Voucher Terms & Conditions

1. Who we are and what these terms cover

1. 1.1

   HotelsMint is a trading name of Bankitt Ltd, company number 12780965.

2. 1.2

   They apply to every Voucher on the HotelsMint platform: getting one, using it, losing it and passing it on. They sit alongside the general terms for using HotelsMint and our Privacy Policy. On anything to do with Vouchers, these terms come first.

3. 1.3

   Hotels that issue Vouchers sign a separate agreement with us. That agreement is between us and the hotel, and it doesn’t take away anything guests are given here.

4. 1.4

   “You” means a guest who holds a Voucher or wants to receive one through the Marketplace. You need to be 18 or over to use the Marketplace.

2. What a Voucher is, and what it isn’t

1. 2.1

   A Voucher is a digital credit that a hotel gives to a guest who books a stay with that hotel through HotelsMint. Its face value is a percentage of the booking value, chosen by the hotel, and you’ll see it in pounds on the Voucher in your account. Book a £200 room at a hotel that has chosen 20% and you get a £40 Voucher.

2. 2.2

   The hotel issues it. The face value is the hotel’s own promise to provide its goods and services up to that amount. We create the Voucher, deliver it to you and keep the record of who holds it, all on the hotel’s behalf. The hotel, not HotelsMint, stands behind the value.

3. 2.3

   It has no cash value. You can’t exchange a Voucher for cash, have it paid into a bank account or card, or get money back for whatever is left on it. We won’t pay you cash for one and neither will the hotel. It earns no interest. It isn’t a deposit, electronic money or a payment card, and it isn’t a balance of money held for you. It’s a promise from a hotel to give you something, and nothing else.

3. Using a Voucher

1. 3.1

   A Voucher works at the hotel that issued it, and only there. It can’t be used at any other hotel, with any other business, or anywhere else on HotelsMint.

2. 3.2

   It covers what the hotel itself provides: dining, spa, experiences the hotel runs, upgrades and similar extras. A hotel can also allow a Voucher to be used as a discount on a later booking with that same hotel. It isn’t a way to pay for the room you’ve already booked (the Voucher is a separate benefit), and it doesn’t cover anything sold by someone other than the hotel.

3. 3.3

   You activate a Voucher the first time you use any part of it. After that it has to be used up: whatever is left at checkout, or at the expiry date if the Voucher shows one, is lost. It isn’t refunded, paid out or swapped for cash with the hotel or another guest. The one exception is passing what’s left to another guest through the Marketplace (clause 6). Spend £38 of a £40 Voucher and the last £2 is gone. For the purposes of clause 7, the whole face value counts as used from the moment you activate.

4. 3.4

   A Voucher lasts until you check out, unless it shows a different expiry date, in which case that date applies.

5. 3.5

   The hotel can ask to see your booking confirmation or some ID when you use a Voucher. It doesn’t have to honour one that our records show as cancelled, expired, used up or held by someone else.

4. Getting a Voucher

1. 4.1

   It turns up on its own. Once your booking is confirmed at a hotel that offers Vouchers, the hotel issues you one automatically, we put it in your HotelsMint account and we tell you straight away. There’s nothing to apply for.

2. 4.2

   The Voucher is linked to the booking that earned it, but it’s a separate benefit from the room. If that booking is cancelled or refunded, clause 7 decides what happens to the Voucher. The room refund doesn’t.

3. 4.3

   Every Voucher belongs to one account at a time, and the account on our records is its holder. Knowing a Voucher’s code, or having a screenshot of it, doesn’t make you the holder.

5. Vouchers that go unused

1. 5.1

   If a Voucher hasn’t been activated by checkout, or by its expiry date if it shows one, we cancel it automatically. It disappears from your account. You get no credit, no refund and nothing else for it.

2. 5.2

   A cancelled Voucher goes back to HotelsMint. We may offer it again to another guest who has a confirmed booking at the same hotel. It’s still that hotel’s Voucher, and the hotel honours it on the same terms. The guest who claims it may have to pay us a claiming fee, shown before they confirm. That fee is ours. We never pay it, or anything else, to the guest whose Voucher was cancelled.

6. The Marketplace

1. 6.1

   The HotelsMint Marketplace is a feature of our platform, and it exists only there. It isn’t a separate exchange, a payment service or a bank. You get to it by signing in to your HotelsMint account, and it’s the only route by which a Voucher can pass from one guest to another.

2. 6.2

   Off-platform transfers don’t count. Handing over a code, sharing a login, posting a Voucher on social media, selling one on another site or app, striking a deal in person or by message: none of that moves a Voucher. If a Voucher changes hands any other way than through the Marketplace, we won’t recognise the new person and we may cancel the Voucher, with no refund.

3. 6.3

   A guest can receive a Voucher through the Marketplace only if they have a confirmed booking at the hotel that issued it and their account is in good standing. A guest staying at a different hotel can’t take it, whatever they offer.

4. 6.4

   A transfer goes like this:

   1. The current holder lists a live Voucher, meaning one that hasn’t expired, been cancelled or been used up.
   2. Another eligible guest asks to take it.
   3. We check both accounts, the state of the Voucher and the receiving guest’s booking.
   4. If everything checks out, we authorise the transfer. Only then does the Voucher move: the record is updated so it belongs to the new holder, with the same face value, the same hotel and the same terms.
   5. From that point the new holder uses it under these terms, and the previous holder has no further claim to it.
5. 6.5

   No transfer is valid until we’ve authorised it, and that decision is ours. We can refuse, delay or reverse a transfer, and hold a Voucher for a short while as we finish our checks, if we suspect fraud or a stolen payment method, think these terms have been broken, spot a mistake, or the law requires it.

