Terms of use

About these terms

These terms govern your use of staynearuniversal.uk (the Website) and any account, listing, enquiry, subscription, prepaid package or promotional service made available through it (the Service).

By using the Website, creating an account, publishing or paying for a listing, or sending an enquiry, you agree to these terms. If you use the Service for a company, agency, accommodation business or property owner, you confirm that you have authority to bind them.

Stay Near Universal UK is an independent accommodation directory operated by Stay Near Universal. We are not affiliated with Universal Studios, Universal Destinations & Experiences, Comcast, NBCUniversal or any related company or rights holder.

Accounts and eligibility

You must be at least 18 and able to enter a binding agreement. Account information must be accurate and kept current. You are responsible for protecting your password and for activity carried out through your account, unless that activity results from our failure to use reasonable care.

Host accounts are for people and small businesses authorised to own or manage one or a small number of hotels, B&Bs, houses, apartments or other accommodation. Agency accounts are for agencies, operators and groups authorised to manage 10 or more properties. You must not impersonate another person, create misleading identities, evade an account restriction or give another person access in a way that creates a security risk.

If you advertise accommodation as part of a trade, business, craft or profession, you are responsible for meeting the legal obligations that apply to you as a trader. Nothing in these terms removes any mandatory rights you have if the law treats you as a consumer.

Our role as an advertising platform

We provide a directory and advertising service. We do not own, operate, inspect, manage, endorse or control listed accommodation. Unless we expressly agree otherwise in writing, we are not a booking agent, travel agent, tour operator, letting agent, landlord, property manager, insurer, payment agent or party to any booking or stay.

Guests contact accommodation providers directly. Any booking, deposit, payment, cancellation, refund, check-in arrangement, damage issue, complaint or dispute concerning a stay is between the guest and the provider under the provider's own terms.

Search placement, premium placement, distance and other ordering tools help visitors browse. They are not a recommendation or quality guarantee. Distances may be calculated from saved coordinates as straight-line estimates, and privacy-protected map pins show a nearby general area rather than an exact address.

Accuracy and provider responsibilities

You are responsible for all content you submit, including the property type, location, distance information, description, images, amenities, accessibility, prices, availability, contact details and claims. It must be accurate, current, capable of substantiation, lawful and not misleading by statement, omission or overall presentation.

You must clearly disclose material limitations and any compulsory charges a guest needs to know before deciding whether to enquire or book. If a price can change, say so clearly and keep it reasonably current. Do not claim an affiliation, accreditation, rating, location, availability or facility you cannot prove.

You must hold all rights, licences, permissions, consents, insurance, safety checks and approvals required to advertise and operate the accommodation. This may include planning, licensing, fire and gas safety, electrical safety, accessibility, data protection, tax and consumer-protection obligations. Requirements differ by property and UK nation, so you must establish what applies to you.

You must have permission to use all uploaded text, photographs, logos and other materials and must not infringe privacy, intellectual-property or other rights. You must promptly correct or deactivate a listing that is no longer accurate or available.

Enquiries, bookings and visitor checks

Providers are responsible for responding lawfully and professionally to enquiries and for handling any booking, identity checks, availability, total price, deposits, payments, cancellations, refunds, complaints and guest stay.

Visitors should make their own checks before relying on a listing or paying a provider, including the provider's identity and authority, exact location, current availability, total price, cancellation terms, accessibility, insurance and safety arrangements. Report suspected misleading, unlawful or unsafe content through our contact page.

You must not use enquiries or account features to send spam, harvest personal data, make fraudulent requests, harass others or carry out unlawful activity.

Paid listings, subscriptions and promotions

The plan, price, billing interval, duration, included features and amount due are shown before purchase. Paid features are advertising services and do not guarantee publication for a particular search position, enquiries, bookings, occupancy, revenue or any other commercial result.

Recurring plans

A plan described at checkout as recurring renews at the displayed interval until cancelled. Stripe processes payment and provides the secure billing portal. Unless checkout says otherwise, cancellation takes effect at the end of the current paid period and no further renewal is taken. The corresponding paid access may continue until that date.

Deactivating, hiding, editing or deleting a listing does not cancel its subscription. You must manage cancellation through the Stripe billing portal reached from your Billing & plans page, or contact us if you cannot access it.

Prepaid and agency plans

A prepaid package lasts for the period shown at checkout and does not renew unless expressly described as recurring. Agency plans provide the number and type of active listing slots shown at checkout. A premium listing or separately priced extra may sit outside an agency allowance.

