Guest terms & conditions

South African Vacation Guide (SAVG) operates a marketplace for short-term holiday accommodation in South Africa. Every listing is owned and run by an independent owner. SAVG advertises the place, takes the booking and collects payment as the owner’s agent.

Your accommodation contract is therefore with the owner, not with us. The owner’s house rules and the cancellation policy shown on the listing apply to your stay. We remain responsible for the booking and payment service itself, and for dealing with you fairly when something goes wrong.

You must be 18 or older. We ask for a name, email address and phone number so that we and the owner can reach you about your stay.

We do not ask for your ID number. A small number of listings sit inside estates with controlled access, and those owners need guest details for the gate register. Where that applies it is stated on the listing, and the details are requested by email after booking — by the people who actually need them, and not stored by us.

Selecting dates does not secure them. We hold your dates for a short period while you pay; a booking is confirmed only once the deposit (or the full amount, where applicable) has cleared and we have sent you a confirmation email. If the hold lapses before payment, the dates go back on sale.

• The price you see is the price you pay. Nightly rate, cleaning fee and any extra-guest charge are all shown before you commit. There is no booking fee added at checkout.
• A deposit — normally 50% of the total — is payable at the time of booking to confirm your dates.
• The balance is due by the date shown on your confirmation, normally 30 days before arrival. We email a reminder and a payment link.
• If your arrival is already inside the balance window when you book, the full amount is payable immediately.
• Payments are processed by PayFast. We never see or store your card details.
• All prices are in South African rand and include VAT where it applies.
• If the balance is not paid by the due date we will contact you. Persistent non-payment may result in the booking being cancelled and the dates released.

Each listing carries one of our published cancellation policies — flexible, standard or strict — and which one applies is shown on the listing before you book and recorded on your confirmation. The policy that applied when you booked is the one that governs your cancellation, even if the owner changes it afterwards.

Cancel through your account or by emailing us. Refunds are made to the card or account you paid from, and normally reach you within ten working days.

If an owner cancels a confirmed booking, you get a full refund without deduction, and we will help you find something comparable. We take owner-initiated cancellations seriously: repeated cancellations cost an owner their place on the platform.

Check-in and check-out times are shown on the listing and on your confirmation. Please respect them — back-to-back bookings are common in season, and a late departure directly affects the next guest.

The number of guests may not exceed the number stated on your booking. Owners may refuse entry to an over-occupied party, and no refund is due where they do.

The exact address is sent once your booking is confirmed. Some owners choose not to publish it beforehand, which is why the map on a listing shows the general area rather than the front door.

Each listing’s house rules form part of these terms and are shown on its page — pets, smoking, children, noise, parking and so on. Some places also sit within an estate or a body corporate with its own rules on access, speed limits and shared facilities; where that applies, those rules bind you too.

Serious or repeated breaches may result in you being asked to leave without a refund for the remaining nights.

Right of admission is reserved by the owner of each listing, and by SAVG in respect of the booking service. In practice this would only be exercised on reasonable grounds, such as:

• the details given at booking are materially inaccurate or cannot be verified;
• more people arrive than the booking allows, or people not named on the booking attempt to stay;
• conduct that endangers, harasses or unreasonably disturbs neighbours, other guests or staff;
• a serious or repeated breach of the house or estate rules;
• damage to the property, or a refusal to accept responsibility for it;
• amounts due for the stay remain unpaid.

Admission will not be refused on any ground prohibited by the Constitution, the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, or the Consumer Protection Act. Reserving the right of admission is about conduct and compliance, not about who somebody is. An owner who uses it otherwise is removed from the platform.

If a booking is declined before arrival, everything you have paid is refunded in full. If access is withdrawn during a stay because of conduct or a breach of the rules, no refund is due for the remaining nights.

Please treat the place as you would your own home. You are responsible for damage caused by you or your party beyond fair wear and tear, and the owner may recover the cost of repair or replacement. Some listings take a refundable breakage deposit; where they do, it is shown before you book.

Tell the owner about accidental damage rather than leaving them to find it. Honest accidents are dealt with reasonably; concealed ones are not.

Accommodation is let for holiday use. Your possessions and vehicles remain your own responsibility.

Because SAVG acts as the owner’s agent, the condition, safety and description of the property are the owner’s responsibility. Neither SAVG nor the owner accepts liability for loss, theft, injury or damage except where caused by their own negligence. Pools, beaches, hiking paths, boats and other facilities are used at your own risk, and children must be supervised at all times.

Nothing in these terms limits your rights under the Consumer Protection Act, which cannot be contracted out of.

Listing text, photographs and rates are supplied by the owner. Every listing is read by a person here before it goes live, but we cannot personally inspect every property in the country, and we do not hold ourselves out as having done so.

If a place is materially different from its description when you arrive, tell us the same day. That is the point at which we can actually do something — move you, or get your money back.

Reviews may only be written by a guest who completed a stay booked through SAVG. We do not edit reviews to flatter a listing, and we remove ones that are abusive, defamatory or not about the stay.

Keep your password to yourself and tell us promptly if you think someone else has it. You are responsible for bookings made from your account. We may suspend an account used fraudulently or to abuse other users.

We may update these terms. The version that applies to your booking is the one published when you made it; we keep the previous versions and will supply one on request.

These terms are governed by the law of the Republic of South Africa.

Questions? Email bookings@savg.co.za.