Booking terms and conditions.

On this page

• 1. Who we are
• 2. Your booking contract
• 3. Prices, taxes and fees
• 4. Payment
• 5. No 14-day withdrawal period
• 6. If you cancel
• 7. Changing your booking
• 8. If we have to cancel
• 9. Your stay
• 10. House rules
• 11. Damage
• 12. Our responsibility
• 13. This website
• 14. Complaints, law and courts
• 15. Final points

1. Who we are

Viva Elafonisi is a family-run accommodation business in western Crete, Greece, renting Viva House, Viva Studio and Elafonisos Studio in Plokamiana, and Yalos Standard Studio and Yalos Tiny Studio at Chrisoskalitissa. In these terms, “we”, “us” and “our” mean the business below, and “you” means the person who makes the booking.

2. Your booking contract

These terms apply to every stay booked directly with us: on this website, by email, by phone or in person. A stay booked through Airbnb, Booking.com or another platform follows that platform’s terms and cancellation policy instead, together with our house rules.

• Your contract with us is made up of your booking confirmation, the price, payment plan and cancellation terms shown at checkout, these terms and our house rules. If your confirmation says something different from this page, your confirmation applies.
• A booking exists only once we email you a confirmation with a booking reference. An enquiry, a quote or a change request does not reserve dates or change a booking.
• You must be at least 18 years old and allowed to accept these terms for everyone in your party. You are responsible for your party, your visitors and any pets following them.
• Please check your confirmation as soon as you receive it and tell us straight away if anything is wrong.
• We may decline a booking, for example when details are missing or incorrect, or when a payment appears fraudulent. If we do, nothing is charged, or we refund in full anything already paid.

3. Prices, taxes and fees

• Prices are in euros and include VAT at the rate Greek law sets. Before you book, the quote shows the full price for your dates and number of guests: the accommodation, fees such as cleaning, any discount, and taxes and fees set by law, such as the climate resilience fee.
• The price in your confirmation is fixed. The only exception is a tax or fee set by law: if the state introduces or changes one after you book and it applies to your stay, we may pass on the difference, and we will tell you before you arrive.
• If a price shown on the website is clearly a mistake (for example, a missing digit), we will contact you before charging anything. You can then keep the booking at the correct price or cancel it free of charge.
• We issue a receipt for every booking as Greek tax law requires. If you need an invoice in a company’s name, send us the company’s details before arrival.

4. Payment

Card payments are handled by Stripe. We never see or store your full card number. While free cancellation applies, nothing is charged when you book: you authorise us at checkout to save your card with Stripe and to charge it automatically on the dates shown there. When free cancellation ends, 14 days before arrival, we charge 50% of the total; 7 days before arrival we charge the rest. Each charge is made at 10:00 Crete time on that day. If you book after one of these points, you pay what is already due when you book.

Your saved card is used only for the charges listed at checkout. If you cancel in time, the next charges are not made. If a charge is declined, we email you a secure payment link and you have 48 hours to pay. If it is not paid by then, we may cancel the booking, and the cancellation terms below apply to it as if you had cancelled.

Some accommodations have their own payment and cancellation terms. The accommodation’s page, your quote and your confirmation always show the terms that apply to your stay, and the summaries above list them by property.

5. No 14-day withdrawal period

EU consumer law gives a 14-day period to withdraw from many contracts made online, but not from accommodation booked for specific dates (Article 16(l) of Directive 2011/83/EU and the Greek law that applies it). Your rights to cancel are the ones set out in section 6.

6. If you cancel

Unless your accommodation’s own terms say otherwise: cancellation is free until 14 days before arrival. After that, 50% of the total price is charged. From 7 days before arrival, or if you do not arrive, the whole price is charged and nothing is refunded.

• Cancel from your booking page (the link in your confirmation email), or email us. The time we receive your cancellation, in Crete time, decides which terms apply.
• Your booking page shows the refund before you confirm. Refunds go back to the card you paid with; we send them straight away, and banks usually show them within 5–10 working days.
• No refund is due for nights you do not use because you arrive late or leave early.
• These terms apply whatever the reason for cancelling, including illness, flight changes, strikes or weather, unless the law gives you a stronger right. We recommend travel insurance that covers cancellation.

7. Changing your booking

• To change dates, guests or accommodation, send a change request from your booking page or email us. Your booking stays as it is until we confirm the change in writing.
• A change may change the price; we tell you the new price before you agree. Shortening a stay counts as cancelling the nights you remove, under section 6.

8. If we have to cancel

Very rarely, we may have to cancel or change a booking: for example, if the accommodation is damaged or unusable, if water or electricity fail for a long time, after a double booking through another platform, or because of events outside our control such as fire, flood, earthquake, extreme weather, an epidemic or an order of the authorities.

