Annual membership of Country Cottages Online

This document (and any documents referred to here) set out the terms and conditions on which you may make use of www.countrycottagesonline.com and www.countrycottagesonline.net (“our sites”) as a property owner or agent (the “Advertiser”) placing advertisements on our sites.

Please read these terms and conditions fully before using our sites. By advertising on our sites, you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions.

We recommend that you print a copy of our terms and conditions for your reference.

Before placing an advertisement on www.countrycottagesonline.net and www.countrycottagesonline.com you will be required to click to indicate your acceptance of these terms and conditions. If you refuse to accept these terms and conditions, you will not be able to place advertisements on our sites.

1. Information about us
1.1 We operate the websites www.countrycottagesonline.com and www.countrycottagesonline.net. We are XE Website Solutions Limited trading as Country Cottages Online, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 03991504 and with our registered office at 17 Fennfields Road, South Woodham Ferrers, Essex CM3 5RZ. Our VAT number is 104353357. 1.2 We offer an online advertising service for Advertisers who are owners of self catering properties and also for agencies managing self catering accommodation. We also provide a self catering accommodation search facility for other users of our websites. We have no involvement in the booking process or such transactions, although we may provide tools to enable transactions between Advertisers and users of our websites. 1.3 We do not accept other advertising portals as Advertisers. Where an ad is placed on our sites by another advertising portal in contravention of these terms and conditions, any such ad(s) will be removed without notice and no refund will be given. 1.4 The sites are advertising portals where you as an Advertiser, advertise your self-catering accommodation for a fee for a period of a year with no commission payable to us. We do not offer advertising for less than one years period, but can delete an advert at your request before the end of a year's subscription period in the case of a change in your circumstances which mean that you no longer require an ad. In such circumstances no refund is given due to our associated increased administration costs and time. 1.5 Only good quality self catering accommodation ranging from simple through to luxury can be advertised on our sites. The accommodation must be well cleaned and maintained, accurately described and you must be legally permitted to let it. You set your own prices and write your own unique descriptions and accept responsibility for maintaining the accuracy of the data contained in your advertisements. We cannot be held responsible or liable for any losses you may incur as a result of any inaccuracies in your advertisements. 1.6 We have certain quality standards to uphold when it comes to advertisements on our sites. Advertisements placed by Advertisers must be original text and not duplicated copied text from other websites, including their own, or that of other advertising portals. We reserve the right to edit advertisements if copied text is posted on our sites. We will monitor whether content is original but do not have the resources to notify you if we are forced to amend the text that you have entered. We reserve the right to final editorial of ads.

2. The Price and payment
2.1 No advertisement will be activated without payment. 2.2 The price of advertising a property on our sites will be as quoted on our site, except in the case of an obvious error. 2.3 We are required to charge VAT on our prices. 2.4 Payment for your advertisement must be made by credit or debit card. We also accept bank transfer from existing clients. 2.5 Properties must be listed individually i.e. we do not accept generic ads that mention more than one property in the same ad. This is because we have a one calendar per ad system. 2.6. If you are on our auto renewal scheme and wish to cancel the auto renewal, you must do so via your online log in atleast one working day before the auto renewal goes ahead. Auto renewal cannot be cancelled via email requests.

3. Our refunds policy
3.1 The service we provide is online advertising. This is a service and not a physical product hence no refunds are applicable. 3.2 For the avoidance of doubt, there is no cooling off period once you have requested advertising via the registration form on www.countrycottagesonline.net. Completion of the registration form also requires that you click to indicate your acceptance of our terms and conditions.

4. advertiser content
4.1 You are solely responsible for the content of any material, including text and photos that you submit to the sites. We are not responsible, nor liable to any third party for any content submitted by you or for the accuracy of any such content or material which you upload to our sites or for any information you provide to us or to any user of our websites. 4.2 You have the intellectual property rights of the content that you submit to our websites. By submitting such content you grant us irrevocable permission to display such content on any of our websites and on any partner websites. You permit us to modify, translate and display your content as we deem appropriate on any of these websites. 4.3 You are not permitted to enter programming code in to any part of your ad with us. Where such code is entered to our system in contravention of our terms and conditions, it will be removed without notice. 4.4 Where you select to use availability calendars, we require that you update this at least once a month. Where this standard is not maintained and a calendar is clearly out of date we reserve the right to remove your access to use the availability calendar feature. 4.5 We do not permit you to enter links to external websites in your advertisements. Any such links to third party websites will be removed without notice. 4.6 Where we display weblinks on ads or subsequent pages, we only permit website links to owner's or agencies' own websites. We do not permit links to other portals or booking systems. 4.7 Re the material you provide to us or upload to any or all of our sites (including photos and videos), you grant us, and anyone else we authorise, unlimited, non-ending and free permission to change and use your materials for any purpose connected with providing our services. This permission is non-ending and applies if you decide to discontinue our services at any point, at which point we will cease advertising your property but cannot guarantee the removal of any such material from our content or historical content. Removal may be possible upon payment of an admin fee.

5. registration
5.1 Your registration is for a single user only and we do not permit you to share your user name and password with any other person or parties. 5.2 You are responsible for the security of any passwords issued to you. 5.3 Country Cottages Online reserves the right to carry out security checks before displaying new advertisements. We take all reasonable steps to check that all properties listed with us are legitimate holiday homes held by legitimate owners in order to protect the public. Owners are required to comply with these checks in order to be listed on the site. Failure to comply with these requests by the deadlines set by us is a breach in the owner's obligations under these terms and conditions. 5.4 Cottage owners and agencies are eligible to register with us (agencies please refer to our specific requirements for agencies in section 20 before joining).

6. termination
6.1 We are entitled to remove your advertisement without notice and retain payment in any of the following events:
(a) your advertisement contains incorrect or misleading information;
(b) we receive one or more legitimate and serious complaint(s) from one or more user(s) in relation to your property;
(c) inappropriate, abusive, unreasonable or unprofessional behaviour from you towards users of the sites or our staff;
(d) you refuse to agree to any reasonable revision to any term of this Contract. 6.2 If you wish to have your advertisement removed from our sites before the end of the subscription year, this will be done as soon as we receive formal notice in accordance with clause [13] below. No refund will be given.

7. intellectual property
7.1 All intellectual property, trademarks, database rights and copyright in our sites and the material published on them belong to us. 7.2 You may download material from our sites for the purpose of using our sites, but you must not copy, transmit, modify, duplicate, republish, save or pass off any content on our site or publish the content elsewhere without our prior written consent.

8. Claims and indemnity
8.1 Your contract for the rental of any property you advertise on our sites is with the relevant user of our sites. We are not involved or party to that contract. 8.2 You acknowledge that any claim you may have that is connected with a dispute with a user of our sites must be brought against the user of our sites and not against us.

9. THE LIMITS OF OUR liability
9.1 We act as an online advertising service through which owners or agencies can advertise self catering properties to users of our websites and we make no representations or guarantees regarding the capacity of any user of our site to make a booking with you. 9.2 As far as is permitted by law, we exclude:
(a) any loss you suffer or incur as a result of:
(i) the omission or act or of any user of our websites or any failure of any user to comply with any of the terms applicable in the contract between you and the user. This includes any user’s failure to pay sums set out in your contract with that user.
(ii) any damage to the property or loss or damage to items of the property;
(iii) any incident, accident or other occurrence which takes place at the property;
(b) Any liability for any direct or indirect loss caused by any user in connection with the use, results of using our sites or inability to use our sites correctly including:
(c) loss of income, goodwill, data or wasted time.

10. about the internet AND OUR WEBSITES
10.1 We and all other internet businesses have no control over the global network that is the internet. In common with the majority of online advertisers, we take website security very seriously and take all reasonable steps to ensure high standards. However we cannot be held responsible for service interruption or the transmission of viruses, or other malicious computer code through our websites. 10.2 We advise that you take care and manage risks when it comes to dealing with internet transactions. Certain scams do operate via the internet and we advise that you do due diligence to ensure your safety online. 10.3 Whilst we take all reasonable steps to ensure that our websites are available at all times, we cannot be held liable if for any reason our websites are unavailable at any time or for any period. 10.4 Access to our websites may be suspended without notice for any reason including (but not limited to) maintenance or system failure.

11.Your Data and Privacy
11.1 We take all possible steps to keep your data safe and secure. We display booking contact name and phone number on the websites. Aside from that, we do not display any of your personal data online. 11.2 If our business were to be acquired, sold or merge with another business, we reserve the right to transfer your personal data over to the new company so that they can continue providing you with a service, and you consent to this. 11.3 For luxury holiday home owners, we share your data with our partner company of Cottage Gems Luxury Cottages Ltd in order to provide you with additional advertising exposure. However, if you choose, you can close your account at CottageGems.com at any time.

