to you of any personal belongings while you are in the property. We strongly recommend that you have travel insurance to cover you in the event of an unforeseeable loss during your stay.
Guest items found by our cleaning staff are kept in the StayCentral office for one month before discarding. It is the guest’s responsibility to follow up regarding any items that may have been left behind at the property. Postage and handling will normally be charged to return the items.

Electricity Usage etc

Reasonable usage of electricity, gas and any other utilities provided at the property are included in your rates. Excessive use (more than a 30% increase compared to similar periods) of any of these utilities may be charged for using the security deposit provided. If charges are passed onto the guest, evidence of charges will be provided on request.

Complaints

We need you to let us know of any issues or problems immediately after you arrive, or when any problem occurs or is noticed. Photos of any problem can be very useful. This includes any issue regarding cleaning, bedding or supplies that are apparent on arrival. Most problems can be resolved quickly.
Please do not wait until you return home before complaining about any matter, as no inspection can be carried out when others are occupying the property.
We welcome hearing from you in relation to any complaints or concerns and prefer that you contact us immediately if important, rather than when you depart, so that matters can be resolved quickly.
The place of law is Victoria and the courts of Victoria have exclusive jurisdiction.

Termination

Your occupation of the property may be terminated by StayCentral without notice in the event that you breach any material term or condition or in the event that any amount due is not paid.

Disclaimer

StayCentral enters into this agreement on behalf of the owner of the property and is not liable to you in relation to the property or any services.
StayCentral is an accommodation booking service and is not a real estate broker, agent or rental company. Whilst all measures are taken to avoid any property being misrepresented by the property owner, StayCentral is in no way liable for any advertising misrepresentations as property owners are solely responsible for the accuracy of their listings and information.
Neither StayCentral nor the owner of the property can be held responsible for failure or interruption to power or services to the property for reasons beyond our control.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, StayCentral and the owner disclaim all warranties in relation to the provision of services and the use of the property, and otherwise our liability is limited at our option to the supply of the relevant services again or the payment of the cost of having services supplied again.
Neither StayCentral nor the owners are liable for any indirect, incidental, special and/or consequential damage or loss of profits which result from use of the property and services provided to you.
StayCentral reserves the right to cancel a booking, or part of a booking, for any reason, or relocate guests from a booking, or part of a booking, to an alternative property of similar standard and location at any time. In this instance, guests will be asked to confirm their stay at the alternative property, or accept a full refund.