Who we are?
Some of the words you’ll see have very specific meanings, so please check out the ‘theblyde.com dictionary’ in our Terms of Service.
How does our service work?
When you make a Booking on our Platform, you enter a contract with the Service Provider
(unless otherwise stated).
The information on our Platform is based on what Service Providers tell us. We do our best to keep things up to date at all times, but realistically it can take a few hours to update e.g. text descriptions and lists of the facilities that Accommodations provide.
Who do we work with?
Only Service Providers that have a contractual relationship with us will be displayed on our Platform. They may offer Travel Experiences outside our Platform as well (so what they offer on our Platform may not be exhaustive).
We own some Accommodations via a sister company - we’re separate companies that have agreed to work with each other in a certain way.
Our Platform tells you how many Accommodations you can book through us worldwide - and our search results page tells you how many of them might be right for you, based on what you’ve told us.
How do we make money?
We don’t buy or (re-)sell any products or services. Once your stay is finished, the Service Provider simply pays us a commission.
And we don’t charge you any booking fees at all.
Our default ranking - and sorting options
Our search results show all the Accommodations (hotels, apartments, etc.) that match your search. If you like, you can use filters to narrow down your results.
To see all the booking options an Accommodation offers, just click it.
When you first see your search results, they’ll be sorted
(‘ordered’) by ‘Our top picks’:
Our top picks (default ranking). To appear high up on the page, an Accommodation needs to do well in each of these areas:
Click-through rate. How many people click on it
Gross Bookings. How many Bookings are made with that Accommodation.
Net Bookings. How many Bookings are made with that Accommodation, minus how many are cancelled.
As you can imagine, those numbers depend on lots of factors, including review scores, availability, policies, pricing, quality of content (e.g. photos) and other features.
If you like, you can sort your results in lots of other ways, such as:
Homes and apartments appear higher up than hotels and other types of Accommodation.
Price (lowest first). Accommodations with lower prices appear higher up.
Stars (highest first). Accommodations with more stars* and/or higher quality ratings* appear higher up.
Stars (lowest first). Accommodations with fewer stars and/or lower quality ratings appear higher up.
And whatever sorting option you choose, the factors described in ‘Our top picks’ may still influence things. For instance, those factors might act as ‘tiebreakers’ between two or more Accommodations that would otherwise appear in the same spot.
Reviews
Each review score is between 1-5. To get the overall score that you see, we simply add up all the review scores we’ve received and divide that total by the number of review scores we’ve received.
You could review an Accommodation that you booked through our Platform if you stayed there, or if you arrived at the property but didn’t stay there. To edit a review you’ve already submitted, please contact our Customer Service team.
Anyone else who spots something suspicious can always report it to our Customer Service team, so our fraud team can investigate.
Ideally, we would publish every consumer review we receive, whether positive or negative. However, we won’t display any review that includes or refers to (among other things):
Prices
The rates displayed on our Platform are set by the Service Providers. We may finance rewards or other benefits out of our own pocket.
Our Platform provides descriptions of any equipment and facilities that Service Providers offer (based on what they tell us). It also tells you how much extra they’ll cost if anything.
Payments
There are three ways you might pay for your Booking:
The Service Provider charges you at the Accommodation.
The Service Provider charges you in advance. We (or our affiliate) will take your Payment Method details and forward them to the Service Provider.
We organize your payment to the Service Provider in advance. We (or our affiliate) will take your Payment Method details and make sure the Service Provider is paid.
If you cancel a Booking or don’t show up, any cancellation/no-show fee and any refund will depend on the Service Provider’s cancellation/no-show policy.
Host type
We ask Service Providers, wherever they are in the world, to tell us if they’re acting as a ‘private host’ or as a ‘professional host’, as defined by law.
Consumer law says we must tell you this. So, if you’re in the European Economic Area (EEA), Switzerland or the United Kingdom, you might see that some Accommodations in our search results have a ‘managed by a private host’ label, and a description of what that means. All other Accommodations, to the best of our knowledge, are managed by ‘professional hosts’.
This label has no relevance in terms of tax, including VAT and other ‘indirect taxes’ that relate to added value, sales, or consumption.
You can help us help you as quickly as possible - by providing:
Your Booking confirmation number, your PIN code, your contact details, and the email address you used when you booked your stay.
a summary of the situation you need assistance with, including how you’d like us to help you.
any supporting documents (bank statement, photos, receipts, etc.).
Whatever the issue, we will try to assist you (which includes handling any request or complaint) and will do what we can to help you.
What happens if a Booking is mispriced? Sometimes (very rarely), you might see an incorrect price on our Platform. If that happens, and if you make your Booking before we correct the mistake, Accommodation is not obliged to contact you. (And in any case, a reasonable time before check-in). Plus, if you need us to step in, we’ll do our very best to negotiate an agreement that you’re both happy with.
Do we ever remove Service Providers from our Platform altogether? Of course. We can do that if we find out that they’ve breached their contractual obligations, for example, or that they’ve provided an inaccurate description of their Accommodation (and failed to correct it when we asked them to).
Overbooking
Once your Booking is confirmed, your Service Provider is required to honour it. If the Service Provider is ‘overbooked’, they’re responsible for finding a solution as soon as possible - but we provide them with guidelines, as well as practical help.
In the unlikely event that they can’t give you the option you booked, and they can’t offer you a suitable alternative, you can either choose alternative accommodation of a similar category on our Platform that costs the same (if available) or cancel your Booking at no cost (with a refund of anything you’ve paid).
When it comes to refunds...
If your Service Provider had organized your payment, we’ll do everything we can to make sure they refund you as soon as possible.
If we have organized your payment, we’ll refund you ourselves. In 90% of cases, the money should be in your account within 7 working days of the time when: