- INTRODUCTION. 1.1The Irish Self Catering Federation, Company Limited Guarantee is a company limited by guarantee and incorporated under Irish law under company no. 359394 and having its registered office at 18 Sruith Mhullean, Durrus, Bantry, Co. Cork (“ISCF”, “the Company”, “our” , “we” or “us”).ISCF is a members only organisation. The purpose of this document is to outline the terms and conditions of membership of ISCF (the “Terms”). On becoming a member of the ISCF, you agree that you will be bound by these Terms. In the event of a breach of the Terms, the ISCF reserves the right to cancel your membership.
2 MEMBERSHIP
2.1 Upon becoming a member of ISCF, you are obliged to discharge an annual membership fee. The membership fee is set by the ISCF annually and may be subject to change. Upon commencement of membership, you will be given access to www.iscf.ie and www.letsgoselfcatering.ie (subject to compliance with the third party quality assurance scheme and these terms) and all newsletters, information and supports.
2.2. Upon application for membership, you will be obliged to provide certain personal data which will be regulated in accordance with our Privacy Policy. In addition, you will be obliged to give details of the property name and location, number of properties in your ownership, length of time letting the property in the tourism sector, details of Fáilte Ireland approval, registration, standards or schemes, website address and links to any online reviews or portals.
2.3. ISCF operates a customer-facing website, namely www.letsgoselfcatering.ie. Members of the ISCF may participate in the www.letsgoselfcatering.ie website provided that Fáilte Ireland approval has been obtained or the ISCF third party quality assurance scheme is undertaken to acquire certification following membership of the ISCF. For the avoidance of doubt, the ISCF will not be obliged to facilitate any posting on the www.letsgoselfcatering.ie site until such time as Fáilte Ireland approval or approval under the third party quality assurance scheme has been obtained by the member. ISCF is not responsible for any delays in acceptance of the member under the foregoing schemes. Once evidence of the approval or certification has been provided by ISCF, the member will then be entitled to load property information onto the www.letsgoselfcatering.ie site.
2.4. The membership fee paid for a relevant year, with a 14 day cooling-off period when membership can be refunded – subject to a €50 administration fee.
Membership is valid for a period of 12 months from the date on which the member is approved. ISCF will notify the member 6 weeks prior to the expiration of their membership. In the event that membership is not renewed, the member will have all access to the ISCF website and www.letsgoselfcatering.ie website terminated upon expiration of the membership period. No further membership benefits will apply until the membership fee is paid in full.
2.5 Upon completion of the membership application, you will be required to confirm the availability of your property for the period of your membership, being 12 months, together with rates for the relevant period.
3. THIRD PARTY QUALITY ASSURANCE SCHEME AND CODE OF ETHICS
All members of the ISCF are required to comply with the code of ethics of the Irish Self Catering Federation, which can be viewed here.
3.1. ISCF operates a third-party quality assurance scheme approved by Fáilte Ireland. This is a mandatory scheme and properties posted on the www.letsgoselfcatering.ie website are required to engage and comply in full with the quality assurance scheme, to include audits and assessments. In the event that the property fails in the assessment, your property may be delisted or removed from the site. ISCF accepts no responsibility or liability for any losses incurred as a result of such delisting. You are responsible for ensuring compliance with the quality assurance scheme requirements at all times. Once the member has obtained third-party quality assurance certification, you will also be entitled to list your property on the Fáilte Ireland sites such as www.discoverireland.ie using the quality assurance mark from the ISCF. The ISCF has no involvement in the posting of properties to these websites and it is a matter for the member to do so. The ISCF will provide members with codes to facilitate such listings.
3.2 The third-party quality assurance framework approved by Fáilte Ireland includes the requirement to comply with certain criteria which are outlined in the third-party quality assurance framework document. A copy of the framework document may be requested from the ISCF at any time. The ISCF will provide advice and support to owners on continuous quality improvement. The ISCF is obliged to carry out annual assessments on 20% of the quality framework members to ensure cooperation with the quality assurance scheme. Any such assessors will follow the assessor visitor guidelines as set out by the ISCF.
3.3 With regard to assessments, the ISCF will carry out an online assessment of all properties using the assessment form and images provided by the member. A visual inspection of certain properties will take place twice a year on an ad hoc basis. An appointment will be made by any such assessor in advance with the member. The member will be obliged to prepare the property as if for the arrival of guests. The assessor will attend at the property and complete a review of the property on the website and any documents submitted by the owner. On completion of the assessment, attendance at the property if applicable, a report will be submitted to the ISCF by the assessor who will review the outcome and any actions identified. The ISCF will correspond with the member or the person designated to act on their behalf and set out any actions required to continue certification together with a reasonable timeframe for rectification of any actions identified.
3.4. As a result of assessment under the quality assurance scheme, you may be required to complete certain works or actions to maintain the posting of your property on the www.letsgoselfcatering.ie website. In the event that you fail, refuse or neglect to comply with any requirements or actions following such assessment, your property may be delisted and removed from the www.letsgoselfcatering.ie website and in such event, you will have no entitlement to refund of any fees or expenses paid, including the membership fee. The ISCF accepts no liability for any loss, cost or expenses sustained by any member as a result of such delisting. It is solely a matter for the member to ensure compliance with the quality assurance scheme, which is a mandatory condition of membership.