6. 6.6

   Any price and any fee for a Marketplace Transfer is shown in pounds before you confirm, and is paid through the platform’s own checkout. We don’t take payment for a Voucher any other way and we’ll never ask you to. None of this changes clause 2.3: a Voucher can’t be turned into cash with the hotel or with us, and we don’t buy Vouchers from guests.

7. 6.7

   A transfer is final once we’ve authorised it, except where we reverse it under these terms or the law gives you a right to cancel.

8. 6.8

   There are limits. We can cap how many Vouchers, or how much face value, an account can list or receive in a given period, and we may ask you to verify who you are before a transfer goes ahead.

9. 6.9

   Listing a Voucher doesn’t promise that anyone will take it, or how quickly.

7. Cancelling your booking or asking for a refund

1. 7.1

   This is the clause people tend to read after the fact, so please read it before you use a Voucher. The Voucher is linked to the booking that earned it. If the room booking is cancelled or refunded at your request, for any reason, or the payment is disputed or charged back, clauses 7.2 to 7.4 apply. Clause 7.5 covers the exceptions.

2. 7.2

   If you haven’t used the Voucher: it’s cancelled and goes back to HotelsMint (clause 5.2). You get whatever room refund you’re due, and nothing is deducted for the Voucher.

3. 7.3

   If you’ve used any part of it, the full face value of the Voucher is deducted from your refund, however little you actually used. The hotel makes the deduction. Say you book a £200 room and get a £40 Voucher. You spend £38 on dinner, then cancel and you’re due £200 back. £40 comes off, so you get £160. That can feel harsh, but the hotel funded the Voucher and you had the benefit of it, so the cost has to be recovered somewhere.

4. 7.4

   If your refund request is only for the service you spent the Voucher on, a meal that wasn’t up to standard for example, the hotel can agree to skip the deduction. Where the amount is large, we may need to approve that too.

5. 7.5

   Clause 7.3 doesn’t apply if the hotel cancels your booking, can’t provide the accommodation you booked, or the law says you’re entitled to a full refund. In those cases nothing is deducted for the Voucher.

8. Keeping the Marketplace safe

1. 8.1

   We keep a record of every Marketplace Transfer: the Voucher, the hotel, the account email addresses of both guests, the date and time, and a transaction reference. We use these records to prevent fraud, settle disputes and meet our legal duties. Our Privacy Policy explains what else we hold, for how long, and your rights over it.

2. 8.2

   You must not:

   1. share your login or let anyone else use your account;
   2. list a Voucher you don’t hold, or one that has expired, been cancelled or been used up;
   3. offer, accept or pay for a Voucher anywhere except the Marketplace;
   4. use a stolen, borrowed or unauthorised payment method;
   5. use bots, scripts or extra accounts to list or claim Vouchers or to get round our limits;
   6. use the Marketplace to move money that isn’t yours or to hide where it came from; or
   7. make bookings you don’t intend to keep just to earn Vouchers.
3. 8.3

   We will never ask for your card details, PIN or a one-time passcode by email, text or phone, and we will never ask you to pay for a Voucher outside the platform. If someone claiming to be from HotelsMint does either, it isn’t us.

4. 8.4

   Tell us straight away if a Voucher looks wrong, if someone offers you one outside the Marketplace, or if you think your account has been used without your say-so. Our contact details are in clause 12. And if anyone offers you a HotelsMint Voucher anywhere else, walk away.

5. 8.5

   If we reasonably think these terms have been broken, or we suspect fraud, we can cancel a Voucher, remove a listing, reverse a transfer or suspend an account. We may share what we know with the hotel, our payment providers, the police and regulators, where the law allows or requires it. If we cancel a Voucher that you received through the Marketplace because of something the previous holder did, we’ll refund any price you paid for it through the platform.

9. Who is responsible for what

1. 9.1

   The hotel is responsible for honouring its Vouchers and for the quality of what it provides. If a meal, a treatment or a room isn’t right, take it up with the hotel first.

2. 9.2

   We’re responsible for our own part: running the platform, delivering Vouchers, keeping the records and authorising Marketplace Transfers, with reasonable care and skill.

3. 9.3

   A Voucher is only as good as the hotel behind it. If a hotel closes, stops trading or won’t honour a Voucher, we’ll tell you what we know and help where we can, but we can’t make the Voucher work and we can’t replace it or refund it. That doesn’t affect any rights you have against the hotel.

4. 9.4

   If we let you down, we’re responsible for loss that was a foreseeable result of us breaking these terms or being careless. We’re not responsible for loss that wasn’t foreseeable, or for anything a hotel does or fails to do.

5. 9.5

   Nothing in these terms limits liability that can’t lawfully be limited, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation. Your legal rights as a consumer aren’t affected either.

10. Changing these terms

1. 10.1

   We may update these terms, for example when the law changes or when we change how Vouchers or the Marketplace work. The current version is always the one on our website with its date at the top, and if a change matters to you we’ll tell you by email or in your account before it takes effect.

2. 10.2

   A change won’t reduce the face value of a Voucher you already hold, and won’t affect a transfer we’ve already authorised.

11. Complaints, governing law and courts

1. 11.1

   If something has gone wrong, tell us using the details in clause 12 and we’ll look into it and reply as soon as we can.

12. Contact us

1. 12.1

   Email info@hotelsmint.com.

Words we use

Confirmed booking.

A booking that HotelsMint has confirmed to you and that hasn’t been cancelled.

Face value.

The amount in pounds shown on a Voucher when it’s issued.

Marketplace.

The part of the HotelsMint platform described in clause 6.

Marketplace Transfer.

The move of a Voucher from one guest to another through the Marketplace.

Voucher.

A digital credit issued by a hotel, as described in clause 2.