Refund policy

The rule

The owner's own terms decide it. They are written on their listing under “If your plans change”, in their words, and they are a promise made to you by the person you are paying rather than by us.

Where an owner has not set any terms, a booking or sale with them is final once paid. That is what their silence means, it is said on their listing before you pay, and it is something they can only improve on by writing terms of their own.

This site used to print a 48-hour free-cancellation rule of its own above every owner's terms. It is gone. It made our promise the loudest thing on a page about theirs, and it described a self-serve refund that no longer exists — cancelling is not a button here, it is a conversation.

Where a refund is agreed, the rental price and our service fee both come back. The card processing line is the one part that cannot, because the card networks keep their cut whether or not the booking goes ahead. Refunding it would mean paying it out of our own pocket every time, so we say so up front rather than quietly returning 96% of what the page called free.

Enforced in lib/cancellation.ts

How a refund is actually decided

This is the part most policies leave out, and it is the part that determines whether you get your money.

You pay the owner directly. Your card is charged on their own Stripe account, not ours — we never hold your money at any point. A refund therefore comes out of their Stripe balance, and it is only possible while the money is still sitting in it. Stripe holds each payment for a period before paying it out to the owner's bank: at least 48 hours, and 7 days for Mexican accounts. That hold is what makes a refund possible at all.

So when you cancel, we ask Stripe where the money is, right then. We do not compute the answer from a date. If the funds are still held, the refund is issued. If Stripe has already paid the owner out, the money is in a bank account we have no access to, and pushing the debit through anyway would overdraw somebody who did not cancel and was not asked.

So the condition is where the money is, and nothing else. Anything ambiguous — an error from Stripe, a payment we cannot read — is treated as a refusal rather than a refund. Refusing a refund that could have been paid is something a person can put right afterwards. Overdrawing an owner's bank account is not.

Enforced in lib/refunds.ts

If the owner cancels

If the money is still held, you are refunded in full, less the processing line, exactly as above.

If it has already been paid out, the case does not simply stop there. An owner cancellation where the money has gone is escalated to Rent La Ventana for review and handled directly. You did nothing wrong, and the outcome should not depend on Stripe's payout schedule.

Enforced in lib/refunds.ts · routeCancellation()

If you cancel after the window, or after payout

The platform cannot return it. That is the end of what the software can do — but not necessarily the end of the matter.

You and the owner are free to agree something directly between you, and plenty do: a partial refund, credit against another stay, or moving the dates. Message them on your booking, and tell us if you would like us to help ask. We know almost everyone listing here.

Enforced in lib/cancellation.ts · REFUND_REFUSED_MESSAGE

Shop orders and kit hire

Things bought from a shop, and multi-item kit hire, work differently from a booking, and it matters not to read a booking's terms onto them.

These orders are non-refundable through the platform. The payment reaches the seller's own Stripe account immediately, and Rent La Ventana has no mechanism to take it back. If your plans change, message the seller — you get their WhatsApp on the order the moment the payment lands. Tell us if you would like us to help ask.

Enforced in lib/cancellation.ts · CATALOG_CANCELLATION_HEADLINE

If a listing is not what its page said

Tell us within 24 hours of arrival. This is a separate matter from cancelling, and a person handles it rather than the rule above.

The fastest route is always to tell us directly. We are a small operation in a small town and we know the owners personally.

Seasonal houses we manage ourselves

The houses Rent La Ventana manages are let on a signed lease with its own terms, agreed before anybody pays. Those terms govern, not this page. Ask for the lease before you commit to anything.