Draft for attorney review

Draft Refund & Cancellation Policy

Evidence-based refund review, cancellation timing, and dispute handling.

Not final legal terms

This document is a planning draft. It should be reviewed, revised, and approved by qualified counsel before TrustStay uses it as public legal policy.

Purpose

Define a review-based policy without over-promising automatic refunds.

Attorney focus

Confirm cancellation windows and owner photo deadlines.

Confirm refund eligibility and evidence standards.

Confirm payment-provider and chargeback language.

General principle

TrustStay should use “refund review” language rather than promising automatic refunds. A guest may request review when a stay materially does not match listing details, owner photos, cleanliness standards, safety expectations, or agreed booking terms.

Before check-in

Guests may cancel according to the listing’s displayed cancellation terms. If an owner fails to submit required cleanliness or turnover photos before check-in, the guest may be eligible for refund review or cancellation options under final policy.

Arrival review

Guests should inspect the stay on arrival and submit required photos before accepting or requesting review.

Refund review should require a written explanation and supporting photos whenever possible, while recognizing that strong smells, fumes, gas, smoke, mold, sewage, or other habitability issues may require timeline, symptoms, owner messages, replacement-stay receipts, emergency reports, or other non-photo evidence.

TrustStay may compare owner photos, guest photos, timestamps, listing details, support messages, and booking data.

Possible outcomes

Guest accepts the stay and payment may be released according to the payment flow.

TrustStay requests more evidence or support details.

Refund is approved in full or part, if supported by final policy and payment-provider rules.

Funds are released to owner if evidence does not support the claim or guest misses required steps.

Booking is escalated for safety, fraud, or account moderation review.

Attorney decisions needed

Exact review window after arrival.

Whether partial refunds are allowed.

How taxes, platform fees, processing fees, and owner payout reversals are handled.

What happens if a guest stays anyway after reporting a problem.

Chargeback and payment-provider dispute obligations.

Review note

After counsel finalizes this document, update the matching public TrustStay policy page and keep this legal-review draft archived for launch records.

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