Coupons and extras

Coupons, introductory prices and promotions apply only to the eligible plan, tier, billing cycle, account or invoice shown at checkout. A first-payment discount does not reduce later renewals unless we expressly say it does. A Facebook sharing request or similar promotional extra is a request for the stated service, not a guarantee of reach, engagement, enquiries or bookings.

Cancellation, refunds and payment problems

If the law treats you as a consumer, any mandatory cooling-off, cancellation, repeat-performance, price-reduction or refund rights continue to apply. To exercise a statutory cancellation right, contact us with enough information to identify the purchase. If you expressly ask us to begin an advertising service during a cancellation period, we may charge a proportionate amount for service supplied before cancellation where the law permits.

Outside mandatory legal rights, refunds are assessed fairly in light of the service delivered, the reason for the request and any breach of these terms. Suspension or removal caused by your material breach does not automatically create a right to a refund, but we will not exclude a refund where the law requires one.

If payment fails, is reversed or becomes overdue, we may pause paid features after reasonable notice where practicable. Stripe's own service terms and privacy practices also apply to its payment and billing services.

Review, moderation and account action

We may review content before or after publication. Where we reasonably believe content or conduct is inaccurate, misleading, unsafe, unlawful, unsuitable, unpaid, harmful to users or in breach of these terms, we may reject, edit for formatting, request evidence or corrections, restrict visibility, deactivate or remove content, or suspend or close an account.

Where appropriate, we will explain the reason and give you a reasonable opportunity to correct the issue or contact us. We may act immediately where necessary to protect users, evidence, security or legal compliance. You may ask us to reconsider a decision through the contact page.

You may deactivate or delete listings using your account controls. Closing an account does not by itself cancel an external Stripe subscription, settle outstanding sums or erase records we must retain for legal, accounting, fraud-prevention or dispute purposes.

Content and intellectual property

You keep ownership of content you submit. You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, reproduce, resize, crop, format, display and distribute that content as reasonably needed to operate, secure and promote the Service and your listing, including on Stay Near Universal social channels. This licence lasts while the content is used by the Service and for a reasonable period in backups, records and previously published promotional material.

The Website's software, design, layout, original copy, branding and other materials created by us belong to us or our licensors. You may use the Website for its intended purpose but must not copy, scrape, reverse engineer, interfere with or commercially exploit it without permission, except where the law allows.

Website availability and changes

We use reasonable care to operate the Service but do not promise it will always be uninterrupted or error-free. We may maintain, secure, improve or change features. If a material change significantly reduces a paid service during its paid period, we will provide a fair remedy where required by law or the circumstances.

We may link to third-party services, including Stripe, maps and provider websites. We do not control their availability or content and their own terms apply.

Responsibility when something goes wrong

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, breach of rights that cannot lawfully be excluded, or any other liability the law does not allow us to restrict.

We are responsible for loss or damage that is a foreseeable result of our breach of these terms or our failure to use reasonable care. We are not responsible for loss caused by a provider, guest or other third party; a booking or stay to which we are not a party; information you supplied; or events outside our reasonable control, except to the extent the law makes us responsible.

If you use the Service wholly or mainly for business purposes, we are not liable for loss of profit, revenue, business, anticipated savings, goodwill, opportunity or indirect or consequential loss. Subject to the first paragraph of this section, our total liability arising from a paid advertising service will not exceed the fees you paid us for that service in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim. This limit does not apply where it would be unfair or unlawful.

Privacy and communications

Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal information, including account, listing, enquiry, security and payment-reference data. Our Cookie Policy explains our use of cookies and similar technologies.

We may send service messages needed to operate your account, listing or subscription. Marketing communications are handled separately and you can use the unsubscribe method provided.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms to reflect legal, security, operational or Service changes. The current version and effective date will appear here. For a material change affecting an existing paid service, we will give reasonable advance notice where practicable and explain any choice or remedy required by law. Changes do not retrospectively remove rights or remedies that have already arisen.

General legal terms

If a court finds part of these terms unlawful or unenforceable, the remaining terms continue to apply. A delay in enforcing a right is not a waiver of that right. You may not transfer your account or agreement without our consent. We may transfer our rights and obligations as part of a genuine business transfer, provided this does not reduce mandatory rights.

No person other than you and us has a right to enforce these terms under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. If you are a consumer, you retain any mandatory protections of the part of the UK or other country where you live and may bring proceedings in any court available to you under applicable law. If you use the Service for business, the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction.