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Terms & ConditionsWhat We Do Here at On the Water in Maine Inc., we rent waterfront or water-view vacation properties, primarily in the summer between June and October, on a Saturday to Saturday weekly basis* (a select few properties are offered on a Friday to Friday or Sunday to Sunday basis). On the Water in Maine is that accurate and "guaranteed" certification of a rental property by a 3rd party. By offering a property to you for rent, we are verifying that it is in fact what it is advertised as. Renters tell us more and more that they will "never" rent a property online again directly from an owner and that they are more comfortable putting their trust in an agency like us to make sure they are getting a property as advertised. Why? Because of accountability. An individual home owner can easily "hide", while our "visible" rental company works hard every day to protect our good image. There are hundreds and thousands of examples where an owner and a renter in a direct relationship have come head-to-head without a positive resolution. With On the Water in Maine Inc. as part of the equation, renters know that we have our good name, our reputation with the Better Business Bureau and our experience and knowledge to help ensure that both the renter and the owner get a fair deal. Besides, if after your long trip to Maine, you arrive to find that your rental property isn't advertised or agreed upon in the rental contract, we always have other properties to choose from! About Our Policies We believe the policies for renting with us are generally the same as many other vacation rental companies across the industry. With one or two minor exceptions, as you review them, we think you'll find they are all common-sense policies. Without these policies in place, we believe that 95% our guests would follow them, even without knowing about them. Unfortunately, these policies had to be written for, and are added to each year, to address issues that have arisen from the 5% of our Guests that need a "little help" understanding the "boundaries" when it comes to vacationing in another person's private home. If something about our policies appears offensive or disturbing to you, we can assure you that it wasn't intended that way. Please let us know if we can clarify any of our policies to you. We're very easy going :) Booking Process Once you have decided on your property and the week you desire - BOOK IT online here at the site or by calling us. You are not always the only person negotiating for the same property for the same week. We have encountered many situations where one party has spent a week asking us questions about a property and trying to decide whether they want it or not while another person "swooped in" and booked the property they wanted. The first person to give us a 50% deposit on the property gets it. In order to "book" your desired rental property with us, we'll require a 50% deposit of the total rental amount which includes tax and processing. You can pay this by credit card, check, cash, or money order. We accept all credit cards except American Express, but we would prefer that you didn't present us with a credit card that earns points or rewards (In case you weren't aware, we - the merchant - pays for your rewards through our credit card processing. In some cases, we have accepted reward accumulating credit cards that have charged us as merchants more than the 7% agent processing fee we charge you- which makes all our work go uncompensated). We love checks the best! Once we have received your deposit, we will send you a rental agreement by e-mail in a PDF format (or mail it to you if that is more convenient). We can provide you a "sneak peak" of an example rental agreement if you contact us verbally first to request it be e-mailed. If, after we have received your credit card deposit, but before you have signed the rental agreement finalizing the rental, you decide not to rent with us, we will still retain our 7% agent processing fee to cover the time and effort that goes into putting your rental agreement together. So be sure that you are 99.9% committed to renting with us when you give us that first deposit. 60 Days prior to your rental, payment in full is due along with any amenity charges such as boat rentals or vacation grocery services etc. (Please note - Any checks returned for insufficient funds will require replacement funds by cash, certified bank check, or postal money order, plus a $25 fee.) Later, about two weeks before your rental begins, we'll e-mail you with all the information you need to know about getting to your rental property, including directions. If for some strange reason, you don't have the information on how to get to your property at least two weeks prior to your rental- call us right away! The credit card you provide will be used unless other arrangements are made to pay by check or wire. Regardless if you are able to pay by check (bookings in advance of 60 days), you must still provide us with a major credit card for any unforeseen charges up to $1000 that occur during the rental such as boat trips, massages, or damages not covered by the Damage Waiver. Sorry - we do not accept American Express credit cards as they ask for an unreasonably high merchant fee in comparison to Discover, MasterCard and Visa. Cancellations/Refunds While we look out for the interest of our Customers when it comes to rentals - we must also pay special attention to our Property Owners, who are also our Customers. Many of our Property Owners count on the income generated by renting their vacation properties, and when a week is canceled, they must contend with lost revenue and the possibility of the unexpected situation of a property not re-renting for the week they had intended to see rented by you. If you book