• We will tell you as soon as possible and, where we can, offer you another of our accommodations of similar or better standard.
• If you do not accept the alternative, or we cannot offer one, we refund everything you have paid us for the nights affected.
• Within the limits in section 12, that refund is the extent of our responsibility for the cancellation.
• Neither of us is responsible for failing to keep to these terms because of events outside reasonable control. If such an event at our end makes the accommodation impossible to use, we refund the nights affected; if it stops you from travelling, section 6 applies.

9. Your stay

• Arrival and departure. Check-in and check-out times are on each accommodation’s page and in your confirmation. Arrival is by self check-in with the instructions we send you before arrival. Early check-in or late check-out may be possible on request, depending on availability and for a fee; it is not available at Yalos Studios.
• Online check-in. Before arrival we ask the lead guest to complete online check-in, which may include identity details for each guest that the law requires us to register. We send the door code and arrival details once it is complete.
• Guests. Only the guests in your booking may stay, up to the maximum shown for the accommodation; children and babies count towards it. Visitors may not stay overnight. Extra guests need our agreement first and may cost extra.
• Children must be supervised by an adult at all times, including on balconies, stairs, outdoor areas and at the beach.
• Pets are welcome on request, at no extra charge. Please ask before you book or arrive. You are responsible for your pet’s behaviour, cleanliness and any damage it causes.
• Parking is free for guests, in our private parking.
• Services. We do our best to keep water, electricity, hot water, air conditioning and Wi-Fi working. Short interruptions, including those caused by the network, the weather or public utilities, do not give a right to a refund. If a fault makes the accommodation unusable, tell us straight away so we can fix it or offer a solution.
• Access. We or our staff may need to enter for urgent repairs or emergencies, such as a water leak. We will tell you beforehand whenever we can.
• Things left behind are kept for 14 days. We can send them to you at your cost; after 14 days they may be given away or thrown away.

10. House rules

Our house rules keep the accommodations safe and pleasant for you, the next guests and our neighbours. The most important are:

• No smoking indoors, including e-cigarettes. A €100 cleaning charge applies if this rule is broken.
• No parties or events, and quiet hours from 22:00 to 09:00.
• Lost keys are charged at €50 for replacement.
• Please leave the accommodation tidy: wash used dishes and put rubbish in the bins provided. If extra cleaning is needed beyond normal use, it is charged at €20 an hour.
• Treat the accommodation with care and respect the neighbours and the village.

If you or your party seriously break these terms or the house rules (for example a party, more guests than booked, behaviour that puts people or property at risk, or abuse of our staff or neighbours), we may end your stay early without a refund, after a warning where that is reasonable.

11. Damage

Please tell us straight away if anything breaks or is damaged. You are responsible for damage, loss or extra cleaning caused by you, your party, your visitors or your pets, beyond normal wear and tear. We will send you a description, photos and the reasonable cost of repair or replacement, with a payment link. We do not take a security deposit, and we do not charge your saved card for damage without your agreement.

12. Our responsibility

• We take reasonable care that each accommodation is safe, clean and as described. Photos and descriptions show the accommodation in good faith; small differences in furniture, decoration or views are not a defect.
• Our responsibility for belongings you bring is as Greek law sets it (Articles 834–839 of the Civil Code). Please keep money, documents, jewellery and other valuables with you or locked away, and tell us about any loss straight away.
• Beaches, the sea, roads, boat trips, car hire, restaurants, transport and other services that we do not provide are the responsibility of those who provide them. Information and tips on this website, in our travel guides and in our messages are given in good faith for guidance only; check conditions locally, for example sea and weather warnings.
• We are not responsible for losses we could not reasonably foresee when you booked, or for indirect losses such as missed flights or lost earnings.
• Apart from that, our total responsibility to you for a booking is limited to the price of that booking.
• None of these limits apply to death or personal injury caused by our fault, to damage we cause on purpose or by gross negligence, or to anything else for which the law does not allow responsibility to be limited. Nothing in these terms affects your rights as a consumer under the law.

13. This website

• We keep the information, prices and availability on this website up to date, but they can change before you book. Your quote and confirmation are what count.
• The texts, photos and design of this website belong to us or are used with permission. Please do not copy them without asking.
• Links to other websites and the reviews we show from Google are provided for information; we are not responsible for other websites.
• How we use personal data is explained in our privacy policy.

14. Complaints, law and courts

• If something is not right during your stay, please tell us straight away by phone or WhatsApp so we can put it right while you are here. After your stay, email us; we aim to reply within 7 days.
• If we cannot agree, you can ask for help out of court from the Greek Consumer’s Ombudsman (synigoroskatanaloti.gr) or, if you live in another EU country, from the European Consumer Centre Greece (eccgreece.gr).
• These terms are governed by Greek law, and the courts of Chania have jurisdiction. If you are a consumer living in another country, you keep the protection of the mandatory laws of that country and can also bring a claim in the courts where you live.

15. Final points

• We may update these terms. The terms that apply to your booking are the ones published on the day you booked.
• If a court finds part of these terms invalid, the rest still applies.
• These terms are written in English. If we provide a translation, the English version applies if they differ.