SWFL Vacations Host Terms

These Host Terms apply in addition to the Terms of Service to anyone who lists a vacation rental property on SWFL Vacations. Capitalized terms have the meanings given in the Terms of Service.

H1. Relationship#

You are an independent business. You, not SWFL Vacations, are the operator of your rental under Chapter 509, Florida Statutes, and all other laws. SWFL Vacations provides marketing, a booking interface, messaging and payment facilitation. Nothing in these terms creates an employment, partnership, joint venture, property management or agency relationship, except the limited payment collection agency in Section 7 of the Terms of Service. SWFL Vacations does not hold keys, schedule cleaning, perform maintenance, or respond to guest emergencies at your property.

H2. Eligibility and authority#

You must own the property or have the owner's written authority, and any required HOA or condominium association approval, to list it for short-term rental. If you are a property manager listing for owners, you represent that you hold any license Florida requires for that activity.

H3. Licenses, registrations and display#

Before a listing goes live, and for as long as it stays live, you must hold and keep current:

• a Florida DBPR Division of Hotels & Restaurants vacation rental license
• any city or county registration, certificate or inspection that applies, such as a City of Cape Coral Residential Rental Registration and Vacation Rental Business Tax Receipt
• any county and city local business tax receipts
• Florida Department of Revenue and county tourist development tax registrations

You must enter your license and registration numbers in your listing. You authorize us to display them publicly and to verify them. We may suspend or remove any listing that lacks a valid number, fails verification, or that a government authority tells us is noncompliant.

H4. Accuracy and disclosures#

Your listing must be accurate and complete. At minimum it must disclose:

• maximum occupancy, which may not exceed the lawful limit
• bedrooms, bathrooms and bed configuration
• parking limits and any minimum stay, including city minimums
• pool or spa heating and any heating fee
• pool barriers or alarms, and dock, boat lift or waterfront features and restrictions
• stairs and elevator access
• pet and smoking policies
• any exterior security cameras, doorbell cameras, noise monitors or decibel sensors. Recording devices of any kind are never allowed inside bedrooms or bathrooms.
• HOA rules that bind guests
• nearby construction, and flood or storm damage that materially affects a stay

You must keep your calendar and pricing current.

H5. Safety#

You are solely responsible for your property's safety and code compliance. This includes, as applicable: working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors; fire extinguishers; posted emergency information and exit routes; pool, spa and waterfront safety features required by Chapter 515, Florida Statutes, and local codes; safe electrical, gas and structural conditions; pest control; and compliance with DBPR inspection standards.

H6. Taxes#

You are responsible for determining, reporting and remitting all taxes on your bookings. These include Florida state transient rental tax, any county discretionary sales surtax, and county tourist development tax, such as Lee County's tourist development tax administered by the Lee County Clerk of Court. SWFL Vacations collects the tax amounts you set up from Guests and passes them to you with your payout. SWFL Vacations does not file tax returns for you.

You are also responsible for your own income taxes. We may withhold amounts required by law and will issue IRS Form 1099-K or other forms as required. You must provide a valid W-9, which is collected through Stripe.

H7. Insurance#

You must maintain, at your own cost, property insurance and short-term rental or commercial general liability insurance that covers guest occupancy, with limits of at least $1,000,000 per occurrence. Your policy must not exclude short-term rental use. On request, you must provide a certificate of insurance and, where your carrier allows, name SWFL Vacations LLC as an additional insured. Standard homeowner policies often exclude short-term rental activity. SWFL Vacations does not provide insurance for Hosts or Guests.

H8. Fees and payouts#

You agree to pay the Host commission in the Fee Schedule, currently 5.5% of the booking subtotal, along with Stripe's payment processing fees. Both are deducted from your payouts. Payouts are released 24 hours after guest check-in.

We may delay, hold or reverse payouts for suspected fraud, guest claims, chargebacks, refunds we issue under the Terms of Service, or amounts you owe us. Refunds for a listing that is materially not as described, unsafe or inaccessible are funded from your payout. You authorize us to set off any amounts you owe against current or future payouts. If a negative balance remains, you authorize us to charge your payment method on file or invoice you.

H9. Stripe#

Payment processing services for Hosts on SWFL Vacations are provided by Stripe and are subject to the Stripe Connected Account Agreement, which includes the Stripe Terms of Service (together, the "Stripe Services Agreement"). By agreeing to these Host Terms or continuing to operate as a Host on SWFL Vacations, you agree to be bound by the Stripe Services Agreement, as Stripe may modify it from time to time. As a condition of SWFL Vacations enabling payment processing services through Stripe, you agree to provide SWFL Vacations accurate and complete information about you and your business. You also authorize SWFL Vacations to share that information, and transaction information related to your use of the payment processing services provided by Stripe. Identity verification, including government ID, is performed by Stripe.

H10. Cancellations by Host#

Host cancellations harm Guests. If you cancel a confirmed booking, you owe:

• the platform commission SWFL Vacations would have earned on the booking, and
• if the Guest is rehoused in a comparable listing that costs more, the difference between the new booking and what the Guest paid for the original, capped at the original booking total.

For example, if the original stay was $300 per night and the replacement costs $400 per night, you are billed $100 per night. If the replacement costs the same or less, you owe only the commission.

We may also block the canceled dates, lower your search placement, and suspend your account after repeated cancellations. These charges do not apply if you cancel because of a mandatory evacuation order, because the property became uninhabitable, or for another reason we accept as valid.

H11. Calendar sync#

If you connect external calendars, such as Airbnb or VRBO, you are responsible for keeping them accurate. Calendar sync is periodic, not real time, and may fail or lag. You are responsible for double bookings and must honor, or rehouse at your cost under H10, any booking confirmed on the Platform for dates shown as available.

H12. Stay page and access information#

You authorize us to show your check-in instructions, lock codes, Wi-Fi details and house rules to Guests with confirmed bookings through their stay page. Use unique, time-limited codes where your lock supports them, and change codes between stays. We are not responsible for misuse of information you provide.

H13. Anti-circumvention#

You may not solicit or accept bookings or payments outside the Platform from Guests you met through the Platform, or share contact information for that purpose, for 12 months after the Guest's last contact with you through the Platform. If you do, you agree to pay SWFL Vacations, as liquidated damages and not as a penalty, the commission we would have earned on each of those bookings. We may also suspend your account.

H14. Brand and Host identity#

Guests see listings under the SWFL Vacations brand. You agree not to add your own branding, outside website links or contact details to listings or messages. We may give your legal name and contact details to a Guest, government authorities or insurers where required by law, in an emergency, or to resolve a claim.

H15. Reviews and analytics#

Guests may review completed stays, and you may review Guests. We may show you estimated analytics, such as listing views and saves. We do not guarantee any level of bookings or revenue.

H16. Nondiscrimination#

You must follow our Nondiscrimination Policy and allow service animals as required by law.

H17. Indemnity#

You will defend, indemnify and hold harmless SWFL Vacations LLC, Sands Brands LLC and their owners, officers, employees and agents from all claims, losses, fines, taxes, penalties and expenses, including reasonable attorneys' fees, arising from your listing, your property, your breach of these terms or the law, your taxes, your insurance, or injury or damage occurring at your property. This does not apply to the extent a claim is caused by our own gross negligence or willful misconduct.

H18. Term and termination#

Either party may end this relationship with 30 days' notice. We may end it immediately for material breach, a safety risk, or legal noncompliance. You must honor bookings confirmed before termination unless we cancel them.

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