with us prior to 60 days from your rental start day, we do offer Vacation Trip Cancellation Insurance because even the best planned trip can be impacted by the unexpected. This plan also provides other insurance coverage an assistance services to take care of you while you are traveling. We anticipate the unexpected so you do not have to. If you decide you must cancel your vacation plans with us and we are able to re-rent the week(s) of your planned stay, we will return all your money minus a 10% (of the full rental price) administration fee. However, you must contact us immediately if you decide to cancel - we want to help you find a replacement renter for week(s) at the property. Regardless of whether you have paid your balance in full or not, if you cancel your rental before the 60 day final payment due date, and have not yet paid us in full, you must still continue on with the terms of your rental agreement with the owner and send in the balance of the rental minus the Maine State Lodging Tax (since this is not required if you do not stay). We will work hard for you up until 4pm of the day the rental begins to find a replacement renter for you as long as you cooperate with us. We want you to be happy and come back and rent with us again. Failure to return a rental agreement signed within 5 days - If you have made a reservation with us and received a confirmation e-mail that your rental is "Approved", we have initiated the process to complete your rental booking. This means your are committed to your rental. At that time we will e-mail the rental agreement between you and the owner to you. If we don't receive the signed rental agreement back within 5 business days, or don't have any communication from you requesting an extension, we will consider your rental "canceled without a signed agreement". 98% of our guests return their agreements by fax - which is why we work within the 5 day time-frame. With advance notice, we will grant an extension if you decide to mail the agreement instead. In the case that we have to cancel your rental because you didn't return a rental agreement timely, we will still retain our 7% agent processing fee and take that charge from the credit card that you provided us at booking. If you are able to still return your rental agreement after the 5 days, and the property is still available at the current advertised price, we will re-process your rental and credit the 7% agent processing fee back to you. Please understand, our goal isn't to generate revenue by cancellations. Our goal is to ensure that our Guests follow the necessary procedures that are standard in the vacation rental industry so that we can offer our homes for rent in a fair and competitive manner. A lot of time and effort goes into generating a rental agreement, and of course during that 5 day process of seeking a signed rental agreement back from you, the property is blocked off as "unavailable" online which doesn't allow others that may be interested in renting the property to do so. Cleaning Charges Don't worry - normally, we don't charge a cleaning fee. For 99% of our rentals, cleaning is included with the rental. Your home is stocked for your arrival with paper products including 2 rolls of toilet paper in each bathroom, 1 roll of paper towels at the kitchen sink, and pump-hand soaps at each sink. Beds are ready and made for your arrival with fresh, clean linens except the following: trundles, futons, sofa sleepers, and cots. Please leave the Property in the same general condition as it was when you arrived - when you depart. Our staff will arrive after your departure to thoroughly clean and inspect the Property. All food and drink spills should be cleaned up as they occur. Food and drink spills on carpets or upholstery are considered to be damage, not normal wear and tear. If they are "accidental" and can't be cleaned, let us know right away so we can take care of it as part of the Damage Waiver covered by your rental processing fee. Refrigerators should be emptied of all food and free of spills. All used dishes should be washed and/or placed in the dishwasher on the wash cycle. Damage Waiver (replacement of traditional Security Deposits) Part of your rental processing fee includes our Damage Waiver protection plan. This covers you for up to $975 in accidental damages to the property. This is in lieu of a traditional "security deposit". Our housekeeping staff works diligently to prepare each home in preparation for your arrival. For stays over seven nights, please inquire if you would like additional cleaning. You may be charged up to $1000.00 additional in the event of a violation of our "no smoking" "no pet" or "maximum occupancy" polices or incidental damages which occurred during the tenancy. Additional housekeeping charges will be applied in event for the need of excessive cleaning by our staff and the occurrence of exceeding the maximum occupancy of the cottage. We supply a departure procedure checklist in each home; these rules must be followed to avoid any additional charges. We only allow dogs at our properties - never cats, monkeys, snakes, etc. This is an insurance requirement. Some of our properties will accept dogs, but that doesn't mean we allow all dogs. Generally, we've found people are very responsible with their dogs and we love welcoming them - Dogs deserve a vacation too! Despite the strict way in which we present our pet policy, please understand, we want to be able to accommodate all the dogs our guests wish to bring and we have found that we can accommodate about 99% of the dogs that people wish to bring. For the most part, the dogs we allow are the types that won't bark a lot. They are also the type that don't shed hair, or that don't like to get wet in the lake or ocean and come back into the property with their wet hair. Here are the basic "rules"...