12. CHANGES TO OUR WEBSITES
12.1 We are constantly improving and updating our websites. As part of that process, we may change or cease to continue any facet of or content on our Country Cottages Online websites at any time.

13. Written communications
When using our site, you accept that communication with us will in the main be via electronic modes of communication such as via email or notices on the websites. For contractual purposes, you agree to this means of communication and you acknowledge that all contracts, notices, information and other communications that we provide to you electronically comply with any legal requirement that such communications be in writing.

14. Notices
All notices given by you to us must be given to XE Website Solutions Ltd trading as Country Cottages Online at 17 Fennfields Road, South Woodham Ferrers, Essex CM3 5RZ or at the email address specified on the sites from time to time. We may give notice to you at either the e-mail or postal address you provide to us. Notice will be deemed received and properly served immediately when posted on our website, 24 hours after an e-mail is sent, or three days after the date of posting of any letter. In proving the service of any notice, it will be sufficient to prove, in the case of a letter, that such letter was properly addressed, stamped and placed in the post and, in the case of an e-mail, that the e-mail was sent to the specified e-mail address of the addressee.

15. Transfer of rights and obligations
15.1 The contract between you and us is binding on you and us and on our respective successors and assignees. 15.2 You may not transfer, assign, charge or otherwise dispose of a Contract, or any of your rights or obligations arising under it, without our prior written consent. 15.3 We may transfer, assign, charge, sub-contract or otherwise dispose of a Contract, or any of our rights or obligations arising under it, at any time during the term of the Contract.

16. Events outside our control
16.1 We will not be liable or responsible for any failure to perform, or delay in performance of, any of our obligations under a Contract that is caused by events outside our reasonable control (“Force Majeure Event”) such as strikes, civil riots and so on and so forth.

17. Waiver
17.1 If we fail, at any time during the term of a Contract, to insist upon strict performance of any of your obligations under the Contract or any of these terms and conditions, or if we fail to exercise any of the rights or remedies to which we are entitled under the Contract, this will not constitute a waiver of such rights or remedies and will not relieve you from compliance with such obligations. 17.2 A waiver by us of any default will not constitute a waiver of any subsequent default. 17.3 No waiver by us of any of these terms and conditions will be effective unless it is expressly stated to be a waiver and is communicated to you in writing in accordance with clause 13 above.

18. Severability
If any of these terms and conditions or any provisions of a Contract are determined by any competent authority to be invalid, unlawful or unenforceable to any extent, such term, condition or provision will to that extent be severed from the remaining terms, conditions and provisions which will continue to be valid to the fullest extent permitted by law.

19. Entire agreement
19.1 These terms and conditions and any document expressly referred to in them constitute the whole agreement between us and supersede all previous discussions, correspondence, negotiations, previous arrangement, understanding or agreement between us relating to the subject matter of any Contract. 19.2 We each acknowledge that, in entering into a Contract, neither of us relies on, or will have any remedies in respect of, any representation or warranty (whether made innocently or negligently) that is not set out in these terms and conditions or the documents referred to in them. 19.3 Each of us agrees that our only liability in respect of those representations and warranties that are set out in this agreement (whether made innocently or negligently) will be for breach of contract.

20. Our right to vary these terms and conditions
20.1 We have the right to revise and amend these terms and conditions from time to time by amending this page or by publishing notices elsewhere on our site.

21. Rules regarding agencies
21.1 Reputable self-catering agencies can advertise on our sites by arrangement, provided that they have individual listings with us for at least 1 in 3 of their properties. For agencies with high value rentals, we may require that they list each property individually. For agencies that have less than an acceptable number of ads placed with us, we reserve the right to cancel and remove your advertising without refund with 1 days notice.

22. Rules for Cottage Complexes
Cottage complex owners are welcome to list with Country Cottages Online but must list a minimum of 3 properties. We do not permit generic ads for cottage complexes as this impacts on the user experience of holidaymakers on the site who expect up to date pricing and availability information for each property. This is because we have a 1 calendar per ad system.

23. Law and jurisdiction
Contracts for placing advertisements on our sites and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them or their subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims) will be governed by English law. Any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with such Contracts or their formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims) will be subject to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.