4. ACCURACY OF INFORMATION
4.1 You are obliged to provide accurate and clear information regarding any properties registered with the ISCF and to include accurate images and descriptions of the property. The ISCF reserves the right to remove any property from any website operated by the ISCF where the description or photographs of the property are misleading, or in the event that complaints are made regarding the accuracy of such descriptions. The ISCF will have no liability to its members for any such removal. It is solely the responsibility of the member to ensure the accuracy of any content posted on any website operated by the ISCF.
5 COMPLAINTS HANDLING
5.1 The ISCF operates a complaints portal that is designed to provide complaint resolution facilities for property users and members. All complaints must be submitted in writing to the ISCF. The ISCF will make reasonable efforts to resolve the matter with the member in the first instance. The ISCF may investigate the complaint if appropriate. For the avoidance of doubt, where a complaint relates to a commercial aspect of the arrangement between a property owner and a complainant, the role of the ISCF shall be limited to inform the ISCF member that a complaint has been received. Members of the ISCF should use all reasonable endeavours to resolve any complaints amicably. For the avoidance of doubt, the ISCF does not act as a mediator or arbitrator in its complaint handling function and same is provided as a preliminary step only. The ISCF reserves the right to investigate any complaints made relating to the quality of a property or service provided by a member under the framework. Any such complaint may give rise to any assessment or an attendance at the property in question.
6. MEMBERSHIP TYPES
6.1 The ISCF operates a number of different categories of membership. It is important that you register as a member in the relevant category in respect of all properties owned or operated by you via the ISCF. It is the obligation of the member to honestly declare in full all information relating to the properties including the number of properties and nature of properties which they offer. The member will also be obliged to specify the number of bed nights in respect of each property. This information must be provided by way of declaration to the ISCF on an annual basis.
6.2. The membership types are as follows:
- Individual owners – this is appropriate for individual owners of 1 to 3 properties only.
- Small groups – this type of membership is appropriate for small groups of properties of 4 to 10 units only. This membership may be used for either houses or glamping units, however the property type must be specified.
- Medium size groups – this membership type is appropriate for businesses or individuals with 11 to 25 properties. The properties may be houses, apartments or glamping type properties.
- Group schemes – this membership type is appropriate for owners, managers and marketing agents with 26 to 50 properties.
- Hotels and golf courses – this membership is appropriate for hotels and golf courses with self catering accommodation facilities only.
6.3 In the event that any under-declaration of the number of properties occurs in any relevant year, the ISCF shall be entitled to seek payment of additional fees commensurate with the appropriate type of membership upon receipt of the declaration.
6.4 For the avoidance of doubt, the ISCF does not operate any booking system via its websites. The members are obliged to provide links to their own website or a booking system. The sole purpose of the ISCF websites is to provide for promotion and quality assurance only. We reserve the right to obtain from our member’s details of any with any requests for booking, number of bookings, and country of origin. This information will be requested by the ISCF on an annual basis. Each member is obliged to maintain these records and produce the same to the ISCF upon request.
7. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
7.1. Upon payment of the membership fee and approval of the property under the quality assurance scheme, the ISCF shall permit the use of the quality assurance logo by the member. For the avoidance of doubt, the quality assurance logo remains the intellectual property of the ISCF, and production of the logo to the member is confined for use on properties approved by the ISCF under the third party assurance framework only.
8. LIABILITY
8.1. The ISCF accepts no liability whatsoever in respect of any use of the ISCF websites or any member ship of the ISCF save to the extent that such loss or liability may not be excluded by law. We have no liability whatsoever in respect of any loss or damage sustained by third parties in connection with any acts or omission carried out by you, your servants, or agents howsoever arising. We accept no liability whatsoever in respect of any loss or damage sustained by you as a result of any letting of your property or otherwise in connection with the operation of your premises as self-catering accommodation. We accept no liability in respect of any bookings made by any third party in relation to your property (and for the avoidance of doubt, ISCF has no involvement in any such bookings).
8.2. You hereby irrevocably and unconditionally agree to indemnify and keep indemnified the ISCF in respect of any proceedings, costs, expenses, claims or other liability arising to any third party in connection with any act or omission carried out by you, your servants or agents. Our liability to you arising out of or in connection with any matter which cannot be excluded by law shall be limited to the amount of professional indemnity insurance held from time to time by the ISCF under applicable law. Nothing in this letter shall limit our liability to you for fraud or fraudulent concealment, or to the extent that such liability shall not be limited by applicable law.
9. GENERAL
9.1 These Terms and Conditions are separate and severally enforceable, and accordingly if at any time any provision is judged by a court or regulatory authority or agency of competent jurisdiction to be void or unenforceable in whole or in part, the validity, legality, and enforceability of the remaining items and provisions hereof shall not be affected in any way or impaired thereby.
9.2 These Terms and Conditions and any non-contractual obligations arising out of or in connection with your use of our websites or membership of the ISCF shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Ireland and the courts of Ireland shall have jurisdiction to settle all disputes arising out of or in connection with your membership or use of our websites.
9.3. We may at our discretion and without notice amend the Terms from time to time and the most recent of which will be located on the ISCF website.
9.4. We may at our discretion assign or transfer any right, title or interest in this website to any successor in title to our business or any third party without notice to you, and in such event the third party specified may take over the applications in respect of your membership and administration of the third party quality assurance scheme.
9.5. We shall not be responsible for any delay or failure to comply with our obligations under these Terms if the delay or failure arises from any cause which is beyond our reasonable control.
Dated this 22th day of August 2021