Please make sure to talk to us up front about your dog before booking a property with us. If you are thinking of getting a new dog before your rental begins, do not assume we will allow it in your rental property. To review the Pet Addendum to our Rental Agreement, please click HERE. Should we discover a pet has been is in the home without prior approval, or the dog we permitted you to bring in the Pet Addendum of the rental agreement isn't the actual dog(s) you bring with you, you will be charged a fee for pest control, and a deep clean, usually resulting in a charge of $350. We will also ask you to send the dog(s) to a kennel for the remainder of your stay. If you miss picking up after your pet, a $25 fee per incident is charged. We ask that at NO TIMES MAY PETS BE LEFT UNATTENDED in a home or on the grounds of one of the Properties we rent. Maine is a State in which smokers rights are becoming less observed. In Maine, smoking is not permitted on public property, in bars or restaurants, and the taxes for purchasing tobacco products are very high. Smokers occupying our rental properties present a higher risk to our business operations. Most of our property owner's insurance policies forbid smoking not only in, but on the rental property grounds itself. With that introduction, it shouldn't come as any surprise then that we do not allow smokers to occupy our rental properties. We've had expensive issues come to light in the past with Guests leaving butts on the property grounds, or even worse, bringing their smoke-saturated clothing back into the property bedrooms where an odor has been left behind just as if someone smoked in the property. Our small rental company cannot afford to have the next guest arrive to smell smoke in the rental home from a previous renter and ask for their money back as a result (which they would be in their rights to receive). Although there are some "masking" products available, we would never use them to hide a smoke smell. We recognize that our smoking policy will turn away about 2% of our potential rental guests, but we've made a business decision to focus on offering a guarantee that our rental properties are smoke free to the 98% majority of renters that would like to stay with us in house that haven't had smokers occupying them and that don't smell of smoke. Sorry. General Policies Primary contracted Guests are responsible for any expenses incurred during the visit, including but not limited to loss and damages, accident or injury to persons, or loss sustained while visiting the home. Occupancy for each home is strictly enforced and penalties will be assessed for exceeding the number of allowed guests, especially for properties that relay on septic systems for waste-water management. Check-in Procedure Directions to the Property you are renting will be e-mailed to you at least 2 weeks prior to your rental, and after your rental has been paid in full. 90% of our properties have lock boxes and the access code to the lock box at each property will be located in the directions e-mail. The other 10% of our properties are left open with the keys on the table. Your directions will explain which applies. Once you arrive at your Property, you must call 1-800-930-2561 Ext 5 to "check-in". Every effort is made to have each home ready by check-in time, but no guarantee is made as to the exact time occupancy can occur. Housekeeping and maintenance personnel must provide services between occupancies for each home in order to prepare the home for incoming guests. Sometimes, due to unforeseen circumstances, housekeeping and/or maintenance services may not be completed by your 4pm check-in time. This situation rarely occurs, however, we apologize in advance if the is situation happens to you. In this rare occurrence, we'll call you on the cell phone number your provided at time of booking to let you know and often times will send you to the nearest restaurant for drinks on us while the cleaners finish up. Property Keys Keys are located at each Property either on the kitchen table in an unlocked home, or in a lock-box. We will let you know via e-mail the location of the key or keys to the property at least two weeks before you arrive by e-mail along with the map and directions to the property. For check out, please return this key to wherever you found it when you arrived. The charge for a lost key is the cost to re-key the home or for us to make copies and bring a replacement key to you at the property and this can range from $150 to $300. Since most of our properties have lock boxes, we suggest that during your vacation, if you leave the property, you simply return the key to lock box until you return to limit the opportunities that you may loose it. This also applies to multiple guests at the same property requesting multiple keys. Again, we issue one key per property, so store the key in the lock box when everyone is out and the house is locked, then the first person to return can retrieve it from the lock box. The following items are included in most vacation rentals we offer (we'll let you know if this doesn't apply to your property by specifying it in the listing description for the property on our website): Color TV/DVD with basic cable service (unless otherwise noted in the Property Description), Washer/Dryer (unless otherwise noted in the Property Description), Silverware, Dishes/Cookware, Toaster/Microwave, Coffee Maker, Blender, Kitchen Utensils, Bath Towels, Bed Linens, Blankets, Quilts/Shams/Pillows, and Trash Bags. Additionally, although they may offer more, all our owners have all contractually agreed with us to have at a minimum, the following items in their properties:
You'll want to bring the following items for your stay: Food & Condiments, Baby equipment (unless provided by a specific home), Personal Toiletries, Wash Cloths, Beach Equipment, Specialty Cooking Items.
Some of the properties we offer are listed on the market for sale and may be shown to prospective buyers. We will indicate this in the listing description of the property located on our website, or by e-mail if the Property goes on the market after you book it. Once you are in the vacation Property, every attempt will be made to give 24-hours notice and to not interrupt your vacation if a potential buyer requests to view the Property during your vacation. |
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